Calm waters surrounding the Little Cayman CREWS this week.  Our new OA lab is screaming busy with three simulation experiments running around the clock. (in the background)

Routine Maintenance

Routine maintenance occurred today.  There was a small blockage in one of the CTD inlets and once that was removed the salinity readings returned to normal.  All other instrumentation was cleaned and continues to report accurate information.

February Routine Maintenance

A spontaneous heavy rain storm on Thursday afternoon forced us to postpone the routine maintenance on CCMI2 until Friday, February 14th. Friday's morning waters were extremely flat calm, slowly growing rougher over the course of the day. The afternoon was an ideal time for Sam and Tom to share the Valentine's love and revisit CCMI2 for an inspection and clean.

There has been an important development over the past few weeks. Last time we visited the buoy,  the West-facing support buoy was closer to the surface than the East-facing support buoy. We assumed that was caused by the NE winds that day, giving the West-facing lines and chains more slack. However, over the past few weeks, we have noticed that the West-facing support buoy was partially emerged out of the water. Friday's visit was during a period of W winds, and the buoy was still sitting at the surface. This now confirms to us that the East-facing line, particularly the black elastic line that attracts gooseneck barnacles between the main buoy and the support buoy, has been ultimately stretched as a result of the predominantly NE winter winds. A decision regarding the need for replacing the line has not yet been made.

On the bright side, there were many fewer gooseneck barnacles to be plucked. The cleaning of the lines and structure dealt with mostly the same reddish-brown turf algae as before, but in slightly thicker abundance due to the warming weather. With low currents, the barnacles and clumps of algae that were sent slowly drifting down to the bottom quickly surrounded us in a murky cloud and caught the attention of many hungry queen triggerfish and black durgons.

All connection points and chains showed no signs of damage or change, with the exception of the duct tape surrounding the loop of rubber sheath on the lines near the anchor points. In this photo from early January, you can see that the duct tape has started to come off. Now, nearly two months later, it's almost entirely unravelled, but we'll continue to monitor it for any effect it may have on the splice.

Storm Damage Check & Clean-up

Today, a team of three divers visited the CCMI2 buoy during a short window of calm seas. Since January 16th, sustained winds have been predominantly from the north and in excess of 8-10 mps (15-19kts) with gusts up to 12mps (23kts), giving the CCMI2 plenty of pitch and roll. All sensors have been continually logging and transmitting, making the main focus of the dive to check for any structural damage and give the entire subsurface structure a good cleaning.

Tom and I began work cleaning the attachment lines, as algae and barnacles had been noted on the January 2nd inspection. The lines from the sea floor to subsurface attachment buoys were easy to clean and mostly only covered in a light layer of reddish-brown turf algae. The lines from the subsurface attachment buoys to the chains (which then attach to the buoy substructure) are partially made of elasticized rope, and appear to be preferred by gooseneck barnacles. Approx. 60 barnacles as well as more turf algae were removed from the lines.

Jon inspected the attachments, shackles and chains on the seafloor, noting that everything was in sound condition. The abrasion on the chain between the two attachment points seen on the Jan 2nd dive has not worsened.

I was then able to scrub the outsides of the metal substructure and clean the subBIC arm of more algae, removing a handful of gooseneck barnacles along the way. The eye of the subBIC was much less biofouled than on Jan 2nd, indicating that a 2-3 week cleaning frequency is likely optimum. Sacrificial anodes still have adequate material and the conductivity cell on the CTD was gently cleaned although relatively unaffected by algae.

All cables and connections topside appeared in place and unaffected. The solar panels are still clean and all MET instruments were operational upon visual inspection.

Until mid-February! See photos below.

Tom cleaning the main rope - scrubbing makes the rope go back to bright white. 

Sam picking barnacles off the black elasticized rope after being scrubbed for algae.

Sam cleaning the subBIC arm and metal structure of the buoy.

Welcome to the Maintenance Log for the CCMI2 CREWS station!

This station was installed on October 23rd, 2013.  It is an anchored buoy located just offshore from the Little Cayman Research Centre (LCRC) and is owned and operated by the Central Caribbean Marine Institute (CCMI) in collaboration with the Coral Reef Early Warning System (CREWS).  CREWS handles the data stream and ecoforecasting for this station, and operates out of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML).

This new buoy is located very close to (but not at the exact site of) the site of the original CREWS station in Little Cayman, which was a fixed pylon structure that was installed on July 22, 2009.  This original station was destroyed due to wave and weather effects from Hurricane Sandy on October 26th, 2012.  That station was known alternatively by the designations LCCI1 (Little Cayman, Cayman Islands the 1st) or LCIY2 (Little Cayman Island in the 'Y2' Geographic NDBC/NWS Region).  For simplicity we are referring to this new buoy as CCMI2 (CCMI's 2nd), although the National Weather Service in the US will also be giving it an all-numeric buoy designation.

For more information about the original station, please visit its Maintenance Log at this location:  http://lcci1-log.blogspot.com/

The new buoy's exact coordinates are

N 19° 41' 56.9"
W 80° 03' 39.4"

Here are some photos from the buoy's installation (credit: Rob Hedges, LCRC Director of Operations):

1-Assembly

2-Assembly

3-Crane

4-Sensors

5-Tow

6-Anchoring

7-Install

8-Complete

Full-sized versions of these photos may be obtained by clicking the images above.