Hatton-Rockall geophysical survey RRS discovery cruise D273 BGS project 03/01 operations report

This report describes the operation of Discovery Cruise D273, BGS Project 03/01, a regional geophysical survey of the UK Continental Shelf in the Hatton–Rockall area, carried out from 13th to 28th August 2003. Due to ongoing difficulties with the Discovery winch replacement programme, the duration of the cruise was cut, initially from 21 to 17 days and then by a further two days shortly before the start. Since the programme was planned for 21 days operations it was always going to be impossible to complete it. The vessel proved to be excellent for the work and the survey was very successful, with the above caveat. A total of 1677km of good quality data were collected. The survey was a part of the BGS Offshore Mapping and Modelling Project (E1281S73) and was allocated Discovery Station Number 15232.