At 6:30 AM, the teams met at the Coastguard base to prepare the CREWS for launching with the travel-lift. Mr. Jones made last adjustments and assured functionality of all systems. The Folkstone Marine Park Rangers were on standby with their vessel to tow the buoy to the installation site. There was very good cooperation among the teams, including Coastguard personnel and the buoy was launched successfully at the slipway. The park rangers spliced a simple bridle for towing and fastened it to the attachment points on top and below the buoy for easy towing without risking that the device would tip over. However, a very slow towing speed was necessary to avoid any risk of damage to the buoy or its sensors. The tow took two hours and thirty-five minutes (8:25h – 11:00h) from the Coastguard base at Bridgetown to Dottin’s Reef near Holetown. Upon arrival at the installation site, two snorkelers were deployed to retrieve the buoy line ends, since the dive boat with the scuba tanks hadn’t arrived yet.
Although they were successful, it turned out that the turbidity instrument was mounted on the side facing the chain and there was the danger that by water movement the heavy chain could reach and bang against the instrument, thereby damaging or destroying it. Thus, the mounting plate and the instrument had to be relocated underwater, for which scuba gear was necessary. Because of prevalent water current, swell and surge, the exercise, dealing with small nuts and bolts and conventional fasting tools underwater, was quite difficult and took much patience, time (1.5 hours) and skill to succeed.
In the meantime, divers attached ceasing wire to the shackles, but due to the surge, Marijn van der Laan was pushed into the fire coral encrusting the marker buoy of the anchor. He got badly stung around the neck and had to abort further involvement in the installation exercise, due to severe pain. He took several days to recover from the incident. The installation was finalized at around 13:00h, after an inspection dive, including the filming of the entire system underwater.
Upon return to the marina, the SCF crew was dropped in St. James, where all equipment and tools were rinsed and packed for travel. The underwater footage was transferred to external hard drives for sharing with the CCCCC.