(somber music)
- [ROV Pilot] Oh, oh, oooh!
- [Navigator] Not good.
- [ROV Pilot] There's no telemetry.
- [Navigator] All right.
- [ROV Pilot] Kylie, up on the winch.
- [Navigator] Up on the winch. - [ROV Pilot] Up on the winch.
- [ROV Pilot] I'm gonna back down.
- [Dive Lead] Innovator hold please, innovator hold.
- Coming up.
(long beep)
- [Allison Fundis] Man it's uh, it's been a long week.
So last Thursday,
we actually lost connection with our ROVs from the ship.
So we had the connection, that is our,
the cable that connects Argus to,
to the ship actually become severed.
We think that, that happened at the termination,
so where the cable connects to Argus.
So since that time we've been really working with a lot of
members of the deep sea oceanographic community
to pull this expedition together.
And luckily, one of the UNOLS vessels
out of the University of Washington.
R/V Thomas G. Thompson was just 11 hours south of us
at Axial Seamount wrapping up an expedition
with the Ocean Observatories Initiative.
What we're looking at likely is going to be three dives
over the next two, two plus days.
So this first dive will very likely
just really focus on a recon.
So just really get a status of what the vehicles,
what shape they're in, how they are relative to one another.
- [Navigator] Jason control, Nautilus.
Yeah, that looks good to us.
The main thing is we want to just confirm that the,
umm green foulnott cable, that should be to the Southeast of
you, is well clear of the site.
So, as long as you don't have visual on that from your
station currently then well, we should be okay.
- [Jason Pilot] Yeah no, it's Jason control here
looking like a 25 meters of separation
from the site we have picked to the cable.
- [Allison Fundis] So after that, that recon,
the second objective will be to first recover Hercules.
You're looking at the tether between Hercules and Argus.
And yesterday we did all the prep work
and rigging for the dives.
So if you're a loyal Nautilus Live follower
you know that we have a daisy chain on the tether
between the two vehicles
to secure the lift line that we use to recover.
Once the vehicles are coming back from their dives and so,
the Jason team really skillfully
strapped up that daisy chain and then cut it.
And so all of those lines are secure.
So, they're free of any entanglement in Jason's thrusters
while we do this work sub sea,
and then also free of the ships prop
when we eventually recover everything.
And so they, they cut the,
plasma line away and the daisy chain
and what we're doing right now.
Is we're getting ready to go in or,
the ROV Jason team is getting ready to go in
with a hydraulic bandsaw to, to sever the tether.
- All goes to plan our ROV Jason is going to cut
the tether on Hercules with some additional flotation
and we'll bring it up to the surface.
- [Jason Pilot] All stations Hercules' is free.
E/V Nautilus, you've got an ROV coming your way.
- [Pilot] Roger that.
- [Allison Fundis] If you're watching and hearing audio
mismatch, there is a delay on the video as we did just get
word from the Thompson team that Hercules has been freed.
So, Hercules is on its way.
- [Woman] Whoo! -
[Man] There it goes.
- [Woman] And there it goes, the balloon is released. Wow.
- [Josh Chernov] At that point,
the Nautilus will take over control of the operation.
We're going to launch our small rescue boat,
which is going to take with it this hook and a line.
And this, someone on the rescue boat will attach
our recovery hook into the lift bale of Hercules.
And we'll essentially pull Hercules
over to the side of the ship, passing the line to the crane
and the winch on the crane.
Well, we'll winch in and essentially we'll recover
Hercules as we normally do
that we've seen on the streams in the past.
So it'll look very similar to that.
Next phase of the operation, once Hercules is on board.
The Jason team sub sea is going to be wrapping soft straps
in hopefully a two to four point bridle
depending on what they can do.
And now all of that load will be transferred onto
the winch on the crane.
And then we can swing it all the way back around
and winch in the rest of the 40 meters.
And we'll come over the side and put it on the deck.
- [Data Logger] Argus on deck.
(clapping)
- [Data Logger] Whew! Huge sighs of relief.
(laughing)
The few of us left in the control van,
you can see you the team on deck giving high fives
and a little round of applause for the ROV Jason team
aboard the ROV Thompson that came to our rescue
over the last 26 hours to bring both ROV Hercules
and ROV Argus on board.
So we are all breathing a lot easier now.
- [Fundis] The most important thing to say is that,
you know, this is definitely an exercise of teamwork.
And one of the biggest things that come out of this
is just how collaborative and supportive
the oceanographic community is.
You know, we've been hearing from all
you know, people that we know,
people we don't know
that really just offering support and help.
And that part of it has just been like one of the most
incredible, incredible experiences of this
kind of bad situation, but it's been kind of turned it into
a very heartwarming and really
certainly memorable experience.
- [Woman] And now we have both vehicles back on deck,
which we couldn't be more grateful for.
(upbeat music)
(boat horn)
(cheering)
(laughing)