Transitions

August 29, 2013

As we say goodbye to Rachel and the other participants of the first leg, we welcome the new arrivals for the second leg. I am Pete Morton, a postdoctoral researcher (like Rachel) with Bill Landing at Florida State University. I arrived in Madeira on the same day as the RV Brown, and joined our friends in port to celebrate the successful completion of the first leg.

While hotels are abundant in Madeira and other "holiday destinations," it is often more convenient and affordable to rent an apartment for the few days you are in town. We were very fortunate to find a four-bedroom apartment about 100 yards from the ship, for about 1/4 of the cost of a hotel room! Not only is it more economical to share an apartment, but it has allowed us plenty of relaxed opportunities to exchange information about the sampling and analytical operations.



View of the RV Brown from just outside our apartment in Funchal, Madeira

When preparing for a research cruise, you do your very best to prepare for any imaginable emergency. However, on occasion something will need to be fixed that requires resources beyond those immediately available at sea. During the first leg, we discovered that one of our laboratory van air conditioner units needed to be replaced. Having the short layover in Madeira made it possible to have a replacement unit shipped from the US to the RV Brown and installed while in port. Unfortunately, the ship's A/C system has required some repairs as well, and we are delayed leaving until Saturday, August 31. While it is certainly nice to enjoy some extra time in Madeira, these delays place a little extra stress on our upcoming schedule. It remains to be seen how this delay will affect our sampling schedule, but we hope that the extra stations sampled during the first leg will minimize the effect of the delayed departure.

Until then, we'll do our best to enjoy the sunny skies, cool sea breeze, and unhurried schedules :-)

The FSU trace metal team replacements: Randy (left) and Pete Morton