Blogs from Oceans and Seas - page 99

The pilot book makes less of Dieppe than it might. The town wraps around the harbour at one end while a chateau and museum commands the hill at the other, complete with several canvasses by Sickert, Pissarro and Renoir and a fabulous collection of maritime artefacts and fine ivory. The town itself is marvellously French and a charming place to wander around between boat chores and lying about with a book. Such has been life for the past four days, except for short excursion out to sea which convinced us that it remained unpleasant out there and we should return immediately to moules frites on the quay and simple suppers on deck in the sun. Tonight we even hear jazz drifting across the quays. We needed the rest, being honest. Our break in Boulogne had enabled ... read more

Flight. NZ2, seats are waaay small, cant even store my bag under the seat in front, lucky there's no one next to me:) Butter chicken (after meticulousy removing every piece of coriander i can find!) "The Lorax" movie, half a sleeping pill, a travel sickness pill, some natropathic travel essence and two glasses of wine.........DR SEUSS U R A GENIUS!!!!!! 1972 he wrote "unless someone like you cares an awful lot.....nothing is going to get better....its's not". Time for zzzzzzzz... read more

Geo: 61.9389, -12.041This was a lazy day--no place we had to go; nothing we had to do. The only items on our itinerary today were eating lunch and eating dinner. We slept through breakfast, but got a croissant and a Danish with hot chocolate and coffee at the coffee bar. It was so nice just to read and nap all day. Well, that and eating. The hot chocolate is unbelievably good. It has the taste of a high content cocoa, yet still sweet, and the inside of the mug has been glazed with a thick coating of hot fudge. Delicious!The sea has been pretty rough again today, but the captain says that it will be much better tomorrow. Even as the evening approaches, the sea seems to be a little bit smoother. We have seen all ... read more

Friday, 20 July and Saturday, 21 July. Days 13 and 14. I can’t believe it’s the two-week mark already! I guess time flies when you’re picking up and dropping off Ocean Bottom Seismometers. When I left you last, there was some frustration over a string of complications and my lack of attendance at a music festival… If you’re into reading abstracts and skipping most of the paper (which I am), I will tell you that one of those problems has been rectified and I write to you this evening a happy man. To get you there is a bit of an adventure… When I was just a boy…. Kidding, kidding. What was ahead of us, however, was no laughing matter. We were left with 7 TRM’s that had malfunctions of some sort and were going to ... read more

Home thoughts from abroad My apologies, dear readers, for the delay in composing this latest blog entry. The reason for the delay – well a whole range of small things, really. Partly, it will be that the adrenalin flow of doing something extraordinary in a far distant place tends to reduce. In the main, life is as ordinary and everyday here as it would be anywhere – it just feels like 50 years ago which is pretty extraordinary in its own way. There is plenty to record at a mundane level – how wonderful at this phase of life to meet so many new and interesting people, all whom have a tale to tell and a life story to retell. Well, let’s get the news out of the way. Firstly, Wahoo has not returned home but ... read more