phuket in the mist

greetings

it is 2:30 pm local time. we will arrive at port around 8:00 am tomorrow
morning. we have been getting all of our equipment put away and the deck
transformed back to the way it was before we got here. i am busy making sure we
have redundant copies of all the data we have collected. only one piece of
equipment is running and we hope to be done with that by 9pm tonight. that will
give me ~9 hrs toupdate the data and then pack up the computers.

my shoulders are strained from all the whale gut swimming i did yesterday and
the gally still smells like squid (gross and salty). most of our stuff is done,
but we are still really busy. we want to have our stuff loaded and ready to get
off the ship whenwe pull into port. it will only be a couple hrs after that that
the containers (i.e.vans) will be lifted by crane onto flatbeds to be shipped
back to seattle. we will have to wait till august to get that stuff. i expect
tonight to be a late one. too bad there is no alcohol on board (at least
officially and legally) that i know of. i am sure we will be celbrating soon.
one of the coring crew is expecially ready to leave for home. he is retirement
age and has been extra cranky since we were 1/2 way throught he cruise.

jay-roy