We boarded the ship this morning. Scientists arrived at different times throughout the day. Since the icebreaker was anchored in the middle of the fjord and not at the harbour we are brought here with the “Skidblander”, Oden’s small tender boat. That’s actually quite nice – being on a moving boat, all dressed up in our SWERUS-C3 jackets and life vest! It gave us already a bit more of an expedition feeling than just boarding the ship at the harbour!

Today, there is not much of a program, but still everybody is kind of busy – saying hello and catching up with the co-workers they know, finding their cabin and meeting their roommates, deciding who gets which bed, unpacking clothes and some last pieces of scientific equipment. All in all, getting settled in our new home for the coming 45 days. Then it’s exploring time – some haven’t been on the ship before and are trying to find their way or are shown around by their more experienced co-workers. Meanwhile, others headed directly to the labs, nervously checking whether their instruments are still in good shape after the transit from Helsingborg.

Besides that, we are getting ready to “disconnect from civilization” – long phone calls to family and friends are made, last emails written and absence notification activated. Some people frantically download the last items to their computers – a scientific paper, some music or an e-book. Some of us are watching the last two matches of the soccer world championship (at least for us, we won’t be able to see the rest once we leave Tromsö). So there is a little bit of protest, mainly from the German fraction, when our first meeting is scheduled halfway through the game Germany vs. France. But no goals are missed, and the introduction into “living on board” given by the captain is both informative and entertaining. We learned about some big and small issues for working on a ship and sharing such a confined space: safety, medical care, mealtimes, garbage handling, where and how to do your laundry, how to avoid accidentally triggering the fire alarm and many others. In the end, everyone gets a personal phone to use on board – after all, it’s a big ship and you might spend quite some time looking for someone!

After that, meetings within the individual workgroups are scheduled for the next day, and then some went to bed early, to recover from their long journey here and to save strength for the days to follow. Others (like me) sleep late – partly because of the excitement and partly because it doesn’t get dark – well, I guess we will get used to both!