Gearing Up!

The second VideoRay Micro-ROV / robot, its control box, and the new Tritech sonar arrived from Harvey Mudd this morning! Our rented KCF Smart Tether arrived yesterday. 

We are all looking forward to the report from Erik and Ian regarding their first tests of the Smart Tether!

The Cal Poly student team and I are meeting today at 4pm to finalize our baggage plans. We depart from San Luis Obispo airport at 3pm on Sun Mar 3, arriving in Malta at 12:40am (local time) on T Mar 5. 

That's right, we will be in transit for 24 hours! We can't wait to arrive in Malta. 

We remain hopeful that our travel will not be impacted by the sequester cuts. Learn more about possible impacts here:

Airports big and small may feel effects of federal budget feud (28 Feb 2013)
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/feb/28/business/la-fi-sequester-air-travel-20130301

We are waiting for one more package from Harvey Mudd - which has the joystick, lots of plug adapters and EU surge protectors, and the EU-voltage soldering iron. 

I am actually writing this blog post while on hold with UPS (35 minutes and counting). The package is now in San Luis Obispo as of 7:58am (after being held up in Vernon for 24 hours for unknown reasons for which neither the sender nor receiver were contacted), but I keep being told that it will not arrive until after we have left for Malta. 

UPDATE (8:20am): UPS is now working with me to determine how we can pick it up from the UPS warehouse today or have it delivered. I am being very persistent! 

UPDATE (8:45am): The San Luis Obispo UPS warehouse facility has now agreed to open the shipping container and look for our package! UPS is supposed to call me back periodically with updates, but would not give me the number nor location of the San Luis Obispo facility. I remain persistent and hopeful. 

UPDATE (10:05am): Phone call from UPS. No news yet regarding the location or delivery of the package. I should have another update within the next 2 hours. 

UPDATE (12:30pm): Phone call from UPS. They could not locate the package at the San Luis Obispo warehouse. If this is our only travel "bump," I will be very happy!