0732: From Bill Baxley
I called the agent and they said you had already been there to sign some paperwork and it was all set. I also finally got through to the boat and spoke to Steve Dabagian and then Andy Sherrell, and they said you were out at the agent.

I’m glad everything worked out; it was just really frustrating to call the boat and get an answering machine message. Have fun tonight, and good luck with everything. Call if you need something and again, I will try and call you back.

This view from the back of the ship shows part of the main street running through Pago Pago. One of our agents on the island has an office located in the lower right hand corner.

THE TEAM ARRIVES IN AMERICAN SAMOA

2010: All On Pace
The team has all arrived in Samoa, no missing luggage and no other travel-related difficulties. The ship is rafted up on the main dock in town between fishing boats, all good. We also have a cruise ship in town so there’s a lot of activity around the port area. Lee Frey and I just met with the section heads and discussed non-disclosure agreements (NDA’s) and film releases.

We have an ‘all hands’ meeting scheduled for tomorrow morning to get those signed off. We are also re-assembling the hydraulics and getting the vehicles readied for trials. I discussed getting the ship out of town a day early with Lee, but this will not be possible since we have a major food shipment arriving Monday morning.

There is one important shipment missing that we are tracking. No need to panic yet, but they are mission critical items - the sonar junction bottles. We have multiple queries in and plan to follow up tomorrow morning (no answers from anyone on the East Coast this late). BlackBerry® phone isn’t working at all, not even onboard ship, and this is being looked into. I will be here for 20 minutes after sending this, and then I have a meeting with the lead archeologist on the island.

Ted (Waitt), the information you sent today is being looked at by Andy and Greg Packard for recommendations. We will get you some responses first thing tomorrow.

In general, morale is high and everyone is glad to see each other again, but there is a frenzy of activity going on. Lots to do. We plan to have a dinner party tomorrow night to give everyone a chance to get caught up. We’re putting finishing touches on security issues, lockout and other team-related stuff that Lee and I are going to discuss tomorrow at the ‘all hands’ meeting. A good day and still going strong.

This is the opposite view from Pago Pago, looking out to where the Seward Johnson is tied up to the main pier.

1524: Daily Update
Everything is going well, the teams have the back deck pretty much put back together and the vehicles are being prepped on the dock for wet tests off the ship tomorrow. We are still looking for two critical shipments that are absolutely ‘must-haves’; we are told they are on the island but so far we haven’t tracked them down. I think we will get them in our possession in time to sail, although Greg Packard, Lee Frey and I are a tad tense about this.

We had an ‘all hands’ meeting today and discussed the security arrangements and the individual non-disclosure agreements (NDA’s), salvage waivers and film releases. I’d say that meeting went exceptionally well and there were very few grumblings about our proposal to shut down all communications if successful with the mission. Everyone has signed their paperwork and Liz Smith will hand carry that back to the office. As well, the contractors all signed new agreements, so no worries. The only issue about the NDA’s is that one of the scientists plans to take pictures of species he brings up in his net and share them with a colleague on the beach. We are going to get that colleague to sign an NDA and the scientist on the ship will request permission to share any photos. I think this is no problem. Lee Frey and I will address this with our attorney and Dominique Rissolo on Monday.

Why Pago Pago?

Why we based operations in American Samoa

We are heading off to the local paddler’s club in a little bit for an Umu Feast (local foods prepared in earthen ovens). I’d say morale is very high, everyone is ready to go and extremely positive about our goals. The weather is hot and muggy with the occasional bit of rain but it’s made bearable by a middling breeze. We are certainly attracting attention from the locals but our science plan is satisfying all questions. We are on schedule to depart as soon as provisions are on board Monday morning, assuming we have tracked down our boxes.

Every single person on board has extended their thanks to you, Ted (Waitt) for the gift bags holding a safari shirt, water bottle, hat and t-shirt. We’re looking good so far for a successful start on the dates as planned. Confidence is high.

1554: Fw: Lau Eruption Site Survey
Greg likes the idea of this lava vent place for our trials. It’s a one-day run, actually not that far off our path. It puts us in the same starting place for the run to our grounds, just on a different longitude. They are looking at a plan. We don’t really want to ask the scientists what they want because that will turn into a laundry list. They’re working the numbers and the maps right now and we will have a possible plan for you tomorrow some time. Greg’s enthusiasm about it is infectious.

The Pago Pago Yacht Club is home to the island's outrigger canoe teams. Within walking distance of our berth when in town, the Yacht Club is our unofficial headquarters when ashore in American Samoa.

2140: Talofa! (‘Hello!’ in Samoan)
Well, I’ve made my escape from the Umu Feast. Good time, traditional food served on palm frond plates on the deck of the club right on the water. Don’t think I’ll be looking around San Diego anytime soon for breadfruit, but the rest of the food was pretty good and the team loved the whole scene. About half the guys are wearing lava lavas (the traditional Polynesian men’s skirt) and still cavorting with the locals.

I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere in the world where the people are so welcoming and friendly. This isn’t the prettiest spot in the world, but the way the people live and their society certainly makes it one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. It’s truly amazing. I’m sitting next to a guy who weighs 350 pounds with arms like oak trees, tattoos all over his body and a face like a Maori war mask, thinking to myself this guy could rip me in half, when he turns and starts up the most pleasant, friendly and soft-spoken conversation.

After our team finished eating, I fed everyone else in the joint and you’d think I bought them new cars. We’ve made some friends here for sure, and I think we will always be welcome. These people remember their friends and take care of them.

The team loads their palm frond plates with local food during an Umu Feast hosted by the Yacht Club and sponsored by Waitt Institute founder and President Ted Waitt.

It was a very positive way to get the team together and get some local culture into the team, although it doesn’t seem like they need much help. There are already four Samoan tattoos on crew members (thinking about one myself when we’re done). Again, literally every person who was there sends their thanks along, Ted. They’re all looking forward to meeting you.

