Starting off on Friday afternoon, Challenger was given a waypoint to the North East. The glider was entering an area of weaker currents so we were trying to capitalize on that and try and make as much eastward progress as possible while we had the opportunity.
The currents remained weak but variable through Friday into Saturday, however by Saturday night, the currents rotated back to the west, once again slowing 29s progress towards South Africa and forcing the gliders path to curve back to the north as she was unable to over power the current.
Also over the weekend, we stepped the depth at which the glider dives to further down to 600m in an attempt to damper the growth of creatures on the hulls of the glider and to better fight the current. The pump which has been problematic throughout the mission though didn’t react well to the deeper dive depth and began slipping again resulting in increased power consumption. Because of this, the glider was commanded back to flying to 550m in hopes that the pump will return to normal behavior.
Force Wind Sea & Honor