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Buenos Dias!

Mi nombre es Irene Duran. Mis padres son originalmente de México, pero yo crecí en un pueblo pequeño al norte de California. Soy bailarina, pintora y Asistente de Ingeniería para la Institución Oceanográfica de Woods Hole (WHOI, por sus siglas en inglés) en los Estados Unidos. Trabajo en la en la división de Nodos a…

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More Than Just Moorings

People often wonder if we stand watches on our cruises – work in shifts 24 hours a day.  Because our OOI work is primarily deploying and recovering moorings, the majority of our work happens during daytime when we have sufficient light. Overnight activities include surveys of the Pioneer Array region using ship’s sensors and holding…

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Under the Weather

Large waves are regularly crashing over the deck. It’s best to stay inside today. The sea state and winds are only going pick up from here. Plans for tomorrow are still unknown, but as of Friday late afternoon, it is pouring rain. Since it is unsafe to perform any deck work, we’re doing a cross-shelf…

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Doozy of a Day

Today was the best weather day of the Leg, so we decided to use the ROV (remotely operated vehicle) to recover the last surface mooring. Chris Basque piloted the ROV on the mission to hook a recovery line onto the Multi-Function Node (MFN) of the mooring, with the anchor nested inside, and pull it out…

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Big Eyes, Fishing Lines and Delicious Meals, Oh My!

People often ask us if we see lots of animals at sea. The answer is usually “no”.  We are busy deploying and recovering moorings, so we don’t often have the time to look for fish and marine mammals. A number of birds visit us at sea – including some that should be on land.  A…

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Back at it again!

After a couple days of rest in my own bed, I returned to the R/V Neil Armstrong for the final leg of the trip yesterday morning. This science party for Leg 2 is a little different from Leg 1 party as it is made up of scientists and engineers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution…

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Unloading and Reloading

We landed in port at Woods Hole on November 6 around noon Eastern.  Immediately the dock support began to unload the recovered moorings, and began to restock the ship for  Leg 2, leaving Monday. We thought  you might enjoy watching the activity, as was filmed on an earlier cruise.

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Why It Matters

After witnessing how hard the Pioneer 17 team and the crew of the R/V Neil Armstrong have worked over the past seven days, under sometimes quite arduous conditions, I found myself wondering why? Why should these folks work so hard, put in such long days, with intermittent sleepless nights (not to mention upset stomachs), to…

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Punting When the Sea Dictates

Today was our last work day on the first leg of Pioneer 17.  The recovery of the Inshore Surface Mooring was first on the agenda. Recovery starts when an acoustic command is sent from the ship causing the anchor to be released from the multi-function node (MFN), which houses it. Sometimes even though the release…

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A Temporarily Clear Deck

At 8:30 this morning, the team began deploying the last of the three coastal surface moorings. Like the other deployments, this one was like a choreographed ballet, with each participant ready in the wings to execute the perfect next move. By mid-day the deck was temporarily clear of all mooring-related equipment, ready for the recovery…

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