We are back into the routine – and I could not be happier! The ritual of preparing the sub for launch before the sun comes up – and recovering it before dinner is an incredibly rewarding way to structure the day on a ship. The Alvin team is singularly lucky in that the entire team is awake and working during the same periods, as opposed to having different watches. On top of that, only diving during daylight hours allows us to have a relatively normal schedule. The Joye cruise is a very interesting mix of science and promises to be exciting and educational.