64PE368 - Dag 9

It's the last day of the last CHARLET cruise. Time to finish the last experiments and start packing and cleaning to leave the Pelagia in a good condition. The Pelagia starts its journey to the Mediterranean and the Black Sea next week but today the North Sea looks already very similar to the Mediterranean, completely flat, not even a wrinkle, blue sky and a gorgeous dark orange sun rise. The birds, which a couple days ago where maneuvering so acrobatically on the heavy winds, seem to have taken a day off and are gently bobbing around enjoying the sun.

We've had visits of storm petrels, guillemots and the beautiful white birds with black tipped wings and a creamy yellow head: gannets (see thumbnail main page). These are the creatures on the high seas that are easy to see, once you go under water it's teaming with life, but it's much harder to see it. Our experiments show there is something in the water absorbing the light and taking up nutrients, when you take a closer look with the microscope you can see it's a real phytoplankton party! There is a great diversity out there in shapes, color and behavior, from the spaceship-like hovering of the diatoms to the crazy circling flagellates. But after a more than a week on board you start wondering if there is something bigger out there. So we took out the fishing rod. Unsuccessfully… Haico and Sander mastered the art of throwing in our cut-up tin can with a massive hook, but the fish out there were not buying it.

From our experiments with the Ramses and the Asphere, we got some interesting light and absorption spectra. Now it's time to pack the frozen samples and take them to the lab to analyze what is actually in there. I'll be looking at pigments while others do species composition, fatty acids, viral lysis, etc. Enough work for the next couple of months to generate data and hopefully find something interesting and worth all our hard efforts.

There was a good mix of first timers and experienced seafarers on this cruise. Despite all the tricks the seafarers had to keep up the spirit, nothing works as good as the sun and a gentle sea breeze. It makes the work easier as you are not thrown from one side of the room to the other. It makes sure people get their color back after a couple rough days. And I like to think the North Sea is trying to find a nice way of to say farewell to the CHARLET project.