Sarah and Jan analyzing water samples

Czesc, Goddag!

Today was really windy, the sun was shining from the blue sky and it turned out to be a nice beginning to the busiest day of the camp to date.

After breakfast we spent 2 hours for investigating samples we collected the day before. Afterwards we needed to leave Sassnitz at exactly 11am, in order to get to Lauterbach, another nice port on the lovely island of Rügen, in time.

As we are divided into 5 different groups everybody used the two hours of investigations differently. Some worked with the jellyfish, others with fish and others again with titration research. Luckily, it all worked out almost perfectly and we were all satisfied with the results and our ability of being able to do the research so fast and precisely.

The idea of sailing in such windy conditions was not really appealing to everyone, as some people on the board have a tendency to fall seasick. However, the beginning of the cruise was pretty peaceful and we could all enjoy the sunshine on the deck after finishing up our research. We also had a unique opportunity to see a presentation by the scientist Christopher Honeff about harbour porpoise research. Later we watched video footage of the seafloor right under us, live, using the underwater camera taken along by visiting scientist being experts in macrophytes from Greifswald University. It has been observed that stones covering the seafloor provided habitat for different macroalgae species but the pure sandy bottoms had no vegetation.

After lunch the conditions got rougher and you could feel the boat moving a lot when we put up the mainsail (which by the way also resulted in a lot of bruises, cause we were flying around, working with the huge mainsail). The whole boat was tilted to one side, and the waves washed over the deck again and again. Almost everyone enjoyed the ride though, because if you just stayed on the deck, most people didn’t fall seasick, and it was almost like a rollercoaster ride.

Finally, we had to take down the sails before we arrived in lovely Lauterbach, and this is where we are right now, writing the blog, waiting for an amazing dinner. After dinner a relaxing and social evening is in mind, after a rough, tiring, but also nice and integrating day.

Julian and Sarah, the beasts (: