The first couple of days at Barbados were used to recharge all human sunlight batteries to be switched to operating mode at any time.

On the ship, loading was done successfully and after all boxes were unpacked, stored, and lushed, we (the physical oceanography team) were missing one of those carefully packed away boxes without which the MVP could not be operated. As superstitious people would have known right away, the box was located after searching for several hours and multiple phone calls to Germany in one of the containers in the far back and of course behind and under several other boxes.

The instruments were setup, and underway measurements started running at midnight of the 18^th after leaving harbor around 11pm on the 17^th. Parallel to the instruments our shifts started at midnight which meant that the ships ADCP needed to be checked every hour. Checking was done in the following order:

• Switching off the phone alarm as quickly as possible to no wake your roommate.
• Finding the ladder to get out of the top bed in the dark without falling and without shouting when you hit your toes on the steps.
• Leaving your glasses behind to again not wake your roommate and because you will probably still be able to see enough without them.
• Nearly touching the monitor of the ships ADCP with your nose to make sure that the green light is still on, because you actually do not see well without your glasses.
• Filling out the ADCP sheet, again leaning your head very closely to the table to write inside of the lines of the sheet.
• Going back to your room and climbing up that ladder again in the dark and without making any noises.
• Repeat one hour later.

At 6:30am the entire team met to operate the first CTD which was carried out without any problems and was rewarded with a rainbow governing the Meteor.