The research ships Mirai and Ron H. Brown traveled toward the island of Nauru.

The Mirai, a research vessel belonging to the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center or JAMSTEC, safely departed the Yokohama Port in the Tokyo Bay at noon on June 8, 1999. In a traditional Japanese ceremony, the ship’s crew and passengers prayed for a safe voyage to the god for ships and cruises, Konpira-san Kon, concluding the event with a toast of ceremonial saki.

Rough seas as the Mirai passed by the Mei-yu front on June 9 caused several passengers to become seasick. The seas soon calmed, and on June 13, the ship arrived at Chuuk for the exchange of personnel. Everyone took a quick trip ashore before the long hours expected in the Nauru99 campaign. The Mirai departed Chuuk on June 14 and began travelling toward Nauru. Scientists are using the transit time from Yokohama to Nauru to test instruments and take measurements.

The NOAA ship Ron H. Brown arrived in Darwin, Australia, on schedule on June 8, 1999, in the midst of unseasonably cloudy and cool weather. Scientist began loading instruments on the ship, and as of June 10, no major problems had occurred during instrument setup. On June 14, the operations officer explained computer support to the public on the Ron Brown during an open house at Darwin Harbor. The ship departed Darwin on June 15 during strong ebb tides. The Depolarization and Aerosol Backscatter Unattended Lidar and the S-band were down with networking and computer/control problems, but all other sensors were up and running.

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