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September 15, 2009

El Hierro. Tuesday, September 15, 2009

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©OCEANA/ Carlos Suárez

 

Today we awoke off of “La Restinga” at the extreme south of Hierro Island. As soon as we arrived, we concentrated on performing the first bathymetry to locate the spots where Ricardo wanted the ROV submersion. After locating them, I left the ship to Pairo to study the abatement and decide which will be the best strategy of the transect that interest the campaigns.

Today’s ROV submersion has been the most interesting one from the Oceana Ranger control standpoint. The changing wind and current conditions have forced us to use four different maneuvering procedures to take the craft to the depths where the study was carried out. I had a good time because things were varied but not as screwed up as they sometimes are where “there’s no way”. As on all southern capes of the islands, the winds pick up, and maneuvering becomes, at the very least, complicated. But today we’re coming back to port with a feeling of a mission accomplished. It seems untrue, but 500 meters sounds like a normal working depth to us now. The Ranger is “a machine”, the ROV is coming along fine, and the people are tireless.

In the afternoon, once we were tied up at La Restinga, we prepared for a dive from the harbor with the skiff, as the spot is “a stone’s throw from the deck”.

Invading Goths, Guanches without a federation, Iberians who want to be from elsewhere, descendents of Berbers with “tied up” RH, Americans with Lapp origins or somewhere around there, and the Frenchman on duty who could not fail to appear, we finished the day at the pueblitosub in bars and tasting tapas at Saharan latitudes as if it were the norm… well just that, Ranger expedition “yes we can”.