5. July

Todays Highlights

Date:July 03-05
Author:  Øyvind Knutsen (Geophysical Institute, Univ. Bergen, Norway), Ingvar Huse (IMR, Norway) and Thomas de Lange Wenneck (IMR, Norway)

"G. O. Sars" is alongside in Horta, Azores. Ship and scientific crew are changed. Committee meetings and status colloquium are arranged, and on Sunday an open ship for locals, visiting guests and tourists. The harbour is full of transatlantic sailboats, and sailors come on board to have weather news for their passages. It is a tradition in Horta that all boats in port must have a painting done on the walls or pavements before they leave, or else it meens bad luck at sea. Of course we painted one. On Sunday evening we empathise with the Portuguese for their football loss, and sample their food and drinks.

But some work hard, particularly on the ROV. Parts arrive, and faults are corrected, but new ones appear. Hydraulic overheating is solved, but rotors still kick out, in other words a normal situation for an ROV technician.

The new crews are settling in. Meetings are held, and new equipment is assembled and made ready for operation. Everybody is eager to get to sea on the second leg. We only wait for the ROV----.

There are 270 n. m. to sail to the first station in the Southern box. We will do 5 stations there over the allocated 7-8 days. Landers, bottom profiling, acoustics, ROV and bottom-trawls on each station. The focus is on the demersal habitats and communities.
 

Weather Conditions

The weather in Horta has been changeable, sometimes windy, with scattered clouds, and almost always clouds over the caldera of the highest volcano of Horta (1000 m) and the gigantic peak on the neighbouring Pico (2300 m). Temperatures have been in the friendly lower 20ies.

Tomorrows expected highlights

We hope to sail late today or early tomorrow. The estimated cruising time to the first station of Leg 2 is 24 hours, so tomorrow will be a day of final preparations and dry runs.