The third leg of the Pelican cruise in SAX99 was cut short due to high wind and wave height.
Summary of Pelican Leg 3 activity, Oct. 6-7:
1. After loading equipment during the morning of Oct. 6, the Pelican transited to Fort Walton Beach (FWB) in the afternoon. As we arrived, Steve Stanic in the CSS boat Mr. Offshore was just completing some acoustic measurements at and near the SAX99 site.
2. Two of the four Seward Johnson mooring were deployed during the evening of Oct. 6 (the NW and SE moorings), though the NW mooring needs to be moved to obtain its desired position.
3. By the morning of Oct. 7 the wave height had increased to 4-6 feet and the wind speed was at 18 knots. Rob Wheatcroft had been scheduled to shuttle out to the Pelican from shore after arriving the night before. Rob was shuttled out from Destin Harbor, though we were near the limit of sea conditions for such activity. Shortly afterward, with wave height forecast to increase to 9 feet, further work on mooring emplacement was scrubbed, and we headed back to CSS. The deployment of the Wheatcroft tripod and further chirp sonar work at the penetration sites also had to be scrubbed for this leg.
4. High wind and seas continued Oct. 8 but began to decrease on Saturday, Oct 9. The outlook for Oct. 10 and beyond looks sufficiently promising that we will transit back to FWB beginning at 2300 on Oct. 9. The plan for the 4th leg is given below. Detailed chirp sonar measurements at each acoustic penetration site using a bridle deployment will not be pursued.
5. Also this week the arrival of the Seward Johnson at CSS has firmed up for dawn on Wednesday, Oct. 13, later than the tentative schedule of late on the 11th.
Pelican Leg 4, Oct. 9-11
Personnel at beginning of Leg 4:
APL: Eric Thorsos, Darrell Jackson,
Le Olson, Eric Boget
UW: Jill Schmidt, Liko Self
UM: Pete Jumars
TRACOR: Van Holliday, Charles Greenlaw, Duncan McGehee
OSU: Rob Wheatcroft, Maziet Cheseby
Total: 12 (max is 13)
Oct. 9:
Load equipment for Holliday, Jumars/Schmidt/Self
.
2300: Begin transit to FWB.
Oct. 10:
0700-0900: Set 3rd mooring.
0900-0930: Dive for visibility check (Wheatcroft, Cheseby, Schmidt, Self).
0930-1100: Reset NW mooring.
1100-1200: Deploy Wheatcroft tripod.
1300-1400: Dive at tripod site (Wheatcroft, Cheseby).
1300-1500: Set 4th mooring.
1530: Shuttle Wheatcroft, Cheseby to shore. Shuttle Paul Aguilar to Pelican.
1530: DGPS at BAMS marker float .
1600-1700: Dive to locate and mark buried sphere (Olson, Boget).
1700-: DGPS at each mooring buoy.
Oct. 11: (Detailed plan in process)
Deploy TRACOR tower and TAPS units.
Buoy off TRACOR lines at edge of Seward Johnson area.
Evening: Transit to CSS if TRACOR deployment complete; otherwise continue deployment on 12th.