The boat trips around Saipan's southern point the previous Friday had been pretty rough, but as we got further into our stay the seas worsened considerably. A large area of stormclouds had lingered over the entire area since we arrived, part of a tropical system that later developed into TS Talas (on August 25th). We tried to return to the pylon on Monday, August 22nd but the seas prevented the boat with all of our instruments from rounding the southern point and reaching Lao Lao Bay, so we aborted that day's trip.
For Tuesday (the 23rd) conditions were no better, and with only two days left to work before returning we had to consider other options. We brought the installation contractors (Seafix Inc., led by Mark Blackburn and coordinated by Kraig Church) back into the conversation. We discussed the possibility of chartering a larger boat that could safely navigate the higher seas but in the end we accepted Kraig's offer of the use of his cliff stairs (to bring our equipment down to Lao Lao Beach) and rowboats (to row out across the relatively calm waters of the bay to the pylon). I rowed our equipment out on the rowboat with a second boat towed behind and two CRM/DEQ folks in the water to help steer. The divers drove further up the road to enter the water below the golf course. This would be our first-ever rowboat-supported station installation (see photo at right).
All in all things went reasonably well. Steven Johnson (DEQ) stayed in the boats to hand up tools and equipment while I worked up top, and CRM folks (including Rodney and David) stayed in the water to help maneuver the two boats closer to the station when necessary. We started by running the five underwater cables so that the divers could begin installation of the underwater instruments. These included the "deep" light sensor or BIC, the "deep" Teledyne CTD, and the "shallow" Seabird/PacIOOS CTD with add-on chlorophyll and turbidity sensors, all of which wer permanently installed. Pictures of the BIC, "deep" CTD and "shallow" PacIOOS CTD (in this order) here follow:
A fourth cable was for the "groundtruth" CT which was left connected throughout the installation and after but will shortly be retrieved by CRM/DEQ. A fifth cable was for a second "extra" CT planned for deployment at the "shallow" level near the PacIOOS CTD. Unfortunately this second CT was dead when we pulled it out for testing after its 16-month rest in storage, but this sensor's cable was installed and connected and the programming is running on the station, so it can be added on whenever a repaired/replaced sensor comes available.
The pylon-top instruments included the Vaisala "Weather Transmitter" or WXT, a surface light sensor (BIC), an anemometer with electronic compass, a barometer, and an air temperature sensor. The last step was to install the main electronics board (what we sometimes call the "brain"), connect everything up, and turn on the power switch. We were missing the required radio transceiver antennas throughout this operation (they have now arrived in Saipan and have been added to the CREWS storage box for use during future operations), but without a larger boat (and boat battery) we could not have communicated with the station anyhow. So we left the station without knowing whether it was working properly.
From land that afternoon and evening, the results were found to be mostly positive: the station was indeed communicating by digital cellular modem, which marks a milestone of the first time a CREWS station has been deployed using this communications method. All installed instruments were operating correctly except one, the analog anemometer, whose wind speeds were all reporting near zero and whose directions were only intermittently non-zero.
One more day at the pylon would be required to diagnose and fix whatever was ailing the anemometer.
(signed)
Mike Jankulak
all photos by Derek Manzello