Alright, it’s early but I’m wiped, gonna let them rage tonight and get ‘em back at it before the sun gets too hot tomorrow. More tomorrow on potential plans for shakedowns. Cheers!

2200: Ted Waitt’s Response
Dessner, is that really you? You left the party early? Just want to make sure somebody didn’t knock the real Dessner out and bring in an imposter.

American Samoa

1003: Lee Frey To Ted Waitt
Mr. Waitt,

Related to the proposed survey of the Lau eruption site, we have prepared a brief two-page summary of what we feel we would be capable of achieving if we diverted to the site. We are certain that the scientific community would desire a more comprehensive study, but this is what we feel would be reasonable given the situation. Follow-on work would be possible in the future, of course. Regarding time, the diversion would mean a two to three day loss of survey time at the Howland site on Leg 1. Regarding funding, we believe there may be financial support available from several agencies on existing programs including NSF, CORE, NOAA OE, R2K, etc. So, it would be worthwhile to inquire with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) to see if there could be some contribution to offset the daily costs associated with the Lau survey. Please review the attached summary. We look forward to your response.

Regards,
Lee Frey

Lau Eruption Site Survey
Initial Best Effort Survey from Onboard Technical Staff
Proposed to T. Waitt (WID)

Descriptive:
Active underwater volcanic activity has recently been discovered along the North Lau Spreading Center (NLSC). The discovery has prompted an announcement to the oceanographic community to search for available resources and time to further investigate the site.

The R/V Seward Johnson is currently (08 Feb) in port in Pago Pago, American Samoa. The ship is equipped with two REMUS 6000 autonomous vehicles being prepared to support other survey activities in the region. The ship is currently scheduled to depart port on 09 Feb to support these activities. The NLSC site is a one-day steam from Pago Pago. This document is provided to outline a scenario that would enable the R/V Seward Johnson and its onboard technical staff to perform a timely and meaningful survey of the area.

Proposed Survey:
A limited survey of the NLSC area will be performed with the two AUV’s in their current survey configuration.

Figure 1: Proposed 2km x 6km survey area. (Initial image provided by of R. Embley - NOAA via Resing, J. et al)

It is proposed to survey a 2 x 6 kilometer area centered over the axis of the ridge between the Maka and Tafu mounds. The vehicle will be equipped with a dual (non-simultaneous) 75/410 kHz side scan sonar unit, SBE CT sensor and a Wetlabs backscatter sensor. The vehicle is also equipped with an electronic still camera. The capability to image using the camera system will be limited to areas of benign bathymetry. The survey of this area will be performed at 250 meter track line separation, 600 meter sonar range and 60 meters of vehicle altitude. This box may be expanded and/or the survey resolution adjusted in order to meet vehicle operational obligations.

The survey plan proposed was derived from onboard staff as a starting point. Factors taken into account are the vehicle capabilities and meshing the survey objectives with current onboard technical objectives pertaining to the vehicles, time and funds. The area picked was based on our opinion that it was an area of high interest from a science point of view.

The NLSC bathymetry represents that which is typical in certain areas of the Pacific.

Schedule:
The survey mission would be performed as part of the initial vehicle systems check. Minimum operational tasks will include a CTD cast, deployment of long baseline transponders and two vehicle sorties. The completion of these two surveys and review of the data sets will determine moving on to the next phase of the current vehicle work.

Based on current in-port preparations, the following schedule is proposed:
09 Feb Monday. 1800 RVSJ Departs Pago Pago
10 Feb Tuesday. 1800 RVSJ Arrives NLSC Site
1800 - 2000 CTD Cast
2000 - 2300 Deployment and Survey of Transponders
11 Feb Weds. 0000-2400 Vehicle Survey Time. Three Vehicle Sorties
12 Feb Thurs. 0000-0200 Recover Gear at NLSC Site. Underway. Impact to current schedule reflects up to a three-day loss of survey time from ship’s current objectives.

Additional Capabilities:
Additional survey capabilities exist within the vehicle and shipboard systems. These capabilities include high resolution vehicle multibeam systems and shipboard CTD system. Use of these sensors requires expanded vehicle configuration efforts or additional shipboard time on site that would need to be discussed.

Cost Discussions:
The further timely investigation of this site is of great interest to the scientific community. Response funding for efforts like this is available through consortium offices housed at research institutions. This proposed effort will need to be reviewed by them to make sure it is in concert with their needs.

A specific point of contact to solicit these funds (assurance of their availability) is actively being sought. An individual who can attest to the availability of these funds and provide guidance is the WHOI Director of Research.

1117: To Ted Waitt, Lau Eruption Site Survey
Earlier this morning, Dave Gallo asked me where we were with this work. I told him we’d get back to him, but I leave that to you or Dominique Rissolo, depending on what you think about this. Also, I’m sure Dom is right in his message of last night about checking with the scientists who are interested.

The biologist is getting his net ready to try and take biologic samples when the girls (AUVs) are down, too. I’d say the crew feels pretty confident that it’s a good piece of work and gives us the chance to see how the pencil beam avoidance is doing. Also, as I mentioned yesterday, Steve Dabagian thinks the chances of damage are slim at 60 to 70 meters altitude (although there’s certainly some risk, I don’t know much about that stuff but an underwater pyroclastic blowout couldn’t be good on them; like flying a plane over Mount St. Helens during an eruption I would think). There’s also a negative cost to our overall mission time-wise, but not having any idea on the funding that might come our way from this, I don’t know what the cost/benefit analysis is on it. It’s your call.

Right now, the latest is that we get our boxes at midnight. If that happens and the testing of the machines dockside goes okay (need the bottles for it), we’ll be ready for an on-time 9 a.m. departure tomorrow. Delay in boxes or problems with testing will push us back the amount of time they take up in resolution.

One Last Test

Testing a vehicle after the long voyage to American Samoa

To run the vehicles at dock, they are lowered into the water by the LARS and tied off behind the ship. Here, Deck Safety Officer/AUV Operator Joe Lepore recovers the line needed to tie off the AUV.

