Shortly after I left to head back to the US from our annual maintenance of the Crews Buoy our buoy developed a communications problem. In as much that we lost all RF and Cellular comms rendering any contact impossible. This could have been due to any number of issues so a return trip was planned to get the buoy up and running as soon as possible.
The buoy was pulled out by the Little Cayman team and brought on shore Monday December 2nd. Shortly after I arrived we opened up the Battery Junction Box and had a thorough inspection of the 12v power supply and controller. Upon closer inspection it was found that the fuse that protects the CR1000 data logger had blown. This in turn controls the cellular modem and RF401 so was immediately diagnosed as the issue concerning communications. With this fuse replaced we waited 48hrs to determine if the fuse would blow again and if there was an underlying issue with the fuse circuit. After 48hrs we determined that the buoy was fit to be re-deployed and that the issue was an anomaly perhaps created by a weak fuse or a small power spike. I also took this opportunity to inspect the Met Junction box fuses and replace the desiccant in both Junction boxes.
The buoy will be re-deployed when a suitable weather window is observed and with any luck we will get back to business of collecting data!
