On 15 October, we departed Cape Town with a ship's complement of 114, 66 Sedco and 48 ODP. The technical staff consisted of 18 members. Four of the 18 technicians sailed for the first time on the JOIDES Resolution.
The transit to Hole 735B was hampered by strong winds and opposing current. The scheduled 7 day transit took 9 days. Drilling operations began on 24 October and ended on 2 December. The transit back to Cape Town took 7 days, thus, ending the leg on 9 December.
Port Call Activities Overview
The pacing item during this port call was Sedco's installation of radio
equipment. Offloading Leg 175's 8 km of core took 2 days and filled four
refrigerated containers. The process was smooth owing to the
uninterrupted use of the Sedco crane. Other port call activities were
routine and included loading of freight and supply distribution. Brad
Julson, Supervisor of Technical Support, conducted a joint meeting with
both technical crews and, later in the port call, met with a smaller group
to discuss drydock matters.
Transit Activities
We collected navigation data at 1-min intervals for the entire leg.
Bathymetry and magnetics data were collected on the transit from Cape
Town to Hole 735B.