15 October 2023

Blog entry by Ilmar Liemann

After spending three and a half weeks at sea aboard the RV Maria S. Merian, it’s time for us to end our journey. The ship is now heading to Ponta Delgada, where the team will disembark and make their way back home.

This cruise wouldn’t have been what it was without the exceptional Cruise Leader, Christian Mertens from the University of Bremen, who was supported by Eleanor Frajka-Williams from the Universität Hamburg and Damien Desbruyeres from Ifremer. We want to extend our heartfelt thanks for creating a fantastic working environment, taking care of all the organisation, and handling everything behind the scenes that we may not have been aware of. It has been an absolute honour sailing with all of you.

We also want to express our immense gratitude to our blog contributors and Vikki Gunn, who supported us with the blog from the home base.

A special thank you goes out to Captain Ralf Schmidt, the officers, and the entire crew of the Maria S. Merian. None of this remarkable journey would have been possible without your dedicated hard work, and we hope to set sail together again in the near future. See you on the next expedition.