June 17, 2018 - Jennifer Miksis-Olds, UNH

Happy Father’s Day from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean!  During the 8:00 shift change, there was a flurry of texting and chatting from the boat to land as both science and crew sent well wishes to fathers back home.  We also have 5 very special fathers on the R/V Endeavor crew that received special morning greetings.

We are now on transit to our sixth of seven ADEON sites.  We have been blessed so far with good weather. The first four lander retrievals and re-deployments were smooth and uneventful. That changed at our fifth site (WIL on the ADEON map). We are convinced the sea gods did not want to give the lander up. We were delayed twice upon retrieval due to passing vessels. If a vessel is too close, we run the risk of endangering the lander upon release by having it surface too close to a fast moving ship. Finally, we were able to release the lander, and not 10 minutes later a rain squall moves in and visibility was reduced to almost nothing for a while. The exemplary ship handling by the mates on the bridge allowed us to keep pace with where we thought the lander would surface, and it was spotted just a little ways off the starboard bow.

Re-deployment of the fifth lander was again threatened by weather. It takes time and planning to prepare the deck for a lander deployment. The lines need to be run correctly, people assembled, and the lander sensors activated at the proper time. Lander deployments take the coordination of 6 people to be safe and successful. Everyone was in place, and the ship was within 200 m of the lander drop site when the wind started to pick up again and those on deck were pelted with rain. By this fifth lander deployment, we all knew our jobs and were able to safely deploy the lander then clear the decks before the brunt of the storm hit. The entire science crew crammed onto the bridge a little later to watch 2 water spouts form in the distance. It was an extremely eventful day.