AL 08-02 Spring Calibration Experiments

Leg II

Thursday, May 29th, currently located 30NM E of Nantucket, MA, Air Temp: 11°C, Water Temp: 10°C, Winds: SW at 18knots. Today has gone well with good solid calibration tows underway. We have skipped a few of the station in the block due to bad bottom and excess Dogfish. Other than that things are rolling right along with a beautiful day to be had by all. We hope that it hangs around though I don't believe we will be so lucky. Only time will tell as we continue forward with the calibrations and of course, NOAA!

Friday, May 30th, currently located 40NM E of Chatham, MA, Air Temp: 13°C, Water Temp: 10°C, Winds: SE at 8knots. Yet another beautiful day out on the water with alot of good things going on. Our stations are progressing extremely well and we are near finishing up the first block of 30 stations before working over into George's Bank proper. Our catches are turning out well with the occasional Dog Fish but we are also spotting many of the commercially viable species that we need for calibration as well! Also, things came together today so the HENRY BIGELOW, ALBATROSS IV and our fellow Woods Holeite, the DELAWARE II all lined up while underway and got our picture taken together thanks to the NOAA Corps Pilots of Aircraft NOAA 46! Thanks to NOAA Aviation and the PSB Observers. I will post the pic as soon as I have it! Hope all is well and as always, Forward with NOAA!

Saturday, May 31st, currently located 80NM E of Chatham, MA, Air Temp: 14°C, Water Temp: 10°C, Winds: S at 30knots. Whew! The weather went down hill quick! This morning the winds were near calm and we could see the sunrise through the clouds. As late afternoon rolled around we are in 6 foot seas with a 30 knot wind and rain showers in the area. We expect the seas to build some more, but the wind should start to die down soon. Catches have been good throughout the day with a few larger ones earlier, mainly Haddock. It seems as though the scientific party and the ship's crew have gotten used to relatively calm seas and have today been reminded just how abrupt Mother Nature can be and the ensuing additional work involved when having to counter for the motion of the ship...constantly! We just focus on the fact that all of the pain and anguish endured out here is for the advancement of science and the continued sustainability of our Nation's Fisheries! Onward with the ALBATROSS!

P.S.: The Chief Scientist would like to send hugs and kisses to his beloved wife!

Sunday, June 1st, currently located 95NM E of Provincetown, MA, Air Temp: 13°C, Water Temp: 10°C, Winds: SW at 15knots. Things have improved greatly since last night when we endured a severe thunderstorm while underway. Truly, while I was on the back deck watching it I kept hearing the song from Gilligan's Island playing in my head. After it passed we fogged up and until about 1630 we have been sitting in fog. It appears to be lifting as we continue on with our tows. Overall we are doing good though we have seen a lot of Dogs lately. In fact we had a deck full of them earlier today when the net split as we brought them aboard. Regardless, we keep pressing on always moving forward; Forward with NOAA, that is!

Monday, June 2nd, currently located 160NM E of Chatham, MA, Air Temp: 14°C, Water Temp: 10°C, Winds: SW at 5 knots. What a beautiful day. We stall have a long swell to deal with, but overall, an amazing day out on the Bank! We steamed for a good part of the late morning and into late afternoon as we headed to Closed Area 2 in order to get some more comparison tows for Cod. We just completed our first station and hopefully it works out for the best. We also had an unannounced Man Overboard Drill which was quite a surprise to everyone. We were able to launch the Rescue Boat and retrieve the "OSCAR" in 12 minutes, which is much better than our last Man Overboard where "OSCAR" had to succumb to the sea since we made a couple of passes and couldn't grab him. Of course if it was real, we would have put a rescue swimmer in the water. Anyway, alls well and we are going to start cranking out these stations before heading off to Montauk. Stay tuned for more!

Tuesday, June 3rd, currently located 90NM SE of Nantucket, MA, Air Temp: 12°C, Water Temp: 8°C, Winds: SW at 10knots. We have been blessed with another beautiful day out here. We even got rid of the annoying swell! We worked hard through the night and completed over 10 stations in Closed Area 2 bringing aboard plenty of Haddock and Yellow Tail, though we are still hurting for Cod. We have begun our long steam to Montauk Point off the coast of Long Island and will probably not arrive till midday tomorrow. A well deserved rest for the Crew and Scientific Party who have been working almost non-stop since we got underway. Don't worry, they still have smiles on their faces and are showing their great One NOAA Attitude!

Wednesday, June 4th, currently located 30NM SE of Block Island, RI. Air Temp: 16°C, Water Temp: 14°C, Winds: SW at 12knots. We have finally reached the Montauk and Mud Hole Blocks south of Newport. We started ops around 0530 after a very long steam. So far things have been going well though the weather is dreary at best. We had some pretty solid rain this morning which always motivates everyone to get outside and work. The catches have varied in size and species variability is good so far though we have had a few catches of just Dogs. Therefore we recently skipped about 5 stations to see if that will help out our Dog problem. Other than that, another day afloat is certainly a good day!

Thursday, June 5th, currently located 20NM S of South Hampton, NY. Air Temp: 18°C, Water Temp: 17°C, Winds: NW at 8 knots. After a night mired in fog things cleared up this morning and it has turned out to be a pretty nice day with some very warm temps. We are very pleased with the conditions. We are working our way inshore currently in the search for many of the elusive species we are after for these calibration tows. Currently we are on the hunt for Monk and Goose Fish, but we keep finding Dogs! All we need is a priest and a bird and all we can get is a puppy! HAHAHA! Anyway the search continues as we move towards Long Island. It looks like we are in for quite a pleasant weekend and I assure you we all can't wait for Sunday to roll around!

Friday, June 6th, currently located 1.5NM S of Bridgehampton, NY. Air Temp: 16°C, Water Temp: 14°C, Winds: SW at 8 knots. Well we are doing inshore tows right now, if you didn't pick that up from the location above! Things are going good with the paired calibrations still producing good data. We have been changing the ship's route quite regularly in order to maximize our species specific sampling and overall the coordination is going very well. One more day of sampling to go and then home to Woods Hole!

Saturday, June 7th, currently located 3.0NM S of Montauk, NY. Air Temp: 18°C, Water Temp: 15°C, Winds: SW at 8 knots. Last full day, and everyone wants to go home. It has been a long trip and we are all exhausted. We plan to break ops tonight at 2200 and head for the Hole! Sunday is Sunday!