And so our first full day at sea came and all sight of land vanished.

Our bodies adjusted to the constant motion of the ocean and the protein rich German diet. Our time for procrastinating was gone. It was time to start working!

In addition to our thematic personal projects, students were assigned into shifts for monitoring duties. Four to eight; eight to twelve; and twelve to four- PM as well as AM! Any preconceived ideas of having a relaxing tourist cruise (not that I think any of us had such notions) were blown out the window. However, none of us could have asked for a better suited learning environment. During the next couple of weeks, each of us will work physically with the measuring instruments, as well as the related computer software. It was a great feeling to finally put all our reading and theory classes into practice. It was a great introduction to oceanography for me especially- a student from a landlocked university. It was a very positive first experience with all the instruments. The scientists and crew are all patient and willing to explain the details multiple times. Due to the diversity of the people on board, the language barrier is a very real issue. But in a mixture of English, German, Portugese, Spanish, French, Chinese, Dutch, and Afrikaans we usually get the point across. Things will only improve over the next few weeks.

A safety drill during the morning set everyone’s mind at ease. We know the safety team is calm and competent. Not that we hope it should be necessary, but if worst comes to worst, we are in good hands. However, the abundance of Schmidts did cause a bit of confusion during roll call…

With more than 4 km of water supporting us, we are all settled and steadily on our way across the mighty Atlantic towards South America. This blog will keep you posted on all the happenings on board the Meteor.

Veronica van der Schyff

M.Sc.: North-West University, South Africa