*26 June

R/V Pelagia Cruise LOCO/IW 2009
	Diary overview
Friday, 26 June
Today is a busy day for Marcel, Leon and Dirk-Jan of the NIOZ MTM-department. Dirk-Jan is newly appointed, this is his first mission at sea. So, everything is strange to him, but apparently he is learning fast. Seated next to each other, half-hidden under the airgun-frame they spent hours connecting components of the seismic system. They are carefully watched by Louis and Matthieu who are working on the data-acquisition part. Both parties hope that the two components of the system will work. The collaboration between Edwin and Martin has ended considering the tuning of the new bottle-system of the CTD. It was not ended because of them arguing, but because the last problems in the system have been detected and discussed. Martin is now focusing on his thermistors again, whilst Edwin is spending time helping out at various places, ranging from opening of current meters to machining jobs. Meanwhile everything has been prepared for the towing of thermistors, a new aspect of our work. During the test the cable deviated under a large angle and after a while een extra weight is added. The CTD has been prepared and for the next 24 hours Margriet, who is in charge, has assigned watch-periods. She, Edwin and Matthieu will run the CTD-YOYO program together with either Cor, Arie-Jan, Martin or Vitali at the winch. A tedious job, especially during nighttime, bringing each time the electronics package up and down to 2300 m at a speed of 1 m/s. As the instrument reading of mooring 14-4, 15-4 and 16-4 is about ready, Theo has some time to respond to incoming e-mails messages, especially those concerning the upcoming meeting on important decisions for KM3NeT, the large neutrino telescope to be built in the Mediterranean Sea. And Hans, well what is he doing. You see him everywhere and nowhere. He has probably the most undesirable task on board, namely making sure everything runs smoothly. So far that works. Of course the ship's crew plays a most important role. They are the connection between the scientists on board and the measurements in the ocean. Thus, everybody plays part of the game and a false note has not been heard. Theo Hillebrand