We sailed from Wellington a few hours ago, it feels good to be underway! Several colleagues from Wellington’s University of Victoria paddled out to the mouth of the bay in sea kayaks to wave us goodbye and wish us good luck. Everyone is full of optimism and ready to work hard to get the job done.  

Wellington is a beautiful city, I saw a little of it during a couple of early morning runs whilst we were in port. But there is only so much you can take in when you are operating under the influence of serious jet-lag! Couple of stand out memories: the beautiful wooden houses climbing up the hills around the bay, like mussels clinging to rocks. I saw a few houses round the edge of the bay, which had their own personal cable cars! Yes, you read that right. There is a garage for a car down on the coastal road and the house is perched up on the hillside, access is via winding steps or personal cable car system. Oh, if that wasn’t cool enough, the beach opposite had a sign warning not to disturb the nesting penguins….

Despite the above I get didn’t much time to enjoy it all. I was busy getting settled into my cosy (i.e. tiny) cabin and checking out the lab. Biomarker organic geochemistry hasn’t been done for a while on the ship and it will take most of this week to get my stuff set up. I found that a few of the chemicals and some glasswear we really need weren’t on the ship. So with the help of the logistics people from the IODP we contacted a chemistry Professor at the local University of Wellington who gave us the bits and pieces we needed. Thank you Dr Peter Northcoat!

 

Now I’ve got to get back to work in the lab.

 

– What’s the weather like?:  Good at the moment. But not for long, forecast is for winds to start building to 40kt winds by tomorrow morning with a very rough sea.

– What’s the quote of the day?:  Steve Pekar “We (the IODP) own past climate change!”

– What’s the food like?: Good and fresh, we just left port. No scurvy yet.

– What’s on the lab stereo?: Led Zeppelin IV