18 July. On guard of the Ol’khon Gates

Rain was going all the night, singing us lullabies with drops knocking at the decks and shipboards. In the morning the overcast changed by cumulus. Sun broke through the clouds and designed coastal cliffs of Tageran steppes with fantastic tracery. Picturesque landscapes of the Ol’khon Gates caused joy to all members of our expedition all day long.

On the upper deck:

There was a big chance of bottom sampling work abortion. No joke when waves are 2 meters high (at least according to Captain)! Probably, because of it, little technical trouble was caused. It could be because the gravity core hit hard rock ground or because unpredictable wave jerk but the core catcher turned corrugation.

As usual the crew of RV “G.Yu. Vereshchagin” removed all problems. No doubt either in their competence or in expedition success!!!

That time Oleg Khlystov, Co-chief Scintist, made a fascinating excursion on the bridge of the ship.

After the robust lunch (cookhouse never made us regret) the wind abated and expedition members started working with new energy.

That day our training program was headed by graceful but serious geochemistry girls. This well-organized team was introducing other expedition members into their “kitchen”.

Sequence of traditional 8 sampling stations was followed by sampling with the small grab – typical instrument of marine biologists. Stepan was very glad if not to say that he was extremely happy. And even now, far after midnight, he can be found in his biological laboratory carefully studying own “yield” of the samples.

Friendly atmosphere onboard and our productive work is definitely an achievement of RV “Vereschagin” crew. All crew was invited this evening for the lecture. Today’s lecture was dedicated to scientific tasks of our expedition. The lecturers were Olesya Vidischeva and Ildal Mullabaev, students of the Faculty of Geology of the Moscow State University, the youngest researchers of our cruise.