Update on the R/V Langseth Conversion

For the AGU Fall Meeting, AGU scheduled ALL of the town hall meetings for Thursday evening, December 8th, which put the R/V Langseth Town Hall Meeting in conflict with the IODP Town Hall Meeting, among others. As was explained by one MCS researcher, the fact that the MCS types gathered together for two and a half days in September made the IODP meeting a slightly higher priority. (The fact that they served free beer at the IODP meeting might also have had something to do with it.) Thankfully, Al Walsh and John Diebold (in addition to Marcia McNutt, below) have been so kind as to make their talking points available for everyone to read here.

One bit of good news is that the R/V Maurice Ewing, shown sailing away in the picture above (Photo credit: J. Diebold), was sold well above the expected amount, with the extra funds going to NSF. According to the Walsh/Diebold talking points, the new R/V Marcus Langseth sails for the as yet unidentified refit shipyard on January 7, 2006 and will be ready for its first test cruise on or around August 15, 2006.