Happy New Year!

31 December

Dear family, friends and followers!
Happy 2017 to you from the middle of the Indian Ocean. Wishing you all the best in the upcoming year!

We are currently anchored near Possession island of the Crozet Archipelago. We were planning to have a full day of island work, but the winds picked up in the morning. We now have a ship full of land scientists unable to land and do any work. Ocean teams are supposed to have a break.
My colleague Jenny is using this downtown to make measurements with a MICROCAT to calibrate our underway and CTD instruments. I am using this break to finish programming all my snow instruments. So all in all it is not as much of a break for us, more like a change of pace. Jenny said that she saw many penguins and sea lions while doing measurements from the small inflatable boat Zodiac. I hope I will get to go on Zodiac too!
Of course it would have been nice to go on an island, but strong winds and no special visa makes this trip double impossible. Oh.

New year celebrations are coming up and I am very much looking forward to them. Especially celebrating with a Russian crew - New Years is the biggest holiday in Russia, so I am excited. I think I will wear my fancy red dress for the occasion :).