An Update

Disco's last dance included many pirouettes south of the Canary Islands. Cruise track (red) south to the first mooring at EBH1, (magenta) on to Santa Cruz, (light blue) out to EB1, (dark blue) back east to EBH4, 5 and finally (black) out towards the Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Believe it or not, we are halfway through the cruise. To celebrate we had an excellent Halloween party. Photos to follow. In fact, the main lab–our home for this cruise–was very quiet beforehand with most scientists diligently working away at their Halloween costumes.

So far the cruise has mainly been doing loops south of the Canary Islands (see cruise track above). We started with our moorings, called EBH1, south of Tenerife and worked in towards the African coast but were unable to reach Moroccan waters so we returned to Santa Cruz de Tenerife for repairs to the ship (magenta). Then out southwest of the Canaries (light blue) to EB1. Then, finally, back in to the Moroccan coast to finish work there (dark blue).

Westwards ever westwards from there (black). Feeling good about the trade winds being at our back and, being late in the year, little prospect of bad weather from Tropical Storms…

The last three days we have spent battling the tail end of Tropical Storm Tony. Tony, I'm putting you on my list of enemies. All this has meant we've spent the last few days pitching into short choppy seas. And losing time…