We're set to go on the rescue cruise on the R/V Bjarni Saemundsoon, leaving this evening from Reykjavik at 20:30 (or so). Mary Jane Perry is the Chief Scientist, Mike Ohmart is the Float guy, and I'm the Glider 'guy'.

Magnus (an assistant from the Icleandic Marine Research Institute) put Mary Jane's optics instruments on the CTD this morning, while Mike and I prepared float 47 for shipping. The float is much like the glider, in that it's designed so you only need two people to move it around and take it apart.

The plan for the cruise is straightforward. Float 48 is at 61° 52.5' N 26° 8.16' W, very close to the glider pod (SGs 140, 141 and 142 are surveying a patch together for the rest of the experiment), and reporting ARGOS fixes periodically. We'll head there first, probably arriving late on the evening of June 3rd, and listen for RDF fixes and look for its flashing LED lights.

Once we've got the float on board, we'll likely do a CTD for the glider pod, and then head off to SG143, which is currently "pogo-ing" at 62° 14.378' N 26° 8.026' W. SG143 is no longer able to change its pitch, so we have it diving nearly straight down for an hour and floating back up to the surface tail-first. As a result, it's slowly being pushed northward by the currents on the western side of the Reykjanes Ridge.

We've given ourselves 3 days for transit and 2 days for recovering the float and glider and doing some science, so we expect to be back in Reykjavik late on the 7th. If all goes well, we might be back a day earlier -- if things are rough, maybe a day later. We'll have no internet access on the ship, so this is the last you'll hear directly from us until we're done.