17:04 GMT 63 11 s, 61 46 w, sunny with rolling seas, 0.9 C

After a long night we are underway north. We are collecting multi beam sea floor mapping on the way back and are paralleling the course taken by the ship on it's way back from the last curise. It is something to see the countours line up on the screen as the computer combines data from 3 weeks ago with that being collected now.

Lab equipment is being taken apart and being repacked in boxes for shiping home. All the samples are inventoried and volumes calculated to build shipping containers. The cores will go to Florida Stste University which is the repository for all Antarctic cores. Small sub samples will be carried back with us as checked luggage. The computer suport people are busy downloading all the data collected and burning it to CD's as well as printing composite maps of our course, sample points and sea bottom topography.

The ship will be in port for 4 days before heading back to Antarctica with another set of scientists. Cannot say enough about the crew and technical support people on the ship. They have gone out of there way to see that the trip was a complete success.

Will keep you informed on how the passage is progressing.

Cheers,
Dave