Casing is now ongoing in Hole U1432B again, now that the seas are more calm, and despite the fact that there is still a pretty stiff breeze outside. Using the VIT (vibration isolated transport) camera (see photo below), which is held on a frame that slides up and down on the pipe the drillers are able to position the drill bit immediately above the cone, as you can see in the lead photo. The whole scene is illuminated by two 10,000 W lights so that everything is clear for the magical moment when the bit can be lowered into the hole and the drilling continue. Amazingly we sometimes find ourselves disturbing some poor fish hanging around in 3800 m of water and who generally decides to beat a hasty retreat when confronted with the drill bit looming on top of him. Watching the camera footage the excitement is all over in a few minutes followed by a long time looking the pipe scrolling past as the camera is hauled back to the surface. This part of the movie always looks like some advant-garde art installation to me at least and is decidedly less entertaining. Let’s hope the weather keep improving so that we can move on to our primary target with all speed.