Time for a sponge bath ...

I struggled to choose a title for the blog today because I had two but I'm going with the sponges. This morning I watched the most gorgeous sunrise through my cabin's port  hole and then went up on deck for the start of the day. We were back in the shallows and had a fairly clean first catch. Then the West Coast fog descended! It really made me think back to my days in the air force at Langebaan when we could barely see the aircraft on the line.
A foggy day!
Our next catch was huge but mostly of sponges and urchins - it definitely was not a pretty sight and it was difficult to sort and we all got very frustrated as the senior scientific staff started snapping at each other about how to process everything. We would start following one set of instructions only to have them changed within minutes and then would start again. Fortunately they eventually came to an agreement on the best way forward and we got an apology for how things had happened and the catch was sorted out but it was with some trepidation that we waited for trawl number three to come up but it was fine and the rest of the day's catches were ok too. I did almost get bitten by a large hake today and didn't only  because the person next to me saw it open its mouth to latch onto my leg and I got out of the way in time. It really is just a matter of time though and something will bite me - most likely a monkfish though. The sneaky things have really horrific teeth, are covered in horrendous slime making them difficult to grip and play dead until I try getting them on the measuring board.

The sunset tonight was once again spectacular and we were all trying to watch it as the final trawl of the day came on deck. The last catch was, as usual, processed as quickly as possible and then a few of us ended the day with some very welcome G&Ts. And while I type this, I am nibbling on some exceptionally nice Norwegian chocolate, thanks Charles! What better way to end a day!


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