FRIDAY, 05.15.09

1432: Day 39 (May 15)
We are motoring along at top speed out here on the Seward Johnson, currently making 11.5 knots in fair winds and flat seas under a nice blue sky. We had a slight trough of weather yesterday in the form of rain squalls, and also have had a few bumps, but otherwise the transit has been quite smooth. We’re probably undergoing the best weather we’ve seen the entire time we’ve been in the region.

The vehicle teams have pretty much transitioned back to day shifts and have made very good progress breaking down the system. All of the power and data cables have been removed and stowed. The hydraulics from the HPU and LARS have all been removed and stowed; we will move the HPU to the upper deck either later today or in Samoa. The vehicles have been cleaned up and the batteries removed, and are being crated for transport. The packing up of equipment for demobilization is going quite well; I would say we are farther along than anticipated.

The analysts are still working 12-hour opposing shifts so they can continue to clean up the mosaic. Today and tomorrow, we will begin transferring data to external hard drives for hand-carry out of the theater. I will bring two copies of all data home with me, and Andy will carry one as a back-up. As well, we will have the data on the analysis computers secured and the password locked.

It looks like we’ll be arriving in American Samoa around noon on Saturday. We planned a little extra time in case of inclement weather to ensure we all make our flights home. We also anticipate some delays when we arrive in Samoa because health officials are now requiring all incoming ships be screened for signs of personnel suffering from swine flu.

A success even if we didn’t fine the plane…

We are planning on a barbecue at the Yacht Club on Saturday evening. We are going to take the ship’s grill over there, throw a party for the ship’s crew and mission teams, and invite all of our friends on the island to join us for steaks and other fare provided from the ship’s larder. The monies collected from our pool predicting which box the target might be found in will be used to purchase libations.

Morale seems high. While there is certainly disappointment we did not find our target, everyone out here knows that in terms of coverage and sheer turning of the gear, we did our best. All are excited to be going home, especially those of us who have been out here the whole time. It will be three and a half months for about a half dozen of us in operations, and closer to six months for one or two of the ship’s crew. It’s been a long haul, but I’m pretty sure no one has any regrets.

I will be gathering up e-mail addresses and phone numbers for everyone to stay in touch. When you do something like this, spend every waking moment with the same 28 people for months on end, you get to know quite a bit about each other — kind of like family. We celebrated with Mark Dennett the other day as he became a grandfather. Mark is one of the Woods Hole staff members with us since day one and is a good hand. I would happily go to sea again with most every person on this ship. Anyone who knows me knows this is about the highest praise I will bestow on someone. It will be a bittersweet moment when we all part company in Honolulu.

Thanks again to those of you who have supported our effort. We couldn’t make it happen without the help we get from you folks. I’m sure I speak for everyone when I send thanks to Ted Waitt, along with our regrets that we were unable to achieve our goal. We hope he feels, as we do, the pride of accomplishing such a daunting task. We averaged 30 square miles per day of survey data over the course of the entire mission. We imaged 2,198 square miles with sonar and the vehicles flew an extremely impressive 6,872 miles over the ocean bottom at an average depth of 5,200 meters. Both vehicles spent over 1,200 hours in the water, making them the most heavily worked set of REMUS 6000s in the world. We’ve put in more hours in the water on this single job than the US Navy has with their entire inventory over the last few years.

These numbers are a testament to the teams out here and are every bit as impressive as they sound. I’m proud of the job we did, and of the people who made it happen. Sure, we had our problems and some of them were very serious. Certainly mistakes were made, but in my mind, the measure of success is in no small means determined by one’s actions in the face of adversity. And no, we did not solve the mystery and find our target; there’s no way around that. But hopefully, this data will be simply invaluable to those who eventually discover the final resting place of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan. I’m glad to have been a part of that, and I would happily stay or come back to make that dream a reality.