New Zealand 6 (or.... Deploy!)

11-April-2011 Monday

All right... I'll dispense with the work related stuff first...

We finally got the buoy out in the water on Monday the 11th. Beautiful calm day.

I mean, it was rough, there was a nor'wester blowin' in, and the sea was a harsh mistress that day. You may not be able to tell from the following pictures, the the waves were breaking over the house, and all crew were lashed to the rails. Aargghh.

Here's the buoy on the back deck while we're headed out.
You can't really tell how nasty the conditions were from this picture.

Here's the buoy getting lifted up and over the rail (I'm the guy in the blue hardhat).

Again, the conditions really aren't well represented here...

Final assembly: attaching the radio antenna.
The high winds ... uh ... and large waves ... um ... must have ... very briefly ... laid down at this moment.

Here's the deployed buoy in front of the first iteration that they had going. A great step forward!
Again, this doesn't accurately represent the horrendous conditions that day.
Really, I'm just glad we all survived.