All Hands (I've always wanted to say that),
Do you want the good news or the bad news? Since there isn't any good news I'll go with the bad.
--The tether has been cut all the way through. Someone was kind enough to connect the two pieces together with some 3/4" nylon line. We removed the nylon and connected the two pieces of tether together with two bowlines. The cut was about 15' from the MOBY end.
--Two of the solar panels have been smashed and are probably not operational. One is right above the tether termination and the other is next to it. I'm not a betting man but if I was I would say this has something to do with the tether issue.
--The drogue is missing. It parted at the point above the pressed on wire cable termination at the bottom of the "Y". All of the "Y" that attaches to the can of the buoy was there except the very bottom eye part. The plastic jacketed wire cable just corroded away, after 4 weeks in the water. And it was all brand new wire.
--Multiple connectors on the weather buoy enclosures have been broken, both the battery and the controller enclosures. I don't know if the water tight integrity has been compromised but I recovered both and will return them to Oahu to be rebuilt. Steve is bringing the Pacific Maid to Oahu soon, hopefully next week, and he will transport them for me.
And I got sunburned. Other than that how did you like the play Mrs. Lincoln? I guess it wasn't all bad, we did get a good day of dirty calibrations in and tomorrow, Tuesday, should be nice enough to do the clean cals. I've got photos and I'll get them to Steph to post when I return to Honolulu.
See ya,
Eventfull day at the buoy : day2 email
Hi guys,
As bad as Monday was Tuesday was better. It was beautiful weather wise and we got a complete set of calibrations collected.
We also replaced a broken solar panel and should be good to go on that front, at least for the time being.
I've been accused of being contrarian before so might as well go with the reputation. I say we don't do anything as far as public relations goes. I realize most people don't agree with that but MOBY has had an amazing record being deployed where it is. I worked on the Gulf Coast and I can guarantee you it wouldn't have lasted one month before it was vandalized beyond repair if there was anything left to recover. We could have recovered the lead from all the bullets so there is that I guess. There has been a few times when we were out doing calibrations at MOBY where fisherman have been downright hostile towards us. Scolding and taking pictures and cursing at us to not tie off to the buoy. My feeling is that the less attention you draw the better. If you get the media involved and maybe the Coast Guard there could be some unforeseen ramifications. There is a lot to be said for flying under the radar. This is an unfortunate incident but it was definitely an accident and whoever did it was concerned enough to try to correct their mistake. It is easier to replace a solar panel than chase MOBY around the islands and tow it back to the location, at least for me. The problems with the weather buoy enclosures are not vandalism, I am convinced we caused the broken connectors when we were attached to the buoy during the last deployment.
I have posted some photos to my Dropbox space. The zip file MOBY_L199 are the photos taken by my iphone and I did caption them with iphoto but I don't know if you will be able to read those. I can explain them to anyone if needed. The zip file MOBY_L199_underwater are the regular photos Steve takes of the collectors with a couple of the repaired tether.
Let me know if you have any problems with the photos,
Terry
Recent buoy trip report: Email from Terry 16 Feb 2012
Stephanie,
Mark asked me to send you a note about what we know in connection with the recent buoy tether and solar panel issues.
Steve Juarez from Hawaiian Rafting Adventures on Maui told me what he was able to find out. A trailer boat from Kahalui caused the damage when they ran into the MOBY buoy apparently from inattention and got their propeller tangled in the tether. They were able to tie up to the weather buoy and then cut the teather into two pieces to free the boat. After the boat was free they took off and left to buoy to drift. From the damage we observed the boat must have been a little sore. Steve knows the name of the Kahalui boat but I've forgotten it. One of the charter boats out of Lahaina Harbor that was also fishing the buoy, Start Me Up, chased down the drifting MOBY and was able to drag it back to the tether and reconnect the two pieces for us. Mighty neighborly thing to do if you ask me. At this point we have not contacted the owner of Start Me Up to thank them for the help but it is something we need to do.
Terry
