The computers on board are working overtime. The tasks are to prepare posters and presentations for the reception on 5 February and to start with the cruise report. What can we report about the things we wanted to find out? Not too much. We all have had to limit our research activities a lot, and we have done so in the spirit of community. Now the shadow of an upcoming storm is hovering over everything. It is going to unfold its force exactly during the days that we wanted to do the only station revisit still left in the proramme, trying to find out whether and if so, how the animals on the deep-sea floor react to plankton blooms in the upper water column.
Ideas are thrown back and forth — how do we use the station time optimally? The meteorologists’ office is one of the most visited places on the ship, and the news emerging from there is not good. This time the ocean really tries to hide its secrets from us.
All that becomes temporarily unimportant when, during the night from Thursday to Friday, about half of all scientists fall ill. Food poisoning? The ship seems all but deserted all day Friday, and healthy colleagues, doctor and nurse are busy indeed trying to help the stricken to get back on their feet with good advice, loving care and medication. I am among the affected, and only the fact that I am not alone helps me through 24 long hours. Now we have to muster all our strength and optimism for our last big benthos station — we have not lost yet!
Brigitte Ebbe, Senckenberg
Photos: B. Ebbe