Sailing and Science

Nils, Batch (B-watch)

Back by popular demand it’s your favorite Norwegian blogger and I assume the only Norwegian blogger you read. We are underway and we are cruising, 170 NM course made good.

The wordle board aboard (what a tongue twister..) is famous and running hot.

Today’s wordle was [VOMIT], fairly appropriate given the students establishing their sea-legs, but no vomit yet! The weather and wind have been in our favor though so we will see if that trend continues.

Massimo and Ben demonstrating the different flight patterns of birds we might encounter

We have been doing a lot of sail handling and science deployment and have been sailing with the jibe, top staysail, main staysail, and the main sail!
As for science deployment we have towed our Neuston net, CTD, secchi disk, phytoplankton net, bucket sample surface. We got a [nudibranch - Glaucus atlanticus] in our net and they look insane, unreal, pokemon like, look it up! It’s fascinating how these incredible creatures are just bobbing around in the middle of the ocean, invisible to the naked eye.

Our water maker is on, so we are now able to produce our own freshwater from saltwater that’s pretty cool. The galley is keeping us all well feed, we are getting spoiled! In Rosie’s words “I couldn’t cook like this in a kitchen on shore even, how do they do it?” Nobody knows, but the magic keeps on coming.
Today’s dinner is TUNA, how fitting! Still no fish on our lines though and every time Massimo’s mind drifts off on watch I am sure he’s imagining bringing in a huge pelagic fish as he is hovering over the fishing lines every chance he gets.

The professor’s keep throwing assignments our way but the students seem to keep deflecting them, rather sponging up all there is to know about sail handling, boat checks, and navigation from the crew, so it is good to see we got our priorities straight. (smile emoji)

Tahiti is now only a distant memory as well as the rest of the world. Being out on the vast Pacific ocean, 3000-4000 m depth, no land or other boats in sight, feels surreal. Grateful for this adventure and all the incredible people part of it both aboard and on-land.

Hei hei Rosa, lykke og hell med alt, sender deg gode tanker

Nils, Batch (B-watch)