A day in Cabo Verde

we spent a lovely afternoon in CV last Friday.
we travelled by bus out to the ground site about 30minutes drive from
Mindelo. It is up a little side road that was built specially to get to
the site.

The site itself is right down close to the sea shore and gets a lot of
spray. It consists of a couple of shipping containers, two tents, a dog
shed, a 40 m tower and a porta-loo. The dog shed houses our lifetime
instrument (measures how long OH lives for) and is really quite dinky! The
tower is REALLY high and sways with the breeze. I didn't quite realise
this till I'd climbed all the way to the top in my nice slip-on shoes. Now
these shoes are not normally a problem but having to grip them really
tightly so they didn't fall off on the way down meant that I was having
cramps in my legs for the next few days! (I'll explain how necessary these
shoes were in a minute...)

But the view from the top of the tower was stunning. Cape Verde is made up
of a number of islands. The name green cape does not necessarily apply to
all the islands. In fact Sao Vincente would be a good substitute for the
pics I've seen of Mars. It is absolutely desolate. The lava flows are
still evident and haven't been populated by plants as I expected for such
a nutrient rich land. This is mainly because Sao Vincente receives so
little rain. Everyone relies on deep wells and the water table is
dropping. Everything is imported apart from the few vegetables grown in
little irrigated farms in the valleys between the craters. I know I
complain that you couldn't grow anything on our land in Clare but this
really is struggling to survive. But all this makes for a stunning
landscape. It's as if the craters are superimposed on a blue sky. The day
we docked the visibility was superb. I saw an island that looked like it
was swimming distance only to be told it is over 30 km away! Reminder to
self: never underestimate distance when there is water involved.

Kate and Lisa (the ground FAGE crew) seemed in a good mood and Dwayne (my
boss) arrived the night before we docked. The girls were having a few
laser issues (bit of a re-curring theme - see my AMMA diary from last
summer www.roisinco.blogspot.com) but they seemed to be coping quite well.
The lifetime instrument had had a motor malfunction so Kate had to sit and
move something every ten minutes through the whole day. Rather her than
me! Although I think Dwayne was going to take over that job while he was
there :)

It was weird to be on dry land. I think I've gotten used to walking as if
I'm drunk. I used to laugh at the stereotypical swaying walk of sailors on
tv but it is actually the easiest way not to fall over all the time when
the seas are choppy! It makes it funny trying to decide if people are
actually drunk or just walking drunk in the bar (it's usually the latter
;)

And now about the shoes: I decided to get a bit dolled up for the trip to
shore. I thought it would be the last time I cared what I looked like for
a fortnight and in hindsight I was right ;) I haven't worn make-up since
but now I think my skin is in withdrawl. I've spots everywhere and a
couple of cold sores thrown in for good measure. And no-one has any
cold-sore creams! I'm sure they'll all disappear when I get back to my
more usual diet of only eating proper food when I'm hungry...

24/05/07 - Working hard at sea

The past few days have flown by. We've moved on to calibrating the
instrument and getting to know the quirks of it too. It's funny how each
instrument has it's own personality. Just learning what mood the
instrument is in make measurements so much more interesting with FAGE: the
conditions the laser likes (not too hot, not too cold); what pressure the
cells are happiest at; how the timing of the laser twitches with the
slighest change in temperature. Nothing is ever simple. But then where
would the fun be ;)
We should start the intensive measurement period from Sat morning so that
will be tough but worth it. We'll have to measure 24 hours for that time.
Dawn and dusk could have the most interesting chemistry but as Trev and I
are both more night owls than early birds, organising shift to cover all
though could prove interesting ;)

By working in the container so much, I've missed all the wildlife so far.
People come back with reports of flying fish and dolphins that I've missed
- again. I'm hoping when we get the instrument fully up and running I
might actually get a chance to look over the side and see some of what's
going on. At the moment the seas are really calm with just a gentle roll.
Sometimes I even forget I'm on a boat - something I never thought I'd say!
I walk around like normal and it's only the odd swell that catches me off
guard and sends me crashing into the nearest wall.

We will arrive in Mindelo, Cape Verde tomorrow morning and spend the day
there. Initially we were supposed to spend 24 hours in CV but that has now
been cut to an afternoon! It doesn't look like there is much time to see
the place either but I'm sure if we cut the ship visit short we could make
it to the beach for half an hour ;) But I'll probably go with whatever is
happening and not cause any trouble. I'm not craving the sea quite enough
to mutiny. Though that might change with seeing the beach...

Apparently we are now entering Pirate seas... Not the Johnny Depp type of
pirate but the balaclava glad, grenade launcher toting, militia type. I've
been confidently informed by the crew that if it comes to a choice, then
the boys will save the kit and sell off all the blondes. I'm so glad that
I work with people who care so much for my well being. Even Trev wants to
keep his laptop more than me! So much for group loyalty...

