December 26, 2021
Current location: 29.9 N, 81.3 W
Hello world! My name is Lily Dove and I am thrilled to be blogging for the A13.5 expedition. I am especially excited to have some classrooms from Pasadena, California joining along with me. Hello to Mr. Bonoli and Ms. Kelli’s classes at the McKinley School and Ms. Moore’s class Eliot Arts Academy!
I’m currently at home visiting my family in Florida but soon I will be traveling with all the other scientists who are participating in the A13.5 expedition to a country called Cape Verde. Below is a map which shows where we are traveling. The black star is Pasadena/Los Angeles, California. The purple star is where I currently am, in northern Florida. The final red star is where the ship, the NOAAS Ronald H. Brown, is currently docked in Praia, Cape Verde. Cape Verde is an amazing country made up of several islands and I’m looking forward to being able to tell you more about it when we arrive! We call a group of islands like those that make up Cape Verde an archipelago.
We have to bring a lot of tools for our science that I will tell you about in the future but there are also a few other items I want to make sure I don’t forget, like:
- Medication for seasickness: Some lucky people never feel seasick but I get a little bit queasy when the waves get rough. If you’ve ever felt a little dizzy or sick after getting off a roller coaster, that’s what seasickness feels like. Thankfully there are ways we can combat it with medication and also remedies from plants, like ginger.
- eBooks: Because space is precious on the ship, I am not bringing any physical books with me. However, I am bringing a tablet to read books and lots of audio books, too. Let me know if you have any book recommendations!
- Masks: Everyone on the ship is vaccinated for COVID-19 but we are all taking extra steps to make sure we all stay healthy. As a result, we’ll be wearing high-quality masks for the first few days we are all together and be getting tested regularly before we get underway.
Wish us luck as we all travel in the next few days and keep an eye out for an update from me from Praia, Cape Verde!