The Atlantic, that is. While we have yet to see the worst (forecasts predict the 13th), I am certainly impressed by this ocean. Having been mostly a Pacific sailor, I was looking forward to the opportunity to meet new people, learn new things, and explore new waters. As we head towards the southern tip of Greenland, the science party is busy preparing their moorings and packages. Some personnel check software, some calibrate, and others concern themselves with the physical hardware and deployment procedures.
In preparation for deployment, we first made a survey of the seafloor in the deployment region. This will be used to select a good site for this year, as well as the alternate site for next year. This particular mooring is expected to be maintained for 25 years, with crews swapping the mooring every year.
After the survey, we tested the acoustic releases by strapping them to our CTD cage, and lowering it to their equivalent depth. After a little bit of trial end error with the deck box, the releases were successfully triggered, and the CTD was returned to the surface.
Another important task accomplished during the release testing was the validation of our CTD settings. While the release test casts weren’t really looking for ocean data, they still allowed us to check things out. It was a good thing we did, too, because we immediately noticed an issue.
At about 50-60m into the downcast, the oxygen sensor started giving off-the-scale noise, with no discernable trend. Although we could not change enything until the cast was completed, we did speculate that either the cable (not so bad) or the housing (bigger deal) had failed. This hypotheseis was given strength when, upon recovering the unit, we noticed that the two housing pieces were rotating freely. Normally, these would be snugly sealed. It did not look good…
Fortunately, the casing was dry, and just a little bit of fouling was found around the connector pins. While we still swapped it out for our spare, it looked like it would be able to be used again. It will get serviced more thoroughly when we get back to WH. After replacing it, the spare worked fine, and the rest of the casts and the deployment went well. We even had some local whales stop by to take a look at the new buoy in their ocean. Hopefully this mooring, and others like it, will help us get a better understanding of their home.