I still haven't made it to the gym. I did intend to but I've just been so
busy. And while I'm getting my sea legs for walking around and standing at
the container, I'm not sure that extends to the gym. I have been making an
effort to not each as much lately though. I'm just having less of each of
the four courses served up at dinner ;) At least I bought two pairs of
nice, baggy trousers in Primark before leaving for Portugal. At this rate,
I'll just about fit into the clothes for going home in!

I'm hoping I have a bit more news after the day trip tomorrow. It should
be interesting to see how the girls are getting on and what levels of IO
are being seen on the island. At least then we will have a vague idea if
we are going to see anything at all on this cruise!

21/05/07 - Settling in to life at sea

So far, so good. We're settling into life on the high seas quite well! The
seas have calmed down a lot as we sail south along the Moroccan coast. We
will be arriving at the Canary Islands tomorrow morning and we plan to
heave to (ie. stop) to allow surface sea samples to be taken. I've been a
lot more accustomed to the gentle rolls of the ship now and slept quite
well last night. Being utterly exhausted probably helped as well! As the
ship rolls my muscles automatically compensate so I don't fall over. I am
finding that really tiring and it doesn't always work :( Hopefully the
tiredness won't last and the bruises will soon fade...

A few people were queasy as we left Lisbon but no-one has been badly sea
sick. I think the crew are a little disappointed ;) With only 3 of the
scientists having been to sea before, they expected us all to be dying in
bed for the first few days. I think the current and wind both being with
us has helped. We've seen ships travelling north past us and they are
having a much harder time pitching and rolling all over the place. That
will be us in a week. I'm really hoping the weather is good then!

Trev and I are making progress on the instrument. We found Darren, the
science liason person, is a whizz in the workshops so we have him making
bits to try out in the cell! To anyone who knows what I'm talking about,
so far we've managed to cut the background laser scatter to half what we
saw in Leeds (that's good) and hope to reduce it further with some playing
tonight and tomorrow. It's much easier to align lasers/diodes in the dark
so our entire container have become nocturnal! The girls are struggling
with bits of kit they borrowed from other people but we'll try and help
them as much as we can while we're waiting for bits to be made.

I'm still eating too much but I'm avoiding deserts and trying to stick to
salads, till they run out. Anyone want to set bets on what size I'll be
coming home?!?

19/05/07 - Departing Lisbon

This morning (Sat) we set sail from Lisbon.
I didn't sleep well last night: A combination of too few hours and sheer
excitement about getting going! Lisbon seemed sad to see us go as the
beautiful weather we've had for a week suddenly disappeared! It was very
cold this morning and didn't really warm up all day. Lisbon has a very
pretty bridge similar to the San Fransisco Golden Gate bridge which we
passed under as we headed out to sea. I hadn't realised that Lisbon is
actually in an estuary where the wide part is upriver and the narrow
little bit is the way out to sea. A little weird but all the more
interesting for it.

Trev and I have been waiting for the air conditioning to be switched on
before we can switch on the laser. The air con uses ocean water as a heat
exchanger so it couldn't be turned on when we were tied up. I was a little
worried that it wouldn't be strong enough to deal with the 38oC we've seen
in the container during the week but I was glad to be proved wrong! Within
10 mins of switching the air con on full blast the container was 17oC and
we had to turn it down a bit! I suppose the cold overnight temperatures
also helped cool it down. Once the air con was sorted, we started on the
laser. The laser took a little longer to reach a constant temperature and
put our hearts cross-ways for a while before we got it sorted. Our only
other problem is the constant movement of the container on deck. Every
time the ship rolls (see glossary below) the container lifts out of its
mounts slightly and thumps back into place and the roll direction
reverses. Thankfully our laser is mounted on an anti-vibration mount but
the rest of our kit isn't and the computer is beginning to take a bit of a
battering. When we arrived in Lisbon we had to take the computer apart and
put everything back in again. And that was just the transport. Hopefully
it doesn't happen again. It will be a lot harder to take the computer out
now with the waves so high!

The passage south from Lisbon has been a little rougher than I thought.
I've just heard plates crashing to the floor in the mess. I was paranoid
about securing everything in my cabin and now I'm glad I was. Any drawer
left unlocked flies open with each roll. My cabin is fairly low down in
the ship and I can see the waves crashing onto my porthole window. It's
actually kinda cool after the first initial 'We're going to sink!!'
thoughts. I didn't want to take a sea sickness tablet until I needed it as
they make me too drowsy to work. So far my stomach has coped well. Not
everyone is so lucky but if I see someone get sick, that's me gone, so I'm
avoiding everyone who's queasy. Sometimes walking is a little
disorientating. It feels like I'm drunk without the pleasant not caring
feeling. Straight lines are not possible and I also managed to fall on my
ass in front of everyone but I'm hoping that's my stupid incident of the
cruise!

