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Getting close to the end now and not a moment too soon, apparently – because today I completely lost my marbles. Let me explain. Last July, Cindy and I – together with our friend and colleague Dana “Gramps” Yoerger – found ourselves leading an exploration of the US continental margin east of the Carolinas without … Continued
Another great dive today to Von Damm. We didn’t dive until 6am but happily that gave Casey and the rest of the Nereus team plenty of chance to get our manipulator fixed and working really well again without any of the twitches from the day before. On the seabed by 7:30 we quickly found some … Continued
A very solid dive today but also a very short blog because it is premature to know what to write just yet. We launched at 4am which was way earlier than my brain really wanted me to be awake. I hadn’t got to bed until after midnight so the 3:15 alarm hurt – even triple … Continued
One of my NSF program managers sent me a message today saying that our live broadcasts could do with better music. Unfortunately, Jeremy (ETO and Higher Life Form) found out the hard way earlier in the cruise, when testing out the system, that we cannot lay music over the web-cast on YouTube due to Piracy … Continued
Nereus underwent a major conversion in the past few days – actually more than one, which proved to be a little ambitious. When you sawNereus last it was a deep diving, plume-sniffing, seafloor mapping and photo-surveying AUV. Then, it went off in pursuit of Decepticons driving around the streets of Jamaica in Chevy Camaro form. … Continued
Science seriously progressed today. It didn’t come easy but maybe that just makes it all the sweeter. Our launch was text-book just after 4am and separation went well at 5:30am with only a few moments of tension as we passed through 2000m. Then, right on schedule, at 7:30am we made “landfall” at just less than … Continued
Science progressed today. But it didn’t come quietly. Last night I realized that if I was sending Blog 28 ashore then I must have been gone from home for 4 weeks already. And my personal highlight for the cruise, diving to the seafloor at the Piccard site, still lay ahead. So I was awake at … Continued
Today wasn’t our best day for Telepresence, I’m afraid – but fortunately, we had international help to cover for us, not more than 20 miles away ☺ Our planned launch for 06h00 had already slipped to 06h30 when we developed a problem with our depressor, just as we were getting ready to launch. It didn’t take … Continued
When I was growing up, my older brother Tim used to enjoy explaining how any adverse conditions that you lived through could be ascribed to being character building. I therefore present to you the team aboard RVFalkor: with our characters further developed. The day started very well – into the dry lab at 05h30 to … Continued
Today was a taxing day. Late on Wednesday it became apparent that our test of the winch that we use to lower the depressor vehicle (the one that acts to protect Nereus’ single optical-fiber tether from the waves and energy in the upper ocean) had not gone well. After 2 hours in the water and … Continued