1717: To Ted Waitt, Don’t Mean To Pester You
But sometime in the next 18 hours, we are going to need to know what you think about the Tau site. We were unable to get any numbers on any of the local WWII planes, so we’ll just look for a nice flat bottom nearby to test if not on that other site. Cheers.

1731: Response From Ted Waitt
I’d say we proceed as planned unless we secure funding. We will consider between Legs 1 and 2, or after 2, as a possibility. We’re already behind schedule and over budget for our primary mission and we haven’t started yet.

2057: Slight Delay
We have been informed by our agent that although our mission critical boxes are on the island, the earliest we will be able to get them from customs is 8 a.m. tomorrow morning. We are going to need eight to 10 hours dockside after receiving them for testing. This will necessitate a delay of our departure until tomorrow afternoon or evening.

0936: We Have Received Our Mission-Critical Boxes
All intact. Current departure time is 1800 local.

2057: To Bill Baxley
Dude, totally cool. No worries bro.

Bill Baxley, our CATALYST 2 Project Manager from Harbor Branch (HBOI), is one of our critical shore-based logistics and expediting experts. His role in spinning up the entire mission is invaluable.

0650: Hopefully On Our Way Soon
A few issues with the vehicles (AUVs) yesterday have been worked on through the night and seem not to be too serious. As I understand it, the camera on Ginger has a problem with knowing how often it is firing, but even so is still taking pictures. We hope this is a software issue, although Greg Packard is still working on it.

That vehicle also had a fault with the EdgeTech sonar in the water last night that we could not replicate on the bench (and the housings were dry when opened, not the first time this has happened). From my discussions with Andy Sherrell, this is a tough thing to troubleshoot. In essence, it sounds like we drive on until the issue either re-presents itself or something fails more definitively. The new software that was written for the vehicles (this is the “backbone” software for the entire system) is also being worked on at this time.

This was a new development to me, since I had not been informed this had even been done. Something of a scary proposition it seems to me, but then we can always run with the old software if need be. Bottom line, although we still have some issues, there is nothing presenting that needs to keep us tied to the dock so we will very likely depart within the next hour or so. We all want to get the heck out of here and get to work.

Lots of tying down to do, so I will touch base later. The plan is to head about 20 kilometers offshore to some benign bottom, drop a couple Deep Ocean Transponders (DOTs) and then get both vehicles wet. More after a bit.

0753: Re: Time Zones…
We will very likely be operating under GMT, Greenwich Mean Time. It’s close enough to where we will be and all of our data logs onto this time frame. I plan to institute this today. Right now, local time on the ship is just before 8 a.m.

0759: Re: Time Zones…
I was wrong about GMT (it is 11 hours off what I thought). Yes, we will stay on the current clock, which is three hours earlier onboard the ship than in San Diego.

THE RVSJ LEAVES AMERICAN SAMOA

Leaving Pago Pago Harbor, the film crew rides alongside in a tender to capture our departure.

Setting Sail

Leaving Samoa for six weeks at sea

0848: Avanti!
We are bound for our testing ground about 20 kilometers from the beach. The plan when we arrive is to: 1) do a single bathymetry run over the grounds, pinging with the ships fathometer for a feel for the bottom; 2) get a quick net tow test done before we begin vehicle operations; 3) do a quick CTD drop and test our DOTs; 4) deploy DOTs and survey them in; and, 5) run a two-hour vehicle mission with Mary Ann, a five-hour mission with Ginger and then make the call on whether or not we need to put Mary Ann back in for a five-hour run.

The reason for the two-hour run is just to baseline the software. All told, we hope to be back on the road about 14 hours after we arrive at our site. We are holding position right now while we ship the tender and the film crew who ran alongside us, making some footage, on the way out of the harbor. All is well, confidence is high, weather is overcast with the slightest hint of a breeze and there’s a slow lazy swell of perhaps two feet. We’re on our way.

American Samoa is in our rear view; we will not return for a month and a half.

Departing Pago Pago Harbor in American Samoa.

0414: Shakedowns Complete
We got off the dock yesterday morning at the prescribed time, ran out about 20 kilometers and started our testing. The bathymetry run using the ship’s fathometer showed us that we picked an area with a lot more vertical activity than the charts indicated (this is becoming a somewhat annoying constant, the inaccuracy of charts. If only someone out there would provide the world with some more accurate bottom data … oh yeah, never mind).

We met, discussed it and decided we were going to need to face this challenge some day, might as well be now before we get to our grounds. We know there are seamounts out there, and we also have some potential search areas near the islands where the bottom is ugly. We gotta do it sometime, let’s do it now: time to put the pencil beams to the test. Also, we wanted to give this new software a chance to see how it handled some of the bugs - false detects in the pencil beams (collision avoidance), sonar resets due to file writing cessations we saw on a couple missions during trials and some general tweaks to the system.

Tangible Search Grid

The team refines plans for the survey missions

So we proceeded with our plan. The CTD (Connectivity, Temperature and Depth sensors) cast to test the releases on our four primary Deep Ocean Transponders (DOTs) went off well, all released with no indications of any problems. We then lined out to test our trawl net. This turned into a snarl, literally. The deck team did not make sure they had sufficient weight on the cable leading from the upper deck winch that tows that system and the cable back-spooled on the drum. That test was canceled while they sorted the resultant bird’s nest of wire. We have a period during the transit when the ship will have to slow for a couple hours for routine maintenance. We’ll do a tow then.

Deep Ocean Transponder (DOT) release testing.

The CTD (Connectivity, Temperature and Depth sensors) is used to test the Deep Ocean Transponders.

