The JOIDES Resolution arrived in port at Pier 1A in the Honolulu Harbor with the first line ashore at 0752 hr on 16 December 2001, marking the end of Leg 199 and the start of Leg 200 (all times are reported in local ship time, which is Universal Time Coordinated [UTC] - 10 hr in Honolulu and at Site 1223). Scientists, Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) technical staff, and the Transocean Sedco Forex crew for Leg 200 began boarding the ship on the morning of 17 December. The port call extended slightly over 4 days, with the limiting factor being the required inspections that were conducted by the American Bureau of Shipping. We still managed to depart over a day ahead of the time allotted for the Leg 200 port call. With the last line from port clearing at 1404 hr on 20 December, the JOIDES Resolution was under way to Site 1223 (Scientific Prospectus Site NU-1) (see Table T4 in the "Site 1224" chapter for an operations synopsis).
After clearing the harbor under the pilot's instructions at 1418 hr on 20 December, the vessel traveled through the Honolulu channel, passed within a couple of nautical miles (nmi) of Diamond Head, and proceeded into the open ocean. Vessel motion became moderate with a 2-ft heave, a 2° pitch, and 1° to 3° rolls as a result of 15-kt winds and 6-ft seas with 8- to 10-ft swells off the starboard bow. The 170-nmi voyage to Site 1223 required 17.0 hr at an average speed of 10.0 kt.
We started lowering thrusters at 0718 on December 21, switching to dynamic positioning mode at Site 1223 at 0730 hr. The drilling crew immediately began assembling the bottom-hole assembly (BHA), which consisted of a refurbished 117/16-in APC/XCB rotary bit (type OC1293 with C7 inserts), a bit sub, a seal bore drill collar, a landing saver sub, a modified top sub, a modified head sub, a nonmagnetic drill collar, five 8
-in drill collars, a tapered drill collar, six 5
-in joints of drill pipe, and one crossover sub. The BHA length was 136.1 m with a weight of 34,751 lb. The coring tools included the Tensor orientation package with the APC monel barrel that was to be run on every second core.
All thrusters were secure by 0740 hr; hydrophones were down by 0810 hr; and the beacon was away by 0850 hr. After the vessel settled on location, the water depth was determined to be 4255.4 meters below rig floor (mbrf) from the corrected depth of the precision depth recorder referenced to the dual elevator stool on the rig floor (see the "Explanatory Notes" chapter).
In preparation for shooting the first core, we first tagged the seafloor with the bit, which gave a depth of ~4247 mbrf. To ensure recovery of the mudline, we raised the bit to 4244 mbrf before shooting the first core. Hole 1223A was spudded with the APC at 2030 hr on 21 December at a depth, indicated by recovery, of 4235.1 m below sea level (mbsl), or 4245.8 mbrf. The APC was fired but did not bleed off immediately, indicating stiff sediments and an incomplete stroke of the APC piston. The stiff interval was likely caused by light-colored calcite granules overlain by black sand present in the bottom of the 7.79 m of core recovered. The second APC also had incomplete stroke with poor bleedoff of pressure. The core liner came back with a mixture of water and unconsolidated black sand.
We switched to the XCB coring system at 0030 hr on December 22. The use of the XCB system at these shallow depths and the long time needed for coring were unexpected as was the presence of lithified volcanic rocks, including a dark-colored vitric tuff that was recovered in Core 200-1223A-3X and below. Core 200-1223A-5X was advanced only 1.0 m when it was recovered because there were indications of jamming. Core 200-1223A-6X was advanced 8.0 m to a depth of 41.0 mbsf when it was recovered because the time on site had expired.
Overall, we cored 41 m and recovered 23.54 m of core (57.4% recovery), with 12.7 m cored and 10.87 m recovered (85.6% recovery) with the APC and 28.3 m cored and 12.67 m recovered (44.8% recovery) with the XCB (Tables T1, T2). The drill bit cleared the rig floor at 0130 hr on 23 December, and we departed for Site 1224.
