Month: May 2018

After a two day stop over in Woods Hole, we’re back on the proverbial road!

Leg 1 concluded on Wednesday the 23rd with a stop over in Woods Hole to provision, re-fuel, and bring new scientists and volunteers onboard. After a busy day making preparations (with an evening off so the techs could flex their bowling skills) we were on deck at 0500 Friday morning for departure. We headed offshore through Nantucket sound and began dredging to the South of Cape Cod, gradually working North towards Provincetown. When my watch took over deck ops at 0530, we were greeted on deck by the greatest whale show I’ve ever seen in my entire life. There was no wrong direction to look in as humpbacks breached all around us with several pods of dolphins thrown in for good measure. Upon recovering our first dredge the large ammount of krill in it was a good indication as to why we got such a show! As we sailed into the night the fog rolled in so thick that you could not see the top of the Sharp’s VHF antenna and the temperature continued to drop.

We spent three days dredging hard around the clock. The area we were in was far more rocky than our southerly tracks. Having to roll large rocks, fix busted rock chains, and even swaping out a damaged dredge at one point slowed our progress. While further south we may have been averaging 4-5 dredges per watch, now we were only managing 3-4. After three days as sea conditions deterioarated we had to shut down night time deck ops as it was too dangerous to safely work with the prevailing sea state in the dark. We picked it up the following morning and the next day switched over to the HABCAM. A very welcome break after three days of hard work. We’re currently finishing up our HABCAM tracks on the Northern edge of Georges Bank and expect to return to dredging early tomorrow morning until we return to Woods Hole on Sunday night. Looking forward to another busy few days!

Signing off for now,

Charlie

42 06.50 N, 67 25.11 W

Ready to Depart!

By Cameron Carbone

On May 29, 2018

In MATE Blog Archive

All packed and ready to make the trip to the naval base where the NOAA Pisces, the research vessel we will be traveling on, is stationed preparing for its 3 week trip out to sea. Just spent my first night in Jacksonville at a local hotel. Never had a king bed to myself before!

I can’t wait to see the Pisces in perosn and get to meet some of the crew today as we will head to the base for the first time. Today we will be making last minute cargo additions as well as preparing final paperwork and reviewing the project objectives to be completed at sea.

Sunshine has broke through this morning as the tropical storm Alberto pushes up onto land after making its way through the gulf waters. Hopefully the weather will hold off as we depart tomorrow morning. All packed and ready to go! Can’t wait to be apart of some great work that will be conducted over the next few weeks.

Week Six: At the Dock

By Emily Shimada

On May 28, 2018

In MATE Blog Archive, R/V Roger Revelle, UC San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceaongraphy

May 28, 2018

1530 local time

Happy Memorial Day!

It is a beautiful weekend, and I can’t think of a better place to be than sunny San Diego. The Revelle was back at the dock on Wednesday afternoon following a really short but eventful cruise. In the afternoon of our last full day at sea, the Jason engineers finally got the ROV in the water and took it all the way down to the seafloor some 4500 meters below. It was really cool to see them testing out the two arms on deck and running through all the various checks and “football float” attachments to the cable before the long descent.

After dinner, I went in the Jason control van and watched Jason land gently on the seafloor, kicking up plumes of sediment all around it. Multiple, high-definition camera displays allowed us to see the surrounding seafloor as the pilots white-balanced the 3D camera and used the arms to remove heavy, metal plates acting as ballast. During the dive, the engineers could also test the accuracy of the USBL to detect Jason’s position. It was really cool to be able to see the operation and to watch live feed from the deep ocean.

Since the Jason team were mostly operating independently, this left Matt and me free to prepare for upcoming cruises. I was able to update the inventory for the CTD, including all of the spare sensors and cables, as well as clean and defrost the science freezers in the various lab spaces. Had it been warmer out on deck, I would have suggested a snowball fight with all the frost I managed to scrape off.

Matt and I also terminated the 0.322 CTD cables for the Desh 5 and Cast 6 winches. Matt printed out the instructions for me to review, and it was really beneficial for me to work through a different procedure from that at WHOI, but still arrive at the same result, which is a successfully insulated and communicative connection between the deck box and CTD. I also got to use an automatic wire stripper for the first time and found myself wondering why anyone bothers with any other style. Instead of the Scotchcote mold used on the Armstrong, we made our soldered connections water tight by carefully wrapping a layer of vulcanizing tape and electrical tape, and then brushing on some Scotchcote compound. It made the process a lot quicker, so you can easily re-terminate if there are any problems during science operations.

