Lazarus rises from the abyss

Wonderful news.  The VMP was recovered early evening on 1 April!  This was a great event, and certainly not an April Fool's Day for us. 

Scientists, engineers, and crew all sitting around the monitors in the UIC (unified instrumentation centre), awaiting for signs that the stuck VMP would rise (Alberto is in front).  Soon after this photo was taken, Povl spotted the signal of the VMP depth decreasing, indicating that Lazarus would indeed rise from the abyss.

Dragging successfully dislodged the VMP from the bottom, which then allowed it to rise to the surface within a few hours, rising at the normal rate. It brought some mud stuck to the pointy end around the sensors, mud which would have made a biologist happy!  It also brought about 20 hours of data from within the bottom boundary layer, which is rare and valuable scientifically (though it proved to be uninteresting upon analysis, given the relatively quiet region sampled).

As part of this cruise, we have Boaty McBoatface, a name given to our auto-sub to be deployed on 3April.  Not to be outdone, we decided to give the VMPs a name as well.  The troublesome VMP has been named "Buffy" given problems with data written to some of its buffers. We hope that troubleshooting during recent days has resolved Buffy's troubles, with field testing needed to be sure.  Alberto then named the rogue/stuck VMP "Lazarus", given its proven skills rising from the near-dead.  Indeed, just five minutes before Lazarus started to rise from the abyss, Kurt printed Saint Anthony's prayer to recover lost things. It proved an effective prayer that is worth carrying on each cruise!

Billy Platt and Jeff Benson from National Oceanography Centre (NOC) / National Marine Facility (NMS) (Southampton) in the VMP shed with a recovered Lazarus.  Note the microstructure probes on the front of the instrument. That is where all the ''action'' is on the VMP.

The VMP probes at the ''pointy end'' of Lazarus.  Note the piece of mud from its encounter with the bottom.  Surprisingly, none of the probes were damaged. Indeed, we made use of this VMP on 2 April and it took some wonderful data of enhanced mixing on a ridge.

Saturday night after Lazarus

As part of April Fools Day, someone started a rumour that the Indian curry dinner planned for Saturday night included meat from southern right whales.  "But that is not explicitly noted on the menu!" someone said in dismay.  Jeff, one of the engineers with the National Marine Facilities in Southampton (group in charge of Boaty and the VMPs), dryly responded "Yea, I know, but they picked up the whale meat in Punta Arenas, where it is sold in the markets."  Everyone was silent for a moment, perhaps noting to themselves "go vegetarian tonight". Then, Jeff finally reminded us of the date, at which point everyone had a good laugh and sigh of relief!

After the non-whale meat meal, some of the scientists spent the evening relaxing with the crew, something well earned after the recent few days of worry over the lost VMP Lazarus. The crew held a Saturday night dart match ("301") in their lounge, to which they invited scientists to join. This event gave us an opportunity to get to know the crew on an informal occasion.  Some of us were also initiated into the dart game "301", which is common UK pubs (perhaps also in the USA?).

Contributing to the Saturday night fun was our cruise path to the next station.  It took us nearly broadside to the swell.  That is, we were pointed roughly parallel to the wave swell, which means the ship rocked and rolled a lot.  To avoid continual rolling action, the bridge navigated us zig-zag almost as if we were sailing.  Roughly each five minutes we turned across the rolling swell, at which point all hell broke loose in the lounge (and elsewhere). Nothing broke as far as I could see (the crew has tough beer bottles!), but it sure sounded like something should have, particularly in the main kitchen near to the crew's lounge. The chief cook, Paddy, was organizing the dart match.  He did not seem to mind the noises coming from the kitchen; a problem for the morning! This rocking and rolling continued through the night, making sleep quite a chore.  

Kurt added to the wild ride during his midnight shift. Turns out that he noted that some of the bottom topography in this region is not fully mapped with high resolution acoustic sounding. Given that the seas were too rough to do night-time CTD stations, he asked the bridge cruise in a circular pattern for a bit to better map this region. Doing circles in swelling seas created some very interesting bed-time experiences for those of us on the day shift!