ROVing on Ile de Madeleine

Last Sunday, Randi and I headed out to Ile de Madeleine (a marine preserve and national park located a couple of miles from the mainland) to deploy our middle school ROV, accompanied by four students and their families.  We had a much larger group interested in attending, over 40, but the little boat that ferries passengers over to the island carries a max of about 20, and the turnaround time is about an hour.  The park's second boat apparently ran aground, and was out of commission.

This was an exploratory trip, both to check out the performance of the ROV in saltwater, and to scout out preferred launch sites.  Unfortunately, there was a swell/surge, and a lowering tide, which became a very, very low tide.  Despite this, the trip was quite successful.  Note the media on BOT at http://www.becauseoftime.org/ISD/ROVMission1Media.html.

Our next ROV excursion to Madeleine is set for Saturday, November 8th, with a new group of kids and families attending.  The challenge here is identifying locations for the deploying the vehicle which we can get to easily.  Certainly, we will charter a boat, upcoming, and find a way to do a night dive.  This is the fun of this work:  solving real problems in real time.

The bottom pic above is of pottery samples discovered on the island, typically found in association with shell mounds.  Their age varies widely, from several hundred to several thousand years old.  The same decorative style is found in Cap Manuel, Goree, Yoff, presumably Ngor, and all along the coast.  The patterns were made by rolling braided fibers, or similar, across the surface of the still-wet clay.