WRITTEN BY GUEST CREW ON BOARD
ON LEG ONE FROM PLYMOUTH TO AZORES WITH ROTHY’S
This lovely sunny morning started with freshly baked croissants filled with Nutella, jam and happiness.
After such a start, the rest of the day passed in a relaxed and joyful atmosphere. We even managed to do the kitchen laundry and let it dry outside. Even though we continue to battle the heavy winds and high waves we managed to throw the manta trawl and grab some fresh sea samples for an afternoon of science.
Half of the team was on deck, checking on the manta. The rest of the team had a serious separating, sampling and labelling day. It was fascinating to use FTIR machine which has been donated to the mission by our science partners PerkinElmer. It helps us understand the potential origin of the plastic fragments collected in the water by comparing the chemical structure to the known polymers. We also ran our first microbial review which looks at different bacteria and fungi that will help us determine from where the plastic travelled.
Today it seemed like every time we looked up there was a rainbow and for every rainbow followed the squall which was a constant reminder of the beauty and danger of the ocean. We didn’t actually keep count, but we agreed there was around a hundred of them 😀
After dinner we had a group chat on deck and enjoyed the last hour the day. Emily led us in a SuperPower exercise where we each shared awesome traits and skills about our new-found friends and learned more about ourselves. After a week on the ocean on a small boat you really get to know each other and see the beauty of all our strengths, passions and everyday habits and laughs.
Photo credit: Nomad Mnemonics & eXXpedition
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