September 26, 2009
Punta del Viento, Tenerife, September 26, 2009
Today is one of those days where it’s almost better not to do anything at all.
We have 5 hours of sailing until the next sampling point, Punta del Viento. Therefore, it was decided last night to anchor near los Cristianos to rest up a bit and weigh anchor at 1:00 a.m.
When we woke up in the morning, we were already at the dive site. First off, a dive with the divers. As they came back to the ship, they all said the same thing: “pretty scenery with vertical rocky drop-offs, but not much life. A genuine blanquizal (rocky bottom)”.
Then a ROV submersion. A little after the submersion began, we came across some fishing buoys in our path that did not allow us to follow the desired course. To avoid any possibility of entangling the ROV in the ropes, we changed our course. Then it was the current that prevented us from continuing on our desired course, continuously taking us to greater depths. Finally, as we were unable to coordinate the ship and the ROV, we aborted our operations.
It was better to dock in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and try again tomorrow with better luck.