Sunday, 13.07.2014: Bergfest and World Cup Final

On Sunday evening half of the SO234-2 cruise was already over. Time has gone by quite fast while we were busy with our station work or lectures. As is the tradition we celebrated the middle of the cruise with a “Bergfest”, the time when you reach the top of the mountain and only have to go down again. Strings of light were set up together with a barbecue and music. Everybody enjoyed “Bratwurst”, potato salad and a beer.

World Cup Final Celebration. Photo: Kirstin Krüger

Coincidentally on the same night, the finals for the World Cup between Germany and Argentina took place. Unfortunately we weren’t able to watch it because of the absence of a TV signal. But at least we were able to gather in the computer lab to observe the live ticker. The captain joined us as commentator, reading out the live feeds. To add to the action, half of the students started a round of table tennis next door.
It seemed to be a tough game for the German team. They played well, but unluckily couldn’t score within the 90 minutes of the game. But neither could the Argentinians. Consequently the game went into extra time and after nobody scored for a while, everybody feared that the final would be decided in a penalty shootout. Finally though, Mario Götze was able to score the deciding goal seven minutes before the end of the extra time. Those were the seven hardest minutes for the football fans in the Computer lab. But then: “Deutschland ist Weltmeister!”
In order to properly celebrate the title, everybody went back on deck and danced beneath the stars into the early hours of the morning.

Monday, 14.07.2014: Safety Drill

Because of all the festivities, lectures were postponed for some late sleepers. It was the last lecture done by Folkard on his MAX-DOAS instruments and the results of his measurements so far.
The radiosonde station was a little different with launching the balloon as the wind was NW and the balloon was not going in the direction as intended.
Once again another safety drill was carried out, as per protocol for their once a month drill. This time our names were not just checked but we were able to explore the skills in firefighting by handling the sea hose pipe and squirting water into the ocean and feeling the pressure of the amount of water that is expelled.
The cruise is only halfway through, and we now look forward to the 40 hour station and the deployment of the drifter.

SO234-2 cruise track, 14 July 2014. Photo