CREWS Station Basic Cleaning in December

On Thursday morning, December 3rd, 2009 Wess Merten and Duane J. Sanabria conducted a basic cleaning and assessment of the CREWS Parguera. We conducted a surface inspection, underwater inspection/cleaning, optical sensor cleaning, and a CTD sensor cleaning. Upon arrival a bird was perched atop the solar panels. Below is a photo from our dive.



This is a photo of Duane cleaning the lower section of the spar.

CREWS Station Complete Cleaning in November

A complete cleaning (CTD validation, replaced all brass screens, cleaned all instruments, chains, lines, and tower) at the CREWS Station in La Parguera, Puerto Rico, was done Friday, November 13th, 2009 by Wessley Merten and Ori Tzadik. The validation CTD was placed at 8:45am and was removed at 12:15pm. All surface and subsurface sensors were visibly intact.

Maintenance Operations, Oct 6th - 8th

Lecia Salerno (NOAA Corps) and Mike Jankulak (University of Miami) visited La Parguera this past week to work on the CREWS Station. The goals for this trip were to (1) replace all meteorological and oceanographic instruments that are connected to the station, and (2) inspect and clean the station's underwater parts: lines, chains, pins, base plate, instrument cables.

All operations were successfully concluded.

Diving operations went as follows: in Tuesday's first dive, three of the station's eight lines/chains were cleaned. In a second dive that day, the four underwater instruments (shallow/deep CTDs, shallow/deep light sensors) were retrieved to the boat and there they were replaced with newly-calibrated instruments. Also, the "groundtruth" CT sensor was attached during this dive. The remaining lines and chains were cleaned during a dive on Wednesday, and during a final dive on Thursday the cables were secured and all loose ends were clipped or tidied (and the "groundtruth" CT was retrieved).

Surface operations began Tuesday afternoon, with the installation of the climbing rungs and safety line and the removal of the three aluminum masts and their instruments (Vaisala's "weather transmitter," an anemometer and the surface light sensor). Tuesday's operations were concluded with the removal of the "brain" control package that includes the datalogger and satellite transmitter. There were no surface operations on Wednesday; rather, Wednesday afternoon was spent in the lab swapping out the instruments on the retrieved masts and connecting them to the "brain" for testing. At this time, locally-stored data were retrieved from the memory module and a new program was uploaded to the datalogger. Surface ops concluded on Thursday morning with the reinstallation of the surface masts/instruments and the "brain." The station was confirmed to be operational from the boat (via radio transmitter) before leaving.

Some specific notes about the station follow:

• The deep light sensor is mounted on a sturdy platform, but the shallow light sensor still uses the older allthread-type mount. The shallow mount is very flimsy -- it had been shored up with several connected hose clamps which broke during our work, and were replaced by us later in the week. This is a concern because the instrument had a noticeable tilt, off-vertical, when we arrived. The newly-tightened hose clamps appear to have corrected this tilt for now (see photo) but I would recommend that the entire mount be replaced with something more effective.

• On Thursday morning, there was a large bird (identified to us as a booby, see photo) sitting on the upmost platform of the station, which is the satellite transmission antenna, when we arrived. This bird was extremely bold and remained on the station while I climbed to the top. After securing myself by the waist to the top of the pylon, I was able to shake the bird loose. It returned once, I scared it away once more, and throughout the rest of the morning it remained in the general area. I mention this because I noticed that the PAR values reported by the surface light sensor suspiciously dropped below the light levels reported by the underwater instruments a few times in the days since our work was completed. The presence of this bird (and others) may also affected readings from the other surface instruments.

• There has long been a problem with the wind data reported by our Vaisala "weather transmitters" on this station. Initial data from this newly-replaced instrument suggest that this is still a problem, although it will take a few weeks to make any definitive pronouncement on this point.

• For the record, the CTDs on this station are hose-clamped directly to the pylon; there are no CTD mounts in use on this station.

• This station is unique in that its internal conduits open underwater; at all other ICON stations, the cables emerge from the internal conduits just above the surface. There are two conduits, one on each side of the pylon, and each conduit has openings at three spots down the length of the (underwater) stick. However, only the uppermost conduits are used for instrument cables. The deep instrument cables emerge on one side and all other instrument cables emerge on the other side.

