The day to embark on the ship has finally arrived and on the 12th of July the agent picked up the members of the scientific team and headed to Porto Grande, where the Pourquoipas? was docked.
The ship is super-impressive, very big (much bigger than in the picture), 7 floors (!) and the Nautile is there, the submarine that for many scientists represents the most important instrument of this cruise and the highest point of this expedition.
Each scientist has been assigned a cabin on the 5th floor of the ship to be shared with another person, while the chief scientists Marcia and Daniele earned a suite on the upper floors. They deserve some private space having to steer and deal with so many scientists!!
My roommate is Ghislain who like me is a master degree student and will not dive with the Nautile. We have many things in common, we are both very tall, our English is not perfect and we are a bit shy of character, but for now we communicate with each other quite well.
The cabins are small but well proportioned: we have a wardrobe, a desk and a bunk bed, which is strangely long enough to accommodate us and quite comfortable. The bathroom is also small and basic but well equipped with the hated plastic shower curtain.
At 11 o’clock we usually have lunch: the dining room of the ship is located on the 4th floor, not large enough to accommodate all 70 people so we take turns. So far, the chef has been given 3 Michelin stars, with different choices and sometimes risky but very good dishes (but, yes, indeed, after only two days we already miss Italian pasta al dente).
On the 4th floor there are a great variety of rooms, including the common room full of books and musical instruments, a bar with a calcio balilla table, the laundry room and the leisure room for watching movies, reading comics and playing video games.
The laboratories, where most of our work will be concentrated, are on the 3rd floor; there are areas set up for description of rock samples we will be taking with the Nautile. Rocks will be sorted, cut and classified. Some samples will be chosen to make thin sections on board so we will describe them with the petrographic microscope. I will finally put into good use the knowledges I have acquired during the course of Petrography of Prof Mazzucchelli! Finally these data will be inserted in a specific database to make them available to the entire scientific community.
The 2nd floor hosts a well-stocked gym with tools, treadmills and table tennis.
The first working meeting we had was to present the expedition. We met all the members of the expedition, each one of us presented themselves and their role during the expedition. These are people I did not know before (although I had read some names on scientific papers!) but with whom I will have plenty of time to confront, discuss and learn.
We also had other very important meetings, especially with those responsible for communications within the ship and with the outside world; we had also our first security meeting with the second officer in command of the ship. He showed us the devices and solutions to adopt in the event of an emergency, such as in the event of a fire or abandonment of the ship. For this reasons they took us to the bridge where we could try the heavy and sweaty life suits and become real “ninja turtles” (or teletubbies as you wish).
Daniele and Marcia finally organized another meeting to assign each of us to a working group. I will be led by M-Alix (structural geologist from the University of Toulouse) and will deal with the structural characterization of the samples. Other groups deal with the igneous and metamorphic description of the samples. To make the best out of this experience, students will shift between groups.
The ship finally sailed from the Grande Porto of Mindelo on 13/7/19 at 8 o’clock.
It was really exciting to leave the port to embark on a new adventure, in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, knowing that we are participating in something big.
