We bid farewell to the Azores Newsletter 5
Dato 22.9.2006
We bid farewell to the Azores
Friday 20.00 hours local time: VÆDDEREN sails from the capital Pontal Delgada, San Miguel (the Azores’ largest island).
22 September 2006
Research crew change
On the quayside were several research and media persons who had signed off. Vædderen also left behind a mural designed by artist Morten Schelde (accompanying the expedition from Nuuk to Cape Town) and executed with the help of his two assistants, Barry and Lasse.
Photograph Rane Baadsgaard Lange, The Danish Expedition Foundation
Galathea 3 was here….. Morten, Barry and Lasse’s artwork on the quayside of Ponta Delgada
Crew and expedition members had benefited from three and a half days’ in port to find their balance after the moderate gale that accompanied us from Nuuk to this group of islands which lies in the middle of the Atlantic, 1,300 kilometres from the Portuguese mainland. On Monday (18 September) new expedition members joined the ship, whilst those who were signing off made ready their departure.
The Azores’ nine islands were a port of call and base on the way back from South America and the Far East, journeys for which the Portuguese explorers were famous. The colonial architecture of the Azores testifies to their history. The climate is temperate with a fair amount of rain. During our time in port, Hurricane Gordon reached the periphery of Ponta Delgada. By now reduced to storm force, it was still enough to send some large waves over the breakwater close to VÆDDEREN.
Photograph Rane Baadsgaard Lange, The Danish Expedition Foundation
The edge of Hurricane Gordon not far from Ponta Delgada, where VÆDDEREN was docked.
The first event of the week was Science Minister Helge Sander's visit on board VÆDDEREN. Helge Sander met several Galathea researchers who told him about their projects. The minister also met local maritime researchers on Tuesday at the University of the Azores in San Miguel.
Jodhingsten, Alge-Alf, OPO and all the others on the Billy-Goat
The moment a newcomer comes within the Navy’s sphere of operations, he or she meets a whole raft of rules. Most of the rules concern the need to come home in one piece; others centre around not wasting people’s time by causing them to wait, and still more are designed to get the landlubbers to fall in the water, thus feeding the special 'penalty' box in the mess. One may be caught in the jungle of regulations in the Officers’ mess. It will cost you dear.
The Navy’s abbreviations seem incomprehensible. When you are new, you feel rather small listening to the more experienced expedition members banding around a medley of terms: OPO (Operations Officer), NK (next in command or Executive Officer) DOC (the ship’s doctor) Banje (Senior Chief Petty Officer) ‘Super’ (Superintendent) and Pater (the ship’s priest)…. with the help of the Navy’s Glossary of Slang which everyone on board receives, some codes can be deciphered: Dotty is the familiar way of referring to Icelandic ladies (whose names often end with ‘dottir’) and "Geden” or Billy-Goat our dear venerable expedition ship, Vædderen (which means ‘The Ram’). Then you have the researchers. Algae Alf, Crab John – who has left the ship and many others….
Photograph Rane Baadsgaard Lange, the Danish Expedition Foundation
Newly arrived expedition members inspect the quarterdeck.
Friday 22 September
Wind: north westerly, 8 metres per second Weather: good, the swell comfortable – at least whilst Vædderen is underway. And that she is doing – at full speed. Two hours have already been gained on the first night of this leg, with the promise of more time for research.
One of the new groups joining ship at Ponta Delgada are the turtle people. Their mission over the next 12 days is surface scanning for sea turtles.
They have asked everyone on board to keep an eye out for the red and yellow shell which signals their presence just below the surface of the clear blue water. Should one be sighted, the 'Turtle Alert’ is quickly implemented: Someone shouts “Turtle”; a buoy is thrown out to mark the position; the MOB (the Man Over Board boat) is launched: Rikke and Jesper from DMU (The National Environmental Research Institute of Denmark) carefully net the turtle and bring it back to the VÆDDEREN. They will then attach a satellite transmitter to the creature’s shell, measure, weigh and take DNA tests, etc. After this the turtle is released into the sea again. The transmitter will in ensuing months provide valuable information on the wanderings of a member of this endangered and lonely species. Read more about the project here.
This area is a known habitat of the Loggerhead Sea Turtle. That said, on the wide open sea you need sharp eyes and a fair amount of luck to spot one. Chances may increase when we pass Cape Verde in a few days’ time.
Other projects, the majority of which were on board from the expedition’s beginning, were busy with routine measurements. Water samples were collected at 300 and 400 metres' depth by means of the CTD profiler (a system of water collection using a rosette of containers which open at varying depths and give many of the ongoing projects information on temperature, salinity and the chlorophyll content of water) Various seaweed samples were taken and the meteorologists launched a large red balloon equipped with a radio transmitter. The balloon relayed details of temperature, air humidity, etc to the ship until, as was expected, it reached a height of 16 km and burst, 75 km from the ship. The turtle alert was rehearsed - everything ran smoothly. Apart from the absence of turtles! So far.
When samples are being taken, the ship is in ‘station time’. At this time when no headway is made, the swell is much more noticeable. Leading to seasickness...
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