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We have four and a half days of steaming from Fiji to the Phoenix Islands. During this "down time," we've been busy having science meetings, planning the details of each dive, getting to know each other. And of course, adjusting to the 12 to 15 ft. waves that have been playing with our stomachs for the past 24 hours.

The NAI'A at sea

Sickness aside, we're a third of the way to PIPA, which means we're making great time! As the waves have been rolling, I've had plenty of time to think about what we're doing here, what our goals are, and what to share with you in this blog. Hours of thinking later, I've come to this: it's all about floors and ceilings. Let me explain. In New England, we're seafaring people. We live in Coastal states, and many of us relate to the ocean in a very personal way. The ocean dictates much of our weather, and many of our activities. Yet, when we engage with the ocean, we use it as a "floor." We surf on it. We sail on it. We fish from the surface. We go to the beach to look at it. At best, we sometimes (brrr!) swim in it, but unless you are a SCUBA diver, your most likely encounter with the Eastern Atlantic is as a "floor." When you SCUBA dive, a mentality shift happens and you start thinking of the sea as a "ceiling." More specifically, the sea surface is a ceiling.

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