Our week ended a bit early, with a port call Thursday-Monday, so we are in England for the weekend.  Week 2 did not go as smoothly as the first week, but we managed to get some good work done. The sonar system was down the first three days, but valiant attempts by the crew to repair it paid off, and we covered about 13 nautical miles of seabed.  We do not have any spectacular targets, but there is one that is very intriguing – not in that it’s the BHR, but we have no idea what it is.  On the sonar, it appears as two perfect large white rings, almost intertwined, and each one is 12 meters in diameter, and about 3 meters thick.  The sonar experts pronounced it “bizarre.”  It is within diving depths, so we may check it out. I could not get a good screen capture of it, but hopefully will this week and will share it with you.

I am feeling a little bruised and battered from fighting the movements of the ship in the swells, and trying to constantly maintain balance, but not always succeeding. My daily commute is transfer by zodiac from one vessel to another in order to watch the sonar data coming in, and then going back to the other ship in the evening to see the results from diving and AUV operations. I’m getting to be an expert at putting on the bulky orange jumpsuit that’s needed for protection against cold and waves during the transfers. I continue to be impressed with the efficiency of the French Navy – launching and recovering the zodiac takes about 4 minutes, and they do it several times a day.  The divers operate out of zodiacs as well, and each dive takes 4-6 divers in the boat who each get a ten-minute dive.  It is an easier process than I thought and again, very efficient.

Morale was getting a little lower than normal with the heavy swells and difficulty sleeping, and everyone was working very hard, so….it was time for a barbeque on deck with sausages, lamb chops, pasta salad, melon, appetizers, and ice cream bars for dessert.  The Captain and several crew members from the sonar ship came over to join us as well.

Next week I’ll be living on the small sonar ship, since I spent this week on the dive support ship, and I want to get a feel for all operations, and get to know as much of the crew as possible.  This mission is unusual for all involved, because they usually conduct missions for 2-3 days, and stay a lot closer to home in Brest, FR.  It’s just another very special aspect of this adventure!