On the high seas…Newsletter 11
Dato 20.10.2006
Five week’s sailing, broken by a short stopover at Broome, a port on the North Australian ‘pearl coast’. This is the outlook for expedition members on board Galathea 3, whose ship the VÆDDEREN left Cape Town on Wednesday evening.
20 October 2006
The undisputed climax of the stopover in the South African metropolis was Archbishop Desmond Tutu's visit of the ship. More about meeting the 75-year-old Nobel Prize winner can be found in the web pages of the Danish newspapers, Jyllands-Posten and Politiken.
Photograph Ole Skou Hansen
Leaving Cape Town, the characteristic Table Mountain in the background
New projects come on board
The research project with the most personnel on this 10-11,000 km leg over the Indian Ocean is ‘Plankton in tropical ecosystems – important members of the food chain’. The project is headed by Professor Torkel Gissel Nielsen of the Danish National Environmental Research Institute (DMU). Professor Nielsen is also the current leader of the expedition. Other new projects on this route are Niels Daugbjergs' ‘Tropical dinoflagellata’ (Copenhagen University) and Arne Redsted Rasmussen’s project ‘Collecting poisonous sea snakes’ (The School of Conservation).
Cracking high seas…
The many researchers and media who joined ship in Cape Town have had a somewhat rough introduction to maritime life. There have been waves of up to six metres, and sound effects when the ship's bow hits them. That is to say that we are sailing head on against the waves, which can be a tough experience, even for those who reckon they are good sailors. Several people have repaired to their cabins. VÆDDEREN’s corridors are momentarily quiet….
Photograph Ole Skou Hansen
5-6 metre-high waves are hard fare – even for the most able-bodied seaman
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