At the beginning of the cruise, in our first orientation and safety briefing, Captain Derek outlined the ship’s rules –one of which was No Crying. We failed here, as there were many tears born of laughter and humor, and all will be going home with good memories. Thanks go to each of the ships crew and our science team. Many graduate students were drafted by their advisors to take part in this journey, but there were many others that volunteered their time. Science at sea is a team effort, and everyone helped to make this a successful cruise. We had a first for ADEON on this cruise, thanks to our onboard artist Wendy Klemperer. Last afternoon, we had an art show that lined the walls outside the galley and down to the main lab. Wendy shared her works that included portraits of both the science and ship crew, biology caught in our nets, and many of the ship and science hardware.

So we’ve thrown the dock lines and have secured the R/V Armstrong back to the dock at WHOI. After living in very close quarters, eating meals together, telling and hearing stories, and all the other aspects that make ship-board life a unique experience, we are saying our goodbyes and the science crew is traveling back to their lives on land. We had a very good cruise and continued our streak of collecting wayward vessels aboard the Armstrong (we’re now up to 3: an autonomous sailboat in 2017 and a dinghy and glider on this trip). On behalf of the ADEON team, thanks to the Captain and crew of the RV Armstrong for a great trip. We had good weather and were able to complete nearly everything we had planned to do.