The South Cage mooring was inspected by divers earlier in the month and they found that the northeast lower bridle line was fouled around the corner buoy (Picture 41). This was untangled, but was redeployed with a badly chafed rope splice. Afterwards, the old remaining crown buoys (northeast and southeast) were brought on board and cut into several pieces for storing. The old buoys were replaced with 37-inch polypropylene floats and shorter chain adjustment links added. The northwest and southwest crown buoys (polypropylene floats) were also pulled and shorter adjustment chain replaced the old crown line chain. Upon replacement of each crown line chain, the Nobska would pull and tighten the anchor leg.
Picture 41. The Northeast grid corner ring with tangled lines and biofouling is recovered and untangled. Wear on the lower grid line is seen in upper left.
Tensioning of the cage and grid to the appropriate depth was facilitated by the use of marker buoys attached onto the four steel balls. The marker buoys were tied with a 21.5 m (70 foot) line. Each crown line and anchor was then pulled until the marker buoy disappeared from the surface indicating the steel ball was now at the appropriate operating/tensioning depth of about 21 m.
After the Southern cage work was completed, the Nobska returned to the Port Authority Pier to unload the UNH personnel and load a 1,100 lb. anchor. At 3:30 PM the Nobska left Portsmouth for Woods Hole. On her way south she retrieved the temporary anchor mooring for the North Cage.
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