It remains wet...

Last weekend we went snorkeling together with other VSRP (Visiting Research Program) interns - as mentioned last week, we were initially worried that the trip would be canceled due to the sandstorm. But on Saturday the weather was good again and we were able to go to Shaab Reef.

The underwater world was very colorful again :) Besides snorkeling, we also practiced a bit of freediving - it still works well even without much training ;-) You can especially see a significant improvement in Felix since our arrival ;-) → the performance increase was clearly visible!

Apart from that, this week was rather uneventful.. Most of the work was put on hold during the majority of the work week because the ICMERS (International Conference on the Marine Environment of the Red Sea) took place from Monday to Wednesday. The 'international' part might have been a bit exaggerated, as almost all of the speakers were KAUST members (but they are also very international ;-))

The conference statistics might mention a lot of other universities and institutes. But that's a bit misleading ;-)

So we mainly listened to what topics are being researched here - also a good insight or pointer for how things could progress.

(In the next few weeks, we want and will focus intensively on our applications here).

In addition, progress was made in setting up the shell experiment. In two weeks (insha' Allah) we will go to the field to 'collect' so that the experiment can finally start at the beginning of December. Unfortunately, the 24-hour trip for Felix's project has been postponed again - especially because it also goes overnight, there are plenty of bureaucratic hurdles to overcome :-/

Thursday was 'field trip' day again.
By now it even gets dark >_< when we leave the house for it.. (But I'm sure it's the same in Germany..)
The water is also getting 'colder'.. haha.. now it's almost 28°C ;-) But we can still switch to a (thin) wetsuit slowly. On long days like today, we are often in the water for several hours - eventually getting a bit chilly..

Today Felix had a lot to do and had to take care of the various sensors that log data here at several measurement stations:

So, there's not much more to report from this week - next week there will surely be more to tell :)

Until then, many greetings
Felix and Susann