That left us the remaining task of getting the girls wet. We set two DOTs and surveyed them in. Mary Ann went in first yesterday at 1756 and ran her mission until 2130 when she aborted due to a timeout. When we looked at her data and telemetry we determined that everything was doing what it should. She was detecting rises and falls in the terrain in front of her and this prevented her from completing one of her lines in the time allotted, which set off her safety features and she aborted. When we looked at the data we could see that she would rise up into the water column in front of a wall and sometimes be taken off her path by current. When the path cleared in front of her, she would drive back over to the line and proceed. One of the times this happened, it simply took her too long to finish the line and she aborted. This is pretty much what she’s supposed to do. We put Ginger in at 2230 and had her run a little bit higher off the bottom. I think they lengthened the timeout interval as well. She just came back out today at 0225, mission completed.

Both vehicles performed well within their specification and provided us with a lot of good data to learn from, to maximize our potential when this happens in the future. I think the new software is performing well, which basically means that the vehicles are running better than before.

I just gave the go ahead to retrieve the DOTs and informed the captain we were done with shakedowns. We’re on our way to our grounds as soon as we get the DOTs aboard and the gear stowed. Time to get to work on the reason we came out here. The first DOT is already aboard. I expect we’ll be underway by 4:30 a.m. Trials ran approximately 19 hours, so we are perhaps a day behind schedule. We should be on station and working in four days maximum, according to the plot at 10 knots. We’ll shave that down, I’m sure.

That’s it from radio Dessner. I am going to bed!

RVSJ BEGINS TRANSIT TO HOWLAND ISLAND

0430: We’re On The Way

1201: To Ted Waitt, Schedules
We are scheduled to arrive Sunday (02/15/09) morning at 6 a.m. We are currently running at 10.5 knots. The ship’s crew is working on a four-hour on, eight-hour off schedule beginning at 8 a.m., three shifts, twice a day. The ops team works 12-hour shifts from noon to midnight.

Ship meals are at:
Breakfast 0630-0730
Lunch 1130-1230
Supper 1730-1830

We are going to keep the Samoan clock which has us three hours behind San Diego time. Once the vehicles start rolling, there’s not much predicting when they will go in and come back past an 18-hour bottom time. We roll them back in the water as fast as we possibly can; it gets kind of tough to call once one aborts for whatever reason.

1347: From Ted Waitt Re: Schedules
Do you do a daily briefing?

1359: To Ted Waitt, Re: Schedules
Right now we are not and the ones we did during sea trials were pretty much ad hoc. There has been some resistance to my suggestions on this, although I think we will still meet on the bridge at noon each day once we commence operations. It’s been tough for me to get something a bit more formal going. My suggestion would be at noon, all department heads from both shifts and the captain.

1555: To Ted Waitt, Re: Schedules
One option for us would be to hold it in the ops lab, probably best actually. That way we could go over targets on the system.

The crew practices a fire drill during transit.

0955: From Pat Sullivan, How’s It Going Dess?
Is all going well? How’s the food? Dess, question: if anyone has a serious medical condition, is there a paramedic or a highly trained person onboard your ship? Tom Sharp is an EMT, so he is certainly very competent, but just wondering if there’s someone with even more experience?

1000: To Pat Sullivan
The captain of the ship and the first mate both are trained to work with the MedAire Team and are qualified to provide medications and cut if necessary. That’s all we have out here. Joe Lepore’s got EMT training too, but no doctor this time around.

Food’s okay, all is going well

1038: Emergency Evac, From Pat Sullivan To Ted Waitt’s Crew
Hey Tom/Dave, hope all’s well aboard the ship. What are the plans if anyone needs emergency medical treatment? This is what MedAire has to say about medical care in Kiribati:

‘Standard of Health Care: Medical care in Kiribati is very basic and adequate for the treatment of very minor illnesses and injuries only. Serious cases will need evacuation to Australia or New Zealand. Dental Care: Avoid dental care in Kiribati. The standards are very low and many facilities may not adequately sterilize their equipment between patients.’

When I was in that region a few years ago, we sought medical care for a couple of people on the ship. I escorted them to a hospital in Tarawa with our onboard doctor. After looking at the condition of the hospital, she refused to allow them to stay and we brought them back to the ship. They were later evacuated to Hawaii via a medical jet.

So, based upon where you will be, what do you think should be the plan in the event someone onboard needs advanced medical care?

1119: From Tom Sharp (Helo Pilot) To Pat Sullivan
Tarawa is indeed an underdeveloped and basic island. Emergency medical treatment from Ted’s ship will not be expeditious or easy. We will be operating 620 nautical miles east of Tarawa. This leaves at least 45 hours of sailing time to be within reasonable helicopter range of Tarawa. During this transit time, we would have the GV re-position to Tarawa with a medical team if necessary and transport then would be to Hawaii for the best care.

Our #1 job here will be to keep things safe. However, should we encounter a medical emergency, we will use all our available resources to stabilize the victim and transport to the next level of higher care. In my past experience at Christmas Island in Kiribati, this required the USCG C130 for transport to Hawaii.

We are in an isolated region of the Pacific that poses many challenges. It will be necessary to exercise caution in all our activities, and be alert to the early onset signs of chronic medical conditions requiring a doctor’s care. In the event we need a medical evacuation, we are faced with a huge time barrier and we will attempt to use it wisely. It is important for us all to be aware of these constraints and to ensure everyone is in good health with no lingering symptoms of medical problems when we start.

1125: From Pat Sullivan To Tom Sharp
Tom/Dave, when you guys get out toward your destination, would you please put a proactive test call into MedAire to assure connectivity, coordination, etc? I’ve also put Dess on the router so we are all coordinated as a team. Dess said there are a couple experienced first aid providers aboard the ship as well.

1426: To Pat Sullivan & Tom Sharp
Thanks, Pat. I would add to Tom’s comments that the only way we’ll get the USCG to come out and medivac anyone is if the case is most dire. They will not come out to grab anyone up unless the failure to do so will result in a fatality. The hospital on American Samoa (LBJ Hospital) is in much better condition than anything else we’ve seen in the region, but you’re still talking about a four-day run (say two and a half to three) with the helo range factored in. The locals say it’s no place you’d want to go into with a closed head wound (i.e. better than most in the region, but still probably a good place to pick up a staph infection).

