Dear Anais,

Departing for sea, coastal Oregon in background.

At 9 this morning we left, on the outgoing tide. The Columbia is an enormous river, much larger than the Hudson River. It was discovered in 1792 by a fellow named Robert Gray, who named the river after his sailing ship. At its mouth where the Columbia meets the ocean, past Cape Disappointment on the Washington side, are a series of sandbars. These form because the river brings down a lot of sediment, but in the ocean there is a current--called a long-shore current--that flows along the coast. This current moves sand across the mouth of the river. The resulting sand bars would block the entrance of the river to large ships were it not that a channel has been dug (and is continually being dredged) through them. A pilot--someone who knows these waters very well--takes us through the channel, and after we get through it we leave him off on a small boat so he can return to take another ship through. These waters can be very rough when the tide is going out and the winds come off the ocean in the opposite direction, but today it is clear and calm, and no one is seasick yet.

On deck in Astoria. Loading scientific equipment.

Wow, there are 59 people on this ship. Some of them are the crew that runs the ship itself, others are responsible for operating Alvin and Jason, and then there are the scientists and engineers--29 of us all together, and we are responsible for making observations and maps, which I shall tell you about later. It will take us nearly 20 hours to get to where we are going, which puts us there about 4 or 5 in the morning (yuk). In the meantime my task is to try to understand how everything works.

I trust all is well. Great big kisses, Papa