13 Sep 2008 - R/V Wecoma (W0809B) - Leg 1

Safety talk conducted at 0910.
Left the Newport dock promptly at 0955 and headed for NH-10.

Straightaway after lunch mooring recovery operations began. First pass by buoy (named Alder) resulted in breaking anemometer with ship's crane hook. Second pass was successful. Crane lifted Alder buoy and set it on deck, draping the mooring wire over the starboard side. The buoy was secured and the mooring wire disconnected from buoy. The load of the mooring wire was transferred to the trawl wire and fed through the A-frame. All instruments and the anchor were successfully recovered.

The subsurface ADP mooring (Mike Kosro's) was interrogated acoustically and then released. Recovery was successful without incident.

Ship proceeded to NH-25 to perform a calibration CTD cast. Conductivity-temperature sensors (SBE-37 microcats) that had been on the mooring as well as some microcats to be deployed were attached to the CTD. Two depths were selected where the vertical conductivity gradient was weak. The CTD was then held at each of those two depths for about 30 minutes. The conductivity from the CTD sensors can then be compared with the moored instruments.

Satellite images of temperature (AVHRR) and chlorophyll (MODIS) showed an interesting seaward "squirt" of cold upwelled water. The feature extends to about 90 n miles offshore and has a north-south extent of 10-20 n miles. This feature is somewhat unusual at this latitude. Also we will be able to compare in situ observations with clear satellite images, which is not always possible due to cloud cover. A CTD sampling plan was devised to map this feature. In addition to great scientific interest in features such as this for cross-frontal transport of water and biology, this exercise serves as practice mapping regions with high horizontal gradients.

CTD station list (including some "new" stations):
NH-25, SR-25, SR-35, SR-55, SR-65, SR-75, SR-85, NH-65, NH-25.

Completed NH-25, SR-25, SR-35 before midnight.

Note: the new Seal Rock (SR) stations are named after distance from coast in n miles as compared with existing SR stations which are named after water depth. This can be confusing!