Videos of deck operations under adverse conditions are relatively rare. For one thing, when conditions are bad, deck work stops.

This video of a rosette recovery during high winds was shot during the R/V Roger Revelle “I5” cruise (for the same program as the “I8S” cruise) in the southern Indian Ocean in March 2009. Normally we would not work on deck under these conditions, but when the cast was launched, winds were in the upper-30 knot range (about 45 miles per hour), which is more or less the usual upper limit for deck operations when a storm is developing, and the seas were lined up with the winds, providing a reasonably stable ride. (After a storm, as the winds subside, the winds often veer, and thus no longer line up with the seas. In those conditions, we cannot work in winds in the upper-30s.)

Four hours later, when it was time to recover the rosette, winds were a fairly steady 52 knots (60 miles per hour). Fortunately the seas were still aligned with the winds. The recovery went smoothly, mostly due to the excellent training of the deck team during dozens of casts in light winds. It should be noted, however, that not all operations in high wind conditions have such benign results. We were lucky.