After we arrived back in port, the first two days were incredibly busy. All of the Jason accessories needed to get packed away in various storage holds and two containers needed to be moved to the bow of the ship and secured. We also needed to bring on the CTD carousel and rosette and some huge equipment for coring operations on the upcoming cruise. I also got a chance to work with Kelsey on attaching two Niskin bottles to the frame of a multicore sampler in a way that would ensure the bottles are tripped when the multicore tubes are also triggered. This took some engineering on our part, especially as the bottles themselves weren’t even in working condition yet and had to have various replacements made. I think it will work, but we will see!

In addition to all of the equipment preparation, moving, and securing, they also had to move the Sproul from it’s docked position in order to make way for the Sally Ride. On Friday, they sailed her over and ended up side-tying her to the Revelle and running a power cable and gangway from the Sproul to the Revelle.

Overall, it was a very busy but rewarding week, and I am glad I got to assist in some of the preparation operations for the upcoming cruises. Next up for me is a quick trip out on the Sally Ride, leaving this upcoming Friday, supporting the NSF GEOPATHS initiative for hands-on training and research experience for students in geoscience. I am looking forward to assisting in the collection of sediment samples with the use of the multicore, and am also interested to catalogue the many similarities and differences between the Armstrong and the Ride as I have never sailed on sister ships before.

– Emily

Wait it’s only been a week?

By Charles Brooks

On May 22, 2018

In MATE Blog Archive, R/V Hugh R. Sharp, University of Delaware, College of Earth, Ocean and Environment

It has been an absolute whirlwind of a week on the R/V Hugh R Sharp. I don’t think I’ve ever learned and experienced so much in such a short period of time!

After arriving at the ship on Monday the 14th I spent a couple days learning my way around the ship as we loaded gear, provisions, and prepared for departure. We departed Lewes, DE last Wednesday evening as I slept in preparation to go on watch at 2330. During that first night offshore we launched and recovered our HABCAM, a towed camera array that is used to take high definition pictures of the bottom, allowing the scientists to test it and adjust the trim so it flew nice and level above the bottom as we towed it along. We spent three days using the HABCAM during which we had to recover and redeploy the vehicle numerous times to allow the scientists to address some persistent camera issues. The pictures that it sends back from the bottom are really incredible, I was blown away by the clarity and the fact that the scientists can use them to count and measure scallops without having to bring them onboard.

Speaking of bringing scallops onboard….on the 19th we switched over to dredging! My first night of dredging was incredibly busy and a nice change of pace, giving me some great experience working on deck. That first night we deployed and recovered six dredges and three CTD’s. We have been doing a combination of 10 and 15 minute dredge tows from which the scientists have been collecting scallops and sometimes scallops, crabs, whelks, and more! Recovering the dredge and unloading what can be over 1000 lbs of catch is challenging physical work, but a lot of fun!

What I’ve enjoyed the most so far is getting to run the CTD casts. A CTD is a cylindrical array loaded with niskin bottles, which can be remotely closed from the surface to collect water samples, and a suite of sensors that record conductivity, temperature, and depth (hence the name CTD). Every few dredge sites, the captain will stop the ship allowing us to lower CTD down to the bottom, where we collect water samples that are tested for salinity or micro-plastics, giving us a wealth of data for the water column in that location. The head technician on my watch Drew, a former MATE intern, performed the first few casts so I could learn the procedures but since then I have done the majority of the casts. It has been awesome getting so much experience with such a mainstay of oceanography and I’m looking forward to getting more familiar with the system over the course of the next four weeks!

Currently we are transiting to Woods Hole which will conclude the first leg of our scallop cruise. It’ll be nice to have a day to stretch my legs, but I’m already looking forward to getting back offshore and continuing our work!

We are currently on satellite Wi-Fi which is insufficient for posting pictures, but please check in on Wednesday for an edit with some pictures from my first week on the Sharp!

Signing of for now,

Charlie

038 48.26 N, 073 36.37 W

Week Five: Hit Ground and Run

By Emily Shimada

On May 20, 2018

In MATE Blog Archive, R/V Roger Revelle, UC San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceaongraphy

May 20, 2018

1830 local time

Hi there!

I am not sure about you, but I have had a very busy week. When I last wrote, the R/V Neil Armstrong was just a few hours away from tying up in Reykjavik. In the final hours, Amy and I finished up the termination on the CTD, secured the underway systems and echosounders, and started the data transfer process while the pilot climbed aboard and guided the ship in.

Joe met us once we went through the immigration process, and he and I tried our best to waterproof a security camera monitor for the gangway watch stander as there was no port security on this specific dock. Our delay getting in meant that he was not the only one waiting to board. We had a full science crew who started moving on almost immediately. Thankfully, I had already packed my duffel and moved it out of the way. After the rough seas we had all transit, it was a nice feeling to be on solid ground again. The crew celebrated the arrival that night and less than 24 hours later, I was on a flight to San Diego to board the R/V Roger Revelle and begin my time at Scripps.

