I'm Tired

So I didn't get a chance to write yesterday because it was such a hectic day. From noon to 8 we were on our feet flying from station to station I probably measured like a million clams and quahogs. Maybe that's a slight overstatement, but it definitely felt like it. After our shift, we watched The Proposal which obviously made my day because I love that movie. There were some big waves last night- I heard some people on the night watch got drenched when they came over the side of the boat. Luckily, I was kind of sleeping in my bed while getting tossed around like a sack of potatoes. But I did sleep. Today was the same as yesterday, a little less hectic, but still go go go until about dinner time. This is our last long steam before a busy rest of the night. I'm starting to get tired and exhausted. It has been so hot everyday and being out in the sun moving and sweating just generally wears on you. I really want a big fat piece of dark chocolate. I keep getting chocolate cravings so I eat garbage food like oreos and graham crackers to satisfy it but nope nothing helps. I just need some chocolate. And an iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts. And a bath to soak the weeks worth of dirt and mud off me. I scraped my leg today on the way up the stairs (again) and it was bleeding everywhere. How attractive. And my hair was in my face while I was pulling out quahog guts so I totally forgot I had quahog all over me and proceeded to run it through my hair. I heard mayo makes your hair smoother, how about quahog intestines? Maybe it can be a new breakthrough. I still haven't seen a stupid whale on this whole trip. Seriously, don't whales live in the ocean? Or is that a myth? Because I've been on a boat for a week and a day and still haven't seen a lousy whale. Anyways, nothing else is new. If I see a clam mascot for a clam restaurant, I may beat the crap out of it to make myself feel better. Clams are just starting to agitate me. And lets not even start on quahogs, which we have recently started cutting open for meat weight. At least you can open the clams to get the meat out- quahogs have thick shells and they are really hard to [gently]open. So I just smash them against the ground and that seems to work just fine. When I get on land I can't wait to go for a run. And to go to the mall and buy myself a ton of crap that I don't need but I want anyways. That's about it for today. Last day tomorrow! Woo hoo. I can't wait until I can get a q-tip that I don't have to steal to clean all the crap out of my ears (yes, I forgot q-tips. how dumb is that?)

Could it possibly be more beautiful out here?

We are heading back North somewhere pretty far off the coast of Virginia. The water is flat and the sun is glistening off the surface. There are dolphins swimming in the distance, and the are no other boats around us. It is absolutely beautiful. I have to admit, it is already Sunday and I am starting to get a little sad about getting off this ship. I mean, sometimes I'm like "get me off this thing!" but other times, like now, I realize that I would not be seeing anything like this any other way. Honestly, how many times do you just get to sit out in the sun on the water and watch for dolphins? For me, practically never. We haven't been catching a lot of clams and quahogs out here, but the dredge has been pretty clean. We are catching a lot of really cool starfish (they aren't called starfish but they are star shaped they are really cool) and giant shells. I have a pretty big shell collection going right now- I don't know how many more I can fit in my duffel bag before it gets too heavy to carry. The fishermen are telling me that the Georges Bank Leg (Leg 3) is like today all the time- you see a ton of whales and dolphins and its beautiful (aside from the fact that they catch a ton of rocks and break the dredge all the time- which I kind of like because I like fixing it). I am seriously considering signing up for it, though I doubt I can make it work with my Atlantic Salmon work and family/free time I need before going back to school. In the 16 mile steam coming up, we may try some tuna fishing. You know how pumped I would be if I caught a tuna? Or a mahi mahi? Or anything other than a bass?