1549: From Ted Waitt
Yep, maybe find a time that works best for the meeting, and then best time for me to come aboard every day. Maybe we can do it before or after lunchtime to catch the crew change?

1550: To Ted Waitt
Agreed, changeover is noon, we’ll hold a quick 20-minute meet every day and we can show you targets that way.

FRIDAY, 02.13.09

1238: Moving Along Nicely
Nothing much to report. We’re due in at 3 a.m. Sunday morning as of this afternoon. Big thrill will be to pass Gardner Atoll tomorrow. The day deckhands made up some descent weights today and Andy Sherrell is working on the big chart of the search grid. Tomorrow the AUV teams meet at noon. Weather is up a tad, but nothing like what we saw off Florida — just a bit of rain and maybe four-foot seas. Everyone is trying to sync to their schedule. Pretty typical transit. I’ll call in tomorrow at 11 a.m. Cheers.

1802: From Tom Sharp
Mike, hope all is well with you. I guess we’ll be seeing you soon. I got an e-mail from Ted Waitt today regarding some helicopter film work on site. Are you aware of this? If so, do you have a photographer with you? Maybe you could send me some more detail. Thanks.

1830: To Tom Sharp
Yes, we have a film crew aboard, a professional photographer and sound guy, along with a production assistant. My guess is we would only need one of these at any given time up in the air-the photographer (can’t imagine there is much use for sound up there). He’s a good guy with a real ‘go get ‘em’ attitude, name’s Ian Kellett. I would imagine we’ll wait for a nice day, sort of pull this off ad hoc when the conditions are good for it, get them over to the your ship and up in the air.

CATALYST 2 Director of Photography Ian Kellett films Leg 1.

Ted Waitt has mentioned trying to recreate approaches to the island under similar conditions of the original flight, so best guess is that Ted will want that on film as well. I’m thinking sooner is always better than later when it comes to something like this, get it done in case conditions deteriorate. How long are they telling you guys you are gonna be out here? Where are you now, Tarawa? Isn’t that a lovely island?

0636: From Chris Nutter
Mike, if you think of it when Ted Waitt gets up in the air there, it would be interesting to get some pics looking at Howland at 1,000 feet at 20 miles and 10 miles heading about 068 degrees magnetic into Howland at 1912 GMT. Be interesting to re-create what Amelia Earhart was looking at in terms of the low profile island and the sun. Good hunting. Hope to see you soon.

1034: T-Minus 1 Day
Today we came within five miles of Gardner Atoll, and the fishing poles came out. Andy Sherrell and one of the deck hands from the ship’s crew, both hooked up fish, but all we landed was a pair of lips; Happy Valentine’s Day, little fishes.

The island looked much more verdant than I expected, palm trees and other vegetation easily seen from the ship as we passed alongside, as well as what looked to be a very nice stretch of beach on the southwestern side. The eastern edge of the island was shrouded in a thin layer of mist, evidence of what I would think is a fairly rough-breaking reef on that side of the island.

Gardner Island

Lee and I agreed to slow the ship for an hour or two to try and make a trawl for the scientist who is aboard to do biology sampling. Preparations were made to deploy the net by covering the LARS with a tarp, and attaching the net to the tow-winch on the upper deck and to the tugger winch on the work deck through the central and outside sheaves, respectively. These two winches pull the bar that supports the net up into a frame, rigged below the submersible A-frame, for deployment back out over the stern of the ship.

Net Trawl Test

Initial deployment of the trawl…

When the bar that supports the net (this same bar has a number of weights on either end to take the net down into the water column when deployed) neared the support frame, the port side cable attached to the tugger winch failed. In essence, the end of the cable had what would be akin to a knot tied in it to provide an eye by which it could be lifted, but the ‘knot’ slipped out. In this case the knot was a Swagelok fitting that was either the improper size or was improperly closed, allowing that end of the net’s towbar to fall to the deck. This was a close call. Had someone been standing under that bar, we would be steaming in the opposite direction right now with a serious injury or a body bag. Fortunately, everyone on the back deck was paying attention and the only damage was to a platform that had been added to the back of the LARS to allow personnel to safely walk across that area. We plan to load-test all of those eyes and reconstruct those that fail.

Research Specialist Mark Dennett of Woods Hole (WHOI) inspects a fitting that failed during a net deployment.

A piece of decking is bent when a large weight drops during operations. Note how quickly equipment can be degraded by an ocean environment. All the equipment in this picture is less than six months old, yet is already beginning to rust due to constant salt water exposure.

Other activities today included a briefing of the entire AUV team, reviewing procedures for launch and recovery of the vehicles, as well as a separate meeting with deck leads, covering how to improve procedures and safety.

Lunch was a very nice tuna melt on a kaiser roll, and supper was lasagna with a fresh salad. the weather was roughly 10 knots of wind, seas three to five feet with a period of nine seconds. We are making slightly better speed than yesterday, and our current eta to our search grounds is 2:00 a.m. tomorrow, roughly 19 hours from now.

Ted Waitt Personal Log Entry: 02.14.09
Left San Diego at 11:30 p.m. on February 14th, and landed in Honolulu for fuel after a four to five hour flight. Traveling with two dogs — Max and Domino — and upon landing, we had one sick puppy on our hands. Apparently, Domino got into some bad clams or something. After a minor delay, we are re-boarding the plane with full fuel and are now going back to sleep. All is well.

A CTD cast...

2315: We Have Arrived
We’re on station. We’re running a CTD (Connectivity, Temperature, Depth) cast to check underwater comms (checking for thermoclines and currents, seeing how our modems are doing). This will take a couple hours. We will then farm Deep Ocean Transponders (DOTs) and survey them in. We’re setting four on the first run, which will give us a set field for six boxes, 1-3B and 1-3A. That’s a fair bit of surveying, probably be close to 10 a.m. by the time we splash the first vehicle. My schedule is screwed, up at 3 a.m. this morning and can’t sleep. Probably get some sleep after the DOTs get started. Day 1 update tomorrow afternoon.

