On the fourth day (11.7.14) we are getting more and more familiar to the daily life and the routines aboard. Also the hissing sound from the vacuum toilet isn’t scaring us anymore.  After getting up and brushing our teeth, the smiley face in the bathroom mirror is telling us that an extraordinary day has to be celebrated, the birthdays of Eric, Kenny and Gesa. There will definitely be some dancing and awesome music.

But first things first, back to work: We continue to get short lectures but yesterday’s CTD cast (10.7.14) and sampling really stole the show.  Everyone got excited about the CTD cast and took a whole lot of pictures of it while sampling. However, titration of O2 was the real deal that only got sealed late in the evening. It was very slow process because the titration apparatus and chemical solutions (reagents) where hidden in many boxes that took the whole day to find, sort them out and thanks to the good meals (we are eating a lot, YOLO), Tobias could stay up until he finished all the samples. That’s a lot of energy from the mess room. The good thing is, everything went well.

Day four (11.7.14) is quite a slow warm day, lectures started at 10.30 and the rest of the samplings continue at different stations. The air temperatures these days are in the 20s (°C) when the sun is out. Every ”buddy” is loosening up their shirts buttons. One thing missing in the SONNE ship is a swimming pool, otherwise it was a perfect day for swimming.

At the radiosonde station we launched a weather balloon into the atmosphere at around 14H00 (LT), reaching 28.8 km altitude. This is a big balloon that has a suite of sensors (temperature, humidity, air pressure, wind speed and wind direction) and is quite fun to launch (“science is fun”). At the time of launching the humidity was at 63%, air pressure 1023 hPa, temperature 21.8° C, no clouds, engine running and good spirits are continuing.

by Alex Zavarsky and Tobias Endjambi

Alex Zavarsky and Tobias Endjambi analysing the radiosonde profiles of the atmosphere. Photo: Kirstin Krüger