It is HOT

We are currently almost at our turning point near Cape Hattaras, NC and let me tell you it is SO HOT! The water is really flat and beautiful today and the sun is beating down on the water, making it even more hot. I managed to convince the radio guy to put on the Top 20 station (which is playing some pretty awful new music) and Kyra and I just tried to dance for like 5 seconds and we were sweating to death so we had to come inside and sit in the AC. I tried to convince Nicole to do Zumba to Pitbull- I think the shimmy scared her away. They had seared tuna steaks with wasabi in the cafeteria for lunch today. Ryan would have loved them but ew raw fish is just so gross. So I know I am always complaining  about sleep, but I'm just going to keep going. Whoever drives the ship at midnight when I try to go to bed drives like a maniac. Like seriously, how many obstacles are there in the middle of the ocean? Just drive with the waves and stop spinning the boat around. So obviously, I am in my caged bed rolling around smashing myself off all the corners and such. Then when whoever finally decides its a good idea to just go with the waves, I realize that my head isn't comfortable on my pillow. I roll around for like 25 minutes trying to figure out why the hell my head isn't comfortable. I mean, my hands are in the same position as they always are when I sleep. Then I finally thought of it last night- Ryan's hand usually props my head up when I sleep. I need like a rock to put under my head so it can stay up so I can be comfortable. Anyways, I did laundry today and wow the stench coming out of my nasty Jersey sewage clothes was just absolutely putrid. Anyways, back to the clamming and quahoging- we are barely catching anything. I am collecting a ton of cool shells and sand dollars though. Last night around 11 we caught a ton of mud and clay. The entire dredge was filled with it, so Kyra and I both had to climb up into it and rake it out. It took a pretty long time. Today we already caught some surf clams, which we split open and took meat weights on. Hopefully we will find some more clams and quahogs out here in deeper water. The night shift saw some dolphins last night, hopefully I'll see some today!

Why Would Anyone EVER Buy A Waterbed?

So I have a pretty clear memory from my childhood. I went over my Aunt Bonnie's house and rolled around on her waterbed and said "MOM! I WANT A WATERBED" and of course she said no because she's an intelligent woman and knew I would probably pop it and flood the whole house. Let me tell you. My room is right near where the water hits the edge of the ship and all I can hear is water while I'm rolling around on waves. Who the hell would want that permanently? Like seriously sleep on a ship for a few days, it will deter your waterbed fantasies. Another thing I want to rant about it loofas (of lufas- those stupid bath things). You know how you get those for Christmas and are like "Gee, thanks for this beautiful loofa" though you are really thinking "what the heck am I going to do with another one of these damn things, I have so many I could stuff a couch with them". I would kill for a loofa right now. Like literally, I would pay the big bucks. I have taken a total of 4 showers on this ship, and still come out looking like a pig that just rolled in mud. I used like half my body wash trying to scrub all the nasty goop off myself but nope, I guess my hands don't work quite like a loofa would. Anyways, back to normal life because I'm sure you don't read this to listen to me rant about waterbeds and bath toys, yesterday went great. We had a lot of long steams between tows, then pretty much caught only a few things in the tows. NO BOULDERS!!! Woo hoo! Around 11, we starting catching a ton of quahogs so we did a set and sampled that area 5 more times and caught a ton more. The dredge pulled up a ton of nasty boogery-worm things from the bottom of the ocean. So I, being tired and not caring anymore, decided to crawl up into the slime (it kind of reminded me of that Nikelodeon show "Slime"'s slime) and pull sea creatures out of it. I accidently pulled a hermit crab out of its shell. It looked so naked and akward that I thought it was a deformed shrimp with claws. And I stepped on a skate, which further scared the crap out of me. We have a lot of tows today. We are just reaching Cape May- one of our last destinations close to shore-we will be moving further out starting tomorrow. Once we move further out, one of our fishermen Rick told me he starts trolling for TUNA! Hellll yeah he said he would hook me up. I am SO excited.

Now I definitely know why they call it "Dirty Jersey"

This area is practically desolate- other than garbage, sewage mud, and rocks. There are some clams, but not nearly as many as we found in Rhode Island and upper New York area. Last night, after we fixed the boulder incident, we caught a ton of rocks on our next tow, bending the whole bottom of the dredge under itself. It was ridiculous how powerful the rocks were to actually bend metal under itself. So, we did more work on the dredge (I am turning into quite the handy-woman: I can definitely make myself the bookshelf I want after this trip. If I can help fix a clam dredge while hanging over the ocean, I can make a shelf). We started clamming again around 8:30 yesterday night, and brought in some surf clams, which we ripped the meats out of to weigh. I akwardly enjoy cleaning clams out and ripping out the meats, it's kind of fun. I like to race. If I can get lymph nodes out of a deer brain with a grapefruit spoon, I can shave clam guts out of a shell like its nothing. We hit some rougher water last night, sending some waves over the side of the boat (heart attack!?). I was luckily (not) sleeping, but in my bed getting tossed around. I woke up feeling like I just fought (and lost against) a gorilla - or something huge and really mean. The water is definitely more choppy today: yesterday was really flat and nice. Today, not so much. We have some long distances between stations today- about 14 miles- I'm going to try to convince my crew to do some Zumba. Ha, we will see how it goes.

