0217: I’m Back On Station
Mary Ann is down working away on boxes 5a/6a and all is well with her. I am hoping the sonar bottle change-out has an effect. We’ll know in the morning. We have the codend in and we’ll see if we come up with some cool new critters soon.

No news on the part front, it’s where we left it. I sincerely hope this is it; I am getting the vibe from what I hear Greg Packard and Andy Sherrell say on the topic, that we may get the replacement part soon. I will be riding herd hard on this from the start of the day ‘til the day is done. It’s 5:15 a.m. on the East Coast now. I hope to have good news for you when you wake.

0352: To Ted Waitt, Best Cases
Ted, I just did a fair amount of flight checking. In my estimation, the very best case for delivery into Tarawa is tomorrow noon (Thursday) and honestly, that is probably a couple hours optimistic. For our courier to make it to Honolulu today in time, she would have to be at the airport in Boston right now, and there is another meeting scheduled before this can happen. That meeting likely won’t take place for at least another couple hours.

Sorry, it ain’t good news but I figured you’d want to hear it. I’m up and won’t go back down again until all the answers are to you on this.

0941: From Mike Purcell RE: Replacement Parts
Right now, we have a hold on an early morning flight getting into Honolulu at 3:10 p.m. tomorrow. We have a possible Jet Blue through Las Vegas tonight, but cannot put a hold on it because it is Jet Blue.

0944: Regarding Last
Ted, this is the latest on the part. Right now, it’s impossible for them to make Tarawa today. If we can get that part off the East Coast today, you will have it tomorrow. More as soon as I hear it

1404: From Mike Purcell, More Delay
I have just been told the decision on the thruster is delayed until tomorrow morning. I am not sure yet how this will impact travel, but will try to get earliest flight possible if we get a favorable decision.

1416: RE: More Delay
It is now after close of business in the EST Zone. I hate to be the one to say this, but unless it’s in the air by 0900 tomorrow, we very likely won’t see the thruster until Friday. It’s 11 hours nonstop from Newark to Honolulu. It’s insane to suggest (and I’m not), but at this point we’ll get it faster if Steve Nielsen flies to Boston and picks it up.

Mary Ann brought back good data yesterday and is working well now, back up in an hour and straight back in. I guess I’m saying despite this, we are working and making data. It’s not like in ‘06 when we were getting nothing done. We’re still making data faster than then and covering ground. We’ll have 300 square miles done by the end of day 10. We’re coming into our high priority zone. Just want everyone to realize we could still find her tomorrow (knock wood).

1517: From Ted Waitt, RE: Dispatch, February 25, 2009
So, what is now best case, most likely case, and worst case in terms of the part being in Tarawa? Just literally drifting a bit out here, and would help me make a decision one way or another.

1753: Response To Ted Waitt
I would say best case is tomorrow evening if things happen fast tomorrow morning (which seems unlikely). Most likely, if we get approval tomorrow, it would be Thursday around noon. Worst case is sometime in the next couple days, or a part — as we are told by Woods Hole — will be ready by Wednesday.

2102: Days 8 & 9 (February 22 & 23)
Well folks, I apologize for not getting my report out as usual, but the last two days have mostly been filled with e-mails and phone calls, everyone running around to get a replacement thruster motor housing together to replace the one injured when Ginger was sucked under the stern. I realize not everyone got the full description of that one, but it was a limited distribution. I’m sure it will be declassified some day, but for now ask someone if they got it and will share.

Since the incident, we have initiated what I call the ‘Askari Protocol’. Get the part and get it out to Honolulu so the boss can fly it out in his jet where he will pick it up and run it out on his ship. The part will likely cost 100 times more than it should when you add up all the fuel, personnel, time and lost mission productivity.

In the meantime, we have been working very closely with our group leader, Mike Purcell, to get a replacement thruster assembly. This has gone up and up the chain of command, and now awaits a decision at the highest levels. During this effort, we have made arrangements to turn another thruster housing up so that we can use our parts and replacements for those damaged during the incident to re-build one should the loan fall through. As of this moment, a best case scenario has the part to Tarawa for pick up tomorrow — an eventuality that seems unlikely given the times to transport the part from the east coast to Honolulu and then get to Tarawa before the sun sets. A more likely scenario is the part arriving for pickup by Ted Waitt on Friday. If things don’t go this way, our contingencies will go into effect.

So, to the statistics. Yesterday, the 24th, we made two net tows with some critters recovered but nothing as exciting as the angler fish from the other day. The tows took place at 0100 and 2100 at varying depths. We’re not getting a lot of specimens, but we are gathering a lot of pertinent data that is gelling into a theory for the location of some of these species at various depths in the water column. Today we made a tow at 0130 and are now busy in the wetlab doing all the scut work of preserving and identifying the samples. From that effort, we have identified the angler from the other night. It is a known species: melanocetes johnsoni. We hope to tow again this evening if we can get caught up.

