Subject: (final) NEGOM-5 cruise report for 28 May
Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 10:09:33 EDT
From: GYRETAMU@aol.com
To: mkhoward@tamu.edu
CC: eshaar@ocean, carib@carbon.marine.usf.edu

We've been underway for Galveston since 11:00 CDT yesterday; making 10 knots speed so ETA there about 9 PM tonite. None of us wants to do Galveston to Galveston again, though, since it's a LONG two days each way to get to our NEGOM field area! Matt, thanks for the kudos you faxed; your fax is posted on chalkboard in galley. Frank, all USF objectives have been met, with MER casts the last few days in case 1 water off Mobile Bay and off Miss River delta. Water in both places looked more brown than green and both DOC and chl fluorometers gave high signal.

-doug sends

Subject: Arrival
Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 10:09:36 EDT
From: GYRETAMU@aol.com
To: fjk1776@gergl1, agnita@gergl1, mkhoward@tamu.edu

We will be dockside at about 8pm. Our speed over ground has increased to 9.7 knots. Boats run better going home.

Norman Guinasso

Subject: NEGOM 5 Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 16:19:35 EDT
From: GYRETAMU@aol.com
To: mkhoward@tamu.edu
CC: fjk1776@gergl1, agnita@gergl1, gyreops@tamug

We finished L01S01 at about 11:30CDT.
We are currently off the Southwest Pass Sea Buoy and are headed home to Texas.
The Captain said "we might be dockside at 19:30 CDT Friday."

Norman Guinasso 5/27/99 13:16 CDT

Subject: Report
Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 11:08:41 EDT
From: GYRETAMU@aol.com
To: mkhoward@tamu.edu
CC: fjk1776@gergl1, agnita@gergl1

We are in the process of doing N5L01S03 and should finish the line before noon. We estimate arrival in Galveston at the dock between 21:00 and 22:30 Friday evening. The water at the surface of this station looks much like that of the Mississippi River.

Norman Guinasso

9:35 CDT 5/27/99

Subject: NEGOM-5 cruise report - end of the lines
Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 11:08:33 EDT
From: GYRETAMU@aol.com
To: mkhoward@tamu.edu
CC: eshaar@ocean, dodie@ariel.met.tamu.edu, carol@century21bcs.com, carib@carbon.marine.usf.edu,
fmk1776@gergl1, gyreops@tamug

We're just about done with our hydrographic lines, now. At 07:35 CDT today Thursday 27 May, we finished CTD at L01S05 and we expect to finish the last station on this line, in water depth of 10 m just off SW Pass of Miss River, by 10:45 CDT. USF guys plan to do MER cast there. Then it's deadhead back to Galveston, 314 n miles west or 34 hours if we average 9 knots. This should put us back at the dock sometime about 10 PM Friday nite. On arrival, we'll load the rent truck (that we hope Frank has arranged) and then drive back to College Station in rent truck and TGLO van (that we hope Frank has arranged). It's been a good cruise and seas today are low; MarMam observers saw dwarf killer whale but no large (sperm) whales on Lines 4, 3, 2 or 1.

-doug biggs sends

Subject: NEGOM-5 cruise report for 25-26 May
Date: Wed, 26 May 1999 09:41:43 EDT
From: GYRETAMU@aol.com
To: mkhoward@tamu.edu
CC: eshaar@ocean, carib@carbon.marine.usf.edu, gyreops@tamug, arania@flash.net

We're progressing as scheduled; today 26 May we'll finish Line 3 inshore off Mobile Bay about 11 AM, and then run Lines 2 and 1, to finish off the Miss R delta tomorrow about local noon. Yesterday, the USF guys got a MER cast in the core of the low salinity (29 psu), brown-colored sfc water along Line 4. They'll do 2 more MER casts in case 1 water today, over inner shelf along Lines 3 and 2. MarMam observers spent yesterday and will spend today searching shallow water; they are hoping for calm seas tomorrow so they observers can search the deepwater between Lines 2 and 1, to see whether sperm whales are there. Our morale is good; all gear is working well and fishing is OK: Paul, Billy, and John trolled hand lines behind the ship yesterday and caught bonita and the first wahoo of the trip.
-doug biggs sends

Subject: NEGOM cruise 5 report for 24-25 May
Date: Tue, 25 May 1999 11:27:16 EDT
From: GYRETAMU@aol.com
To: mkhoward@tamu.edu
CC: eshaar@ocean, carib@carbon.marine.usf.edu, gyreops@tamug

Yesterday we finished Line 6 and by 8:30 CDT this morning we will have completed Line 5, ending just off the beach at Destin FL. We've documented off slope flow and relatively fresh surface water all along Lines 6 and 5 and on slope flow, compared with more saline surface water (35-36 psu) along Lines 7-8-9-10-11. We're today documenting the lowest SAIL salinity of the trip over the inner shelf along this Line 5 (less than 32 psu at L05S05 and S03). We are taking bucket salinity samples to see whether there may be even fresher water just at the surface.