Just wanted you to know, Project 8 is officially underway on site. I would say morale is through the roof, people are stoked.

Weather is good with say three to five-foot seas, five knots wind and a surface current of just over one knots. Temperature is maybe 85.

Back To Top

0955: From TW
Safely aboard ship and on our way to you.

0123: To TW
Nice! Mary Ann just began her journey to the bottom. Fair winds and following seas to you — and luck to us all.

THE SURVEY BEGINS

Locking a vehicle into the docking station in preparation for launch.

0126: DOTs Are Surveyed In
Mary Ann is on the way to the bottom for the first sortie. Full update this evening

Advantages of AUVs vs. Towed Sidescan Sonar

Sonar Analysis Team Lead Andy Sherrell on the AUV technology

MONDAY, 02.16.09

0804: Day 1 (Yesterday, February 15)
We got here at 2315 the night before last, and did a CTD (Connectivity, Temperature and Depth) cast to check sound velocities in the water to help us calibrate our Deep Ocean Transponder (DOT) field. That wrapped up around midnight thirty. We started laying DOTs in at 0100, dropped four DOTs, finishing that work at 0420. It took an additional five hours to survey the DOTs in and by 0930 we were ready to start survey.

Mary Ann went in at 1013 and took two and a half hours to reach the bottom, arriving at 1245. We were pretty concerned about a reading concerning her oil volume when she hit the bottom. The vehicles go in with 90 percent oil volume and are set to auto-abort if they get to 35 percent. For some reason she was fluctuating between 39 and 35 percent so for the first couple hours of her survey we were concerned that she was going to abort.

We decided not to launch Ginger until Mary Ann had completed at least one leg and made a turn. We wanted to make sure she was well on her way before launching the other vehicle; we would have to run over to the other box to launch Ginger and we didn’t want to be in the middle of doing that only to find out that Mary Ann had aborted and then have to run back over to the first box and retrieve.

It seemed that Mary Ann was pretty stable so we set up to launch Ginger. We headed over to the other launch site at 1530, arrived at 1620 and got Ginger in the water at 1710.

A Finely Choreographed Water Ballet

Launching Ginger from her cradle for an intended 23-hour run…

She took a bit longer than anticipated to get to the bottom and just about the time that she should have dropped her descent weight to level off and start the survey, we got a leak indicator and knew she was going to abort. That she did at 2020. She made it to the surface at 2152 and was recovered with no incident.

Greg Packard went over her logs and found that the leak had been detected in the tail section of the vehicle. As it was right about the time that she should have been kicking in her props, he thought it might have had something to do with the shaft seals or O-rings in the drive unit. They drained the oil from the unit, replaced the shaft seals and found that an O-ring in one of the quick disconnect fittings was damaged. This was the fitting on the hose that runs oil in from the oil compensation systems that help counter the pressure. That ring was also replaced and the unit was re-assembled, filled with oil, pressure tested, electronically tested and re-attached to the vehicle. They did a pretty quick turnaround given the circumstance, and had her back in the water at 3:45 p.m. She is on her way down now and looking good.

(L-R) Operations Team Lead Greg Packard and AUV Mechanical Engineer/Operator Brennan Phillips, both from Woods Hole (WHOI), examine a thruster unit for problems.

So, Mary Ann is still down and due to finish her mission in the next two hours or so, and will be on the surface in approximately three hours. We should see our first data from the survey between 8 and 9 a.m.

The seas are up a little bit, although the wind seems to be dropping. Weather is calling for seas to increase some over the next 72 hours, although it shouldn’t get anything near to the level where we can’t work (knock wood). One note on the CTD casts and ADCP data-they are seeing a cross current a couple hundred meters below the surface.

Surface currents are running at 1.5 knots on a bearing of 270 degrees. At 200 meters below that they are seeing a current running at a knot on a bearing of 90 degrees, basically perpendicular to the surface current. There’s a pretty serious thermocline at approximately 175 meters, as well as a pretty cold surface current. There seems to be a cooler than normal current running along the equator coming in from the east and bracketed north and south by warmer waters. Seems odd to me, but I have no further information on that.

Morale is pretty good. Although people are tired, everyone is just now getting synced up to their shift and many people have been working and watching the progress well outside of their shifts. I’m trying to be awake for all launches and recoveries, although that ain’t gonna last much longer. I’m going to shoot for all recoveries from here on out so I can be in the room the first time the data gets gone over.

I had been working on a more detailed report for potential blogging, but about an hour ago my brain turned to mush and so did that report. So, I am churning this one out and getting to bed. I want to be up in three hours when we look at Mary Ann’s data.

The film team is getting some good stuff. They did some work on one of the launches and then got up for the emergency recovery tonight. They also did an interview with Lee Frey, Andy Sherrell and me this afternoon on the search boxes.

Guess that’s about it for now. I should be back on this set in about three hours.

Ted Waitt Personal Log Entry: 02.16.09
We landed in Tarawa early this morning. Since we crossed the International Date Line, February 15th never existed for us. I was surprised to see a large number of Tarawa citizens lining the runway; I’m guessing they don’t get many jets. An interesting runway it is, too, extending the entire width of the island, from coast to coast. There’s really no way to get from one side of the island to the other without crossing over the runway, so cars, dogs, bikes, people and other hazards seem to freely use it as a thoroughfare.

The customs people were very friendly; I was told you could spot the head person as the one who is wearing shoes, but the guy boarding our plane apparently didn’t get the memo. He seemed mostly interested in whether we had any hamburger, as islanders apparently don’t get much else other than their primary diet of rice and fish. It took us about an hour to finally clear customs, and then we were free to load the chopper for a very hairy and potentially dangerous flight of 80 nautical miles over water.

