These are the voyages...

"25th July
The raging seas and howling winds have confined all crew below decks. I lie huddled in my bunk, listening to the various crashes and thuds as everything not secured goes tumbling about. The smell of cooking drifts past every now and again, but as curious as I am, I do not think my stomach is ready to investigate how the cook is preparing anything under these conditions."

"1st August
Supplies are running low and crew morale is starting to show some signs of wear. It has been a difficult and trying expedition, though I daresay our labors have proven fruitful.  The barometer is dropping like a stone, and those that know say that we may be headed back to port sooner than anticipated. The message is treated with cautious joy; I do admit the prospect of a meal without boiled potatoes is one I rather look forward to."

Extracts from a really bad sea-exploration novel? Not quite. Rather the rambled musings of an exhausted scientist halfway through a midnight-to-8am shift, shivering on the back deck of a research vessel watching the winch spool out and hoping that the friggin sediment grab will actually GRAB some sediment this time.

If nothing else it fills me with pure admiration for those voyagers who set out to explore the vast oceans a few hundred years ago. These days we set out armed with with nothing but satellite communications, global positioning systems, desalinization plants and a whole array of other safety equipment.

But some things remain eternal: the sight of endless waters racing past, the tang of salt-air and oil, the camaraderie and pet-hates that define the relationships in such a closed environment. And oh, yes, the seabirds bobbing along a drifting vessel - they must've thought we were the worst fishermen ever! But we were not fishing for, ahaha, fish. We were there to plumb the depths of the ocean floor, sifting through bucketfuls of mud and sand finding everything from fossilized jawbones to brightly colored worms and so much more.

Though the vessels themselves may have changed in shape and capability, the human need to explore remains untouched by time. Who knows; a couple of hundred years from now the diary entries of a star-explorer may ready quite similar to those of all explorers past and present.