June 7th
Got picked up from Salisbury along with Brent. TR, the deckhand who picked us up, broke some bad news when I got in the car. The ship had suffered a pretty serious motor failure the previous day. Nobody knew what happened or how long the repairs would take, but it sounded like we wouldn’t be going anywhere for a while. During the car ride TR told us all about the scallop survey, the crew, and life on the ship. I learned a lot- some exciting and some worrying.
I got to the ship and was welcomed aboard. I was actually here! Everything on the ship was unfamiliar and overwhelmingly cool. The scientists were loading equipment with the deck crane and everybody was working. I met a whole bunch of people in quick succession including my mentor, Ted. Ted started as a MATE intern and is now Sharp’s lead technician. He showed me my room, which I had to myself for now, and gave me a quick tour of the ship. I pretty much followed Ted around for the rest of the day asking questions.
R/V Hugh R Sharp is a relatively new and incredibly high-tech vessel built to conduct a wide range of research. There are computer displays everywhere, an special crane system for the carousel, a big A-frame with two large winches (one fiberoptic). Four big diesel generators power the ship and run two electric Z-drives. Actually, only one z-drive at the moment. The modular deck is set up to be reconfigured with different equipment, as are the large dry and wet labs. The dry lab is currently packed with computers from the scientists. The ship can hold two 20 foot vans (interchangeable container-like rooms) one of which is onboard and set up to measure scallops. The bridge looks like something out of star trek: Three big chairs, a semi-circle of screens, several control panels, and joysticks instead of a wheel. The bridge wraps all the way around for a 360? view and has a mini-control center in the rear for steering or operating cranes.
Already I felt like I should be doing something and helping. But I had no idea what to do or how to do anything. Everyone was talking about the motor and waiting for information. Standing by to stand by. I helped the cook load some groceries, then we were all given the day off. We spent it at the beach. Definitely exactly what I was expecting for the first day of my internship, but a great way to get to know some of the crew and hear their stories, advice, and opinions about working on the ship.
The plan is to work on maintenance and preparations while we sit at the dock. It sounds like there’s a lot to do, the ship has a long list of neglected and broken things. In port we work 7am-3pm monday-friday instead of a rotating watch. Most of the crew live nearby in town and are not staying on the ship overnight. The scientists stay here though.
The starboard drive motor has been removed through a large deck hatch and brought to a repair company in dover. I don’t know the extent of damage but I’ve heard people say it was pretty bad. While we wait for the motor, we’re fixing broken/neglected stuff, preparing equipment, and the scientists are setting up their gear.
June 8th
Two main sampling techniques are going to be used for this scallop survey: a simple scallop dredge and the HABCAM v4. The HABCAM (Habitat Camera) is basically a big towed camera that photographs the sea floor and creates a continuous ribbon of pictures. It doesn’t disturb the bottom the way a dredge does and can provide a whole lot of interesting data. Its heavy stainless steel frame is just smaller than a car and holds the camera, flashes, and several other sensors including a sidescan sonar unit. It’s towed just over the bottom and sends images up our fiberoptic winch cable.
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/D1HSs3TnSdOSaUJf-RjAGrmVY76ceysKV-lKjL5QGt8 HABCAM being positioned on deck whith the crane.
The scientists spent the day working to re-terminate and attach our fiber cable, which apparently is not an easy task. The cable is spliced and epoxied into a large metal fitting which bolts to the habcam. They had to do a pull-test to set the cable into the epoxy and make sure it was strong enough. We attached the fitting to the deck and pulled 11,000 pounds of tension on it with the winch. It held.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-cfmF468GCz4/U7G6l_U6lFI/AAAAAAAAJfg/yavRFiFBEXo/s1200/_MG_4529.jpg HABCAM cable termination
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Wcmm716_W-k/U7G6YKMlHcI/AAAAAAAAJcw/j7JsApE7RL0/s512/IMG_0086.JPG pull test
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-RIFy4pzf5gI/U7G6mfBZ0BI/AAAAAAAAJfk/CiVJ8l4nP2g/s800/_MG_4562.jpg and dunk test
Later in the evening I went to the movies with some of the scientists. It seems like the crew and the scientists tend to separate themselves. Technicians are in an interesting place in the middle. I like our science people and want to get to know them better.
