II Ship Scheduling Committee Report
III Cruise Tracks
IV Non-Operational Recommendations
MEETING MINUTES
0835 called the meeting to order
Agency Reports
NSF - Julie Morris, OCE division director welcomed everyone
to the meeting and introduced herself. She thanked everyone for their hard work
and acknowledged the difficulties of scheduling. Her background is in geophysics
from the University of Washington in Saint Louis. She mentioned that the Geosciences
Advisory will join some of our meetings this week. She introduced Linda Goad
who covered budget issues.
Budget - last year she was told her budget was limited to 36M, but another 3M was added. This year, there has been a lot more added with pre-pays and sweep up money. Fuel prices have come down some and there may be carry-forward money that can be used for lay-up costs if necessary. The Carbon Water program has pre-paid for future year programs. Day rates are still high and anything that can be done to reduce rates should be done to let more work go to sea.
ONR - Bob Houtman introduced himself. The projected base budget for ONR is around 10M, which is about the same as last year. Some Navy programs are funded from outside his budget. ONR has pulled MELVILLE out of the normal scheduling mix and they are planning to use that ship for projects that they might not normally be able to schedule. The schedule is fairly solid through about July, but they are having additional meetings this week to try and firm up the second half of the year. In the Congressional conference report there is again an add for use of UNOLS ships. Historically this type of money has been used for maintenance support. They will look at other potential ways to spend this funding if it is approved.
NOAA - Ralph Rogers reported that they do not yet have any budget info and will probably not have anything until after the election. If the Presidents budget is approved, they will have to make some cuts in programs in order to not lay-up ships. Charter dollars are 7.2M, which is about the same as previous years.
NSF Technical Services spent about 15M on technical services and almost nothing on instrumentation. This will not happen again and he plans to make some investments in instrumentation and he wants to address morale issues as well.
Made introductions around the room.
Local Ships
Blue Heron - 93 days, 14 pending days
for Minor should be shown as non-op, making the total around 79 days.
Clifford Barnes - has a very strong schedule with 131 days. 8 pending days for the Washington dept.
Savannah - 93 day schedule with some pending NSF work that could be scheduled.
Walton Smith - 179 days scheduled.
Urracca - 67 days with 16 pending for Littler that should be shown as other
as this will be paid through the grant if funded. The rest are STRI days.
Cape Hatteras - 87 days of which 75 days for Dick Barber, which is a commercial
for profit enterprise and probably would not be appropriate. This leaves only
the State days making Cape Hatteras a candidate for lay-up.
Hugh R Sharp - 151 days on schedule with some pending NSF still possible. NOAA
Seagrant days are around 49 days of which 2/3rd might be funded. All local work.
NASA may go up some but EPA will probably go away. Day rate based on 140 days
at 10,500.
Longhorn has been retired
Pelican - 216 days funded and 31 pending for a total of 247 days. They expect
to add a few days. Dan Orange ONR cruise is now funded. NOAA work has been approved
for funding. Pink Pig
Point Sur - about 130 days on the submitted LOI without Barber. Several cruises
off Newport that will be coordinated. The Barth cruises have grown to a larger
than acceptable number for the 3 days of science during each cruise. Some Barth
cruises are double booked. Need to sort it out.
Sproul - 84 days with 9 days pending NSF that should be marked as Non-Op, leaving
75 days.
Atlantic Explorer - 123 days funded, 46 pending NSF days including Knap's Hydro
station work, which should be marked as non-op. Dickey has 0700931 grant number
for an 8 month extension, which affects the 2006 schedule. Rate is 14,000 if
Hydro is funded.
Endeavor - 143 days scheduled by splitting with Oceanus and Seward Johnson.
Includes 30 days URI funding. combining the work with one ship makes it impossible
to put people in the right time slot and do the Med work. The rate based on
143 days and 2/gal fuel is 18,200. Anderson's days may change based on the bottom
line. These schedules put the scientists in the windows they requested.
Oceanus - 132 days with the split schedule, includes the trip to the Med for
navy work. If Preston has to go earlier, then they would swap the April Toole
cruise for an October cruise. Day rate is 18,000 at 3/gal fuel. They have open
periods that can be filled or at the dock. Ballard's group may be interested
in about a week of work. Pending proposal for Andrew Reid requesting Cape Hatteras.
