TRIP REPORT 6000.14/6000.21 - JULY 21 - 29, 2001

21 July

1630 Andy Ziegwied and I left my home for Hobby airport.

1810 We caught a flight to Atlanta with a change of planes for Myrtle Beach. The departure of the Myrtle Beach flight was delayed.

2310 We departed Atlanta for Myrtle Beach as our flight had been delayed.

22 July

0015 We arrived in Myrtle Beach, got a car, and drove to Southport, NC.

0230 We arrived in Southport, and realized our reservations were for the Hampton Inn in Myrtle Beach. As there were no rooms available in Southport, we drove back to Myrtle Beach.

0400 We checked into the Hampton Inn in Myrtle Beach for the night.

1000 We got up talked to Carl Miller and made arrangements to meet him and John Land at 1200 in Southport.

1200 We checked into the Hampton Inn in Southport and met Carl and John.

1230 We attended a Sediview orientation and training session.

1830 Finished with the training session.

23 July

0700 Everyone met at the USCG station for a morning briefing. The seas were quite rough and the winds were out of the south about 15 to 20 kts. The divers with Andy and Ray Townsend headed out to reset the ADCP gauges on the mound, Bald Head, and Oak Island if possible.

Carl and I met with Jesse McNinch of VIMS and Charles Machen of the R/V Langley to determine what could be done. Jesses could not work as the weather was too rough; so we decided to turn the boat over to sampling and obtaining calibration data for John Land. As we would have to anchor from the bow, we could not use Jesse’s mount; therefore, we had to have a new one built. I sketched one out, and we went to Bridge View Welding to have it done. Bill Hewitt said he could do it at night on overtime, and Carl authorized that.

1018 I went to Oak Island to look at that system. When I got there, I found everything was turned off. I rebooted the computer, and it came up, but Wavesmon did not. I checked and found the power supply to the ADCP was on, but that it was not working. It had a blown fuse; so Carl went to get a new fuse while I looked at the cable. Chuck Abbott had reported that all conductors were more than 50 kohms between them; whereas, I was reading considerable less than that. Additionally, I was reading 0 ohms between a couple of wires.

Carl came back with new fuses, and I installed one which immediately blew. It was obvious that the power supply was blown up. On further investigation, I found that the transorb between the two power leads was blown up (blown in two), and the transorb from power ground to ground was shorted out. It appeared to me that the cable had been hit by lightning and had blown out the transorbs and the power supply. There was no telling what the situation with the meter might be, but it did not look good.

I checked the setup of the computer with Chuck and got it set so that it would send files out automatically without a problem. I asked Chuck to find another power supply and send it to us. After that there was nothing more I could do with the Oak Island site as the divers reported that they could not get to the gauge today.

1630 I went by the welding shop to check on the frame and clarified a few things with Bill. He said he would have it finished by 0700 in the morning; so we headed back to the Coast Guard station to meet the boat. When they got in, they reported that the conditions were very rough, but that they had been able to do both the crest and deep mound sites. The crest meter had collected good data; however, the deep meter did not collect data due to an error in the TF command. They had also retrieved the LISST25 which was very badly covered with growth. Chuck Pottsmith reported that the LISST25 did not collect any data, and he later determined that there was a firmware problem that prevented the meter from taking the batch file commands properly. It appears that the batch file commands locked the meter up. As it has to have batch file commands to operate in the manner desired, it could not be setup to operate. Chuck was going to fix the problem in his room at night.

1830 Quit and headed back to the CG station.

1853 Back at the hotel

2230 I copied the data from the Crest to CD.

24 July

0700 Brian and I picked up the ADCP mount on the way to the CG station. We all met there for the morning briefing. The weather was still very bad; so it looked as though there was no chance to do any sampling offshore. The divers were to go out early and do the River gauge while we got everything ready on the Langley. The ADCP mount looked like it would work OK; but John needed Winriver to run the ADCP. I, therefore, went over to the Oak Island site so that I could download it off the internet.

0900 I returned with Winriver, and John and I set up the system for his sampling. After learning that the power strip was off, it set up fine. Grace Battisto set up her pump sampler; and we headed for the River2 site which has been reset by the dive boat.

1100 We began to sample at the River2 site, and continued to take samples all afternoon while the divers reset Bald Head.

1853 We finished sampling and wrapped up for the evening.

2200 I copied the data obtained from River2 and from the sampling to CD.

25 July

0730 Attended the morning meeting. The intent was to do Oak Island and then Bald Head with the divers, and for the Langley to sample at the mound. If the Oak Island meter was bad, then move to Bald Head, but if it was good to concentrate our efforts there. We also got word that the Corps dredge pipe is still in the way preventing the cable from being run to shore at Bald Head.

