In transit to East Pacific Rise

We leave Puntarenas in a taxi boat...

(Left) Dock. Attribution: Salvador Espada. (Center) Passage, (Right) Arriving; Attribution: Stefan Sievert (CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0)

... and we finally board Falkor(too), where we get the welcome of Wendy Schmidt and get introduced to the vessel.

(Left) Welcome. Attribution: Stefan Sievert. (Center) Wendy Schmidt on screen; (Right) Heliport. Attribution: Salvador Espada (CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0)

There is plenty of places for gathering, but wherever there is carpet we have to take our shoes off.

(Left) Kick off meeting; (Center) No shoes on carpet; (Right) Science meeting. Attribution: Salvador Espada (CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Meeting at "The Den". Attribution: Salvador Espada (CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0)

The transit to our destination East Pacific Rise takes 5 days. We mount the labs and secure all the stuff so that no accidents happen in case of bad weather

(Left) Main lab distribution; (Center) All secured; Lab corner. Attribution: Salvador Espada (CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0)

We prepare and mount and train everything. Alessandro fixed some trouble with the oxygen measurements, and the vessel discovered and mapped a new underwater vulcano.

(Left) Alessandro fixed the issue with oxygen measurements; (Right) New underwater vulcano charted by Falkor(too). Attribution: Salvador Espada (CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Zach Bright, the ROV supervisor, shows us SuBastian, which is a beautiful piece of technology. For example, all the electronics is submerged in oil to deal with the high pressure

(Left) And it has a transponder; (Center) Umbilical chord; (Right) Electronics submerged in oil. Attribution: Salvador Espada (CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Zach Bright explains SuBastian. Attribution: Salvador Espada (CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0)

So, under the wise supervision of the Chief Scientist, work is progressing on board.