When there is no paper but you got a Sharpie marker

Manjula's tale of waterproof paper and data scratched on vegetation reminded me of an incident, which happened to me once and I'm sure happened to others as well: A windy night was responsible for taking all but a single data sheet into the Atlantic Ocean. Rain had soaked the remaining sheet and rendered our only ball-point pen useless (as always, underprepared on nights when the turtle activity coincides with bad weather).

Luckily, epibiont surveys had required us to carry several permanent markers with us for labeling jars. These markers also proved useful for what we call 'Temporary-Tattoo-O-Phobia' - the fear of having to use a Sharpie marker to record all of your data onto your body and the bodies of your crew members because you have no data sheets. I had a PIT tag number on my forearm for a week.