Over the period 9-10 December BUCO1 underwent annual maintenance, which involved bringing the unit to shore for a thorough inspection of all instruments and the re-installation of the sonde.
9 th Dec 2015 (day 1)
There was bird poop everythere, especially on the solar panels and the connector ports,/bulkhead, and even a deal gull (and this wasn't the first time). Some consideration is being given to how to treat with avian fouling at this site. Otherwise, no obvious damage was noted to any of the above water instruments. As expected the base and anchor ropes were laden with large colonies of barnacle and fleshy algae, especially as the unit had not been visited since the EXO2 was removed for repair. The buoy base, ropes and sub surface floats did not seem to be compromised as a result of the fouling.
The unit was brought to shore, cleaned and inspected. Interface with the BUCO1 could only be established by serial connection. The RF and cellulatr connectios were unsuccessful. This seems to be a recurrent problem in interfacing with the units, especially for the purposes of data back-up, as logistically it is not always feasible to serial connect to the main data logger. (Ideas??) - It's 22 Dec 2015 and re're still unable to establish cellular connectivity with the buoy, but we can now connect to ARTO1.
The WXT only was adjusted to align more with the RM Young anemometer, as recommended by Mike. The WXT connectior to the support pole seemed a bit slack and was tightened.The disparity between the two anemometer was be between 1-2 degs by the end of the day.
2-3 inches of pooled water was noted within the main bulkhead. Possibly due to faulty O rings or improper sealing when last it was opened. All water was removed, the O-ring replaced for good measure and 7 packs of desiccant inserted. By morning main RH dropped to ~7%.
10th Dec 2015 (day 2)
Cell and RF connections were still unsuccessful, and serial connection was working fine. All data was downloaded and backed up.
All connections and ports were clean and unbroken.
The met data logger humidity was acceptable and no dessicant was inserted into this.
The EXO2 was installed and all seemed functional. A new umbilical cord should be acquired to reduce the strain on the connector cable to the sonde. Also, some sacrificial anodes should be acquired. A dummy plug currently fills a vacant slot and the anode on the outside of the buoy are near fully dissolved.
BUCO1 was re-deployed without incident.