My alarm clock goes off at 3:30am. Time to get up for my 4am shift on the RV Meteor. Still half asleep and trying not to wake my cabin mate I get dressed and ready and shuffle off to my shift. There we catch up with the previous shift and what was done and what we need to do again. No doubt another uCTD. An instrument used for measuring the conductivity, temperature and the depth of the water. We do a uCTD every hour. Off my team and I go to the back of the ship. It is dark, cold and usually quite windy. We drop it off into the water and wait. Wait as we winch it back to us with the data it has collected. The waiting is sometimes long and when you are cold and still half asleep you crave the warmth of your bed in these moments. But then I look up. There is a dim greyish light across the horizon. The sun is starting to wake up as well. By the time we are ready to do our second uCTD the sky is painted a swirl of pinks, purples, orange and yellows. Streaks of light shine down through the clouds. Not many people get to witness such beauty. It sets your day off to a great start. Being able to watch a sunrise every morning is a privilege to few.

Jaqui

Every single morning it happens. Still a privilege to witness. © Jaqui Trassierra