Updates

  First morning of Endurance 18 Leg 2. The team deployed the Oregon Shelf Surface Mooring (CEO2SHSM) off the Oregon coast. More data for better science.

The R/V Sikuliaq and Endurance 18 team are docked in Newport, Oregon today. The second leg of the OOI Endurance 18 will begin tomorrow off the Oregon coast. Today is for offloading and onloading both gear and passengers. Some scientists left, new scientists joined, and everyone readies for the second half of the adventure.

Chief Scientist Jonathan Fram explains what was accomplished during leg 1 and plans for leg 2 of Endurance 18.  OSU Undergraduate Athena Abramhansen talks about her experience aboard the R/V Sikuliaq. 

Because of the amount of equipment deployed and recovered on the OOI Endurance 18, the cruise is split into two legs. The first leg is off Washington while the second is off Oregon. After completing the Washington leg, the R/V Sikuliaq is heading back to Newport where the science party will offload leg 1 gear…

Not required: sunscreen.  Required: a good set of foulies, dry socks, and breaks for hot chow and beverages.  The Endurance 18 expedition has experienced less-than-ideal weather during this late winter recovery and deployment mission.

The R/V Sikuliaq has a modern CTD deployment and recovery system requiring only the winch operator and marine technician to deploy and recover.  As part of every OOI mooring cruise, the Endurance 18 team collects CTD data to validate mooring time series and glider measurements.

Endurance 18 Deck Lead Alex Wick tosses a recovery line to the crew of the ship’s small boat.  The ship’s small boat was sent to shackle the recovery line to the Washington Inshore buoy.

While all science data are collected on Universal Time Coordinated (UTC), the ship and science party run on local time. On Saturday the R/V Sikuliaq 2nd Mate posted a placard reminding everyone about Daylight Savings Time.  Wouldn’t want to be late for breakfast!

The Endurance 18 science party includes Lukas Winkler Prins, a PhD candidate in Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley. Lukas’s research is on sediment transport associated with restoration of salt ponds into wetlands. He is participating in this cruise via the UNOLS Cruise Opportunity program. This program provides graduate students (and recent grads) the chance to participate…

A feature of the R/V Sikuliaq is that the cranes and A-frame can be controlled by a belly-pack. This enables the ship’s bosun (Semin to the left) to stand next to our deck lead (Alex Wick) during operations. The deck can be noisy, and clear communication between these two is essential.