Since my last post, we have accomplished most of the prescribed work for this trip. It has been a great change of pace from the transit. The big buoy was launched by early afternoon on the tenth. While spectacular in its size (5m!), the launch was professionally uneventful. These guys really know what they’re doing!
After the big launch, we continued hydrographic surveys of the mooring sites. After the big deployment, every task seems smaller, but even the keyboards have to be cleaned, too (sorry – no action shot). We completed deployment of the first flanking mooring, and then the weather turned too sour to continue operations. Weather predictions showed all sorts of angry colors moving into the area, which translate into hurricane-force winds and general nastiness.
To avoid the worst of it, we sheltered off of the coast of Greenland for a couple of days. Although it caused a slight delay, this possibility had already been taken into consideration. The refuge also afforded us a beautiful view of the coastal mountains. We didn’t realize until later that we were thirty miles away and just seeing the tops. Imagine how big they must have been!
After the storm passed, we returned to our favorite patch of ocean to complete deployments and verification. I got to do a little personal project, too, which was rewarding.
When we recover the CTD after a cast, we must first attach tag lines to its frame. When it comes out of the water, it is about ten feet away from the side of the ship, and so we have to use long poles which hold special snap hooks. These let us get a handle on things without the CTD swinging close enough to the ship to bump. One of the nice features is that there is an insert in the end of the pole which is designed to keep the snap hook from rotating. Unfortunately, these were loose.
Luckily, this ship has a well-stocked machine shop and very friendly engineers. With a little guidance from the deck side (personally, I had just gone to grab a bigger hammer), I located some screws to replace the missing originals. The poles are all set and hopefully won’t frustrate anyone else with swinging snap hooks.