Over the years we have had a few people join the crew who arrived totally unprepared for the realities of life at sea - the results were both comic and tragic. Forewarned is forearmed, so any experience you can avail yourself of before applying (much less joining) will pay you back in spades. Arriving fresh from the cornfields of Iowa and sailing in a force 9 off Labrador could cost you.
This handbook will attempt to provide you with an overview of what to expect - and more importantly what is expected of you. A position on the Discoverer is not so much an opportunity for you to get something, as it is an opportunity to give. It's your chance to show everything you have learned up to this point and everything you are to become in life. You can make as much out of your experience as you like. And competition will be strong to do great things with your time. Remember that like you, the other members of the crew were chosen not only for a for a special ability, but for their extreme desire to succeed in achieving the Discoverer's goals.
So be ready to commit yourself fully to the mission at hand. You cannot be busy worrying about your next project in the lab or at school - or whether your girl is being faithful while you are off at sea. Instead, you had better busy yourself worrying about not steering the boat onto a reef during your watch, overstaying your bottom time at 200 feet, or whether your crewmate needs a hand with her project. Yes, there is down time and slow time and weather days - but nobody will be there to supervise and make sure that your project is a success. We leave that entirely up to you.