We've arranged to rendevous with a small boat that will be coming out of Destin to meet us at L05S01C, to pick up a MAMES current meter array that found its way to Destin earlier this year. It's then on to Line 4 to pick up the shelf stations L04S00 to S05 that we didn't do early in the trip; USF guys will do MER casts inshore there later today. From L04S05C we'll head SW to L03S10C and then finish our hydrographic survey with Lines 3, 2, and 1. -doug biggs sends

Subject: Report
Date: Tue, 25 May 1999 11:27:21 EDT
From: GYRETAMU@aol.com
To: mkhoward@tamu.edu, fjk1776@gergl1, agnita@gergl1
CC: jbaggett@gergl1

We completed line 5 at 8:30CDT and spent 10 minutes meeting a small boat to pick up a MAMES current meter that a local Destin fisherman had recovered.
We are on our way to line 4. Our plan is to run line 4 out to S5 (where we took a ctd last week), repeat L4S5, and then cut across to the deep end of line 3. We will then repeat the rest of the stations as originally planned.

We have been having some problems with multiple bottles tripping on the rossette on our primary ctd. We switched to the backup unit last night. The new unit seems to be working well after Walpert adjusted the internal orientation of the stepping motor on its rosette.

Our best estimate of arrival in Galveston is 23:30 CDT Friday. Guinasso
5/25/98 9:37 CDT

Subject: NEGOM-5 cruise report for 23-24 May
Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 09:32:06 EDT
From: GYRETAMU@aol.com
To: mkhoward@tamu.edu
CC: eshaar@ocean, carib@carbon.usf.marine.edu, evansw@tamug, WEEBIO@aol.com, arania@flash.net

Today, 24 May, we're working CTD stations seaward from Panama City along Line 6. We did CTD station L06S13 on the 500 m isobath at 7:20 - 8:05 AM. It's "lumpy" today (seas running 3-5 feet, with whitecaps) so after this weekend of mostly flat calm weather, the MarMam observers won't be able to do much today, and it's solid overcast so USF won't get any MER casts today, either. We anticipate we will have finished Line 5 and be off Destin tomorrow morning, and then Lines 4-3-2-1 by noon on Thursday. From L01S01, it's a 34-36 hour run back to Galveston, so we're still looking at getting in to Pelican Island sometime between 10 PM and midnight on Friday evening 28 May.
-doug biggs sends

Subject: NEGOM-5 cruise report for 22-23 May
Date: Sun, 23 May 1999 09:55:38 EDT
From: GYRETAMU@aol.com
To: mkhoward@tamu.edu
CC: eshaar@ocean, gyreops@tamug, carib@carbon.marine.usf.edu, WEEBIO@aol.com,
arania@flash.net.evansw@tamug

Today Sunday 23 May we're progressing upslope along Line 7. Sunny and calm weather and calm seas continue. We're getting ready to do Sta 7 (200 m water depth) at 8:00 CDT. The calm seas are ideal for MarMam survey, and yesterday bigeye observers saw 2 fin (Bryde's!) whales along Line 8 in water depth 200-300 m, and they also made half a dozen sightings of sperm whales farther offshore. USF guys made 2 MER casts in Case 2 water along Line 8 yesterday; today they'll do another 2 casts in Case 1 water along Line 7. We haven't seen commercial long-line boats in our field area; we suspect the commercial fleet is farther west, in and around the cold-core eddy that our altimetry data tells us is west and south of where we are doing our survey lines.

-doug biggs sends

Subject: NEGOM-5 cruise report for 21-22 May
Date: Sat, 22 May 1999 09:47:58 EDT
From: GYRETAMU@aol.com
To: mkhoward@tamu.edu
CC: eshaar@ocean, gyreops@tamug, carib@carbon.marine.usf.edu, Rolfd2@aol.com

Today, Sat 22 May, we're working our way seaward along Line 8. At breakfast time, we were on CTD sta L08S09C. Breeze is light and seas are low so we're progressing as scheduled. No major problems to report. USF guys did a MER station yesterday over the inner shelf of FL Big Bend region, in area where 18 May SeaWiFS image showed high color. Underway sfc chl agrees this is a region of locally high chl although highest chl along Line 9 was at Sta 5, rather than at Sta 3 or Sta 1. We conclude the highest SeaWiFS color along the coast (false color red) is apparently due to DOC and not just to chl.
-doug biggs sends

Subject: NEGOM-5 cruise rpt for 20-21 May
Date: Fri, 21 May 1999 09:29:49 EDT
From: GYRETAMU@aol.com
To: mkhoward@tamu.edu
CC: gyreops@tamug, eshaar@ocean, carib@carbon.marine.usf.edu, wuersigs@flash.net

Station work is now down to a routine and instruments and people are working well (see Norm's comments sent separately about how BB ADCP was modified to operate in NB mode). We've completed Lines 11 and 10 and are working our way shoreward along Line 9 today, 21 May. At 6 AM, we were on station 7 (water depth 41 m); from here on in toward the inner shelf we expect to see increasingly high chlorophyll. We've confirmed locally high chlorophyll in the N-S streamers of locally greater color that can be seen along the eastern wall of the Loop Current in 18 May SeaWiFS image that USF sent out to us on 19 May; we intend to find out whether the high chl region over the inner shelf of the Big Bend is in a region of locally low salinity, or whether this might be an area of wind-driven divergence. MarMam observers yesterday saw the first sperm whale of this trip, along the 1000 m curve at start of Line 9. We measured surface currents in excess of 2 knots in this area along the 1000 m surve, between Lines 10 and 9, near the NE periphery of the LC.