The Shipboard Technical Support (STS) team at Scripps is a well-oiled machine headed by some very cool and seasoned people. Within the team are a Geophysical group, Oceanographic Data Facility group, Computer Technicians, and Resident Technicians. On the morning after I arrived, the staging area next to the dock was a hotbed of activity. This worked out for me, because I was able to jump right in and help the Geophysical group load vans with new equipment and gear and met a lot of the team members in the process.

Being closer to home also means that I am closer to some of my family. My dad is a UCSD alumnus and I was able to take him and my stepmother on a tour of the Revelle and give them a better understanding of what I hope to be doing for a career once the internship ends. Roger Revelle was a household name when I was growing up due to his innovative and influential work, so it was a real treat for my dad to set foot on the ship named in his honor.

This ship has an impressive history and she is incredibly active throughout the year. For the next few days, we are off the coast of San Diego to complete a series of engineering tests for the ROV Jason, in preparation for a packed summer of OOI cruises. Being a day late, I missed the mobilization of Jason and all his accessories. However, it has been pretty cool to watch the operations and assist when I can. So far, this has included setting up the ultra-short base line (USBL) system, which will help calculate Jason’s subsea position and required mounting and lowering a pipeline down a well that led straight from the deck to the ocean below. Thankfully, no bolts, tools, or cell phones were lost in this effort.

Jason has an amazing engineering team traveling aboard right now, so they do not need much assistance from the technicians. When we are not needed for operations, I have had the chance to familiarize myself with the ship and learn more about the responsibilities and skillsets of a resident technician from my new mentor Matt. I have had the chance to assist in crane operations and putting an asset over the side as well as an XBT launch – love those! On the Armstrong, a flow-through SSVS system provided sound velocity profile data to the EM122 multibeam. Here on the Revelle, the XBT probe profiles are uploaded for the EM122 to reference. The science team can request one launch per day and the portable laptop/deck box system the technicians created makes this a very simple operation.

Hopefully, the weather will improve and allow the Jason team to get their testing satisfactorily completed during the next couple days. Even though this is my only cruise on the Revelle, I think it is an exciting one, and I am looking forward to seeing Jason piloted through the water. My next post will be back in port during cruise preparations for R/Vs Roger Revelle, Sally Ride, and Robert Gordon Sproul – oh my! See you then.

– Emily

Week Four: Countdown to Reykjavik

By Emily Shimada

On May 14, 2018

In MATE Blog Archive, R/V Neil Armstrong, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

0800 Local Time

Goðan dag!

Today is our last day at sea on the Iceland transit, hence my Icelandic greeting. We were originally meant to be in Reykjavik yesterday afternoon, but two days of really rough seas set us back.

Despite the weather and sea conditions, we did still manage to deploy 3 wave buoys as well as a glider over the side. Tina was our lone scientist on board and was fun to work with to get these things deployed. The round, orange, surface float is designed so that the drifting buoy will move on the surface with the currents, helped along by an attached, underwater drogue. A variety of sensors are also enclosed in the float, and an onboard antenna transmits the sensor data and buoy position. I have no doubt that those little surface buoys picked up some interesting climate and weather data.

The glider was the last to get deployed this week and was a challenging operation as the weather had once again turned against us. The Bosun thought it would be safest to attach a tag line to one of the starboard side winches and jib the glider out as far away from the ship as possible. Even then, it still drifted dangerously close to the hull and the Chief Mate had to engage the bow thruster to move us away from it. The danger was that the sensors on the nose of the glider are incredibly sensitive and could not come in contact with the vessel at all. Even rubbing against a shirt sleeve could destroy them.

This past week also provided a lot of opportunities for troubleshooting instrumentation and working on new projects. I think Amy and I totaled a solid work day worth of time trying to troubleshoot connectivity issues with the EM710 multibeam (offshore, shallow water unit). We inspected the transceiver unit and ethernet connections, swapped TX boards, bypassed the remote switch (which also seemed to have issues), and even pulled out the remote switch to inspect the connections inside. We got some good transmissions for a time, but it is not consistent, which remains a real head scratcher! Once we were in deep enough waters, we tried booting up the EM122 multibeam, and then found out that the database for it was missing. So that was another day of problem solving and configuration on that particular unit that, thankfully, ended in success. Go, Amy!

