The R/V Oceanus offloaded personnel early this morning in Monterey Bay, bringing to a close the ship’s role in the second intensive operating period (IOP). The Oceanus weathered some sizable swells this past week and is currently steaming up to Newport with hopes of dodging another incoming storm in the north. This research vessel never sleeps.

To commemorate the hustle and bustle we have seen aboard these last twelve days, here is a science GIF (the best type of GIF, if you ask me!) from October 6th.

Mooring redeployment at dusk on October 6th aboard the R/V Oceanus

This sequence is from redeploying our second mooring (MS50-T). You can see us standing in a line on the deck of the ship, holding instruments in hand as we wait for the top float to be released overboard.

I have to admit that the feeling of putting those first few moorings back in the water– after an exciting and frenzied 24 hours between recovery and redeployment– was that of pride and relief: pride for how much we had accomplished in a short amount of time, and relief that the instruments were going back into the ocean where they belonged. As engineer Pavan Vutukur said when he saw the mooring returned to the water with numerous of his lab’s GusT instruments attached:

“Now that they’re going back? I feel so much better.”

We look forward to seeing those instruments again at the end of October. But for now, the sun has set on the second IOP aboard the Oceanus.

— Jenessa Duncombe and the R/V Oceanus team