What we do when we wait - by Isa R.

Ship in front of the coast of Cape Town

We waited for 4 days close to Cape Town for the new pump of the engine to arrive, and we are now on our way to the stormy South. Looking at the forecasts, the future looks grim.. a chain of ferocious storms awaits for us, and with them: waves up to 30 ft. But then.. that’s pretty much like any day in the Southern Ocean.. and I can’t wait for it!!

Wind map from www.windy.com (the white line from A to B is our planned track)

Waiting during these days not necessarily meant resting. We had in fact the CTD test cast, where we assessed our instrumentation, the procedure of deployment and recovery of the CTD rosette, collected some samples of waters and trained the watch stander students, who will be in charge of the CTD and will help with some water sampling as well. It’s so energizing to see so much excitement and joy in their faces, and the cure they put in what they do!!

Teaching moment led by Joseph and Jackson (SIO/ODF). From the left: Max, Kay, Giuliana, Garrett, Joseph, Jackson, Dani and Ben

I love watching these birds (Cape gannets)

Super meals on the TGT!!

I’m using this time to focus on some work of my postdoc I need to finish, knit some new projects, burns some calories at the gym (the food is 5 star quality!!! Thanks to Liz, Laurie and Niki, our super chefs, meals are superb! But it’s really hard to keep fit!! haha!), and enjoy some time outside with my shipmates.


Today we had a great yoga session outside on the back deck under the sun, led by Jessica, from the University of Alaska.

A very serious albatross

We had beautiful sunny days, with lots of wildlife passing by. Gannets, albatrosses, petrels, and then seals, whales, a little shark, great shearwaters (maybe?), and dolphins (these were very far to spot, but Mike identified them as common dolphins).

Yesterday night my shipmates spotted some bioluminescence. It was, of course, after my shift and I was sleeping. They show me some beautiful pictures.. I cannot express in words how jealous I am!! hahaha!!

Ship on a painted ocean