August 30, 2010
Stormy Seas at Oil Spill Ground Zero
In today’s update from the boat, Will Race describes the crew’s arrival at oil spill ground zero to deploy oil measuring straps. As you can see from today’s photos, the crew endured the roughest conditions on the expeditions yet:
The site of the Deepwater Horizon was the focus of the day. The objective was to establish a 10 kilometer diameter of moorings around Deepwater Horizon site. With an average water depth of 1600 meters, the Oceana team knew it would be a long day.
At 6:30am team members positioned themselves on deck and had the pleasure of witnessing a beautiful Gulf of Mexico sunrise. Amidst the landscape of sunny cumulous clouds and dark unwieldy thunder fronts, there sat the site of the Deepwater Horizon. It was very noticeable thanks to the small city that has been crafted around the site. Shadows loomed over the spill site and brought a sobering reminder to what the objective of the day was.
The weather was a mix of hot sun and monsoon rain. It seemed the theme of the day was rainbows and whitecaps. We started early and finished late. The Oceana team spent 12 hours on the deck prepping and deploying moorings–nearly finishing the full circle around the Deepwater Horizon, yet the second to last deployment was delayed due to a howling monsoon storm.
Tired, burnt and wet, the Oceana team called it a day with one mooring left near the Deepwater Horizon site. Tomorrow we will finish and head out to the furthest drop site. Stay tuned.