Second mooring recovered!

Our last activity on ‘Atlantis’ bank area was to recover the second ‘whale bones and wood logs’ mooring. The first one was on ‘Coral’ seamount and we recovered it at the beginning of the cruise (see blog post 20 Nov). Both were deployed during the previous expedition in 2009.

The local fauna seems to have enjoyed it a lot ...
It will be very interesting to identify the life - especially worms and shellfish - which have settled on the bones and logs, and compare them with what we have found on the first mooring at the same depth, on a different seamount and in different waters.

We were successful with the recovery of the second mooring and we can now start on our way back to land.
Port Elizabeth (or P.E. for the locals) is at 1550 nautical miles from here (1785 miles / 2780 km). We should arrive in P.E. early on the 21. Everyone is looking forward to going back home and enjoying Christmas and New Year’s Eve with our family and friends.