Crew members remove cleats from the back deck
in preparation for bringing science gear aboard.

The R/V Sally Ride leaves tomorrow morning for its first science verification cruise (SVC)! Click here for the previous blog post with more information about the project. Today was spent loading all the science equipment onboard, and securing it. First, the setup on the fantail had to be changed to accommodate the science plan. Cleats and other items that were stored on the back deck had to be removed in order to fit all the science gear and the plan to deploy it over the next two weeks.

Click here for the 360 degree view of the setup. 

The Hodgkiss laboratory is located at the Marine Physical Lab in Point Loma, so all their gear just had to be transported down to the wharf via forklift. It took more than 40 trips to get everything alongside the ship. Then it was lifted with the ship’s crane, and brought over onto the back deck of the ship.

Everything will have to be secured, either on deck or in the lab, before we leave tomorrow morning.

Scientist Gabriela Chavez uses a forklift
to move buoys down to the wharf.

These provide 500lbs of buoyancy to keep the
instruments straight in the water column.