Mounting worries and a lecture in Physical Oceanography of the Algarve
More twitching of thumbs and twitching of fingers as the Diplodus with new parts was still not operational. And with no clear trajectory out of this situation, the day was full of telephone calls from João Tasso and João Pereira. "Please, do you have a XXX type boat".
At last the first AUV survey around a Mola! and the hunt for a coastal UAV launch site
Finally, we got to go after one of our prized experiment goals. On Tuesday 13th, courtesy of the Portuguese Navy, we not only went out to sea, but also tracked the first set of Mola's with our AUVs.
Tracking swimming PIs, first tag & release and Marinha to the rescue
With the R/V Diplodus, our ostensible ship, out of commision, one would have thought Monday, the original start date of the experiment, would be a little slow. Apparently not.
Sunday was not precisely a day of 'rest'. Just slightly slower paced with the meticulous tag making process consuming a lot of man (and woman) hours of the team.
Saturday saw us thinking ahead as to what the various options are in working around the problems of the R/V Diplodus. With a late start, a brief strategy session was followed by a quick all-hands to get everyone on the 'same page'.
Friday May 9th seemed like another day with the UAV team doing the honors of waking up and leaving the farm house early to get onto the R/V Diplodus to get their shot at claiming readiness on the vessel. But there was a lot of dissapointment in store.....
Seacon AUV tests @sea and intense UAV ops @farm house
Thursday 8th saw more testing, as before at sea and at the farm house. At sea, the backup Seacon AUV was launched, tested with T-REX and recovered with a complex procedure involving a small spare boat with people in the water.
First sea day, more UAV tests and settling in into the farm house
Tuesday was our first big day in the Algarve. Around 7.15am we set sail from Olhão harbor on the R/V Diplodus. This was to be the first time for us to see how operationally we would work together with the crew and amongst ourselves.
