Seamounts Cruise
April 27, 2004–May 8, 2004
Day 1
We departed at 06:00 and planned to transit all the way south to San Juan
Seamount in time to dive tomorrow. The weather was clear, sunny, and
completely calm (Duanne Thompson took this photo of the ship in front of
MBARI while returning from a mooring trip aboard the Zephyr). Unfortunately, when we were part way down the coast of Big
Sur, the ROV pilots discovered that a power spike experienced yesterday
while they were testing the ROV caused damage to the power can. 
You can see the burned part (blackened, near center) of a computer board
(green) in the ROV's power can that got hit with a power spike (image to the
right). We returned to Moss Landing for spares and stood offshore while they
replaced the smoked board and made sure that the one component was the
extent of the problem. We set off again at about 17:30, with strong
afternoon breezes making the seas a bit choppy. Our destination is now
Rodriguez Seamount, where we hope to be on site for a dive by 11:00
tomorrow.
View
of the Point Sur rock and lighthouse, while we were heading south at about
09:00.
On our way north to repair the ROV, one of the ship's propulsion motors overheated again, setting off a smoke alarm, so half our return home was on one engine. This is the same problem that had crippled the ship for the last two months. They have decided to proceed with the caveat that the motors not be driven at 100%. Our transit to Rodriguez Seamount is on one engine anyway to conserve fuel, since our detour today used up a lot of our reserves.
ROV
pilots replacing the board in the power can (l to r: Buck, Dave - hidden,
Buzz and Randy).
Point
Lobos as we head south again, near sunset, 19:45.