June 9th
There was supposed to be a fiberoptic internet cable running under the parking lot so that the boat has high speed internet while in port. We hooked it up but it wasn’t working. Instead, we ran a few hundred feet of cat5 cable from the building, high over the driveway and to the ship. It didn’t work immediately and we spent a few days messing with network stuff.
Brent, the technician who came to the ship with me, left. UNOLS can’t pay him to sit around without the ship going anywhere.
To be honest, things here are a little more chaotic, unregulated, and SNAFU than I was expecting. I’m slightly worried about some of it. Sharp, though young, has streaks of rust down the sides of her white hull. A bunch of systems are broken. Stuff isn’t strapped down for heavy seas. All the high-tech design features add over-complication and more things to break. I’ve already heard plenty of complaints, “office politics”, and seen some questionably safe things. There’s less of an oppressively safety-first atmosphere and less motivation that I’ve experienced elsewhere. I suppose I got used to the procedures and attitude at Sea Education Association, where they go WAY above and beyond with safety, caring for the ship, keeping order, and doing everything exactly by the books. But SEA has to- they’re training people and bringing new students far out to sea. Things on the Sharp are a little more “practical”. I think the problems are mostly due to us being stuck at the dock without most of the crew aboard. Everybody says that it will be entirely different once we put to sea.
June 10
Apparently the motor “lost it’s field” (whatever that means) and burned out. It’s salvageable but needs new brush mounts. These are a pretty simple-looking part, however they’re made of a weird alloy that has to be special ordered or custom forged. Nobody seems to know what actually caused the motor to burn out. Hopefully we can get the parts and be out in a few days.
We went into town to buy some tools, equipment, and gear. It turns out that the foul weather stuff is for working with the scallops and dredge; we need the real heavy fisherman kind instead of what I had. My boots also aren’t tall or waterproof enough. They got me a set of Grundens.
Max (one of the ships techs) and I spent a lot of this week cleaning out the flowthrough system. The followthrough system allows scientists to continuously collect basic water quality data by pumping sea water through a series of sensors that take measurements. Someone had run it improperly and left salt water sitting in it. Everything inside was coated with sludgy algae. Max and I drained the system then disassembled the tubes and machines to clean everything out. Somehow, there had been full-grown barnacles living in this thing! Hopefully they weren’t eating too much plankton before it got to the fluromoeter. Not that it would read properly anyway because they were living in the cuvette as well. We thought that the cleaning the flowthrough system would be an afternoon project at most- just snaking out the pipes. In reality, it took about four days.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-q1Id6oPyKIc/U7G6aBmZ8RI/AAAAAAAAJdA/mD2HnFhi2HI/s800/IMG_0130.JPG Working on the flowthrough system.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-uso7pdrJNbQ/U7G6ZkHAH0I/AAAAAAAAJc8/6ekj8Gn4alE/s800/IMG_0122.JPG That’s a declicate cuvette completely full of barnacles.
June 11th
Finally finished with the flowthrough, Ted asked me to design a waterproof box for an ethernet hub in the doghouse (winch control booth on deck). I took measurements and found an otterbox that will be perfect once modified. Ted ordered it.
The Sharp has a tall flybridge which raises our center of gravity but is a great platform for mounting antennas and spotting things in the water. Today us techs ran cables through the ship and installed a new set of 4g antennas up on the top. These will give us a pretty good internet connection when we’re within range of cell towers.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-D3s-gi3cXiM/U7G6clKNHWI/AAAAAAAAJdY/E9_GgZnxoxU/s800/IMG_0151.JPG There are definitely not enough antennas up there. Lets add more!
