A New Baby ROV

So, in exciting news today we're hoping to have a guest blogger bringing some new and exciting perspectives and news, however in the mean time I've got some photos to share. We had a few delayed and cancelled plans today, purely due to bad weather meaning that it was unsafe to head out on the boat. 
So here goes. Today in group 4 we had to pack up little hulk and prepare him for the journey back home by boat. We're doing this because there is a serious restriction on the weight that we can bring back on the plane and little hulk, little though he may be, is still a bit of a hulk. So we're going to be using an even littler little ROV. You too can meet him here below! (We haven't got a name for him yet... suggestions welcome!) 

Conventiantly this little fella is super quick and easy to deploy, but we suspect he's quite sensitive when it comes to the cold, so we kept him nice and warm inside the hut on the pier before he headed out. (as we are also quite sensitive to the cold I fully understand his sensitivities) 

So we took this little guy out into the bay and had a great time exploring with him. He was an excellent little run about, great for curious scientists and even more exciting as he has a little grabber claw. 

The little grabber claw meaning that we were able to take some samples from the sea floor (an possibly on occasion scare a crab or two.. )

As these samples had limited scientific value they were re purposed as per below..

At the end we had to abort the mission due to the cold and some rather enthusiastic sample gathering. 

All up, it was a very awesome day and a great chance to play with different machines, it had never occurred to me how different they would be and how different their characters would be. 
More post to come later!