Cruise Update – SKQ202511S (May 22)

Following a smooth transit, the R/V Sikuliaq arrived early Thursday at the NOAA PMEL 2025 mooring site, about 4 nm east of the target location. After a pre-op briefing and GAR risk assessment, conditions were deemed safe, and the mooring—with its newly installed FDCHP sensor—was successfully deployed around 08:45. The anchor followed three hours later.

A 500m CTD cast was completed before the ship transited ~20 nm southwest to the UW Waverider 2025 site. Despite slightly rougher seas (9–11 ft), forecasts allowed for continued operations. After prepping ~4,200 m of synthetic line and a deck “toolbox” talk, the Waverider buoy was deployed at 16:30, with all components in place and the anchor deployed by 19:30.

Completed:
✔ NOAA PMEL 2025 mooring
✔ 500m CTD cast
✔ UW Waverider 2025 mooring

Next up: overnight transit to the glider box for profiler and glider ops.