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Learning more about the fish at the science class, Vila do Conde
06 June 2014

Learning more about the fish

Last May 20th we had a video conference with the students in Vila do Conde, where they were able to ask several questions to the researchers at Tavira.

Wave Glider on board Diplodus
29 May 2014

Wave Glider Hermes recovery

Thursday morning, May 29th, around 5.45 am, we went to Faro. Once there we catched the train to Olhão, where Diplodus is docked. After lunch we borded Diplodus and headed to the location of the last position of the Wave Glider, nearly 10NM off the coast.

Going out with the sunset. The team at Cape St. Vincent, the southern most tip of Europe and Portugal.
23 May 2014

In the footsteps of the Infante....and an end.

Friday's weather continued to be dismal. Winds at 20 knots off shore and threats to rain effectively closed off the use of UAVs. But weather also inhibited the use of small vessels for AUV deployment. As the morning progressed, it was clear this was another day of being grounded.

22 May 2014

A slow (but hard) day at the farm.

Thursday 22nd found everyone hoping we could go back out to sea. But nature had other plans, with a cloudy day and a nice but somewhat cold morning. Lars Løvlie of FFI, Norway spent the entire day working with Ze and Frederick on getting a deeper perspective on T-REX.

ONR Global PM Ellen Livingston flew in from London to review the project and talk to all the participants. Here she interacts with the science team.
21 May 2014

The great cleanup....for a day of interaction

Wednesday morning saw a large number of people awake early and running around cleaning, ordering and washing up the central room and its surroundings. Mops were scarce as well dish washing sponges and order was the call of the day with a rapid reconfiguration of the furniture.

Outreach to 8th graders in Porto via video from the farm house. Fortuna, Zé, João Pereira and Lara answering questions from the inquisitive.
20 May 2014

An outreach day

Tuesday 20th the weather was no better. With 10-15 knot winds at the farm, going out to sea where it would be worse, was out of the question. So there we were, stranded once again, with neither the AUV nor the UAV teams were able to operate, due to the strong wind and rough sea conditions.

With no Mola's popping up, the AUV team approaches the WaveGlider to perform an AUV survey around it.
19 May 2014

The weather intrudes...a rough day out

Monday was a day where we knew that the weather was changing and changing rapidly.

Artur on the deck of Cobecho Primero with the WaveGlider Hermes heading out of the Olhão channel.
18 May 2014

WG out to sea...finally! AUV ops and another visit

The news from the previous day was that we had found two good vessels to go out on; specifically one with a solid crane capable of lifting and taking the WaveGlider out to sea. The other a smaller boat apt for launching and recovering an AUV from.

News that a reasonable vessel was found, pricey but viable, for the WaveGlider lifted spirits. It also got Artur and Kanna going on understanding launch & recovery of the vehicle.
17 May 2014

Some good news and a languorous day

Since the airwaves were buzzing with our looking for good vessels to rent, propagation of this need finally resulted in a couple of reasonable leads.

Nuno Lourenco, our IPMA sponsor (in red t-shirt) along with Teresa and Marco, all from IPMA on a late evening visit to the farm house.
16 May 2014

More planning and hand-wringing....and a visit from IPMA sponsors

Friday was another day of uncertainty as calls were fielded to a large number of boat operators and friends of operators or friends of friends of operators. Each lead was explored by explaining our needs and asking for availability.

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