But as luck would have it, on December 3rd, the CCGS Hudson, a Canadian Coast Guard science vessel happened to be in the vicinity. The Hudson was on an Atlantic Zone Monitoring Program (AZMP) cruise, and having just completed the final AZMP sampling transect (the Seal Island line off southern Labrador), was on its way back to its Halifax home base. The ship's captain graciously agreed to steam over to our glider and assess whether recovery was feasible.
Once it became clear the CCGS Hudson would pass close to the glider, we put in a request for recovery.
With the weather conditions being too rough to launch the Hudson's small inflatable 'fast rescue' craft, an impromptu attempt was instead made to snare the glider using lines thrown from the Hudson. Ultimately, despite coming close to getting a line around it, this proved too difficult and the rescue attempt had to be abandoned. We do, however, remain grateful for their heroic efforts.
With no remaining options for ship-based recovery, our attention turned to trying to fly the glider back in towards land, despite the leak. This idea was soon dashed, however, when the glider's fin (which controls its heading) stopping working a few hours after the Hudson's rescue attempt. Although not caused by the latter, this was unfortunate timing. With the fin out-of-order, we could no longer send the glider in a particular direction. It would simply go round in circles when flown.
Have exhausted all our recovery options, we were forced to leave the glider drifting at the surface. And this is what it's been doing ever since, while calling in each hour with GPS position updates.
The glider's journey so far.
Where exactly the winds and currents will take our glider now, we don't know. Messages in bottles launched over the past few years from Newfoundland and tracked on yourmessageinabottle.com can serve as some guide. Those that have made landfall (and been found) have tended to drift east across the north Atlantic, reaching as far north as Scotland and as far south as the Canary Islands.
You can post your guess for where you think our glider will next come near land in the comments below, then follow the glider's path in real-time here to see if you're right:
