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

16 May 2014

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

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.
Nuno, Teresa and Marco listening to Zé Pinto explain operational aspects of the project augmented by the three PIs.
Javier explaining the ocean model predictions we are using and how they contribute to our understanding with Mola movements.
Zé explaining the hardware an X8 UAV and a Seacon to Marco.
Zé explaining the hardware an X8 UAV and a Seacon to Marco.
Ze explaining the hardware an X8 UAV and a Seacon to Marco.
Earlier in the day, as news kept coming in about both weather conditions and which vessels could potentially be hired, we strategized repeatedly.
Lunch at the farm house.

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. While the Navy had more than willingly stepped in, events in the real world were such that a fisherman was lost in the rough sea in Olhão and the Navy was focused in trying to find this individual, as were the Maritime Police. 

 

Our IPMA sponsor, Nuno Lourenço was in the area and later to come to the farm house. And he too was pitching in asking around with our specific needs in mind. With regularity we, in the farm house would meet and go over the options after getting some details, many of which showed pictures of vessels ill suited to our needs. Iterate we did and repeatedly. 

 

Later in the evening, Nuno, Teresa Drago and Marco of the local IPMA office visited us in the farm house. And we grouped to give them an assessment of where we were and what we needed to get our experiment underway. Nuno, while not from the area, was actively looking and promised to dig up more contacts. The meeting ended late in the evening with us all disbanding after another frustrating day. Weather had also changed and it was nippy and windy, perhaps reflecting our inner mood.