Packed with four bodies, two dogs, full fuel and almost 1,000 pounds of food and supplies, the Bell 407 was just a few hundred pounds below its maximum capacity. Given that it’s a single engine chopper, and that Tarawa has no rescue capability, we made a few modifications to our standard operating procedures for the 50-minute flight over open water. First, Tom Sharp, our pilot, installed a piece of equipment on the dash (coincidentally made by a company from La Jolla, a few blocks from WID offices) to allow the boat to track our position via the Web. If we lost an engine, they would be our first line of rescue and it makes things easier if they know where we went down. Second, Tom had a back-up locator strapped to his leg and a marine band radio around his neck. Third, we all had on inflatable life vests, equipped with seat belt cutters and underwater breathing regulators. Even though the Bell is equipped with inflatable floats, it’s almost a near certainty that the chopper will flip in the event of a water landing. Tom explained how the chopper would be a safe island until rescue shows up in a few hours, but that you can’t inflate your life vests until you’re outside the chopper and the life raft inflates. Hence the need for seat belt cutters and breathing regulators while the chopper sits upside down in the ocean.

We finally got clearance to take off, and even with some miscommunication with the tower, we left for open water. We picked 80 nautical miles as a safe balance between less than half of the 240 nautical mile range of the 407 (with enough fuel to make it back). We also knew we’d be out of radio communication until we were within approximately 20 nautical miles of the boat, so we’d be totally without radio contact for about half the flight. The marine band radio might give us 30 nautical miles, but we weren’t sure.

Flying over the open water, I noted we were flying at precisely the same altitude, 1,000 feet, and almost exactly the same time, just after 8 a.m., as Amelia Earhart when she was looking for Howland Island. We discussed how difficult it was to see anything with that angle of light and even moderate cloud cover. Shadows looked like islands, sunspots looked like reefs and haze on the horizon obscured everything. It would have been nearly impossible to spot an island unless you were right on it, especially after you’d been flying for 20 plus hours at 10,000 feet in a noisy, unpressurized plane. And to make matters worse, navigator Fred Noonan may have had a hangover on top of it all, by some reports.

Anyway, we tried to contact our ship about 35 nautical miles out, and received no response — now we know how Amelia must have felt for a few scary minutes. About 25 nautical miles out, we got a fuzzy, staticy reply on the radio. I’ve never been so happy to hear our boat captain’s voice. Couldn’t understand a word he said, but couldn’t miss that accent. Shortly thereafter, we saw a tiny spec of a box on the horizon that stands out — you can tell it’s not supposed to be there. It’s the boat.

As we approach, the ship begins to take clear shape. The captain informs Tom the ship is moving six to seven knots, the wind is 17 knots and the boat is pitching about one degree in what appear to be eight to 10-foot seas. We circle once and Tom brings it down for a direct and decisive, expertly-firm landing. He was working hard to make it look easy, and the cyclic (the primary steering control) from the dual controls on my side hit my leg more than once, but the passengers in the back wouldn’t have known. He also landed far in front of our normal spot as tracking the chopper forward for passage wouldn’t be advisable in these seas. I don’t even want to know how much clearance between the rotors and the superstructure there was. The crew strapped the chopper down while the engines ran down, and we hopped off the chopper, safely aboard the boat. We then hunkered down for our 60-hour transit to rendezvous with the ops team aboard R/V Seward Johnson.

FIRST CONTACT DETECTED & RE-IMAGED

0434: Day 2 (Yesterday, February 16)
So we left our story early yesterday morning with the second launch of Ginger at 0350 after a repair for a leak detect in her tail section. At that time, Mary Ann was in the middle of her first mission.

When Ginger got to depth she again detected a leak and aborted her mission. The leak was detected at 0630 and she was recovered with no incident at 0811. During the troubleshooting, it was discovered one of the quick disconnects in her oil compensation system had not been fully locked down, leading to a failure in the system to keep the oil under pressure and again allowing an intrusion of water. The O-ring fixed at the thruster was most likely not the ultimate cause of the first abort as the improperly sealed connection was found at the other end of that line, where it meets with the pump under the batteries; it remained unseen during the first repair due to a failure to remove the batteries during the initial fix. This was a failure to pay attention to detail and avoidable.

Meanwhile, Mary Ann completed her mission and returned to the surface where she was recovered without incident at 1001.

A Flawless Recovery

Mary Ann is recovered and readied for her next launch…

From 1046 to 1058, she downloaded her data which looked very good. The ship was repositioned to launch Ginger and she was put in the water at 1220 to go down for a third attempt at surveying box 1b. Again, the decision was made to hold off launching Mary Ann until it was determined that Ginger had achieved her depth and successfully begun her mission. We did not need to wait until Ginger had made much progress on her lanes. We knew that if she began her mission, the problems that caused her to abort her first two sorties were solved. This is exactly what happened. She made her operating depth at 1521, dropped her descent weight and began her mission.

In the interim, the analysts had gone over the data from Mary Ann’s mission and determined there was a single interesting target in the northwest quadrant of box 1a. The rest of box 1a seemed flat and there was nothing else of note in the area. The target did not appear to have sufficient reflectivity to be our goal, and was associated with a terrain feature, but it was located in an area that would make a quick stop for Mary Ann to re-image it on her next sortie.

A Possible Target

On Mary Ann’s first mission…

It was decided even though this target might not necessarily meet the criteria for re-imaging, the impact to her next mission would be so minimal as to make it a good opportunity to practice a re-acquisition and photo run (and ya never know). We programmed her to do this, breaking off during her first lane to take a quick look. She was put in the water at 1715 and at 1930 she reached the bottom and began her mission. Ted (Waitt), Andy Sherrell will send you a contact sheet on that target soon.

Our first target is in the left (or port) channel, a yellowish speck at the lower right side of the darker area.

