Mediterranean Sampling Season Starts

Sunday July 11th 2010

On Thursday July 8th Sorcerer II set sail from Valencia Spain to start the Mediterranean season. Permits vary from country to country, Italy gave us 10 days to collect our samples, so we had to time our departure from Spain to fit our 10 day sampling window in Italy. As we sailed to Italy we collected a sample in French waters from a long term research site important to French scientist.

Our planned route is to sail along the north coast of Italy into the Ligurian Sea and Gulf of Genoa, head down the the west coast, through the Strait of Messina around the boot and into the Adriatic Sea. The sample sites in Italy include, shallow thermal vents, seamounts, long term research sites and sites where large bodies of water collide and mix.Today we collected our first Italian sample between the Ligurian Sea and Gulf of Genoa then headed to anchor in a bay off Capraia Island for the night.

It has been only 3 nights at sea, but being anchored or docked is always better for a good nights sleep! Tonight we hope to watch the World Cup Final, which should be fun except we are not in Spain any longer!! Then it is an early rise to set sail down the west coast of Italy.