Busy times on JOIDES Resolution. Our desire for core is being well met to put it mildly. Now we are greeted with the sight of many blue “end caps” smiling at us from the rack when we come to work reminding us of the significant backlog we are now building up and that we need to make a dent in soon if we are to get everything processed in time. Can be a bit intimidating at times.  At least the appearance of sand in the section, loved by some, hated by others, has slowed the pace a little because it has forced us to start taking half length, 4.7 m long cores instead of the usual 9.5 m cores. The short core generally yields more in these sections with the fluid sands that we need to address our science objectives but it has to be recovered at half speed too, so there is a delicate balance to strike here.