Here we sit, gear in pieces, scientists anxiously waiting. Seems to be a ghost in the machine that is this cruise; some kind of bad moo. Without going into too many details lets just say we’ve had a few set backs with the equipment, but fortunately everyone is healthy and morale hasn’t plummeted yet. We’ve got a backup plan, but it involves equipment that is suboptimal. The data will come in and the samples will be processed, but it’s definitely plan B.

So what is the good news? Well, we’re making it happen and both the ships crew and scientists seem to have endless determination to make this cruise a reality. It’s partly economics; ship time is expensive and the right way to approach it is to squeeze every last bit out of a cruise from a science perspective. Plus, we have a good mix of early career and well established investigators whose attitudes and experiences are complementary. But I think more than that I think this ship has assembled a “Can Do Crew” – their own self-applied motto – and that attitude really helps when things go wrong. Stay tuned for pics. We’ll be back in the water sampling shortly, and plan B, though suboptimal, will tell us what we need to know.

But now I’m going to make another cup of tea with honey. The chief engineer brings honey from his own hives, and it’s awfully good.