After just over two weeks, SO235-cruise ends with the ship entering the port of Malé in the Maldives on August 7. Everyone’s happy after another successfully completed research cruise aboard RV Sonne.

The info-screens that are set up in every lab don’t leave any doubt: the next waypoint is „Anfahrt Male“, so the cruise’s end is approaching. Most of the instruments were switched off this morning, and for the last time, people gathered with all kinds of different sample bottles (and gloves! see previous blog…) in the […]

03:50 AM: Mr. Probz’s song “Waves” is breaking me from my dreams. But it is not the waves which are disturbing my sleep, it is the three hourly underway, also known as underwater, sample. And as the ocean does not sleep at night there is also a sample to take at 4:00 AM. Alright jumping […]

~2° S, 72° E: The last Long Battle (26-hour station) is closer to an end. Everyone is exhausted but nobody is giving up. Situated around 2° S, we are very close to the Wall*. Recommended in August 2 Blogpost, the forces of the Wall will change the direction of the “toilet whirlpool” once we cross the […]

28.07.-03.08.2014 from Port Louis/ Mauritius to Malé/ Maldives Here is the follow-up of our OASIS (“Organic very short-lived substances and their air-water exchange from the Indian Ocean to the stratosphere”) – SONNE SO235 cruise. The research cruise and the project are funded within the framework of the German national BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and […]

Night shifts are very manifold. You get to work all by yourself in the lab, empty the fridge in the kitchen, have a chat with fellow night workers and, here comes the best part, sit outside and watch the stars. This is also the nice part of cruising in the high risk area (no lights […]

The North After our last CTD yesterday(1.8.2014) at 8° 26.52 S 66° E we are heading back to the Wall (equator), the North. Unlike in the far North, there won’t be ice and cold weather waiting for us, but still an invisible line where the Coriolis force changes its sign as well the latitude. There […]

Heading south again to carry out more measurements, we managed to leave the pirate danger zone and had therefore the one and only chance to have a big party outside: our Bergfest. Traditionally this is organized by the scientific crew and paid for by the chief scientist (thank god that I’m only part of the […]

It is 5 in the morning and your cell phone is trying to wake you up. Well, actually the clocks were set one hour earlier, as or cruise has brought us now considerably to the east. The three shifts for the crew members (12:00-4:00, 4:00-8:00, 8:00-12:00, both am and pm) were equally shortened by twenty […]

After one week on the ship we will soon sample our 29th underway sampling and our 12th CTD station at 7°20’ S 66° E. This week has been very busy and we hardly slept, but we are excited about the results of our first experiments on board. We – the “biologists” – try to get […]