saNEPac Live Blogging – Essentials vs. Essentials PART II

After spending most of Wednesday fuelling the ship (I think it took 3 double sized Chevron tankers to fill the vessel – she’s a bit of a gas guzzler!), we finally departed into the setting sun from Saanich Inlet, B.C. last night.  Our workload has been fairly light so far, and the seas have been generally calm.  The real work begins tonight around 12:30 am when we arrive at Station P4, approximately 70km off the coast of Vancouver Island.  I will be starting my sampling at this time, while Dave gets to laze around in bed until 4am when he starts his trace-metal clean water pumping.  My next bout of sampling starts at 8:30am and should take 5 to 6 hours to finish, so it will be a long night!  Oh the things we do in the name of science!

I really enjoyed Dave’s last post about essentials vs. essentials, and thought it would be humorous to make a list of my own and compare notes.  I think most of our essentials are the same, while ouressentials are definitely quite different, mostly because I’m still training for triathlon whilst at sea.  I think Dave has a better grasp on the finer things in life – maybe I’ll learn a thing or two from him while we’re out here.

Essential personal gear:

• a dozen pair of socks, ginch, sports bras (Ok maybe these aren’t on Dave’s list after all…)
• one plaid lumber jack long sleeved shirt (mine is pink)
• 1 pair of jeans and 1 pair of Carhartt work pants with various t shirts and technical long sleeve shirts
• a warm, zip up hooded fleece from MEC
• 1 pair of cozy sweatpants
• 2 pairs of long underwear
• down puffy vest
• a toque
• steel toed rubber boots and Helly Hansen raingear
• Badger Balm (even better than hand moisturizer for keeping hands from totally drying out)
• half a dozen books (including Sir Ken Robinson’s book: Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative)

Essential personal gear:

• my road bike and bike trainer
• yoga mat
• workout clothes (tank tops, running shorts, cycling shorts, cycling shoes, running shoes)
• Garmin watch with heart rate monitor and foot pod (for running on treadmill)
• Cytomax sports drink (powder),  assorted sports snacks (gels, Sharkies, bars)
• spelt bread, almond milk, dark chocolate, Bob’s mill hot cereal, Nature’s Path Crunchy “O”s, Plain yogurt (all for my sensitive digestive system – lame!)
• a bag of assorted Yogi’s and Traditional Medicinals teas
• personal coffee mug (I’m the mug police – remember?)
• laptop with ethernet cable (to keep in touch with all of you!)
• journal (I forgot mine and had to pick up a back-up Moleskin in Sidney before departure)
• yarn, knitting needles and pattern for baby sweater (for a friend’s new baby- not my own!)

(PS Sorry for the lack of images in this post – I had a great shot of the setting sun over our last sighting of land, but our internet connection is VERY very slow out here and it’s tough to upload files!)