A scheduling review meeting was held by phone conference from 1pm to 6pm EDT with Linda Goad/NSF, John Freitag/ONR, Ralph Rogers/NOAA, Jeremy Potter/NOAA OE, Liz Brenner & Rose Dufour/SSC Chair, Lee Black/SSC Vice Chair and Mike Prince/UNOLS participating. Tim Askew/HBOI and Liz Caporelli joined for portions of the conference.

Schedules and costs were reviewed and the following notes are provided for each ship. A spreadsheet showing utilization and cost estimates is attached as an appendix I.

If noted below, schedulers should clean up links and details of their letters of intent and publish them as official schedules. Some ships should wait before this is done, as there are pending issues surrounding budget or number of days for certain cruises.

CAPE HENLOPEN: Posted is 200 days, need to clean up LOI to show actual days and dates. Keep Navy work on Henlopen unless not possible to schedule in proper time frame. Need to understand the impact on delays. Clean up before publishing as schedule.

CAPE HATTERAS: Fletcher funding status is pending, how sure is this and should pending days be included in budget. Check with PI on funding status. It might still be possible for Navy work to be transferred from Cape Henlopen to Cape Hatteras. Corliss ESI cruise will come from program funds if funded. Publish Schedule.

ENDEAVOR: Added Cindy Lee to schedule and this affects the split of transit by charging NSF for 3 days from France to Malta. Lee asked about picking up Debbie Smith’s OBS on the way back. It would add two days to return transit. Leave this as a possibility to be determined later. I would fit in schedule. Navy work is ok. Ballard/NOAA work is paid for by his program funds and URI. Publish Schedule

LONGHORN: No Federally supported work on Schedule. Publish Schedule.

OCEANUS: Lay-Up until April. Bernhard must start in WHOI, but can end if Charleston if necessary for sample preservation. Navy cruises, coordinate between Endeavor, Knorr and Sharp. Webb cruise in Grenada to be deferred until ship is available. Publish Schedule.

PELICAN: May pick up more NOAA work. Hanifen still pending but total will be at least 200 days. Lopez to stay on Pelican. Gettrust, Glydewell and Bibee are still pending, but may have funds out of their program. Clean up and Publish when possible.

SAVANNAH: Nelson Navy work is from program funds, several year project. NOAA programs are funded by program as well. NSF ok. Update LOI, put in links and revise day rate by Wednesday next week if he wants any NSF Funds. When clean, publish.

SEWARD JOHNSON: NOAA Dart cruise is in question due to the production schedule for the DART moorings that has been affected by Katrina. We will need to wait to see what happens to the production schedule before making any changes to schedules. Day rate not affected by Dart cruises. NOAA OE cruise is ok. Update Schedule with links and OCE numbers.

WALTON SMITH: NOAA days reduced to match budget. Day rate negotiations need to be finalized regarding the surcharge. This will affect the total number of days, especially for NOAA. Navy 2 days ok. Finalize budget and totals, then publish schedule.

WEATHERBIRD II/SEWARD JOHNSON II/TBN: 149 day schedule, all NSF. Set up actual dates and publish as schedule.

ALPHA HELIX: Work is either OPP or NPRB. Ship will be in lay-up status and Woodgate is working with OPP to find an alternative. Publish schedule showing lay-up status.

CLIFFORD BARNES: NSF, NOAA, Navy and NRL work all funded. Publish schedule.

NEW HORIZON and WECOMA: Final decision on lay-up status pending approved budgets. Look at pier availability for end of year to make sure there is space for WECOMA or is pier costs are in the budget. Don’t publish schedules yet.

WECOMA: Craig Lee loading will be in Newport (6 days) not in Monterey.

POINT SUR: 157 day schedule without Bruland. Ramp is now coordinating schedules for west coast ONR projects. Pending work for NOAA and NPS are likely to be funded. Publish schedule.

BLUE HERON: Schedule ok to publish, Sea grant days determined by budget.

Urraca: NSF days for Glynn paid from program for next five years. Publish schedule.

SPROUL: D’Spain has not been able to coordinate with Dolphin and will be asking for carry forward permission. Hildebrand funding must come from science program funds. Publish schedule.

ATLANTIS: Using Atlantis_2 schedule. Concern about total cost to NOAA and their budget, there are negotiations going on about how to reduce costs or days. Need to have a resolution as soon as possible, perhaps after tomorrows meeting. Consider budget and or charge arrangements for ALVIN. Also, could reducing time by going to southern port help solve the problem. Dolly will talk with Barbara Moore. The rest of the schedule is NSF funded. Need final resolution regarding NOAA cruise before finalizing and publishing schedule.

KNORR: Will spend the winter in Manzanillo after finishing the year in the Pacific, this is being paid for with NSF funds. Removing Ohman from KNORR may be an option for reducing costs; options are moving Ohman to summer on REVELLE or to 2007. Liz Caporelli will produce a draft schedule without Ohman. Wait to publish as schedule.

MELVILLE & ROV schedule: Need to work out port days in Yokohama and transit split with NOAA getting to western Pacific. Transit from Japan to Bach may get some adjustment as it may not be necessary to stop in Guam and it may be necessary to stop in PNG. Childress will be combined with Cavanaugh. We will get budget determination and number of days supportable by OE as soon as possible. Might consider non-ROV OE projects on KILO MOANA in conjunction with Murray’s cruise. Publish after cleaning up and hearing about number of NOAA days. Transit to Guam is being charged to NSF despite the first cruise being for NOAA, this is under contention, but will stay as it is.

Test Cruise on KILO MOANA: will be scheduled with Jason II at end of year or with an alternative. 2007 scheduling will consider KILO MOANA for ROV work as if test was successful.

KILO MOANA: 194 day schedule with test cruise dates not set. ROV test cruise dates not settled. ROV availability early or mid year is not possible without having a negative impact on the timing or costs of other cruises. Test cruise should be scheduled after Moyer cruise on MELVILLE. An alternative would be to explore conducting a test with a different ROV system, the details of which should be agreed upon in principal before proceeding. They are also available to schedule DART mooring cruise if needed. Navy Huntley cruise is from program funds. Missing a Sept. HOTS cruise. Publish Schedule. (NOAA-OE indicated that they would have work for the KoK)

REVELLE: Weller cruise over budget by about 3 days. Will get an answer on Weller. Create an option with Ohman in July on REVELLE. Need to determine whether or not ODP has a budget for D’Hondt. Navy cruises ok. Publish schedule after sorting out Weller, Ohman, etc.

THOMPSON: Feely is over budget by about 4 days and the transit from Galapagos to Tahiti should be split between UW and NOAA, which would add another 3 days to their costs by splitting the transit 3 NSF, 3 NOAA, 6 State. Thompson rework schedule with new NOAA days, see what daily rate is. Publish after schedule is sorted out.

LANGSETH: NSF will determine whether or not the 123 day based on progress of conversion process and the ability to support some of the cruises. This determination will have a significant impact on the OCE ship ops budget.

OVERALL Budget, schedule decision process:

1. We need a quick assessment of how many days NOAA OE and OAR funded ship days can be supported with the planned budgets. If adjustments to the number of days are necessary, this should be decided in the next few days.

2. We need a decision on the schedule for the NOAA OE/NURP cruise on ATLANTIS.

3. NSF to assess the impact of different schedules for Ohman.

4. Defer final decisions on further schedule cuts or lay-ups until more is known about FY06 budgets for Navy, NOAA and NSF.

“Proposal” or annual reports are due November 1, however Linda indicated that Dec. 1 would be fine. ONR would like to receive ONR ship proposals immediately after Thanksgiving in order to fund before December 31.