[Exports_all] EXPORTS Cruise dates

[Bontempi, Paula (HQ-DK000)]

EXPORTS ST:

	Good morning.  From the UNOLS Scheduling meeting, our dates are still a bit of a moving target and there are a lot of discussions taking place, but right now we are scheduled for the following:

Survey Ship is the Sally Ride – 11 August to 15 September
Process Ship is the Revelle – 8 August to 11 September

	Yes, there are issues with this.

- Right now mob is out of Seattle on both.  We are working on the issue to have the two ships “next” to each other for optimal mob.  
- Clearly the dates of the two ships don’t match.  UNOLS knows this is a problem for us (I told them it’s a no go; I quite literally do not know how to make this work given the science and personnel that will have to mob and demob on the two ships).
- The demob is under discussion.  NSF is not happy with Seattle/Seattle (what I requested).  NSF wants Revelle in Seward, this is purely driven by the fact that they don’t want to pay the transit themselves from Seattle to Seward for GEOTRACES.  
- At least one team on this message has identified major personnel challenges if EXPORTS returns later than 4 September.  I am doing my best to work with UNOLS given the issue with the Thompson, but I would like to know if any more issues exist on the timing of the cruises that are staff related.

We need to continue to discuss, as per our telecom yesterday, the duration of the cruise (if we need to shorten science days), the location of the study area (which UNOLS is really pressing for, we have Station P as our estimate), and the timing of the cruise (remember that our STR has a NET start date of 1 August, a NLT start date of 1 September, and an optimal start date of 15 August).

	Please let me know if there are questions.  

	Best wishes,

	Paula