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Journals 2005/2006

James J. Dornicik
Ward Melville High School, East Setauket, New York

"Investigating Vertical Mixing at Eddy A4"
R/V Oceanus
July 14 - August 5, 2005
Journal Index:
July 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20
       21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25 - 26 - 27
        28 - 29 - 30 - 31
August 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5

July 27, 2005
Preparations and first launch of the sampling sled

Today we re-loaded all of the sampling equipment and readied the sled for its first sampling deployment.

At 18:00, after supper, the sled was ready to go the seas were calm enough and we started the process. It takes about an hour to launch the sled. The form it takes in the water is as follows. First we attach a 500lb weight to a cable and lower it over the side. Then ten integrated samplers are placed on the wire about every 5 meters.

Next the sled gets tied in and gets lowered into the water. Now on the cable holding the sled we again attach ten integrated samplers every five meters. Finally the sled is lowered to the correct sampling depth. Once at that depth we trigger all the integrated samplers using a messenger weight. This triggers all the bottles to start taking in water. They will take in water for the next 12 hours. On the sled itself the syringes are programmed to take a sample on timed intervals over the next 12 hours. Last step is to sit and wait.