Love Stories: Alexandra and Bill Cobb

Bill and I met on the first day of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) officer training in Virginia, but we didn’t date until a few years later.

After training, we were sent to different states to serve on research ships for two years.

Bill rotated to a shore assignment while I remained at sea for another Antarctic tour. He worked in a remote field camp on a small island off the Antarctic peninsula, studying fur seals and penguins for a few months every year. My ship supplied that field camp with food and equipment every 30 days during the season.

The ship would be away from the U.S. for six months at a time, so everyone brought a few favorite foods as their private “stash,” despite limited space. I brought a few boxes of cereal, nuts and crackers. Not exciting, but treats to look forward to over the long trip.

With thousands of penguins, some seals, a very strong smell of penguin guano, and five researchers, the island was very bleak. His situation on Seal Island appeared worse than mine on the ship, so I gave Bill, only a friend at the time, some cereal from my stash. After unloading the inflatable boat of supplies for the camp, I handed him my prized box of Captain Crunch.

Bill was very surprised and happy at the time. Apparently, he took that act as a declaration of love (which it wasn’t! We still disagree about that).

He started writing me and we briefly chatted at future supply drops. Many months later, now both working at the same laboratory, Bill and I started dating. We were married a couple of years after that.

Now a few ships, many moves and two daughters later, we celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary in January. All due to that valuable box of sugar cereal!

This is both a love story and a word of caution – be careful with your favorite cereal; you don’t know what message you are sending!