TUESDAY, 02.17.09

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.

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.

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.