Long night's journey into day

It's 4:04 a.m. EST, and THE BEAR IS IN THE IGLOO! That's COOL room jargon for the glider is safely aboard the ship. In this case, RU-27, aka Scarlet Knight, after 221 days at sea and 7,389 kilometers, is safe aboard the M/V Investigador, and on its way to Vigo.

2:09 p.m., EST: Now that we've all had some sleep, let me cut to the chase with this photo, taken about 4 a.m. our time today.



It shows the first mate of the M/V Investigadorbringing the Scarlet Knight back to the ship. Note the bio-fouling – brown algae and gooeseneck barnacles – it turned out. A little later, with Scarlet cleaned up, the crew and our scientists and technicians posed for this picture.