Wd someone please copy & paste the reports for June 24 & 25 to somewhere here on the Forum?
Despite repeated attempts, I cannot reach a Week 3 webpage that shows anything later than 6/23.
Many thanks!
Dateline: 25 June 2015, 13:00 EDT, at sea.
Land Team
The Nutiran beach, taken in 2007.
On Wednesday Ric took a small group from the
Fiji Princess ashore and up to Nutiran to look at the environment they've been working in. By moving slowly and resting frequently, everyone was able to make it there and back without injury. It’s a long way to walk in difficult conditions after five rough days at sea.
Tom King and Lonnie took another group into the Village to see the layout and history there. One person was not able to return under his own power.
ROV
The ROV team ran a Hail Mary pass. The attempt to get the framework of the ROV to act as a sled failed. There was one more thing left to try, and they did it.
Every waterproof camera available was tied, physically, onto a powered line, with the HD camera with laser scale at the bottom, pointing down. A further line was added, about 1.5 meters long, with a dive weight on the end. A skiff was positioned carefully over the anomaly (using GPS lat/long), and the camera string was lowered 200 meters. Once at the bottom, the HD camera took shots every five seconds while Ron carefully raised the line a few feet, lowered it again, raised it, lowered it, walking it along.
In all, 432 images were captured. Topography and details are visible in 100 to 150 of them. Some interesting things are visible, and no geological explanation for the anomaly was seen. This is high definition imagery, with a scale included. A “snail trail” can also be generated from internal information on the camera. We look forward to the analysis.
Departure
By 2 p.m. everyone was aboard except the ROV team, who worked until sunset.
Nai’a was underway by 6 p.m. Seas were moderate and expected to remain so for another day or so; but the closer they draw to Fiji the rougher the weather is going to be. We may not be able to get a good satellite link but if possible I will track their progress here.
Dateline: 24 June 2015, 13:00 EDT, Nikumaroro
See Thursday, 25 June; no report due to power outage at TIGHAR headquarters.
Dateline: 23 June 2015, 13:00 EDT, Nikumaroro
Land Team
Yesterday Ric, Gary, Andrew Sanger, and Rodney went back to Nutiran and covered the intersection between the beach and the buka, from the top of the berm to about 50 meters inland, and from the northwest tip down to just past
Norwich City. A few manmade objects were found but nothing that could have anything to do with our primary search.
Meanwhile, Lonnie, Mark, and Andrew McKenna walked from the landing channel along the south shore, crossed Baureke Passage, rounded the tip at the Coast Guard station, and ended up at the Seven Site, filming as they went.
The Seven Site is, predictably, a disaster, grown in with scaevola nine to ten feet tall. The ren tree which figured so largely in our work there has fallen over. The camera platform Mark made out of ladders and plywood is a mess; the ladders are there, but the plywood has rotted out. But they got great video.
Lonnie performed an experiment with the inverting eyepiece from Lee’s sextant, and was able to start a fire with it. It wasn’t easy, but it worked. So one piece of speculation is proved in theory, although not, of course, in fact.
They walked back, arriving at the landing just before dark, dead beat but successful.
Today, Gary will take a land team into the old village to re-locate a particular site, a house known as “John Manybarrels” because there were a dozen or two large metal barrels there. We found some interesting things there in the past, and it’s worth trying it again. However, given the condition of the rest of the island, it won’t be too surprising if the house is unfindable or simply gone.
ROV
We could not re-locate the fender target. The focus is now on the anomaly.
The motherboard is toast. Apparently a power surge occurring during the course of the repairs killed it. It is now rigged with all the gear and functioning as a sled for instrumentation and cameras.
Nai’a can take station over the anomaly and hold with her engine – necessary because the wind has dropped off and will no longer hold her out against the moorings. We should get the coverage we need, although there are variables that can’t be controlled. The dive team will support this work today as their formal mission is finished.
Notes:
Fiji Princess arrived at 2 p.m. local time.
This is the last full day of work. By tomorrow lunchtime breakdown will start.
FWIW, I retrieved these from the dailies for Week 3, as a courtesy to you. You may need to "refresh your browser" in order to see this material for yourself.
