Today was quite slow since we didn't come across any fishing boats until late in the day. The most thrilling thing that happened on my watch was a Russian merchant ship appearing on our radar. We made contact with it and asked if it had seen any fishing vessels but the guy on the radio said no. We continued along the edge of the banks and navigated north of the tail.
As tropical storm Franklin headed north it created a low in this area so we appear to have been caught in a spot of bad weather which has slowly deteriorated into force 6-7 winds with waves reaching several meters high. As I write this I can hear things crashing around in the mess and the galley. Woh! I nearly fell out of my seat. The captain just announced on the phone system that we are turning and so things could start to roll a little more. How much more is this ship going to move I wonder? Will I be lifted out of my bed this evening? Oooh, a big wave just smashed into the porthole of my cabin. Satu and I only closed it 10 minutes ago so that was close!
The ship and many of her crew have coped with weather much worse than this, but for some of us infrequent sea goers it's a little unnerving. The Espy frequently shakes and shudders as she writhes up and down every few seconds. I just ate dinner and am praying it stays down. Everyone is fine although some of us are starting to turn a colour, which matches the organisation.
Earlier this afternoon we spotted Atlantic white sided dolphins just as Flo, a boat driver from Germany, was telling me he wanted to see them. It was a very acrobatic display and I finally managed to get some nice pictures, but I wont bore you about dolphins again. The exciting news at the end of the afternoon was that we had radio contact with a new Spanish trawler, out of Vigo. It had been fishing Greenland halibut (a fishery, which is under a 15 year recovery plan) and was moving on to fish for shrimp and skates. The Flemish Cap (where we should be arriving shortly) shrimp fishery is the largest bottom trawl fishery in international waters. We met up with the trawler in the fog but the weather was too rough to launch a boat for a visit, so we exchanged information about the campaign over the radio and we are now heading north again.
