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Find out who is who..

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After breakfast, the ship moved from Nykirkenkaien to Laksevågkaien to load the final equipment supplies including the new ROV. This new ROV has better camera, lighting and sampling equipment and can dive to 3000m.

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The GOSars was repaired over night and we are en route to the waters north of Jan Mayen Island.

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Since heading north from Bergen we have lost the good weather. Things are pretty quiet as people try to get their sea legs.

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The uncomfortable sailing conditions continue. It is less choppy than before, but more rolling. Most are able to enjoy the excellent food on board – and perhaps the enforced moderation is good for us!!

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We have arrived at our first station. Everyone was on hand to watch the first CTD go down. It is equipped with three extra sensors brought by geochemical expert, Eric Olson from the University of Washington.

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We finished the CTD scanning last night, and headed north. We expect to be at our next location around 23.00 tonight. Then it's more CTD-scanning.

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The day started off at midnight (00:00). However, here in the land of the midnight sun, it could just as well have been 12:00 noon!

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It has been the busiest day yet for the scientists on board. Yesterday’s CTD series finished in the early hours with a second, even stronger, anomaly signature. There is definitely something down there.

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We have now completed three CTDs that indicate anomalies, and several that indicate nothing, enabling us to pin down the potentially "interesting" area more closely (please see map).

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Our nightly mapping and CTD series are showing increasingly interesting features.

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We continue to hunt our elusive hydrothermal zone with CTDs and the ROV.

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Today was the first day of poor weather. We had been told to expect foggy weather because this area is near a frontal zone of ocean currents, but while mostly overcast, the weather has been clear and the visibility good until today. However, our work does not depend on visibility so we continued as usual.

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The day started at midnight with the microbiologists and Christoffer Schander working on preserving and studying organisms from the recovered wood the ROV had brought up from 2900m.

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Around 06:00 the ship stopped battling the head wind and moved into a stationary position over the expected location of the CTD on the sea-floor (267m).

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A new group of researchers has come on board replacing some of the group from the first part of the cruise.

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We expect to reach Mohn’s Ridge and our research area around 18:00. Although the sea has been a little rough, the newcomers on board are managing really well.

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The wind has been increasing all day and is now up to 17-20m/s. The waves are too high to be able to safely launch the ROV or to be able to undertake the core sampling we had planned.

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The wind has dropped and we are again able to set the ROV in the sea. We first dove to the northern face of the seamount. Here the slope surface is made up of landslide debris consisting of chunks of rock of various sizes.

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Before we finish the cruise we hoped to dive to the deepest part of this volcanic rift valley. Is today the day for such a venture? The wind is beginning to increase and the wave height as well … In addition, it is Friday the 13th!

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The southern face of the 2500m seamount was mapped overnight. The map shows steep cliffs that were created by movements along fault lines. Such fault movement results in earthquakes.

The wind and wave conditions made it too difficult to take any last sediment cores.