Look at how that might fit in the schedule. Durban and other pending requests.
Eglington and DeMenecal may need to use a UNOLS Vessel after all. They already
have clearances for 6 countries and have $400 for shiptime.
Seward Johnson - 153 day schedule including two trips to Venezuela, NOAA DART
cruises for 20 days and 14 days for the State of Florida. Day rate is based
on 159 days and is 15,278. Might also have work for Baxely at the SFTF and also
for MMS, but have not heard back from these people yet. If there is no clearance
for the Venezuela work then the schedule falls apart.
New Horizon - Early schedule dependent on Langseth schedule. Need to coordinate
multi-ship op with Sproul, Point Sur and Melville. Window of opportunity is
expanded to November. Calcofi is listed as pending. Total is 201 days.
Wecoma - 191 day schedule, this includes ten days for Peter Franks that is double
booked with Thompson, and Barth/Capable is double booked with Point Sur. Looked
at whether or not there was more work in Hawaii that could be picked up. If
Feely is not funded then this would open up a lot of the schedule.
Kilo Moana - 255 days scheduled with 10 days for Andy Bowen and 1 JASON engineering
day to be added. Dickey has a three day cruise pending renewal of his grant
that could be scheduled. There are three HOTS cruises not scheduled (12 days).
Porter shiptime will be paid by ONR if science is funded. KOK has about 100
days of HURL work. Day rate for KM is 24000. There will not be any State days
added.
Atlantis - 285 days with one engineering day for ONR and one for NSF pending.
Still waiting for Embley to confirm whether or not they can combine with Di'Orio.
Adding 3 dives to Becker cruise. Need to worry about overlap with Langseth at
JDF (main Endeavor) and between the Mutter cruise and 9N work (not a problem
now). They have asked NOAA to move ROV work earlier, but it doesn't look like
they will. Add Fornari request for three days can be combined with Kang Ding
in an earlier time slot. This may move the schedule up to 291. Day rate is estimated
at 28,600 based on 282 days and 3/gal fuel.
Knorr - 283 day schedule. Moved Curry later because of winch failure in testing.
Concerned with weather window in October. Can move him earlier by shortening
the non-op maintenance period in WHOI and reschedule some of it afterwards.
Langseth 2- Start dates make Langseth not possible. Holbrook Starts in March
and McGuire moves later. Andronicos is fixed in time due to scheduling.
Thompson - 252 day schedule after removing Stein who is postponing his cruise
to 2008 and Ohman moves his cruise to April for El Nino. Weingart is fixed in
time. Bruland and Stabeno go to Alaska a little later than desired and NOAA
may have a problem with the weather window and straddling the fiscal years.
NUWC work should be shown as non-op because it is a RFP. Need to determine what
the order will be for Franks and Ohman and for Stabeno and Bruland.
Revelle - 303 day schedule, which includes Goldfinger that is questionable due
to clearance issues with Indonesia. They would advance Sager and the UC cruises
and then stand down in Cape Town unless something else is funded. There is a
possibility of work from India and some pending NSF work in the Indian Ocean.
They have shown an option with Saito and Sihgn.
Melville - Still pending some more decisions from ONR on use in the later half
of the year. They have some conflicts with timing of mooring and glider recoveries.
Still waiting to find out the extent of Navy's use
Clearance issues:
Seward Johnson - Venezuela, process is moving with communications
both ways, which is a good sign. Started the process a year in advance.
Oceanus - Preston needs a clearance from Italy.
Knorr - Miller cruises have clearances, but will
just divert or turn off if no clearance
Revelle - Goldfinger cruise to Indonesia, get a reading from State.
Holbrook cruises need to start the clearances.
Security Issues
Revelle - Sri Lanka, Indian Ocean, is Colombo a problem.
Melville Op Areas, will avoid problem areas.
Permitting Areas
Langseth
Wecoma - SIO will take the lead on permit for Trehu
Revelle - Sager, SIO will take the lead.
Operational Conflicts
Langseth and Atlantis at 9N (Mutter)
Langseth and Atlantis and Thompson and Canadian ships on the JDF
Talked about a website to list conflict areas, etc.
Schedules that should not publish yet:
Melville
Wecoma
Point Sur
Thompson
Langseth
Cape Hatteras
Oceanus and Endeavor make some changes then publish