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MISSION DISPATCH 2 • 4/17/01 Today's Weather - images courtesy of NOAA & RSMAS 1630 - Departure From Fort Pierce Fuel Dock I finished culling and processing yesterday's digital imagery and got the Day 1 mission dispatch into the R/V SEWARD JOHNSON'S email hopper at about 0400 this morning. The dispatch, and the rest of the ship's email load for the day will remain in the onboard email server until Marine Technician Allison Heater flicks a magic switch at 0900 to transmit the data via satellite to land-based servers. I made it into my bunk by 0430, and quickly lapsed into two glorious hours of unconsciousness, vaguely recalling that the ship was scheduled to depart from the Fort Pierce fueling dock at 0630. 
I drew the upper berth; my bunk mate Jimmy Nelson of HBOI Marine Operations had already laid
unspoken yet universally understood claim to the lower bunk by spreading his ship issue blue
blanket out on the bed before I arrived on board yesterday. But the lower bunk remained
empty last night, as Jimmy opted to spend one last night onshore with his family before we put
to sea. At 0633 (according to the blurry L.E.D. readout at my head), I heard the sounds of an
opening door, a duffel bag hitting the lower bunk, and a quick exit as Jimmy caught up with Chief
Mission Scientist Dr. Marsh Youngbluth to begin the day's activities.
The engines, which had been "quietly" idling all night, change pitch as the ship leaves the dock and heads out to sea through the Fort Pierce Inlet. I turn over and steal an extra thirty minutes of oblivion. My mistake. If I was still half-asleep when I got in the shower at 0700, I was wide-eyed indeed when the liquid ice hit my body. I'll be up at 0630 tomorrow; the promise of hot water is a powerful inducement against hitting the snooze button on the alarm clock. 0730 - Final Pre-dive preparations The back deck is a collection of little tornadoes of activity. Marsh and HBOI Engineering's Chris Tietze are focused on a set of acrylic and aluminum detritus samplers, custom-fabricated by Tietze for the JSL's, fitting them to a rack at the front of the sub. Jimmy Nelson crawls about on top of the vehicle, getting a suction sampler and associated revolving carousel array of collectors up and running. Senior Sub Pilot Phil Santos and Chief Sub Pilot Don Liberatore 
go up and down the ladder and into the sphere a half-dozen times in a ten minute period, flicking
switches, connecting wires, and getting their sub ready for launch.
Standing at a workbench located next to the engine room door, crew member Ben Chiong fills a set of canister filters with an adsorbent granular medium. It is designed to scrub carbon dioxide from the air in the sub, allowing it to be recirculated with the addition of oxygen bled in from cylinders mounted on the outside of the sub. "Life support," he tells me matter-of-factly, not looking up from his task. The medium is replaced after every 10 hours of diving. If the scientists get in all the dives they hope to this week, Ben will keep busy. The dives today are planned as test or shakedown dives with the pilots and crew, and the systems engineers who designed and built much of it. The first dive of the day, Dive #4277, is slated for an 1100 launch. 1300 - Dive #4277 The JSL I is launched two hours later than planned. There have been a few minor snags, including a couple of leaky detritus samplers that Marsh and Chris will be able to replace or refit with minimal trouble and the newly installed high-resolution 
video camera and housing needs some minor adjustments.
The submersible is launched at 1301, at navigational coordinates 27°36.5773'N and 079°50.1076'W. The personnel include chief pilot Don Liberatore and Chris Tietze in the sphere, and Ben Chiong and Jimmy Nelson in the rear chamber. The sub will remain at midwater depths for most of the dive, attaining a maximum depth of 915 feet. The JSL makes the surface at 1414. Although the maiden dive of the mission is short, it reveals a couple of details to be addressed. Two HMI's -- metal halide vapor lights -- located on the sub's boom arm and on the arc light fixture need to be repaired or replaced. 1600 - One More Time... A second dive is slated for 1600, but the anticipated launch time comes and goes. The Sub Crew and the shipboard engineers are seasoned veterans in the fine art of refitting the JSL's to accommodate the particular needs of the scientists who use it, but each task takes time. The Science Team disperses to occupy themselves at other small chores. I pour a cup of coffee and power up the laptop at an empty dining hall table. 