As to Mary Ann, she is working away with no issues. She was recovered at 1030 from her survey of boxes 5a/6a on the 24th and re-launched at 1401. At that time, we noticed we were getting some very hard reflection from the bottom, so her sonar bottles were changed out with Ginger’s in the hopes of dialing down the gains a bit. We have since come to find our primary analysis software, 20/20, is having trouble dealing with all the energy being reflected back from the extremely hard bottom we are seeing, almost solid rock. The analysts are working on this problem and have spoken to software engineers who developed the program. We have also put the data through the EdgeTech analysis software and found it deals with this issue a bit better. More importantly, it’s shown us we are not missing anything and just have a minor software problem that we anticipate a resolution on soon.

Mary Ann was recovered again just a few hours ago at 1410. There was again an issue with the recovery float which did not deploy. We put our new procedure into action and, although the procedure worked well as to keeping the vehicle away from the ships props, we could still not get the float to deploy. After multiple attempts at our plan b in getting the float to release, I requested we be allowed to implement my new and final solution, plan c.

Secret Weapon

When all else fails, we use a hands-on approach…

We deployed our secret weapon, Joe Lepore. Joe skinned down to his skivvies, put a screwdriver between his teeth and swam over to pop the float by hand. It was awesome.

When Mary Ann came out of the water we noted she had some strictly cosmetic scrapes on her nose; it appeared she had made contact with the bottom. There was no damage done to the vehicle, although the thinking is this was the reason the float did not properly deploy — she got bopped in the nose so her hat was jammed that much more tightly on her head. We have just now fine tuned her pencil beam radar to put her into avoidance mode at a farther distance from the obstacle.

Another reason that contributed to the collision, we think, is she had been flying a bit lower in order to test her camera. As you may recall we had an issue with the camera a few days back (I had actually forgotten about that with all the excitement lately). It looks like the fix worked, the camera worked very well. An added benefit to this is that we have images of the time around the collision. I have included two; one shows a rock ledge and this is a fairly scary picture. If the vehicle were to drive into such a cave and not be able to avoid an overhead obstruction and be captured, we would lose her. The other picture shows dust falling from where she had collided with the bottom. Again I point out, there appears to be no damage to the vehicle. One last note: Mary Ann was launched at 1644. That is a two and a half hour turnaround and the day team is to be commended for getting her back in the water so quickly.

We await a resolution first thing tomorrow regarding the replacement. I hope it happens. To that end, I’ll be going to bed soon so I can be awake when the East Coast rises. Cheers.

2221: From Ted Waitt, Tomorrow
What time tomorrow will we know whether we’re getting the part Friday or not? Assume there’s a cut off of some sort where that girl won’t make her flight? As I see it, there are three options:

Option 1: We get the part Friday in Tarawa, I head out there, arrive Sunday and leave Monday for Pago Pago. I’m giving this about a 25% chance of happening.

Option 2: We get the part early next week. If we don’t get the part by Monday, I can’t make it out there and back so I’m stuck in Tarawa if I want to fly the part in. Or, I bail and you gotta find another way to get the part to Tarawa. My ship is there to run out to you anyway. I’m giving this about 25% chance.

Option 3: We don’t get the part, so we’re stuck with the delayed machined part. In which case, there’s no reason for me to stick around either. I can leave the ship in Tarawa, or send to Pago Pago. I’m giving this about 50% probability. You gotta get the part to Pago Pago or Tarawa, and the ship runs to the site.

I’m five days from Pago Pago now and 17 hrs from Tarawa. Which is better to get the part to, or is it the same?

0619: Response To Ted Waitt, Tomorrow
I’d say this is an excellent assessment. By 6 a.m., we should know what the next couple days hold. I think if we don’t have a yes or no on that part by close of business today, it’s all over for that idea. If it’s a no go, then it’s Monday or Tuesday at the earliest. If you want to be out of here before then, we might as well shift the whole thing to Pago if you plan to go there anyway.

I guarantee you will prefer Pago to Tarawa for a departure, and it’s easier for us to get stuff into there. As well, there is essentially no air service into Tarawa. There is food and decent fuel in Pago for the ship. I think the best path would then be to get everything gathered on the West Coast and have one of our people run it out. We could ship, but that is a great way to lose it for another three days. If it doesn’t clear customs, we lose it over the weekend. So I propose we have it all gathered up in time to make the Wednesday flight to Honolulu from the West Coast, and from there to Pago on Thursday night.

I am looking into other scenarios. The Woods Hole part would be done by then too, but if there’s any delay on their part they will miss the Thursday flight to Pago. Other paths I am checking are alternate routes to Pago (which would pretty much mean flying someone to Australia or New Zealand I think) and shipping it, which has its downsides. The word on the island we got when we scouted is it could take three weeks to FedEx or DHL. For some reason, they send that stuff to Australia or New Zealand first. This part of the world can be a pain.

I hope to have all this settled by the time you wake today.