On Thursday Nov 3 the Hatteras left Gulfport for the final cruise of the year. This cruise will last 14 days and will take place mostly over the Gulf of Mexico’s Flower Garden Banks.
Info on the Flower Gardens can be found here.
The science party is tow-yoing their own CTD while the Hatteras “mows the lawn” or does a zigzag pattern over the East Flower Garden Banks. The CTD is towed behind the ship while being yo-yoed or constantly either raised or lowered. They keep a constant eye on the depth and contour of the sea floor with the ship’s echosounder so that they don’t fly the CTD into the bottom.
On the second day out there was a trial run with the CTD to check wire angles and safety of deployment and recovery. It was found that some changes needed to be made so we headed into calmer waters up the Southwest pass of the Mississippi River to make the changes. The changes worked out well and the CTD was brought back on deck this morning for a quick inspection after 24 hours of tow-yoing over the East Flower Garden Banks.
Weather: mostly sunny, 78 degrees, winds 14 knots, seas 4 feet