We are now three weeks in to the cruise with less than a week left to go. The initial frenzy of getting all systems running and reliable has merged seamlessly into a frenzy of preparation for leaving the ship. Before we leave we hope to have completed full documentation, a thorough cruise / data report and some written instructions for the crew, as well as the document that they have requested explaining what exactly it is that we are up to! Four weeks is really too short.
Despite the pressures of work we have managed some cultural interaction with our Norwegian companions. The crew all speak good to excellent English and have now acquired a number of colloquial English sayings such as "one for the ditch" (admittedly not of much use on a dry ship). In contrast, our language lessons have not got beyond "tussen takk" and learning to count to 10. We have taught cribbage to Odd (the cook and a true card fiend) and he has fed us quite a range of Norwegian specialities. Some of these turn out to be rather harmless things such as tapioca pudding, but others are definitely unusual and are best left to the imagination. We retaliated by making everyone eat Marmite. This was a little unfair since the food on board has been extremely good. Having heard horror stories of endless fish stews served on other Norwegian ships we were prepared for the worst but in fact have been fed almost too well. There is a cooked breakfast, and lunch and dinner both consist of at least two courses, plus plenty of choice from a cold-cuts buffet and 24 hour access to the fridges in the galley. Just in case this is not enough, coffee and cake are served up twice a day between meals. To compensate, there is a beautiful wood-panelled gym on board. It's just a pity we have never used it.
Recent wildlife sightings have included a pod of killer whales and, sadly, some stray birds which have presumably been blown off course. These include a couple of wheatears, a kestrel, a redwing and a heron. We have put water and food out for the seed-eating types but there is nothing to be done for the others. This morning a couple of the strays had found their way into our lab and were fluttering at the windows - we had an energetic start to the day capturing and evicting them. They left us mementos of themselves by pooping on our instrument manuals...
The Photo shows Robin visibly impressed by our latest results.
more next week.