En route

Captains Log: 26.22.856S/101.29.132E; Heading 125 towards the Dirk
Hartog Ridge. ETA - 1.5 days.
Trending roughly north to south, the Dirk Hartog Ridge is a series of
elevated, elongated seamounds that separates the eastern and western
Abyssal Plains. Like Batavia Knoll, little is known of this underwater
ridge, which rises 3km above its surroundings. Hypotheses include an
extinct spreading axis, the result of faulting or perhaps the end
product of an interaction between mantle plume rise and seafloor
spreading. Once we arrive, our usual ritual of grid bathymetry
swathing and dredging will commence.
Until then we continue to collect magnetic anomaly tracks. The
preliminary analysis of the data gathered so far has raised some very
interesting ideas, but further work will be needed to make any
substantial claims.
I have resumed a short exercise regime comprising mainly of the wind
friction static bike. Normally I would not be caught pedaling in a
gym, but the reality of being enclosed in a buoyant tub in the middle
of the ocean prevails. Since the treadmill has been put out of order,
and fitness balls just arent my thing, the bike is my only refuge.
Interestingly, while riding on the bike I am totally oblivious to the
rolling and pitching of the ship, I guess because these are normal
motions on a bike and my body expects them. Another torture device in
the so called General Lab is the rowing machine - it seems pretty
hilarious to be rowing in a room, on a ship, at sea.
0600a.m. the end of my shift is getting close. Excuse my musings.
The need for fresh air draws me to the weather deck,  teacup in hand.
Staring out across the dark choppy sea and a sky full of clouds, I
cant help noticing the vast expanse of nothingness above, while
remembering the intricate mysteries we are all trying to decipher
below. Hidden from the casual glance, the seas history is encapsulated
in the rocks and their physics. The movements in the earth, whose
timescale is near completely unfathomable by the human mind, all
packed and coded in a magnetic message from the deep.
Illuminating the virtual horizons of my thoughts are questions about
the evolution of life. Some have been answered, I am sure, others
perhaps still a void waiting to be filled. How did life evolve hand in
hand with the changing magnetism of the Earth? How did the drifting
continents fuel and extinguish different evolutionary routes? How is
it that life from virtually every kingdom come to rely on the changing
magnetic field? And what about us ? do we?