My messy stateroom. Still cleaning up after Seattle (Photo by LT Hollinger)	A view from the stateroom (Photo by LT Hollinger)

May 4-8: We spent a few days doing a buoy replacement project for the National Data Buoy Center. What they do is trigger the undersea package, which releases from the mooring and starts floating to the surface. The packages are so far down that it takes around one hour to surface. When the floats get on top, the small boat goes over, connects a line, and then they haul around on the floats with the capstan. They keep hauling until the undersea package gets to the surface, then they hoist that aboard, swap it with another one, and release it back to sink again. The bottom package has sensitive tsunami monitors and a hydrophone. When it senses a tsunami wave, it squawks through the hydrophone to a surface buoy, which relays the signal to a satellite and back to shore. Once we're done replacing the undersea package, we then pull up the surface buoy for servicing of batteries and equipment, update the software, and then it's put back. Pretty cool system.

The Tsunami Warning Buoy system, ready to deploy. The surface unit is in the middle, the bottom unit is the rectanglular package in the upper right, yellow hyrophone on one end and a couple of white fuel cells. (Photo by LCDR Beale)	The surface buoy after replacement (Photo by LCDR Beale)

The Small Boat crew hooks up the bottom package after it floats to the surface (Photo by LCDR Beale)	Then the Deck Crew winches it aboard (Photo by LCDR Beale)

The Boat Crew coming alongside for recovery (Photo by LCDR Beale)	The winchman ready at the davit (Photo by LCDR Beale)

May 9: We're headed north to pass through the Aleutian Island Chain into the Bering Sea. Our next stop is Dutch Harbor on Unalaska Island, just west of the Unimak Pass. Land of active volcanos, giant bald eagles, and even a few trees.