Since FMSW deals with positioning and the question: "where are we actually? In our luggage we carried a high vakuum, enclosed in a hollow steel ball. Branding zero with nothing as consequence of our studies. It was the idea about moving slowly towards zero. We had three weeks to observe the horizon and to concentrate on the project.
There we had to find a small but good and fast vessel which could bring us to point zero. That was not an easy affair, because good ships which are affordable are rare in West Africa. After a few days we checked out a vessel called "Tropic Sun", an oil rig supply vessel, which seemed to be the one and only.
After times of hard negotiations about the price, especially about the bunker issue, we had a horrible long week of waiting. Then we started on 14 June. Transcription of the log-book: h stand by eng. And tested nav. The zodiac was prepared and we began, accompanied by Kosina Mensah, to navigate by GPS to point zero exactly.
The "Tropic Sun" followed us. The current let us drift and the waves were quite heavy, so we had a long time crossing from northwest to southeast and southwest to northeast and so on. We plunged the high vacuum at this point. It sank quickly, to reach the ground it took almost 20 minutes m deep, the engineer who constructed the ball made the calculation. At the same time we scooped 25l gallons of zero water, which is now available as an edition. After that, we returned to the "Tropic Sun" and left home.
Sea 17th June h 11,5 kn, TC , gentle brize, cloudy wr and slight sea h 12kn, TC , gentle brize, fine wr, slight sea h 12,5 kn tc , moderate brize, sunny wr, mod sea The project was supported by DAAD, Germany and Kunstfonds Bonn, Germany. More and detailed information about the trip was published in a magazine, you can read it online, see here. All pictures.
