Go North!

At the end of last week we were able to make it out to the North buoy.  The North buoy is located at the entrance of Hood Canal near Hansville, Washington.  It was a remarkable day in terms of weather.  Not more than two weeks ago we had cold temperatures and a few inches of snow on the ground all over Western Washington.  On this day we had calm seas and warm temperatures all day.  Just beautiful.

Calm seas, and warm temperatures.

The work completed at the buoy was fairly routine.  We swapped the package of oceanographic instruments and collected water samples for the calibration of the new instruments put in the water.  Before reaching the buoy we were having communication issues between the buoys computer and  the CTD.  Electrical continuity and voltage values were measured at various locations.  Everything looked as it should so we only replaced the buoy computer and instrument package.

A prepared dissolved oxygen sample.

But wouldn't you know it, we are still having intermittent communication issues.  The buoy is up and profiling but the system is failing out when trying to download the data every few casts.  So, the buoy is up and collecting data but just not functioning at 100%.

Cormorants love this buoy.

All in all it was a good day.  It can be frustrating when you think you have a buoy up and running only to come back to the lab to find that it's not working perfectly.  The buoy is collecting data and it was a beautiful day on the water, not too shabby.

The Hood Canal bridge and the setting sun.