We're on the move again. Today we are leaving Horta and changing our focus from sperm whales to seamounts, the colossal mountains which rise over 1,000 metres from the seafloor - their peaks still far beneath the surface. They are oases of life. Often covered with ancient slow-growing cold-water coral reefs, nutrient rich currents swirl around their slopes feeding a huge variety of species. Here in the Azores we are sailing over the world's largest mountain range, which stretches up to Iceland. It is four times longer than the Andes, Rockies and Himalayas combined!

Thanks to the great work of Gavin, Berhard and Wolf, for the next two weeks we'll be able to explore a small part of it using our ROV (Remote Operated Vehicle) video camera and our 'drop-cam', which can go down as far as 800 metres in search of the exotic life we're hoping to discover. You can take a virtal tour of this astonishing world by visiting our Deep Sea Gallery.

We've also taken on a whole raft of new crew members and campaigners: most importantly Frank, our new Captain; Diek (3rd mate), Ilai (2nd cook), and Penny, Dorothee and Francesco, who are deckhands. We also welcome back Måns (3rd engineer), who sadly had to leave the ship last month following a death in his family. Former Captain Pete heads home to Cornwall in England (although he'll be back to lead another leg of the tour in three months or so). We also said adios to the lovely Celeste (2nd cook), Julie and Timo (deckhands).

On the campaign side we bid a fond farewell to scientists Russell and Adam, and to Liesbeth who did stirling work as campaign support. Replacing them for the seamounts work are Gui, Fernando and Filipe (all from the University of the Azores), geologist and ROV operator Wolf and press officer Laura. A new team for a new challenge - follow us and see what we can uncover!

- Joss