High winds, rough seas and winch problems

High winds, rough seas and winch problems

January 16-19, R/V pelican Transit from the coast of Jamaica to Haiti along the Jamaica Seaway. Beneath the ocean, on the ocean floor, we can track the linear trajectory of the submarine’s Enriquillo-Plantain garden fault on a surface map. We collected sedimentary cores at night.

We had issues with the winches and cables supporting the Giant Gravity Coring System (“Big Bertha”) as it descended and ascended through the water column. We had to change the coring operation to the starboard (right) side of the boat, where we could use a smaller winch. The starboard winch supported less weight than the previous one, so we needed to use a smaller coring head and shorter pipe. This means that our recovered cores are shorter in length, so the sedimentary layers don’t go back in time. Using the Big Bertha system, we can recover 6 meters. With this smaller system, it’s only one meter.

Photo: Cecilia McHugh

Instrument problems and rough seas are common in marine expeditions, and we usually have several backup systems in case we fail when we’re far from land. This is such a situation.

Stormy and rough seas along the Jamaica Channel.Photo: Cecilia McHugh

As the prevailing winds blowing along the Jamaica Channel pick up speed, the waves get higher and the oceans get rougher. The Jamaica Pass is an open seaway where winds are often strong, making coring challenging. However, given the sea conditions, Chris Fanshier and Ben Freiberg (shown below) have done a good job dealing with core recovery. They are all very experienced and we are lucky to have them.

Chris Van Hill (back row) and Ben Freiberg (front row).Photo: Cecilia McHugh