Glossary:
Pitch - Front to back movement of the ship. Easier on the stomach
Roll - Side to side rocking of the ship. Not easy on the head or stomach.
Known to cause puking.
Forward - The pointy end of the ship
Aft - The blunt end of the ship
Port - The left side as you look forward
Starboard - The other left side as you look forward

18/05/07 - Signing on to the ship

We officially signed on as ships company on Friday morning. From now till
we leave in Falmouth in June we have to sign in and out anytime we want
shore leave. It's kinda cool, if a little weird.

We all got our own cabins so it's quite nice. I'm right by the mess so
making meals hasn't been a problem so far ;) The meals are at weird times.
I don't normally make a breakfast that finishes at 8.30. Lunch is
11.20-12.30, which is a bit too early for my liking. Dinner then is
5.30-6.30. My days are now defined by meals. A scary thought if, like me,
you have to work to stay the same weight! Prior to the cruise I thought I
might actually loose some weight. Seeing the set-up, there's not a hope of
that! There is a gym on the boat but I'm not sure I could manage the
exercise on a rolling boat when I can't manage it on a non-moving surface
at home ;)

After a safety briefing and tour of the ship we had a practice
fire/evacuation exercise, where we put on heavy clothes and life jackets
and got into the covered life boats. All at 36oC! It was more than a
little toasty. At least we all looked as daft as one another, with
jumpers, hats and life jackets. I had seen it before at the sea survival
course we went to but it was obvious again at the drill: Life jackets are
NOT designed for women! They don't sit comfortably at all if a girl has
any sizable chest. The jackets are also more likely to ride up around your
neck and almost smother you. Who ever designed life jackets definitely
didn't take women into account in the design process! Then again, I'm
hoping I am never in an emergency situation with the need to wear a life
jacket.

As a last ditch attempt to see something of Lisbon before we set sail
tomorrow, I convinced Trev to join me on a nice long walk into the city
centre. It actually wasn't that long but we did get to see some of the
sights. The architecture here is impressive, with lots of statues and
squares. I would like to have seen the city in daylight but I guess I am
here to work a little :) I enjoy people watching in cities so, after the
tourist drag, we sat outside a bar to watch the world go round. I was
surprised to find very few younger people around the areas we walked
around. It was all middle aged, middle class clientel. Maybe there is a
trendy end of town we didn't find? We did run into a good few younger
people coming into town as we passed the train station on our way home.
Maybe they drink at home and party in town after? I think I'd need to ask
a local that one...

The long walk into town was great but, as it was late and colder, we
decided to get a tram back to docks. It was a real dinky little thing that
seemed to travel a lot faster than it was able for. But we got there in
one piece so I can't complain! As we saved some time getting the tram we
called into the bars on the marina waterfront near the docks. These
include two 'Irish' bars that I can't say looked very Irish and two clubs
right beside one another who are in direct competition with each other to
see who can blast the loudest music out to attract punters. It was a
little much even for me!

We ship out in the morning. I'm really looking forward to it now. A big
improvement from my panic attack moments prior to coming out here!

Some Pics

Here are some random pics of the docks in Lisbon that I've taken from the Discovery. And a few pretty faces for the fun of it too ;)


On day one we arrived on the docs in Lisbon to be greeted by the QEII. On the second day it was the Queen Mary II (pic above). These ships are enormous. They are like an entire council estate floating around the world! I won't go into the whole argument for and against cruises on mini-towns but I don't think it would suit me personally!

From looking in disbelief at the massive cruiseliners, laying eyes on the Discovery was a bit of a let down... Here we have Elena, Anna, Ailsa and Justin enjoying the sunshine in front of the RRS Discovery.


I'm not saying it's not a nice boat but compared to the Queen Mary, frankly, it's tiny!! I don't want to go out into the far Atlantic in a tin can! OK, it's slightly bigger than a tin can but I'm still a little nervous! Most of the other scientists involved in this cruise have never been on a ship campaign before either so there is a collective nervous tension building up. I'm sure things will settle down as we set sail but hearing horror stories about people getting sick it NOT helping!

Watching our measurement container being installed was a bit of a nerve-wracking experience. What if the crane fails? And drops all our equipment into the dock? What if everything gets knocked around so much nothing works?! (Slightly ironic that one, but I'll explain later)



But the view of the docks from the Discovery is quite pretty...

Installing in Lisbon

Well things have been going well so far. Trev and I are at a bit of a
loose end as we wait for other people to finish installing their equipment
in our container. Once Anna, Ailsa and Justin (Leicester and Cambridge)
are finished in the container we can turn on the laser and find out if it
survived the trip over. I'm a bit worried about the poor laser. It
dislikes travelling and usually shows its disproval by refusing to turn on
when we get to where we're going. In AMMA (Africa last summer) this cost
us a flight but I'm hoping here that we will have time to pamper the poor
laser and make sure it's all nice and happy.

Sometimes I worry myself when I treat the laser like a child. A few weeks
on a ship with the laser misbehaving will probably drive me over the edge.
But I suppose if I'm treating the laser like a kid now, there's not a lot
more nuts I can go!

I'll try and upload pics from the boat soon so you can experience the joys
of our living conditions for the next few weeks.