A full day today, as we head out from the mouth of the Pará River near Belém on a 10-hour run with sampling stations along the full length of the transect.
Brought here as always with perfect timing and positioning by Captain Rainer and crew, we start from a point just off the main village of the island of Colares (pop. 12,000, made famous because of the Colares UFO sightings of 1977), with a full complement of stations to perform starting at 09:45 local time. This will include the MUC, when we can be (reasonably) assured this time of finding some interesting samples. Photos to follow!
Foto: Mauro Ângelo/ Diário do Pará.
As we sailed upriver, it was interesting to see that the water is relatively green, even now, within 90 minutes of low tide; and in spite of the salinity declining as expected (map). This is quite a contrast with the M147 cruise in 2018, at high water (inset picture).
Local tides for today.
The weather has being kind to us so far, although the forecast is for lots of thunder and lightning. For the moment, however, we seem set for a profitable sampling run!