Our Dredge Definitely Just Ate a Boulder

So on Tow 39, still in dumpy NYC and Jersey, our dredge completely ate a boulder. I'm talking like 800-1,000 pound boulder with a smaller 200 pound one shoved in there with it. The entire front of our dredge got destroyed, so we had to fix quite a few things. That happened around 4- it is almost 6 now and we are just finally back and ready to tow again. I had to use power tools-bad idea. I used a something something nut something to tighten something that involves a nut and it spins and I managed to whack myself in the face with it a few times. Classy. I used a wrench and a nut something too. I look like my dad after work, covered in greasy nasty lubey stuff and dirt and mud. We just had mussels for dinner they were so good. The constant eating continues as always. I will probably be pretty busy tonight, but will write more tomorrow.

How did I just sleep 11 hours straight?

So it's day three out here- we are somewhere off the coast of New York- we can see New York City from the side of the boat. There are a ton of boats out here too, which is cool because we haven't been seeing a ton in other spots. It's also a pain in the ass because when there are other boats around, we have to reroute our dragging equipment so it doesn't get mixed up with them. The past few days have been interesting. Monday we basically got used to the ship and steamed. I am on the day shift: noon-midnight, so I got to work our first catch when we reached our first sampling point somewhere near Rhode Island. My first task was to attach these things called "minilogs" to the equipment that we drop down. Little did I know that "attaching" meant climbing up into the dredge (I think it's called a dredge) and sitting on a little bar that separates me from falling through down a slope into the water. It was pretty scary at first, but by now I am used to it. We got through three tows on Monday night, and by the third, I was exhausted. It was hard to get acclimated to the waves too, so I slept awful Monday night into Tuesday. Yesterday, I realized the trick to always feeling good on the ship- eat like a frickin pig. No joke. I don't think I've eaten this much in a weeks, but if you don't keep an empty stomach, it will come back and bite you in the ass, like I found out Monday night when I threw up the little amount of food I had in my stomach, then proceeded to eat like a whole roll of crackers. Yesterday we got into some "fun" stuff and I realized that if I didn't make the best of being out here for 12 days, it was going to be a long miserable time. So, I got into it. We started sampling quahogs and surf clams and had to take the meat from the clams and measure them: I made a race out of it- who can rip all the meat out of the clams first? I won once out of probably 30 times against Vic, the head scientist, killed me. My crew is pretty awesome- there are 5 of us, 2 short of what it should be. We all work hard and fast. Between tows when we don't have a billion clams and quahogs, we occupy ourselves with fly killing and Arnold impersonations. We have been pulling up some interesting things-not as in specimens, as in hellish things to clean out. Yesterday we pulled up about a billion pounds of clay- it was pretty much raining clay for a good 20 minutes. But a tow just came up- I'll try to write more on the next steam. More clay and mud! Time to get dirty in the first 5 minutes of a 12 hours shift

Holy Crap, I'm going out to sea

So, between December and now, I have obviously been way too busy to write in this blog (or too lazy in my free time to care enough to write) but now I have something to actually write about besides my occasional volunteer experience- I am going out to sea. Not like for the Navy or for a fishing trip, but for a two week Clam and Ocean Quahog Survey with NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service. We leave today- in like 4 hours- and are coming back July 22nd (a Friday). That means that I am going to have to be on a boat for almost two weeks. Holy crap. I don't quite know how I feel- part of me is nervous, yet excited and anxious. The other part thinks I'm going to lose my mind out at sea for 12 days without seeing trees and mountains and walking on land and going to the gym and running and teaching Zumba. Either way, I hope to write about my experiences everyday. I have training this afternoon for survival, which I'm sure I'll screw up somehow (plan on something coming that involves me getting my foot caught in a red survival suit rolling around deck). We will see how everything goes! Hopefully I don't get seasick!