-doug biggs sends

Subject: thurs pm shiprep
Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 15:55:55 EDT
From: GYRETAMU@aol.com
To: gyreops@tamug
CC: eshaar@ocean, Rolfd2@aol.com, mkhoward@tamu.edu
1500
hey everyone,
1 hour from the first station on line 9. everything going ok with excellant wx. seas 1 ft with clear sky. i have arrangements in the making to recover the mames bouy that was picked up by the charter boat capn. in destin fl. should be at that location tues afternoon. capn.dodiii

Subject: Daily report
Date: Wed, 19 May 1999 10:32:36 EDT
From: GYRETAMU@aol.com
To: mkhoward@tamu.edu, agnita@gergl1
CC: fjk1776@gergl1, gyreops@tamug, eshaar@ocean

NEGOM 5 Report

We completed line 11 finishing L11S01 at about 7:30CDT this morning. All equipment and personnel working well. Seas are light (1-2ft or less) and winds are less than 10kts.

We rendevoused with the R/V Price at 0805CDT which brought out some spare parts for the CTDs. We took about 10 minutes to do this transfer.

We began the transit to line 2 (hope they ment line 10.) from Buoy G11 in the Egmont channel about 0820CDT.

All the CTD work has gone well since the start of line 11.

Our best estimate at this point is that we will return to Galveston the evening of Friday 5/28/99.

Norman Guinasso 5/19/99 0836CDT

Subject: NEGOM-5 report for 17-18 May
Date: Tue, 18 May 1999 10:41:55 EDT
From: GYRETAMU@aol.com
To: gyreops@tamug
CC: mkhoward@tamu.edu, eshaar@ocean, carib@carbon.marine.usf.edu, wuersigs@flash.net

CTD hardware problems now resolved. We successfully did CTD casts and collected water samples at 5 stations on Line 4 (L04S05, L04S07, L04S08, L04S10, S04S12) and then continued ESE along 1000 m isobath.

Underway collection of ADCP and XBT data going fine. We will arrive at L11S18C about 11:30 CDT today and do CTD cast there to begin this cross-shelf line of 21 stations.

Tomorrow we will rendevous with small boat off Clearwater Beach FL which will bring us key spares that we've ordered from SeaBird Electronics. This should allow us to rebuilt/resurrect our 2nd CTD that has bulkhead connector problems.

USF guys have done dark current test and 2 MER casts; no problems with tandem fluorometry of surface chl and DOM or with logging SST and SSS.

MarMam observers report seeing Atlantic spotted and spinner dolphins and one Kogia and one pigmy sperm whale but no Physeter, yet.

doug biggs sends

Dr. Norman Guinasso made this report by phone 17-May-99 10:05 CDT.

The email and FAX systems are not operating but should be repaired later today.

The R/V Gyre departed Galveston 14-May-1999 22:00 CTD (15-May-99 03:00 UTC). They arrived at the Mississippi Canyon test station on Saturday (I think he must have ment Sunday - MKH). During the test cast the CTD failed at 25m due to electrical problems. The spare CTD was attached to the hydrowire as the ship transitted to the seaward end of line 1 where a successful deep test cast was made.

Sometime before reaching the seaward end of line 4, John Walpert learned of the death of his mother-in-law. The decision was made to turn shoreward on line 4, do the L4 stations in reverse order, and put John off in Pensacola. The CTD malfunctioned, again due to electrical problems, on every station during the shoreward run until reaching station L04S05. At this point and following further conversations with his family, John decided to stay aboard. The R/V Gyre turned seaward and headed south to station L04S07C where they were at the time of this report.

Attempts to get a working CTD system have exhausted supplies of pig-tails and vulcan waterproof connectors. Spares are being sent to Tampa by Bob Albers from GERG. A small boat may deliver the parts to the R/V Gyre at the shoreward end of line 11 but this remains to be worked out.

The cruise plan at this moment is as follows. The R/V Gyre will continue southward along line 4 occupying CTD stations as they go. After conclusion of the 1000m CTD cast on line 4 they will resume the cruise as planned until finishing the inner two CTD stations on line 4. Then they will survey Line 3, 2, then 1 starting at the shoreward end of line 3. This will be in the opposite direction from the original plan and will have them finishing the survey at the seaward end of line 1.

(Based on this information, I estimate the ship will return to Gavleston about 6:00pm Friday 28-May-1999 CDT - Matt Howard)