Today was A-day, Argo float deployment day! I reported earlier that we received an Argo float (WMO#4902609) in Halifax at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography with a task to launch it in the Caribbean Sea. This day has come – today we sailed to the Caribbean Sea with sufficient depths for the float to drift. This basin is located between Isla de Viques and Saint Croix Island with depths of down to 4.5 km and deep-water access to both the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. It is noteworthy that, according to my research, there have been no Argo floats in this basin yet, so the data collected by “our” float will be unique.
During our journey, we got used to the float, almost as a member of our crew, and now parting with him was also somewhat emotional, but this is life – the time has come to go on a solo voyage and obtain data for science. Goodbye, our dear float, and safe travels!
Congratulations! This is an outstanding achievement. I would be very surprised if this has ever been done on a sailboat. ♥️
Thank you, Yuri! No, we are not the first to launch Argo floats from sailboats – European sailors have done it before us: Irish SV Danu in 2019, French on SV Iris (Ocean Observer mission -2021), German SV SeaExplorer (Team Malizia (The Ocean Race-2023). We might be the first Canadian (or even American) sailing vessel to achieve this.
Nicely done!
The next one with the red touch! 😉
Does the CTD cast match?
Bon voyage!
Thank you, Jean Michel, nice to hear from you! Sure, I was eager to get red-nosed Argo, but they are very popular now and have been already deployed – make them more!;) TS-plot of CTD data was close to TS-plot of Argo float within -0.003degC for temperature and -0.001 for practical salinity, which is very good results for near surface conditions of comparison! As for now, there are 3 profiles from this float with good quality flags of data. Just arrived in Martinique, a very nice French island. Meilleurs voeux!