Wednesday, September 15, 2010

LPPR1 ICON/CREWS Navigation Light On-site Validation

This evening Wess Merten and Duane Sanabria went out to visit the CREWS station to perform a basic clean and validate that the light was or was not working after the end of civil twilight (~18:51). I recorded three videos: one at 18:55, another at 17:00, and the last at 17:19. The videos can be seen in movie format in the embeded movie below. The light is working, but does it work all the time?




When I arrived to the station today there were 4 brown boobies resting amongst the sensors. This is the most birds I have seen roosting atop the station.

In unrelated but related news, I spotted a juvenile Lionfish(5cm)on the outskirt of the station's reef while cleaning the peripheral lines.

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

CREWS Station Complete Cleaning in September

A complete cleaning (CTD validation, cleaned all sensors, chains, lines, and spar) at the CREWS Station in La Parguera, Puerto Rico, was done Tuesday, September 7th, 2010 by Wessley Merten and Duane Sanabria. The validation CTD was placed at 8:55am and was removed at 12:25pm. All surface and subsurface sensors were visibly intact. All rigging, lines, baseplates, sensors, and the spar were cleaned, but need more attention later this week. Since the last cleaning significant biofouling has grown on the many of the stations surfaces.

The navigational light has been out for the past month. This is according to local fisherman who use this station as a navigational beacon at night.

The next cleaning will be performed within the next week.

CREWS Station Complete Cleaning in May

A complete cleaning (CTD validation, cleaned all sensors, chains, lines, and spar) at the CREWS Station in La Parguera, Puerto Rico, was done May 27th, 2010 by Wessley Merten and Duane Sanabria. The validation CTD was placed at 8:45am and was removed at 12:15pm. All surface and subsurface sensors were visibly intact. All rigging, lines, baseplates, sensors, and the spar are very clean. New screens were placed on the deep and shallow CTD's.