A for Effort ... (27.56, 151.15)

F for recovery.

After trying to talk to the OBS for 14 hours, pulling out every option imaginable, we called it quits. As we sat around in the lab taking notes and listening for any faint response from the OBS, our hopes slowly plummeted. The only thing that kept us all from flat-lining during the wee hours of the morning was the occasional humorous banter over the radio between the crew members.

We have been flanked by storm clouds for the last few days which have provided quite the rainbow display. Out here, with nothing to get snagged on, the rain clouds move across the sea at their leisure and so far, none of our rain showers have lingered. As we left the OBS site this morning, the sun was rising and sending us on our way with this good looking scene.

The rest of the day was pretty mellow. I spent my time reading, knitting, painting my toes and watching a movie. We are headed back to the site of the other non-responsive OBS and are hoping this time it will magically cooperate so we can steal back a point from the sea. We are taking a zig-zag route, mapping and surveying as much new ocean floor as possible as we go. We have about 20 hours of down time until we need to get our hopes up just to watch them fall again (I am not very optimistic as you can tell).