Teacher at Sea: May 17, 2004 Log

Departure Day!

Curtis Watkins, NOAA Teacher at Sea

Calibrating the compass of the acoustic doppler current profiler (foreground) prior to its deployment in Killisnoo Harbor, Alaska.

Since this was departure day for the RAINIER, Jennifer spent the morning picking up the acoustic doppler current profiler (ADCP) and other equipment from the U.S.Coast Guard (USCG) station. A launch from the RAINIER was used to transport the trawl resistant bottom mount (TRBM), to the RAINIER from the USCG dock, where the equipment had been shipped and stored. Jennifer calibrated the compass in the middle of the school's baseball field. Last minute items such as pocket notebooks were picked up from town, and John spent time going over the interview process and the theory of how to log on so video data could be sent to Silver Spring, MD NOAA headquarters. He was giving suggestions even as we were pulling away from the dock at 1330 hours.

Trawl resistant bottom mount for the current meter.

There was a lot of material to cover in a short period of time. After dropping my stuff off on my bunk, Jennifer and I spent the next few hours setting up the ADCP, acoustic release and TRBM. During this time, I was instructed on how to put on a survival suit. That was not a pretty sight. That was followed with an abandon ship drill. Time was short since deployment was scheduled for 2030 hours in Killisnoo Harbor. As it turned out, deployment was delayed till the next morning so we anchored for the evening. The RAINIER’s commanding officer, CDR John W. Humphrey, was concerned about the depths going toward the deployment site. It had been a long time since this area was surveyed, so the depths were uncertain. It was determined to deploy in the morning. The ADCP started pinging at the set time, so Jennifer was quite relieved.