Counting our blessings

We stayed on station yesterday probably 12 hours longer than we should have. A storm we thought might pass became progressively worse and through the afternoon strengthened right over us as two low pressure systems combined and began to rotate . We made the decision at 3 PM to run from it's increasing fury perhaps a bit late and the following 10 hours were a hell unlike which I had ever seen before. The first sign that things were getting worse was the increasing winds which rode to a steady 40 knots at once and through our transit were gusting to 60 mph. Apparently a tropical system was developing into a cyclone right on top of us. We made a last ditch effort to secure what we could on the back deck and get under way. Once under way drops, rolls, and bashing of the ship commenced that reduced the strongest of the crew to crawling along walls and railings. We were tossed the entire time till we finally reached the relative safety of shorelines less affected of the Mexican mainland, where we currently reside. The seas were I was told over 20 feet at times and it showed. It was all I could do at one point to hang on in my bunk. Our science gear took a beating as well with an incubator the size of a VW on the back deck fantail being completely obliterated into about 20 pieces some of which were never recovered. Our incubator miraculously survived until we started securing gear into the main lab and vans from on deck as well as most of our incubation boxes best I can tell. A crate holding Dan's pumping apparatus and hose line was also obliterated on the back deck and as such the deck was decorated with much poly hose this morning. There is nothing more terrifying I decided than looking at 8-10 ft waves crashing onto and over the back deck from the artificial safety of sealed off spaces. I wisely put a patch on before our transit and remained relatively sick free for through duration of our transit, which others like my roommate and hall mate were not so lucky. I helped keep them hydrated and fed as I could through parts of the night. The Captain said were went through a force 8 storm and the scale goes to 10 so it definitely was nothing to laugh at. Here are some pictures and as I am exhausted now I will probably use our relative calm now to get some sleep as most of the rest of the crew is.

Feeder bands of what was to become more than just an average storm.Strangely yellow skies and lightning all around us warned of things to come.

The Seas getting more angry with the hour.
Land never looked so good to us.
Hose and debris all over the deck.
The morning rainbow and behind the tempest that gave us hell, which is now becoming a cyclone.
Instructions went from this...
To this after weather continued to deteriorate.
Inches of wash over soon became dangerous feet.
The pieces we recovered of the destroyed incubator.
What was left where it and its palette stood before the storm.