I'm on a Boat!

Today was boat day. Our first boat trip of the semester! The first of four. I was excited about it, truly. I was a little worried that I might get seasick because of my tendency to get sick just riding in the back of a car. But I didn't take any medicine beforehand. I had taken Dramamine once and that had made me really sick. So I just decided to not take anything before.

We got there at 8 AM. I felt great. I was pumped. By the time we started trawling some nets, I was feeling a little iffy. (That was barely an hour into it.) So by the time we were done trawling, I was white as snow, no color in my face or lips, leaning over the side of the boat looking like a hot mess. I was so sick. Thank God I didn't puke everywhere, but I was done for the day. The rocking side to side was what did me in. I couldn't stop myself from feeling nauseous. I was pretty much on the brink of puking from then on until we stepped off the boat. (That was at 4 PM.) Eight. Hours. Yes, you heard me. Eight long hours of me on the back of the boat in an upright fetal position sipping water and praying for the pain to go away.

Other than that, however, we did see some awesome stuff out there. I may have not been 100% but I did enjoy being out there just because you won't get to experience that in the classroom. We caught an Atlantic stingray in one of our trawls. That was the only elasmobranch we saw, actually. The rest of the organisms we saw were fish and birds. (One guy accidentally hooked a seagull while fishing. Oops. Don't worry, it lived.) Oh, and the dolphins.

YEAH. DOLPHINS. Bottlenose dolphins. Man, I was so frickin pumped. You should've heard me when we were out there. I was the geekiest person ever. I was gasping and pointing and laughing and shouting. So geeky. At one point while we were going at our fastest speed there was a pod of 6 dolphins following behind us. Oh, goodness. Oh, man. I'm just getting excited talking about it. It was so amazing. That right there was the highlight of my day. Actually, we had a few encounters throughout the day so I had multiple highlights.

Maybe I won't get sick next Friday?? I have a feeling that I will, but let's just have wishful thinking.