ORCA Field Day: Solar Panel Installation

Maintaining the Oceanic Remote Chemical Analyzer (ORCA) buoys requires semi-regular field days for UW Field Engineers.  Today, Gretchen Thuesen and Rachel Vander Giessen head out to install a solar panel on the Dabob Bay buoy.  They spend the days leading up to the field day getting supplies, instruments and electronics ready, lining up an appropriate vehicle and checking the tides and wind forecasts.  This morning they do one last wind check then meet at the Ocean Science Building to load the truck before catching an early ferry to Bremerton.  From there they drive to Belfair where the M/V Mackinaw is stored at the Pacific Northwest Salmon Center.

Hitching the M/V Mackinaw and trailer to the truck and saying good morning to PNWSC staff

The trailer is hitched to the truck and the engineers head north, towing the 20’ boat over the Hood Canal Bridge to Quilcene where they’ll carefully launch it in the narrow marina and motor out to the buoy.

The boat and buoy have to be lined up just right for transferring the heavy solar panel

Maneuvering heavy equipment from the boat to the buoy is difficult and time consuming… calm winds help by allowing the boat to be tied up on the correct side of the buoy regardless of wind direction.  The solar panel and frame housing is large and heavy and has to be carefully laid out on the boat so that it can be transferred to the buoy without incurring damage.  Rachel holds it in place on the buoy platform while Gretchen secures it with U-bolts.

Gretchen preps hardware and tools for the solar
panel installation

Dabob buoy with a newly installed solar panel

Eventually, we get the hardware installed and all of the electronics wired up.  Now Dabob is equipped with two 75 W solar panel that will recharge the battery bank, supplying predictable power to the oceanographic instrument system.

Spring buoy deployment in Hood Canal

What a week in Hood Canal!  Spring is definitely making it's way through the Pacific Northwest and our team from the University of Washington's Applied Physics Lab and School of Oceanography experienced both sun and showers while deploying new ORCA (Oceanic Remote Chemical Analyzer) buoys in Twanoh and Dabob Bay.

The new buoy tied up alongside R/V Robertson

First, the original buoys had to be recovered aboard the R/V Robertson and brought to shore where our team of engineers could remove the existing platform and scientific instruments and transfer to the shiny new buoys.  We also added new housing for the carbon system from NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) which will add to our understanding of acidification in Hood Canal.

Removing the instrument platform from the old buoy

The new Dabob buoy, populated and ready to go

The whole operation was then hoisted onto the aft deck and motored back out to the Canal.  Each buoy was returned to it's original location where new anchors were deployed and a sea lion fence was installed.

Leaving Pleasant Harbor to deploy the new Dabob buoy

Setting one of three anchors

Installing the sea lion fence

These new buoys will make maintenance easier and allow for more oceanographic instrumentation, adding to the efficiency and functionality of the ORCA buoy system.