After a spontaneous preparation phase, we were ready to deploy the surface drifter on the evening of July 28. Surface drifter? The drifter consists of three parts: a floating buoy (looking like an oversized spear used for fishing); a 6 m long rope connecting the buoy to a 5 m long sack; and, at its […]

Sunday, 27.07.2014: Entering the high risk area After leaving the 26h station we headed north and entered an area that is declared as high risk area for pirate attacks by NATO. We will stay inside this area until the end of our journey, since the whole Maldives lie within it as well. What cruising in […]

 23.-27.07.2014 from Port Louis / Mauritius to Malé / Maldives Here is the first weekly report of our SO235 SONNE-OASIS (“Organic very short-lived substances and their air-sea exchange from the Indian Ocean to the stratosphere”) expedition, funded by the BMBF (project 03G0235A). The aim of our research is to investigate the biogeochemical cycling and exchange […]

26.07.2014 Raising this CTD has proven to be difficult. Our most beloved scientific instrument got caught in a rogue long fishing line which also entangled the ship and the propeller. Some cuts here and there by the crew of RV Sonne solved the problem and our CTD could serve us another round of “fresh” water […]

It’s another day of revisiting plans and making lists. In between answering the usual first cruise days questions about where can I find this and that, the water sampling had to be organized. This means deciding which samples are wanted by the individual working groups and can be managed during the simultaneous three hourly underway […]

05.30 am. I wake up by a sudden shake in my bed and my clock tells me it’s time to get up and take the underway (also known as underwater or whatever) sample. I’m trying to get through my cabin without being smashed against the chairs and table by the 4m waves outside.  At 7.30 […]

The new cruise SO235 finally started on 23.07.2014 with a 6 hour delay leaving Port Louis/ Mauritius. All instruments were set up, waiting to be operated. With 24 scientific crew members on-board we feel well equipped for the upcoming tasks. Today, we had ship introductions and work group meetings to get prepared for the upcoming […]

RV SONNE arrived in Port Louis. Cruise SO234-2 ended here. But this blog will be continued on cruise S235…

14.07-20.07.2014 (Port Louis / Mauritius) Here is the second and last weekly report from our SPACES (“Science Partnerships for the Assessment of Complex Earth System Processes”) SONNE SO234-2 cruise, a training and exchange trip between students of southern Africa and Germany, funded by the BMBF as part of the OASIS (“Organic very short-lived substances and their air-water exchange from […]

Today was the big day…after an intensive 48 hour station and lots of data workup (and cramming information into their brains), the students finally gave their presentations. They were tasked with interpreting the data from their own station and presenting it in 10 minutes to the entire scientific party. We (the “scientists”) were all eagerly […]