Hello this is Miya!
From February 7 to March 7, Cat and I joined a one-month voyage on board R/V Hakuho Maru along the Kuroshio Current. It was the longest stretch of time I’ve ever spent at sea—both rough and amazing, as always.
Preparation for this cruise was no small feat. We washed more than 800 bottles for dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) sampling. It was a huge effort, only possible thanks to teamwork. Big thanks to everyone who pitched in—especially Shunsuke for his dedication in leading the bottle washing troops!
Sampling on board wasn’t easy either. With only two of us handling sampling and filtration at 13 depths per station, the workload was intense. Thankfully, the weather held up and we managed to collect samples at nearly all planned sites. At the first five stations in the East China Sea, I was running on little sleep and feeling pretty exhausted. When we were lucky, we found extra hands to help with filtering. Unfortunately, our snack stash didn’t last long—it ran out in just a few days.
The latter half of Leg 1 felt much more relaxed. We had time to enjoy Mahjong, board games, and movie nights.
At the end of Leg 1, we stopped at Shimizu Port in Shizuoka, where Yusuke and Yosuke came on board with more bottles and snacks, and helped fix some broken equipment. Leg 2 had an easier pace, giving us more time for mahjong, exercise, yoga, and bonding. We even painted the sampling bags at the last station, a small attempt to make the long hours of sampling more fun.
