by Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA scientist and co-coordinator of MOSAiC

The big move-in today. People that will be leaving on Tryoshnikov officially moved over to their new home for the next days. Lots of hugging on Polarstern, and the Leg 4 team sang the MOSAiC song to the incoming people.  Then a progression of baskets being lifted over from one deck to the other, carrying all the people. A bit of chaos as people searched for their rooms, moving bags out of the rain. Smiling stewardesses waiting there to help get people headed in the right direction. As the cruise leader my room is way up on the top floor just below the bridge, with a nice office space and windows looking forward and to the port side. Quite a nice situation. I met with the captain for a social evening that also included the Polarstern captain. A nice dinner and some discussions to work out the last details for parting ways. It was nice to have this last meeting with captain Wunderlich as we’ve developed a very good connection over the past couple of months together and he’s played such a pivotal role in the arch of MOSAiC. He got us into a stable position with the ship next to the ice floe that enabled us to have a very successful and continuous Leg 4. So one last goodbye and handshake with the captain before he was lifted back to Polarstern. Now we have completed our turnover operations: the fueling, the cargo shuffle, the movement of people, the handover of knowledge that will be needed for this new group to carry forward. And on this side, the Leg 4 group settles in for an adventure of our own…. We will be collecting drifting assets that have been part of the MOSAiC distributed network before heading back to Germany.