Due to a miscommunication, we did not have boat reservations or a boat operator waiting for us Tuesday when we arrived, so we are particularly grateful to Yvonne, who was pressed into service for us when she arrived at the lab Tuesday morning and stayed out with us until mid-afternoon. A student strike all but closed down the lab on Wednesday and Thursday but every effort was made, by both the students and the administration, to ensure that our operations were not impacted. We are grateful to John Kubaryk for meeting with us Wednesday and Thursday to give us access to the dive locker and SCUBA tanks. A big thanks too to Wess Merten who was allowed to cross the picket lines to be our boat operator and guide on Wednesday and Thursday. Wess will be handling the care and cleaning of the ICON station this semester and we were able to spend some time describing to him in detail the things he should look for. We are also grateful to Francisco Pagan for making Wednesday's and Thursday's boat reservations and his help in coordinating the arrival and return of our shipped instruments and tools.

(signed)
Mike Jankulak

Update July - August 2009

A basic cleaning of the station was done on July 17, 2009 by Monica Rojas. Copper screens were corroded and need to be change.

A basic cleaning of the station was done on August 28, 2009 by Wesley Merten and Stephanie Williams from 13:30pm to 14:30pm. All of the screens need to be replaced. There was considerable biofouling on all stations, and the main pole towards the top was pretty encrusted with barnacles, oysters, and clams.

On Friday the 18th Katie Flynn and Wesley Merten did a complete clean of the CREW station. All lines, cables, chains, and shackles were cleaned and inspected. Things are showing signs of wear. For instance, the outer housing on the shallow radiometer is beginning to deteriorate. Also, there area few lines that travel around the circumference of the main spar that are loose. Calibration CTD was deployed from 10:07am to 1:37pm.

Cleaning June - July 2009

A complete cleaning (CTD validation, cleaned all instruments, chains, lines, and tower) at the CREWS Station was done June 8, 2009 by Francisco Soto and Mónica Rojas.
The validation CTD was placed at 7:55am and was removed at 11:15am.

Basic cleaning of the station was done on June 25th, July 2nd and July 9th, 2009 by Mónica Rojas.

Cleaning update June 8, 2009

A basic cleaning of the station was done on May 21, 2009 and on June 3, 2009 by Francisco Soto.

Cleaning update May 18, 2009

A complete cleaning (CTD validation, cleaned all instruments, chains, lines, and tower) at the CREWS Station was done May 14, 2009 by Francisco Soto and Diana Beltrán.
The validation CTD was placed at 7:55am and was removed at 10:10am.

A basic cleaning was done on April 17th and April 29th, 2009 by Francisco Soto.

Cleaning update April 12, 2009

A complete cleaning (CTD validation, cleaned all instruments, chains, lines, and tower) at the CREWS Station was done March 25, 2009 between 9:10 and 9:55am by Francisco Soto, Stephanie Williams and Suhey Ortiz.
The validation CTD was placed at 7:30am and was removed at 11:20am.

A basic cleaning was done on april 3, 2009 by Francisco Soto and Stephanie Williams.

Update February 2009

Basic cleanings of the CREWS station in La Parguera, Puerto Rico were performed on February 12 and February 27, 2009 by Francisco Soto and Jorge Casillas.
Copper screens and zincs were replaced.

Update November 2008

Basic cleanings of the CREWS station in La Parguera, Puerto Rico were performed on November 10 and November 17, 2008 by Francisco Soto and Diana Beltrán.

Cleaning Update September - October 2008

- Basic cleanings of the CREWS station in La Parguera, Puerto Rico were performed on September 19, October 1 and October 22, 2008 by Francisco Soto and Diana Beltrán.
- A complete cleaning of the CREWS station in La Parguera, Puerto Rico was performed on October 29, 2008 by Francisco Soto and Diana Beltrán. The validation CT was installed at 6:50 am and removed at 10:30am. The station was cleaned between 8:05 and 8:55 am.