As I write, I overhear Chief Engineer Stewart Moreaux ask First Mate Robbie Shakespeare if he
can shut down one of the vessel's three generators to check oil levels and do a little maintenance.
Robbie responds in the negative, noting that the second dive of the day was being prepped for
launch.
"We need to get on a schedule, because I can't run all three generators 24 hours a day," comes Stewart's reply. Short the brogue, the tone was strangely reminiscent of Scotty's trademark "Ah'm given' her all she's got, she canno' take any more!" Outside on the rear deck, Allison Heater and fellow Marine Technician Beth Stauffer begin to rig the MOCNESS -- short for 'Multiple Opening/Closing Net Environmental Sensing System.' Starting tomorrow, the scientists will tow the rig through the water to capture midwater zooplankton, including (we hope) appendicularians. Knowing how delicate the appendicularians and their feeding houses are, I comment to Beth and Allison that I suspect its use is included in the cruise itinerary simply to demonstrate to the world that in situ observation and submersible-based collection is, of course, a vastly superior research method. 
Dive #4278 launches at 1750, at navigational coordinates 27°35.1746'N, 080°03.7889'W. Don is
piloting, and sub Crewman Dan Boggess is the observer in the sphere. Chiong shares the aft
compartment with Beth Stauffer. The dive is shallow (105 feet), lasting only 30 minutes.
Some progress is made, but there is still some tweeking to be done before tomorrow. After a quick dinner, the Sub
Crew resumes work on the vehicle.
About five minutes prior to the sub's surfacing, a pod of dolphins swam in to check us out. I grabbed up the video camera, but made sure to ask the planktocentric Science Team members if ogling the megafauna was permissible. Dr. Russell Hopcroft begrudgingly granted permission, but for only thirty seconds. Okay, I admit that I lingered a while longer. 1930 - Déjà vu? 
Marsh has called a
Science Team meeting to prioritize project goals and to hash out the sampling
protocols. The discussion bounces between multiple agenda items. In what order should various
data be collected from the sub sphere? How should samples be preserved for later chemical analysis?
How much can the delicate appendicularian houses be roughed up before they are destroyed? How can
the team maximize its productivity within the narrow timeframe of the mission?
One logistical difficulty is when to conduct the MOCNESS tows. The ambitious schedule of 2-3 sub dives per day leaves little room for net tows between dives. Conducting tows would take the ship time away from the critical task of making dives, maintaining position and providing surface support for sub ops. 
Happenstance and the events of the day force the R/V SEWARD JOHNSON to alter its cruise plan.
Sub Crew deliberations lead to the conclusion that the best way to get the JSL I up to 100%
productivity is to send a contingent back to HBOI to round up some additional components -- including
some from the sister JSL II sitting back home on the dock.
As a handful of crew members seize on an unexpected evening ashore, Marsh returns to the Science Team meeting to apprise everyone of the situation and formulate a battle plan in anticipation of a potential lost day of sub dives. It is decided that, by default, the earlier dilemma of when and how to squeeze in the MOCNESS tows now presents itself as an attainable field objective for tomorrow. 2230 - Lights, Camera... 
Two frustrating days of trying to get Dr. Per Flood's PAL (European) video equipment to play
nice with our NTSC format is starting to convince me that there
are always unanticipated challenges to overcome with international collaborative science missions. Yesterday, we
tried to dub tape between these formats, but reluctantly came to the conclusion that it wasn't
going to happen. A couple of hours ago we tried to get a PAL signal into my Macintosh laptop,
finally with satisfactory results.
Packing in the video for the night, I switch gears to get this dispatch together. I was heartened to step out on the open back deck and find the seemingly tireless Sub Crew working into the night on the JSL I. We'll be diving before too long. Tomorrow's EDT from Fort Pierce is 0730. I hope you are curious about what the new day will hold. Stay tuned... This expedition is made possible through a grant from the Biological Oceanography Program of the National Science Foundation with additional support from Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution.  | |
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