Saturday: June 8, 2013
Log Day 7
Sarah Fangman
ONMS / SEGoM Region
Chief Scientist
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Gray's Reef Data Buoy number 41008, showing wave height in the sanctuary beginning on Sunday
evening, June 2nd thru Friday evening, June 7th. Maximum wave height reached over ten feet on
Friday morning.
Click here for larger view.
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A short break during a long research expedition can be a relief. It gives the scientists an opportunity to process data, write logs, catch up on email and rest (work days during calm seas usually go from 0700-2200 for the divers).
Tropical Storm Andrea gave us our break this week as the storm chased us out of Gray's Reef and down to Port Canaveral on Wednesday night. We spent Thursday night tied up at the dock, and then turned back north on Friday morning. As we steamed north, I watched the report from the Gray's Reef data buoy, which showed the seas coming down further and further with each hourly report. This was a good sign and gave us hope for the next day's dive operations. Friday night the science team met and discussed our plans to resume operations in the morning. Everyone was eager to get back to work after a two day hiatus.
Unfortunately, this is what we woke up to:
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Gray's Reef data buoy 41008 showing wave height diminishing throughout the day on Friday, June
7th in Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary. Unfortunately it started to pick back up Saturday morning June 8th, preventing dive operations.
Click here for larger view.
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The seas came down considerably from the high of over ten feet on Friday morning, but they didn't
calm down quite enough to allow us to launch the dive boats on Saturday morning. So unfortunately we had to abort our plans to dive this morning, and are just waiting for the weather to permit
safe launch operations.
And so the short break has become a long break, too long, and everyone is getting antsy about returning to the water! We are all eager to see what the visibility will be at depth, in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Andrea. Oftentimes storms really stir up the sediments and reduce visibility underwater. To conduct our underwater surveys, we need to have at least 5 feet of visibility for the invertebrate surveys, and 20 feet of visibility for the fish surveys. We are hoping that once the seas are calm enough to launch dive boats, the visibility will also cooperate and be clear enough for us to continue our data collection! Time will tell!
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