I picked up the power supply that Chuck had sent and headed over to Oak Island

1000 The divers were at Oak Island, and I checked the cable with Ray. The continuity was good on all connectors (reading between 79.4 and 80.8 ohms). Additionally, there were no shorts between conductors or the armor as all combinations showed infinite resistance. Andy attempted to work on the meter, but he could not talk to it at all. The also appeared to be no data in the flash memory. I checked the computer on shore and found that there had been data collected until 1400 on July 2 when the meter was apparently hit by lightning. I called Bill Young at RDI and got an RMA number (R4812) for meter 1091 so that we could send it back immediately for repair. I also checked on the status of the meter that is currently being repaired, and Bill reported that it could not be shipped until 8 August.

I went back out to the CG station to meet the boats. The Langley had to come in a bit early due to a problem with the pump’s electrical cable. I agreed to splice it for Grace. The divers came in a bit early as it was too rough to work on the cannister at the mound and the current was too swift at the River site. I spliced 100 ft. of our SO cable into Grace’s pump cable and left it overnight for the potting to set up.

1800 Headed back to the Hotel.

26 July

0700 Attended the morning meeting. It was determined that the divers would reset the River2 gauge and then would go out to reset the mound meters and the ADV. The Langley was to sample offshore at Bald Head and then at the mound. I would get trained on the LISST25 and run the ADCP for John. We had the LISST25 training while Grace connected the new cable, and we then headed for Bald Head for sampling.

We sampled at Bald Head for several hours until it was decided that we might break the wire holding the sampler as the seas were quite rough. The divers reported that they could not work on the ADV as it was too rough offshore; therefore, they decided to go back to the CG station and practice with the new ADV frame.

As it was too rough to work offshore, we sampled at a site just inside the inlet on the east side and then at the River2 site.

1748 We finished at the River2 site and headed back to the CG station.

1830 We were done for the day and headed back to the hotel.

2200 I copied the data to CDs.

27 July

0700 We had the morning meeting and determined that the divers would attempt to do Bald Head, the mound, and the ADVs. It was too rough for the Langley to sample; so I would go to Bald Head to move the shore station. Carl headed home after taking John to the airport, and Grace headed home.

1000 I caught the ferry to Bald Head, rented a cart, and drove over to the Lingenfelter’s and the Porter’s. I met with Bob and Judy Porter and went over what we needed to do and how. I then went and got all the equipment from the Lingenfelter’s and moved it to the Porter’s. I drilled a hole in the floor of the closet for the cable and ran it to the J-box which I mounted on one of the supports. I still need to add one 2 x 4 to the mount for the J-box and to wire up the shore cable. I checked the computer and the internet connection which all worked well. NOTE: THE LAND LINE IS A DIRECT CALL AND DOES NOT NEED THE AREA CODE!! I started a place for the AC to be added in the closet, and Bob said he would finish it. I ran out of staples for the cable, and I need to add some to neaten up the cable on the outside of the house.

1630 Caught the ferry back to Southport. Andy reported that they were able to do Bald Head, but that it was too rough to do anything on the mound; so they quit early.

2345 I got back to the hotel, copied The Bald Head data to CD, cleaned up and ate dinner. We plan to do the rest of the ADCPs and the one ADV tomorrow.

28 July

0630 Met at the CG station. I put new batteries in the LISST25 and then set it up with the bat file: LB 01 DS, LB 02 GR 10, LB 03 WT 3540, LB 04 GT 02 at 0611 EST. The meter started and the green LED showed for the 10 samples. I could not check the wait time, however. Ray and Andy ware going to put Desitin all over it except on the glass. The divers departed to do the mound and the ADV while I headed back to put things back at Oak Island, write a report, and get everything ready to store. The weather had changed to a north wind; so the divers might be able to work offshore.

I picked up the package from Bill Grogg containing the replacement transorbs and the surge protector for the RS422 lines for Oak Island, and I drove over to Oak Island. I reinstalled the computer and other equipment in the case, and put the transorbs and protector in the J-box. I then talked to the dive boat and was told that they were on the mound at the crest, and it looked like they would be able to do the ADCPs but not the ADV as it was quite rough.

After finishing at Oak Island, I went back to the CG station to get all the equipment ready to store. I started to inventory the equipment in the large green tub and separate the equipment to take back to Houston from that to be stored at Duck. Attached is a list of the equipment in the large green plastic tub which Ray will take back to Duck.

2345 The dive boat returned after resetting the ADCPs on the crest and offshore at the mound. They also installed the LISST25 on the east bipod and cleaned the ADV and the OBS gauges. They did not attempt to recover the cassette or install the second cassette as it was too rough.

We packed up all the equipment, loaded Ray’s carryall and our car, said goodbye to the divers, and then headed for lunch with Ray.

2345 We ate lunch and then headed to Myrtle Beach to catch our flight.

1840 We caught our flight to Atlanta and waited for our flight to Houston.

2345 We caught our flight from Atlanta to Houston.

2345 We arrived in Houston, picked up our luggage, and drove home.

July 29

0100 I arrived home.

1000 I copied the data from the deep mound and the crest to CDs.