5th May 2003:

Home time!

At 8:30 we berthed at the small craft harbour in Richards Bay, and I packed all my gear and personal belongings away, securing those that were to be shipped to Grahamstown from Cape Town later on in the Ops Room, somewhat out of the way, and with the last of my packing tape, placed a band of tape around them to keep them from sliding or falling if things got rough. The rest of my gear was to travel back with me; Tony, Mike and I were travelling to Durban in a hired car, and somehow we fitted all our baggage in there. And ourselves.

2nd May 2003:

The sea was still very messy from the wind yesterday, with 3m swells and white horses; we are waiting to see if the sea will settle down, as the current conditions are too rough.

I am now back in Grahamstown, having disembarked from the Algoa yesterday morning, driven to Durban and flown to P.E. (amazing sunset all the way through the flight - a fitting "end" to the expedition!) and then driving to Grahamstown - quite a journey!

After the late night of a tissue culture crash course, and a bit of coelacanth tracking (complete with some amazing large flyingfish hunting and occasionally "flying" in the pool of light from the ship) from Algoa thrown in for good measure, I only awoke at about 9am this morning (1/5/03). Still somewhat dazed and not really awake, I headed to the stern of the vessel and found they were just about to launch Jago. Neil was missing his usual garb of wetsuit, traditional dress of a hookman (who releases and attaches the sub to the lines from the ship, crane and duck); Mike Roberts was suitably kitted up to take his place.

The wind has died down nicely overnight, leaving a small swell, but nothing we can't handle!

Mike, Marcel, Niel and I went for a dive this morning somewhere on the 2 mile reef complex, launching before the sun had even risen properly, to deploy a wave height recorder, a device that measures the waves passing over it by the pressure changes caused as the depth changes when a wave passes overhead.