One project that I was excited to undertake was editing and reprinting a cylindrical coupler for the electrical slip ring on the CTD winch. The first print, unfortunately, did not quite fit the bolt pattern required and so I took some additional measurements and created a new, printable file in Autodesk Inventor. Thankfully, I worked with that program at Cal Maritime, but had yet to facilitate an actual print job. The ship has a LulzBot 3D printer, and I downloaded the printer software and slicing program for it. We did a test run of 3mm each of the top and bottom of the piece to check alignment and then, just 12 hours later, the part was successfully printed and is a good fit!

Now, just 4 hours out from Reykjavik, I am a bit amazed at just how quickly this month has passed by. I am so grateful to Amy, Joe, and Cris for their guidance and the multitude of learning opportunities and hands-on projects these past few weeks on the R/V Armstrong. They work really hard and need to be savvy with so many different systems and skillsets. Their services are vital, and I hope they know that they are appreciated!

Due to our delayed schedule, I will be staying in Reykjavik tonight and flying to San Diego tomorrow to board the R/V Roger Revelle at Scripps. Stay tuned for more as I head back to the West Coast!

– Emily

Ready to Depart

By Charles Brooks

On May 13, 2018

In MATE Blog Archive, R/V Hugh R. Sharp, University of Delaware, College of Earth, Ocean and Environment

My Name is Charlie Brooks and I am one of MATE’s summer interns who will be working and learning onboard the R/V Hugh R Sharp for the next six weeks.

I’ve spent my entire life on and around the ocean sailing, surfing, fishing, and more. It was this love for the ocean that brought me to the University of Rhode Island where I majored in Marine Affairs. It wasn’t until late in my college career that I learned about the incredible work of marine technicians. With the goal of further developing my skills in order to become one, I attended the IYRS School of Technology and Trades for a six-month course in marine systems.

I will be arriving at the R/V Hugh R Sharp tomorrow afternoon and I cannot wait to get onboard to start learning from the scientists and crew! More blog posts ahead in the coming weeks, but for now it’s time to triple check my duffle bag and my camera gear ahead of an early start tomorrow morning.

-Charlie

Week Three: Transit to Iceland

By Emily Shimada

On May 6, 2018

In MATE Blog Archive, R/V Neil Armstrong, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

May 6, 2018

1730 local time

Greetings!

I am writing from our current position off the coast of Nova Scotia on our way to Iceland. We have a few stops planned during the 9-day transit in order to deploy a couple of gliders and a massive buoy, which is currently taking up quite a bit of prime real estate out on the fantail.

Getting ready for this cruise certainly made for a very busy week for everyone! The science teams from the previous cruise were all packed up and off the ship by Monday morning after a fun sendoff party at the local eatery in Woods Hole. We then spent a solid day cleaning up the lab and berthing spaces to make way for the new cruise, and the rest of the week was dedicated to maintenance projects and new installations.

One of the new additions is the work boat, which was left behind on the dock during the last cruise. Since it was laid up for a few weeks, the 3^rd Mate was tasked with refueling and running the engines. I was invited along for the journey and even trusted to drive for a while around the harbor. As you can see by the lack of wake, I took it easy out there, unlike the 3^rd Mate who really gunned it and managed to get us impressively wet out there. All around, quite a fun experience.

I thought the ship was impressively kitted out when I arrived, but there is new, shiny tech installed all over the place for this cruise. Earlier in the week, I tested my hardware skills by mounting and connecting 4 new monitors around the lab space as well as a new deck box for the expendable bathythermograph (XBT) probe. After being elbow deep in data cables in the main lab rack for over an hour, I actually got a chance to go out to the transom and use the XBT hand launcher. Though the look and feel of it suggests that the launcher could pack a punch, it is really just a means of keeping the probe cannister steady. Once the pin is released on the underside, the probe just sort of plops out undramatically and makes its long journey down as the conductor cables pay out smoothly to 1800 meters.

The start of a new cruise has also meant that I am finally able to work with Amy, the marine technician, on creating a new cruise data log and initializing the underway instrumentation, flow-thru systems, and echo sounders. I am finding it really beneficial to be able to get my hands on the control units, pumps, valves, and various software systems for the instruments. However, now that we are in Canadian waters, we are actually not allowed to record any data so I now have some experience in how to stop recording as well.

Another week at sea also means another safety drill. Instead of fire & emergency, the Chief Mate chose to have an informational session on hypothermia and on rescue procedures for pulling someone out of the water. Both the ship and work boat now have these scramble-nets to create a cradle and either roll someone up out of the water or have them scramble up to the deck. We watched a few videos and also demonstrated deploying the net on deck.

This week really flew by, and I am glad I got to spend a few days of it in Woods Hole. It is a really nice town, and I felt so at home there so quickly. It was great meeting people at WHOI, and I am excited to come back in October for the INMARTECH conference. My next update will be coming from Reykjavik!

– Emily