Month: November 2017

The last full week of my internship did not disappoint. While we were in Juneau, I got to go on a hike to Mendenhall Glacier with the STARC technicians and some crew members. It was a very clear day, and we saw several bald eagles while we were taking in the glacier. I’m glad I was able to spend some time enjoying the surroundings.

Since this is the Healy’s last cruise of the season, the CTD rosette is going to be idle until next year. To make use of this downtime, we have been removing the sensors and other electronics from the rosette and packaging them for shipment and recalibration. This will ensure that the sensors are ready for use next season, and any drift that they experienced this year will be recorded.

Another ongoing project is the installation of new a new GPS system aboard Healy. The locations of the antennas will affect the system’s ability to resolve changes in the ship’s attitude, so determining their placement is important. I delved into the shipbuilder’s drawings of the Healy to try and find accurate measurements of the proposed install location. This ship was built a while ago, so it was difficult to navigate through them. Very little of the needed information was documented, so we took further measurements, which I’m turning into a CAD model of this section of the ship.

When you clicked on this blog post, did you think you would find yourself reading about a wedding? That’s right, there was a wedding on board the Healy this week. While the ship was in port, many of the crew had their family members come on board for the final transit to Seattle. This is an annual tradition called the “Tiger Cruise”. One of the crew members decided to capitalize on this opportunity and arranged for his fiancée to join him. The ship diverted to a snow-covered fjord, two of the crew members played “Here Comes the Bride” on their guitars, and the captain officiated the ceremony in the helicopter hangar. I never thought I would see anything like this during my internship.

We will be docking in Seattle in just a few days, so this will be my last post of the cruise. I’m so glad I had the opportunity to be out here, and I hope you enjoyed reading about it. Thanks for coming along!

Now that science operations are over, there was time this week for some interesting events before we docked in Seward. The Healy’s engineers gave everyone a tour of the ship’s engineering spaces. This included the engines/generators, motors, cycloconverters, and the control center. We started off in one of the two engine rooms. The scale of the engines was immense. They were so big, they needed catwalks to access all sides of them. Each diesel engine had twelve cylinders in a V configuration, and the valve boxes on each one looked large enough to sit in. These engines drive massive generators, providing power for the electric propulsion motors as well as the rest of the ship. The engineers then led us to the control center, where they spent a few minutes answering questions and showing us how they monitor the ship’s workings. From there, we went down to the motor room, where the two huge AC propulsion motors turned the Healy’s propellers.

Next up, the science party gave a presentation on what they had been studying on this cruise. Much of their talk centered around the moorings that had been recovered in the past few weeks. Some of the moorings recorded sound, temperature, and salinity for an entire year underwater. Others emitted sounds that were recorded by the other moorings. The data collected will allow the scientists to model the acoustic environment of the area. Although I had read about the experiment and its objectives, getting an explanation from the brains behind the project helped tie everything together.

The day after the presentation, the Healy docked in Seward. The science party left while the ship was in port. We had several days to pack up sensors, work on diagrams, and solve a few electronic issues that had come up on earlier cruises. It was good to spend time on solid ground and take a break from eating the ship’s food. The STARC technicians for the transit back to Seattle arrived from Anchorage, and the techs who I had worked with departed. This afternoon, the ship left Seward. We will be making one more stop in Juneau before Seattle, our final destination. It’s strange to think that my internship is ending in a little over a week.

At the beginning of the week, the ship moved north of the operating area so that the scientists could take measurements of sea ice. I woke up on Halloween to see pancake ice in every direction. The surface was covered in pieces of sea ice about one to two feet across. It was very strange to look at. Up close, the pancakes looked like bacteria under a microscope. From far away, the surface looked solid enough to walk on. The ice tamped down the short-period waves, so it was very smooth. However, there were still long-period waves that made the surface look like flowing cloth. One of the STARC technicians put it best when he said, “It looks like a Super Mario level”. We spent the entire day in the ice while some of the scientists went out on a small boat to take measurements. Once they were done, the ship turned around and went back to the operating area the way we came.

We spent another day in the operating area wrapping up some unfinished tasks, including more mooring retrievals. I was back at it with the deck box getting range values with a member of the science party. We had an interesting conversation about acoustics and underwater noise pollution laws. While we were waiting for the ship to get in position, the Healy’s bow thruster decided that it was a great time to break down. Violently. It looks like we won’t be using it for the rest of the cruise. The crew engineers are giving us a tour of the engine room tomorrow, so we might get to see its remains.

After wrapping up in the operating area, we put the Arctic Ocean behind us for good, and we are now on our way to Seward. As we moved south, the snow and ice that had accumulated on every surface began to melt. It’s nice being able to walk outside again without worrying about slipping. With nobody hanging around the CTD hangar, I managed to finish up the CTD lanyard project started by the previous two interns. We did it, guys!

It’s getting close to the end of the season for the Coast Guard crew, who have been out at sea for five months. They got to let off some steam on Halloween, when many of them dressed up in costumes for the day. There were superheroes, animals, and crew members impersonating each other. Spiderman tried to sneak up on me after dinner, but I noticed him before he could fire off a web. That night, everyone participated in a “Healy-ween” costume contest. The categories were “funniest”, “scariest”, and “most cobbled together”. We got to vote for our favorites by cheering. The impostor crew got the most cheers by far, in every category.

Trivia update: we didn’t win this week. Our team was missing a member and we came in second to last. All of the questions came from Snapple caps, so I’m boycotting Snapple in protest. We have two chances left to win, so I’ll keep you posted.

We’ll be arriving in Seward in a couple of days, and the current STARC technicians will be leaving then. I’m looking forward to being on solid ground again, but it will be sad to say goodbye to them.