We are steaming at 12-13 knots making good time to get to our next station. Our new revised plan is to add a science station on the 25th (CTD, ROV, and scuba) and then head to Aloha Station (March 26th) where the Hawaiian Ocean Time Series (HOTS) has been going since 1989. After that, we will head to a coastal station (March 27th) and then to the dock (March 28th). All three stations will be full science ops stations.

Yesterday was a great day all around. The weather cooperated, the scientists are pulling together the data gathered so far, and we continue to collect novel and valuable observations with the ROV and SCUBA divers. Ken Johnson's group (Ginger Elrod and Steve Fitzwater) have been working nonstop whenever we are underway measuring the concentration of dissolved aluminum (Al) and iron (Fe) in the water and have found almost an inverse relationship between the two concentrations. Scientists know more about the particulate levels of the two, but not much about the concentration of the dissolved metals. The dust storms coming from land deposit the iron and aluminum into the water, the iron is used and the aluminum is not. We will continue to measure the two metals on leg 5 of the cruise, so keep checking the logbook.

Paul Chua has been gathering plankton samples at every station and without even counting or identifying the plankton, the differences are clear. The jar with the myctophids (fish) came from a station on the edge of the California Current. The ROV launch went pretty well, we did have to recover once as the CTD on board the vehicle was not working the first launch. 

Paul Tucker and Dale Graves supervise the launching of Tiburon as seen from the dry lab and from the vehicle itself. The vehicle begins to descend with a fountain of bubbles as she thrusts downward.

We collected a nice pteropod on our bluewater dive yesterday, before we got into the water, Kevin Raskoff showed us how to juggle dive weights.