Am suffering from severe spice withdrawal... Reuben.. I am sooo going to stuff my face with bryani at your grandma's place this Deepavali.

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5th October. (Location: Unknown Seamount)

If anyone is going to make any remarks about my 'holiday'. I will smack them. Day two and I look like a tramp. Dirt under all 20 nails. Dirt in the creases of my hand. Disheveled hair. Dried salt on my skin. Looking half asleep when there's not much going on. Working on the computer for only limited periods of time cos looking down makes me sick. Why would any sane person want to do this? Come to think of it. Was I in sound mind and had all faculties intact when I said yes? Was I only thinking about swanning around the deck, cooling sea breezes, gorgeous sunsets and the romantic south Pacific? Well.. this is a bloody good wake up call.

The reality... I am dark, sun burnt, scruffy, spotty cos of the $$%#ing sun block and dirty. And more then a breeze in my hair. More like a perpetual gail. Actually, I don't give a toss how I look now. Work is work. But I do want to look presentable when I get back on land. After all, I still remember Mingko's missive (ha!). How to accomplish that if I look mangy!!

Enough of this whinging. I know that every Musortorm cruise is of extreme importance (in a natural historical sense of course). This one is codenamed 'Ebisco' short for Exploration de la Biodiversité et Isolement en mer du Corail.

We are on a quest to sample various habitats around the seamounts of the Coral Seas, Southwest of New Caledonia. Seamounts are underwater (extinct) volcanoes that rise thousands of metres above the surrounding seabed. Most of the time, they never peak above the water surface, and in some instances, the more ambitious ones do. An example is the chain of seamounts known to most as ‘Hawaii’. These seamounts have been shown to be very special habitats. The open ocean is usually an inhospitable place, nutrient poor and harsh. After all, it is devoid of any nurturing input from landmass. Continental shelf waters are often richer and more productive because of run-offs from land. Recall: Secondary school geography. But seamounts are curiously productive environments and are home to an unusually diverse invertebrate and fish communities. Think oases smack in the middle of a desert. They are also underwater 'islands', hotspots of high levels of endemism. Most populations of invertebrates on seamounts tend to be isolated so they are good models for the study of evolution and speciation.

So... I shouldn't be complaining. It kind of connects me to the voyage of H.M.S Challenger (albeit in a tangential way). H.M.S Challenger was a three and a half year voyage circumnavigating the world that singularly pioneered the field of Oceanography. From 1874, the crew dredged, trawled, measured, counted anything that was relevant. Conditions were so dreary that more than half of the original crew went mad, died in freak accidents or from exotic tropical diseases, or deserted the ship. Even the ship's dog got pecked to death by penguins. So I guess, I'm having a walk in the park in comparison. I have Internet access, hot showers, hot food. What else can I ask for?

I am wondering if I am going to be the first Singaporean to visit the Chesterfields? Surely the Singapore Armada has passed by already.. first woman maybe? (They should put my mug up on campus banners instead of the Mount Everest Team.. kidding! :D) According to Pierre, there are many seabird rookeries on Chesterfields Island itself. Maybe I can go on shore (terra firma!) while I'm there for a good look around. Dodge bird shit and take some cool pictures. Crossing my fingers it is in the plan.

From the last trawl of the day, ladies and gentleman, A Neoglyphea sp. nov.! In case the implication is lost on some, it is the invertebrate equilvalent of a Latimeria. Ok.. Coelocanth! Wow. And Bertrand shall hereby go down in history as the first man ever to be attacked by a Neoglyphea. It is probably an honour.

*Gasp*

Could it be???

The tide has finally turned for the 'legendary' Joelle effect?!??!

It is early days yet...

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7 October (Location: Banc de Capel)

NOT. A. GOOD. DAY.

This is the first time since the beginning of the cruise that the seas were rough. The waves were sloshing all over the deck! Tried to eat breakfast but that soon came out soon after. Had to do a merlion. That was an ominous sign for things to come. All in all, I was sick eight times in 11 hours. One for every trawl!

At the beginning, I was trying to write it off the first few times, and every-time food came out, I ate again. Better to barf food out then just bile(!). Retching on an empty stomach is not good. For the rest of the day, I would go out to deck whenever there was sorting to be done. Once in the wet lab, I'd run to the loo, do a merlion with ease, and then go back out again packing. Standing on the deck looking at the horizon doesn't help at all. The waves were so rough that the boat bobbed so violently it was impossible to stand in one spot. And what if I fell over? I was already weak kneed from the light-headedness and retching. Last thing I need is drama from falling over board.

For lunch... I only managed two fries, some orange cordial - even that came out soon after too. There was no place on the boat I could be comfortable. Deck - no. Lab - no. The only alternative - I took to curling up in my bunk in between trawls. It didn't work so great. I was still sick but it made the waiting in between trawls all the more bearable.

For dinner, while everyone else was tucking in to something scrumptious (steak and spaghetti), I had three tablespoons of minestrone soup, half a can of coke and a sea sick pill. That knocked me out for 12 hours.

A wretched day..where I wish I were dead. A holiday, I hear you say, Alan? Come try it lah! Then tell me if you'd want to spend your holiday like me!


To be continued....