20 January, 1998

Greetings from the L. M. Gould!

Today was our first day to visit the brand new research vessel, the L. M. Gould. She is a rather boxy looking boat because it is designed to maximize crew/researcher working space. She has a rather bright orange hull with creme colored deck and tower. No problem seeing her a long way off!

As we took a tour all around the ship, we noticed the textured rubber flooring on all walkways (teal green, as is everything colored on the boat) was fastened down with raised metal strips. Why would they have such a setup on the floors?

The 3 lab areas are quite nice, as is the exercise room and the lounge area. Comfy couches!!!! The mess hall is well laid out for easy access. Careful planning has gone into this ship and it shows.

We were issued our EWG (Extreme Weather Gear). It was quite a feat getting into all those layers and still moving afterward! Let's see. Clothes issued to me were: flannel shirt, fleece shirt, padded vest, heavy lined jacket, 6 pairs of gloves of various types, and waterproof slicker jacket for the upper body coverings. Lower body coverings included: flannel "sweat" pants, windbreaker pants, slicker "farmer johns", 4 pr of wool socks, waterproof deck boots, and huge waterproof, lined boots with a spare pair of liners.

Tonight I shall sleep well as the trip down here was a long one.

Mrs. D