Updates

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 and load and test leg 2 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 in a research cruise, form new collaborations, and potentially develop new research directions.  

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.

The Endurance 18 science party includes Athena Abrahamsen, a second-year undergraduate Oceanography major at OSU, shown here on the upper deck of Sikuliaq leaving Yaquina Bay on March 7 and assisting with mooring deployments on March 8. Athena is an undergraduate student research assistant working for OOI. She completed her winter quarter coursework ahead of time to participate in this cruise.

While an undergraduate at OSU, Samantha Richards was a student research assistant with the OOI Endurance Array.  After earning her degree in Ocean Science, she became an OSU Marine Technician. While OSU awaits its new Regional Class Research Vessel, the R/V Taani, Sam is working as a MarTech on other UNOLS vessels, such as the R/V Sikuliaq.  

The team observed a very low rainbow on the first day of the spring 2023 Endurance cruise. Rainbows can be visible when the solar elevation is less than 42 degrees, meaning they are often observed in the morning orevening. However, this rainbow was observed north of the R/V Sikuliaq shortly after departure around 12:45 when the solar elevation was 39 degrees, so the rainbow was close to the horizon.