Hey All,
Over the past two days, Dave Tina and Chip have been running missions and pouring over data to determine the state that Challenger is in after what Antonio and the team has called her ‘siesta’. These tests have included a process called ‘stepping down’ which included running dives to 60m, 400m, 750m, single dives to 1000m and now dual 1000m dives. These have all been successful which has now led to focusing on the steering and energy budget. The steering has proven to be a little out of whack, similar to what we saw off the coast of South Africa, but there is speculation this will be reduced after we reduce the throw on the pump and slow the glider down a bit- a project for early this week.
On top of the excellent news that Challenger is not only in contact with us again, but capable of flying, yesterday she became the first RU glider to Cross the Prime Meridian!
To the North, Silbo is continuing to drift at the will of the surface currents. Luckily, these currents are continuing to overall flow in the northwest direction, pushing Silbo slowly but surely towards the Caribbean.
Force Wind Sea & Honor