This has been a hard blog to make myself write. Science is finished and for a few days now we have been heading for home not having been to our most southerly sites. I admit writing has been confounded by an absolute stinker of a storm that took us all by surprise. I had planned to write this a couple of days ago.

I have to confess to feeling a bit of disappointment this cruise. We invest so much time and energy into getting here that to be eventually beaten by mother nature is a bitter pill. As a bunch of marine scientists of various disciplines we are the folk who are driving the sustainability of our seas in the face of increasing human pressures, we get to see and to try to understand its wonder…surely nature owes us something right? Well perhaps not.

"skys a blue and seas that are green" (by Chong Chen)

Would I have still come. Without a doubt! Whales within metres of the ship, albatross and penguins, sunset and sun rises of the most fantastic hues, travel to Chile and ultimately Uruguay (port of demobalisation) and then Argentina a short hop across the mighty river Plate, new discoveries like the E2 north venting, possibly a new order of anemone to add to the list of new species from our previous trips and samples to work on after my return. Even spending Christmas at sea was a a novel and most excellent affair [although I feel i must apologies to those I left behind for that feeling].

The problem with transits is that the high intensity activity that kept you focused on the here and now is gone. 8 days in total it will have taken us to get back to terra firma. That is a long time to start missing land and people. I’ve done 8 week cruises and it seems to be the  same regardless of cruise length. As long as the work load remains high things like home and family, specific foods or recreational pursuits remain to a certain extent distant …up until the transit. Now the transit is almost done home feels so close but just out of reach. We have been running a murder game to keep folk entertained (very paranoid also).

Saying goodbye to abundant bird life, the abundance of which rapidly drops off (by Chong Chen)

On the up side it does start to feel time to go when the fresh fruit we have been having for breakfast is replaced by canned stuff. Despite the vacuum fridges and freezers we have on board (remove the atmosphere and humidity inside aids preservation of goods) we said goodbye to the grapes around Christmas. The only lettuce/leaf to now survive is iceberg [no pun intended]. While we still have pears, it could be a good debate as to whether one would/should eat them. Apples and oranges seem fairly bomb proof. Still this is better than the last cruise where there was a strike and despite delaying departure two days for supplies we could add running out of cheese, butter and bicarbonate and so on to the list above.

Another aspect of the transit is the rather surreal element of leaving a sea in which ice has blocked our sampling sites and restricted our movements to sailing under an almost tropical sky. After transiting more than 20 degrees of latitude the sea temperature has gone from below 0oC to in excess of 22oC. The air temperature we left got as low as -5oC. It is supposed to get to 33oC today. Here, we are in shorts and t-shirt and I got burnt yesterday for spending 20 minutes outside.  Yes, as everyone here takes great glee in pointing out, I’m a pasty Scotsman who could use a bit of weathering. Lesson learned…out comes the sunscreen. Docking in Montvideo at 34 degrees south puts us just outside the tropics at the height of summer.

Chief Engineer George leading an end of cruise engine room tour. Always a very popular event. (by Chong Chen)

So as I say goodbye and close off this blog I have just been informed we have our first sight of land. The pilot will be boarding to guide the ship in at 16:00 and by tonight we will be heading straight into town to find a restaurant/bar and get absolutely …stuffed on fresh juicy fruit and veg!

moonlit cruising (by Chong Chen)

So I guess this is it. The last lines of the last blog. It has been emotional. It has been an adventure and it has been fun.

Thank you for sharing it with me.

Chris