During the 9-14 Dec period Jon Fajan was invited over to conduct an annual maintenance and repair of two Tobago CREWS. During this period the exterior of the buoy (floating base and metal supports were cleaned of barnacles and other fouling. All instruments were inspected, cleaned and replaced. Two months prior (September) the Buccoo CREWS was not transmitting data. The cause was thought to be a power surge, which triggered a power failure. A relay was by passed and the power restored resulting in the transmission of data from the CREWS. The CREWS was redeployed on 13 Nov 2014 but due to overcast and rainy conditions we were unable to reset the ASC because the solar
panels are only putting out about 13V today. Removing and replacing the
positive wires from the battery did not reset. The power was put back on the
bypass and an attempt will be made to reset during the service visit to repaint
the hull in the very near future. If at that point the voltage from the panels
exceeds 13.5V and the relay still does not reset –
the ASC (it would have failed within the 1 year of deployment) may have to be checked by YSI. The buoy was deploy without the RMY temp/rh sensor and
without the turbidity and chl-a EXO2 sensors as these are all in need of
service. Cellular and RF communications were confirmed from
multiple sources.
Previous basic maintenance was also conducted in August 2014, July 2014, June 2014, April 2014, February 2014. Inspections were inconsistent due to team changes, sea conditions and other logistical constraints. Ideally Buccoo should be monitored twice monthly due to the high rate of fouling, however this is not logistically possible.