downloading a 11 Mbyte file with slow Turkish hotel internet. The cruise was the first long cruise in over a year for R/V Piri Reis because of an overhaul. We were entering Marmara Sea through the Dardanelles straight and there was a gale with 3 to 4 m seas (36 m ship, so a lot of motion). We took shelter behind a breakwater off of a power plant, then went into the somewhat protected SW part of Marmara Sea (Erdek Bay). We tried to start acquiring data after letting out the 1.5 km-long hydrophone streamer. The "birds" the control the depth of the streamer did not respond. There then followed several days of 16 or more hour days for the Turkish acquisition team to figure out what was wrong.

Disassembling and reassembling equipment. We collected a different kind of acoustic data while they were working on that, for about a day and a half, before that equipment failed (broke) due to a design flaw. The wind and waves were up and we were about to cancel the cruise (which would have been a bummer)when one of the senior=experienced grad students figured out the problem.

The rest of the cruise went great...there was even no wind or seas for 5 or 6 days.

Chris