Currently both vehicles are on the bottom and working. Mary Ann is surveying box 2a with a very quick re-image of a target in the northeast quadrant of box 1a, and Ginger working on box 1b. Ginger should return to the surface around noon tomorrow and Mary Ann back around 1700 tomorrow. As both vehicles seem stable and are working well on the bottom, we are going to make a net tow and get some science done.

Break

Okay, we just finished the tow off the back deck. It was kind of confusing back there for the first time we launched it, but in the end it all worked out well. There was a problem with the collection tube at the end of the codend. It seemed to either have closed before deployment or just as it went into the water, but it was a good practice tow and we sorted out some issues we will adjust to improve efficiency on the next one, probably tomorrow night. Tomorrow should see recoveries at noon and 5 p.m., launches at 3 p.m. and another right around the time Ted’s ship arrives.

Weather here is up a tad, waves are probably four to six feet, eight second interval and light winds. It’s been fairly cool but it seems that is probably on the way out. Warm and humid now, probably 88 degrees Fahrenheit.

As I mentioned, Andy will be sending a target analysis to Ted. I’m out for the night. Both girls in the water, a good night’s sleep for me. Back online tomorrow morning around 7 a.m.!

1133: From Ted Waitt, Re: Day 2
I’d like a daily report as well, with metrics:
1. Total area surveyed
2. Total bottom time hrs
3. Dives
4. Aborts issues
5. Targets identified
6. Survey time lost due to re-imaging

Also, how much survey time did we lose in re-imaging that target? We need to be all over them on these metrics, as it will be key. These should be reviewed every day with a goal to get better every day and to still hit our original target, not the revised target.

1535: To Ted Waitt, Re: Day 2
Roger all. Andy and I discussed that last night, the metrics you point out below, and we’re already crunching those numbers. I have been riding them consistently about maximizing our efficiency.

I know how slim the margin is, but I do not feel that they were consciously sandbagging you on that projection. They were trying to make a prediction based on 36 days of ops, Deep Ocean Transponder (DOT) farming and maintenance at 5,000 meters, and the comparison was against five days of ops at a depth of 1,000 meters that led to a significant reduction of descent time with almost no maintenance and little DOT farming.

I’ve made very clear to everyone when they give me numbers that I want honest assessments, neither what they think we want to hear nor estimates that give them room for covering. Regardless, I am hearing you loud and clear on where we need to go with this: close monitoring of our stats and where we are, with an eye toward what we can do to improve and achieve our original numbers. I am going to speak to Lee Frey about some things we can discuss in meetings toward these ends, including a close look at turnaround times (very much akin to the way turns were discussed in ‘06).

The estimate of time re-dedicated from the survey to the re-image of last night’s target was one hour of bottom time, and we hope the vehicle will still be able to complete a full survey box. That vehicle is still on the bottom and we are waiting to see what the numbers look like. As well, we are still discussing at length how we want to do our re-imaging surveys. The target from last night was a very small detour, but if we start ending up with a lot of targets in a box then re-imaging surveys will take away coverage from the planned box.

There are still two schools of thought as to whether we want to just knock out eight boxes and evaluate all targets before sending a re-imaging survey down, or peel off a vehicle on the next closest survey to run into a connecting box to re-image targets. If we start getting a lot of targets in boxes, we will be making sacrifices on our coverage of the regular survey if we set up for big re-acquisitions. Throw in DOTs and coming back to set DOT fields for re-imaging surveys, and you have a big pile of variables to parse.

The vehicles have scant spare power to make big runs off a box and still make a full coverage, and the boxes are currently running the vehicles to the limits of their endurance. We need some more numbers to come to a good conclusion on these issues and today’s re-image will help provide these. Everyone on the team understands your concerns and we’re working toward a solution. When you arrive, we will have more information and the team will be prepared to discuss these issues with you. I am meeting with the leads in half an hour to discuss this. I’m sorry I cannot say for sure what the recommendation is, but they do need some more real data from these grounds to crunch this problem.

The ship's message board keeps everyone informed of the daily schedule.

Roger your ETA and goals for first meeting. A good time to visit is right after lunch, we could plan to meet with the group at 1230. We have seven to nine foot seas, and if it is not feasible for your ship to splash a tender, we will put one of our tenders in the water to run you over.

More soon. Thanks

1244: From Ted Waitt, Re: Day 2
Well, the key is just tracking the numbers daily, and then looking for ways to improve. So, until we have some numbers to discuss, not much to talk about on efficiency. We can always splash rescue boat easily, not one of the big ones. Must be rougher over there. It was pretty rough on the way over, but seems to have smoothed out a bit.

1548: Re: Day 2
I totally understand and they do, too, or will soon enough; although it’s all smiles out here, we’re making data and the girls are running strong. Ginger just came back from a full mission, good data. They are trading batteries to get her back in. We postponed our meet until she is wet again.

Yeah, it’s a bit odd, we all expected the doldrums and here we are in some chop. Joe Lepore told me this morning that it might come up a bit more. I’m sure we’ll touch base again soon enough. Good travels.

Ted Waitt Personal Log Entry: 02.17.09
We spent most of yesterday hunkered down in pretty rough seas of 10 to 15 feet. I was reminded of my last trip from this area to Tarawa back in 2006. We were on a smaller boat, a 110-foot Askari, and the trip out was quite pleasant in trailing seas. But later, when we had to go back to Tarawa to pick up a critical part and supplies, we headed directly into the waves and I was the only one not seasick. I had breakfast, lunch and dinner alone for the three-day passage. This time, even though the seas are rougher, the boat handles it really well.

Weather is down a bit, so we have a nice relaxing day on deck. We’re deciding whether to divert toward Howland for a nice calm dinner and to make a quick repair in calmer water off the edge of the island versus meeting up with the Seward Johnson in the dark. Nice sunset. We’re starting to see and hear more of the famous Howland birds. We have decided to rendezvous with RVSJ at 12:30 p.m. tomorrow.