EEZ+6

Scarlet completed the 11 am surfacing, took Antonio’s waypoint from Tina in Antarctica, and headed off to the northeast. She is now 6 kilometers inside the Spanish Exclusive Economic Zone, otherwise known as the EEZ.  Currents are still strong but the direction continues to rotate counterclockwise - a good sign.  We hope this trend continues.  In the image below, the thin yellow arc now to our west is the offshore side of the Spanish EEZ.  The thin yellow line to our south is the border between the Spanish EEZ and the Portuguese EEZ.  The thin rectangles in the upper right hand corner are the shipping lanes.  Our mission now is to position Scarlet in a safe place for recovery.  The U.S. recovery team leaves New Jersey on Monday, November 30, and meets our Spanish counterparts in Vigo on December 1.

Antonio in the Canaries has won the competition for the first reported communication with Scarlet inside Spanish waters.  But the science team at Palmer Station in Antarctica wins the competition for the first reported celebration in honor of the crossing.  After Tina transferred Antonio’s waypoint to Scarlet and sent her on her way, she led the science team in a traditional Polar Plunge into the near zero degree centigrade waters of the Antarctic Ocean.  I know the water is near zero degrees because I checked the temperature being reported by RU25.

Scientist #1 (Tina) into the water:

Scientist #2:

And Scientist #3:

After the plunge, the traditional warm up in the hot tub.  Hats off to the Palmer Science Team for their game winning entry.