We arrived in South Africa!
I am here in the port in Durban, South Africa. We arrived after a very long journey across 7 time zones! I flew out of Tallahassee at about 12 noon on Thursday into Atlanta, where I caught my international flight to Africa. The flights all went fairly well,
except for a 3 hr delay in Johannesburg to catch our connecting flight to Durban. The flight to Africa stopped in Dakar, Senegal, which is the westernmost african city. From here, we continued on to Johannesburg, South Africa. I was traveling with two other students Jun and Jiyang, and the Co-Chief Scientist Thorsten. In Johannesburg, we met up with an aussie named Katy, and after about 30 hrs of total travel from Tallahassee, we finally arrived at our hotel in Durban at about 11pm local time.
The next morning (which was now Saturday), we got up and had a nice breakfast at our hotel before heading out to the ship. We met a french PhD student named Loic at breakfast, and he traveled with us. On Saturday, we moved onto the ship (some of the science group, but not all), and learned about some of the general science and general operations while on the ship. It wasn't too busy of a day, but there were quite a few meetings and organizational stuff.
At about 5:30, we headed out to grab a beer while the rest of our group met us to go have dinner. We went to this nice little restaurant called Hemmingway's, which had quite a bit of seafood, with huge portions. I ate so much food I almost fell asleep at the table. Could have been the Windhook Lager we were drinking as well....
Today (Sunday), was a much busier day. I finally got over the smallbout of jet lag that I encountered on Saturday, and was able to function a little better. This was especially nice, as we had to beup for breakfast at 7:30am. Today, Loic and I had the exciting job of labeling 1188 small plastic bottles which will be used for holding water samples to test for Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC) for a groupthat couldn't send a representative. We will basically put water inthese tiny bottles, then freeze them. It was so much fun! (yawn).
I also learned (or re-learned) how to tie a bolon knot, which will be crucial in the operations of lowering the CTD. This will be my main job. Also, I will be responsible for making sure that the water samples go to the rightplace, and also for taking the salt and nutrient measurements. We ship out tomorrow at 4:00pm, and at 12 midnight, my first shiftbegins. I am on the 2nd shift, which is midnight to noon. Workingalong with me will be Loic and Peter, a guy at FSU as well. We will have a test station at 4am, for whichwe will test out all the instruments, and get an idea of how to work everything. I will probably send another email either tomorrow or Tuesday to let you know some of the details for all of that.
except for a 3 hr delay in Johannesburg to catch our connecting flight to Durban. The flight to Africa stopped in Dakar, Senegal, which is the westernmost african city. From here, we continued on to Johannesburg, South Africa. I was traveling with two other students Jun and Jiyang, and the Co-Chief Scientist Thorsten. In Johannesburg, we met up with an aussie named Katy, and after about 30 hrs of total travel from Tallahassee, we finally arrived at our hotel in Durban at about 11pm local time.
The next morning (which was now Saturday), we got up and had a nice breakfast at our hotel before heading out to the ship. We met a french PhD student named Loic at breakfast, and he traveled with us. On Saturday, we moved onto the ship (some of the science group, but not all), and learned about some of the general science and general operations while on the ship. It wasn't too busy of a day, but there were quite a few meetings and organizational stuff.
At about 5:30, we headed out to grab a beer while the rest of our group met us to go have dinner. We went to this nice little restaurant called Hemmingway's, which had quite a bit of seafood, with huge portions. I ate so much food I almost fell asleep at the table. Could have been the Windhook Lager we were drinking as well....
Today (Sunday), was a much busier day. I finally got over the smallbout of jet lag that I encountered on Saturday, and was able to function a little better. This was especially nice, as we had to beup for breakfast at 7:30am. Today, Loic and I had the exciting job of labeling 1188 small plastic bottles which will be used for holding water samples to test for Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC) for a groupthat couldn't send a representative. We will basically put water inthese tiny bottles, then freeze them. It was so much fun! (yawn).
I also learned (or re-learned) how to tie a bolon knot, which will be crucial in the operations of lowering the CTD. This will be my main job. Also, I will be responsible for making sure that the water samples go to the rightplace, and also for taking the salt and nutrient measurements. We ship out tomorrow at 4:00pm, and at 12 midnight, my first shiftbegins. I am on the 2nd shift, which is midnight to noon. Workingalong with me will be Loic and Peter, a guy at FSU as well. We will have a test station at 4am, for whichwe will test out all the instruments, and get an idea of how to work everything. I will probably send another email either tomorrow or Tuesday to let you know some of the details for all of that.
- Austin
Sunday, February 3, 2008