Picture of the sailing board on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer showing the date and time of departure for the next cruise and the time by which all personnel who are sailing need to be physically on board the ship to sail. Cruise EX-17-06 departed on time at 0900 on Friday, July 7, as planned. Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2017 Laulima O Ka Moana. Download larger version (jpg, 1.4 MB).
NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer pulls away from the fuel pier and prepares to depart Pearl Harbor to commence Part I of the Laulima O Ka Moana Expedition – shakedown operations offshore of Oahu. Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2017 Laulima O Ka Moana. Download larger version (jpg, 4.2 MB).

Day 1: Laulima O Ka Moana: Exploring Deep Monument Waters Around Johnston Atoll Expedition Is Underway!

July 7, 2017

The "Laulima O Ka Moana: Exploring Deep Monument Waters Around Johnston Atoll" expedition started today! NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer left the dock in Honolulu, Hawaii, this morning to make the first and most important stop of the expedition – the fuel pier – where she spent most of the day fueling up for the more than 2,000 nautical mile journey ahead. The team departed Pearl Harbor in the evening to start shakedown operations after recently completing dry dock maintenance and upgrades. Overnight activities included calibrating the ship’s GAMS system (which provides a heading calibration) and both Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers and starting a multibeam patch test to calibrate and test the accuracy and quality of the multibeam sonar.