Emptying the Deck

Today, Friday September 23, was another day of deployment on the Endurance’s Washington Line.  The Endurance Team reported on deck at 645 to begin preparing the deck for the movement of the mooring pieces into place for their ultimate deployment. By 8 am, the deck was ready.  Deck cleats had been secured, tag lines to guide the movement of equipment by the crane were in place, and slings to connect equipment to the crane were at the ready.

First up was the deployment of the Washington Offshore Surface Mooring.  Its buoy, too, is a behemoth, weighing more than 8,000 pounds and 20 feet high. It is designed to remain in place collecting data in 542 meters of water. This deployment went smoothly off the port side of the ship.  After this deployment, the deck seemed noticeably clearer for the two largest buoys were now in the water.

The Washington Offshore Surface Mooring in position for deployment. Solar panels and wind turbines enable instruments at fixed depths to sample frequently.

With extra working room available on the deck, the team went about strategically locating the components that comprise the next deployment —  the Washington Offshore Profiler Mooring. This profiler mooring is smaller and of a different design than the Washington Offshore Surface Mooring. The profiler mooring has seven components, which are connected by stretch hoses that enable the mooring to survive rough winter seas.  The profiler mooring also contains a Wire-Following Profiler that houses instruments.  The Wire-Following Profiler rolls up and down a taut wire rope 4 times a day, continuously sampling ocean characteristics from 25 meters below sea surface to 30 m above the bottom. (See illustration of its components).

Here are the first components of the Washington Offshore Profiler Mooring to go into the water. The blue painted buoy is a submersible surface buoy. The orange ball is a sub-surface flotation device that keeps the riser taut. The two are connected by stretch hose, which allows the buoy to bob while the orange ball stays relatively fixed.

Members of the Endurance Team in position to deploy the wire-following profiler.

Endurance 17 team member Steve Lambert holds in position a floatation device and chain (mooring riser) that are parts of the profiler mooring.

This 7000-pound anchor was the last piece of the profiler mooring assembly to go into the water. Once it landed on the ocean bottom, it will hold the profiler mooring in place for the next six months until this mooring is recovered and a new one deployed.

The team rounded out the day with another CTD cast and moving equipment into place on the deck to be ready for tomorrow’s final mooring deployment.  After that occurs, the deck will be empty until the first recovery scheduled for tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon.