Safety First- we're headed back to Port Elizabeth

One of our science party has n’t adjusted to the rolling and rocking of the ship, so we headed to Port Elizabeth where we’ll be met by a launch at ~ 7am and the scientist taken ashore. All is well, this was just a precautionary measure, but with much bigger seas and stronger winds to be expected in our work area- “the roaring 40’s”, all thought this was a prudent action.

Lab display showing the current positon of the RV Thomas G Thompson as we head to Port Elizabeth.

Rescue boat at Port Elizabeth

Processing multibeam data as we sail onwards

Qikuan Zhou processing multibeam data n the computer lab.

We're collecting data!

As we left the South African EEZ, turned on the multibeam system to map bathymetry deployed the magnetometer and started recording gravity measurements as we continued our transit to the first site.

Map showing our location as of 11:00am this morning and our projected ship tracks to and from our survey sites. Red colours indicate shallow seafloor and blue colours deeper sea floor (>4550m). Later in the day, we exited the EEZ and started collecting data.

Dominik getting ready to launch the magnetometer this evening

Underway to the survey sites

We departed the Port of Durban on Feb 21st at 1:21 pm local time. The pilot disembarked and we then proceeded to head south to our first waypoint at about 11 kts. We will not be collecting any data until the ship enters international waters, which will be in a day and half. When we get to international waters, we will turn on the ship’s sonar and swath bathymetry mapping system and also deploy the magnetometer to measure the magnetic field. The first survey line we will collect will be for our South African colleagues.

People are arriving in South Africa!

Sentry….

Arriving at the ship

R/V Thomas G Thompson in Durban

People Arriving in Cape Town

The science team starts to arrive