Thursday, the 15th of January

Going north and one day lost

Last view of icebergs (Photo Credit: Ulrich Breitsprecher)

Now we are going north and the sea gets bumpy again. The swell is up to 4 - 5m. We crossed 60° South and the “Roaring Fifties” are back again. Wherever it's possible, we take samples. The weather forecast on board helps to find calm moments for using all devices like the Multinet, Pistoncore, Multicore and CTD.

On Wednesday, we passed the International Date Line and lost one day, so the Weight Watchers Club approaches earlier than I expected. Although the dessert on board is my favourite dish, I didn't plump out. But I think it's only luck at the measurement.

On board now everyone is busy in writing his part of the cruise report. In the evening, we had a lot of talks by the scientists. Sometimes I feel sorry that I was not interested in chemistry in school for there are a lot of interesting methods to analyze the samples. I understand the overview, but the details are sometimes a secret for me. In my next life, I will do it better.

I asked some of my fellow travellers: “What is the fascination of the cruise?”

Daniel answered: “We are on board for two months without reaching a harbour. This is rare in these days.”

Marie answered: “On this journey I notice that I can renounce easily things of the everyday life, no mobile, no Facebook, no shopping. I need only very few things.”

Ling answered: “Although there are people from different countries on board, all are working together without any problem.”

Cornelia answered: “I see how people are acting on board in the way they are. Nobody behaves in a different way for two months. This is fascinating.”

For the guestbook on Polarstern we photographed all the scientists on the helideck.

Here we are:

Science Group (Photo Credit: Ulrich Breitsprecher)

 

Ulrich Breitsprecher