We have recovered all of our (SIO, Feddersen) instruments, and the fun of sorting out and QCing the data has begun, however, I thought I’d share a sweet tale of loss and love. We were fortunate to only leave 2 instruments at Pt Sal, drifter 23 and 24, although I do believe their fate may have always been intertwined. Their tale begins during experiment preparation during final drifter assembly, when drifters were being labeled with a sharpie: 1… 27 – then 23 and 24 were shipped to Pt Sal, right next to each other in a large box. During IOP-1, both 23 and 24 rose to the occasion and provided excellent data from which internal waves, fronts, and surface waves were observed. However, on the final day of IOP-1, Sept. 17, drifter 23 (red in the figure) decided he/she wasn’t long for this world and sacrificed itself (for science, I presume) on the rocks, either that or that the point (0,0) in Pt Sal (x,y) is some sort of worm hole? (actually, we checked some mooring lines, which were kelp free! delaying recovery of 23). Regardless, we had finally lost a drifter, much to everyones dismay (delight?).

Now drifter 24 was sad, however, he/she performed admirably throughout IOP-2 collecting much data. On the final day of IOP-2 (Oct. 14), about 1 month after losing drifter 23, 24 decided enough was enough and attempted to reunite with 23. Upon release at 8:05, 24 went directly shoreward (green in figure), hitting the surfzone at 12:39. Realizing that 23 was 1 km to the south, 24 stumbled down the beach for 4 hours, getting about 200 m from 23’s final resting place. At this point, after stumbling down the beach for 4 hours (a difficult task for an old drifter from the 80s), 24 needed a rest. After a long 24 hour nap, drifter 24 made tje final push south toward 23, coming to rest about 100 m from his partner in science. Although we mourn the loss of these two drifters, we are happy they are once again together enjoying their retirement on a beautiful coastline. (in the figure, contours are at 2.5 m intervals, and the 20 m contour is thick)