23 July 2008 R/V Wecoma cruise - Water Mass Tracking

We pulled the drifter out of the water at 06:30 and motored back to the mouth of the Columbia to do it all again. At 08:00 we deployed a drifter off the stern - the same as yesterday - but it was immediately swept under the ship and broken by the ship's bow thruster. The lesson here is to face the ship into the current when deploying off the stern. So we turned the ship around and deployed the other drifter at 08:30 and set about following it for the next 24 hours. This time the drifter moved northwest and later began to curl back to the northeast. Surface salinity was similar to the first drifter deployment, just in a different location. This will make a fine replicate dataset for yesterday.
Drifter in the water