Letters Home are excerpts from a father (Prof. Doug Toomey, Co-Chief Scientist) to his children back home. 

Dear Ebba, Sofie, John and Family,

This morning I watched the sun rise over Anafi and the wine dark sea, the breeze light, temperatures mild, and seas calm.  It’s a perk of the 4-to-8 watch. The spot I prefer is the aft top deck. Our heading is NE, with Santorini to the starboard beam.  Ios and Sikonos are to port beam, with Felegandros to the port quarter.  So you can look on a map and plot our course and also figure out some minor nautical terms, beyond get to work you scurvy dogs!

We are now heading into the long and perhaps repetitive part of our cruise, which is to run the shooting lines for 14-to-15 days! If all goes well, it will indeed be repetitive. Of course, there will likely be incidents.  Our job is to keep track of little details, so that they don’t turn into big ones. And to settle well into the rhythm of sea, watches, some mental work, and exercise.  The next couple of days look remarkably calm for this time of year.  Then perhaps we have some weather on Friday, a low coming down from Italy; hopefully it will weaken.

Today Bryndis will be going back to Reykjavik, no?  Give her our love and thanks.

Some photos of the morning, a meditative sunrise,

Love,

Daddy

A panorama of Santorini (D. Toomey)

Morning light on cargo straps (D. Toomey)

Sunrise over Anafi (D. Toomey)

String of guns going off 12 m below the surface, ~ 11 m below the camera.  The GoPro survived! and the water is clear.