Working aloft was a lot of fun. I already feel like a real part of the crew. I think we all mesh very well- in large part because we share a similar crude and sarcastic sense of humor. I love it, it makes every job more fun.
The engineers fixed a problem with the sewage system and also got the bow thruster back online. It was a good day. Things got done.
We saw a huge sea turtle right here in the harbor, probably a loggerhead. There are also diamondback terrapins all over the place. Our marina is right at the mouth of an estuary, next to a big salt marsh and nature preserve. There’s a remarkable amount of life here. Schools of fish, diverse birds, and plenty of fishermen. It seems to be an strikingly healthy, flourishing ecosystem. There are several osprey nests, one of which is on a pole about a hundred feet from the ship. In it, two attentive parents are raising an adorable fledgeling. The Sharp’s flybridge is just about level with the nest, we can easily see them bring fish back and feed the baby.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-I6meiyMbWVY/U7G6oXJvoOI/AAAAAAAAJgI/AFHgLXTstc4/s1200/_MG_5503.jpg See? Turtle.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-LUM_7zT5_SE/U7G6nbirj8I/AAAAAAAAJf0/NIX_ehk8pwM/s1200/_MG_5408%2520srgb.jpg
Osprey family.
Speaking of food, the food onboard has been great! Paul is a good cook.
June 12
We had to take the sketchy parking lot ethernet cable down, then put it back up again. Sort of annoying and dangerous. Anything for that high speed connection though!
The scientists finished their setup and went back to woods hole at 5am. They can’t sit around while the boat isn’t going anywhere. I feel pretty bad for them, hopefully this delay doesn’t impact their projects too much.
Ted asked me to organize our spare parts, which are kept in the forward storage room. That bow compartment is also where all the nonperishable food and drinks are kept. Since we had recently taken on food that nobody put away, I couldn’t get past it to reach most of our tech stuff. I spent most of the day cleaning up and organizing food stores. I wasn’t really supposed to move all the food around, but it was in my way. Luckily the cook and captain both said they appreciated it. Once our food was out of the way I straightened up and consolidated the boxes of tech stuff and made sure they were as secure as possible. I couldn’t properly inventory everything because I’m just learning with most of the random cables are for. This was a perfect way to start getting familiar with what we have onboard.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-5vHNt5hyfp0/U7G6d4B0pDI/AAAAAAAAJek/8yH3Jj7Borg/s512/IMG_0178.JPG before
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-kakSc7xmYsQ/U7G6ehglQfI/AAAAAAAAJds/hu9Z4N7_8Ag/s512/IMG_0179.JPG after
Tim, who’s in charge of the tech department, lent me a bike to get around on. It’s a big help while we’re here in port.
June 13
I Helped TR with his project- renovating and organizing one of the deck lockers. Then I was given the job of cleaning up an old box corer. It’s a heavy metal device that’s dropped to the bottom and takes a large sediment sample. It’s very rusty. I learned how to use a needle gun to remove rust. The needle gun is a pneumatic tool with a bunch of quickly reciprocating rods that chip rust away very effectively. Rust busting is hard work, but actually pretty fun.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-SC04JN-cPCE/U7G6oz6xlpI/AAAAAAAAJgU/0JpFL9hThpM/s1200/_MG_5535.jpg Cleaning up part of the box corer.
The marina shop here is amazing. It’s a small warehouse with everything from a machine shop to a woodworking space. There’s a multi-story garage called the high bay with big doors and a 5-ton lift that can travel across the ceiling. Awesome place to work.
There was a beautiful lightning storm in the evening, I took some pictures from the bridge.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-89u8WM2u_1g/U7G6ozlfBUI/AAAAAAAAJgc/xyBE3YMnVgc/s1200/_MG_5710.jpg Life is dangerous when you’re an osprey.
Weekend June 14/15
Saturday I slept late, relaxed, and did a little work. Sunday I was just getting ready to spend the day in town when Max showed up and took me to a cookout at Ted’s house. We played lawn games and grilled scallops that were frozen from the last cruise. They were delicious.
