How sailing can help with the ocean data collection
It’s time to sail back St.Lowrance River to our place for hauling – Crysler marina, near Morrisburg. The weather forecast is not so good, in the aftermath of the landfall of hurricane Fiona in Nova Scotia, but we have to rush to be in time for hauling. The late September brings some chilling in the morning and the sun now rises much South. 
We are leaving Waupoos on the lovely sunny day, rising all sails on Spallpeen
Course NbyE to Stella Bay on the Amherst Island!
One of the difficulties of taking CTD measurements from a sailboat is the need for stops for profiling. This time we practiced a stop under sail and also perform CTD casts when possible underway at slow speed. In sailing, heaving to is a way of slowing a sailing vessel’s forward progress, as well as fixing the helm and sail positions so that the vessel does not have to be steered. We practiced this technique with obvious success and performed profiling at a slow speed with RBRbrevioCTD.
Here is the Ruskin plot of the “free-fall” RBRbrevioCTD profiling under a speed of 2 knots with the release of 20m of the line:
Suddenly, my 63rd Birthday came! Following a long tradition, I spend this day sailing, singing the Yu. Vizbor’s song:
” I’ll grow old sometime, the memory will wash away with time.
If there are gifts for me by that milestone –
Don’t give me the shore, give me the sea,
I’ll thank you guys for that.I will sail on the sea, remembering my life,
Remembering my city, where my friends stayed,
Where all the streets flow into the sea like rivers
And houses, like longboats, are on the dock.What else do I need? Yes, perhaps that’s enough.
If only the old diesel would serve flawlessly,
If only my hands would get tired on the midnight watch,
To feel again that you are still alive.If only I would come back, famous and old,
If only the boards of the pier, passing, bent,
If only an old comrade, tired from work,
He shook my hand with a silent smile.I’ll grow old sometime, the memory will wash away with time.
If there are gifts for me by that milestone –
Don’t give me the shore, give me the sea,
I’ll thank you guys for that.”