Month: August 2018

Week 1- On board R/V Atlantis

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On August 13, 2018

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

 

For the first time last night, after almost a week of being, I actually felt like a part of the Alvin Ops group.  The past week has been a whirlwind of getting settled on the ship and finding my way around WHOI. Ship life is so much more comfortable than I could have ever imagined, I have become so accustomed to the ship that walking around feels almost second nature. The food on here is so good!

 

Yesterday was the Science Stroll, a day long event where all the departments of WHOI bring out their work to show to thousands of community members who cycle through the docks and go to the different booths.  Many of the people who came did so simply for the opportunity to see Alvin up close.  We had to set Alvin up in the morning for public viewing, but we had the rest of the day off.   As we began setting up, all of the interns were given ALVIN OPS t-shirts, which I’d been coveting since I first saw someone wearing them.  Then, once we were released for the day, I hung around and watched each of the more experienced Alvin Ops group workers present on the history and abilities of the sub.  After a couple of hours of watching them and Vera White-ing,  I volunteered to give a group a tour, and that felt so cool.  After only being onboard for 5 days, it felt great that I knew enough about it to give a 4 minute presentation and then

answer questions. 

 

Finally, the day concluded with a bbq for the Alvin Ops group and some of the crew.

It was such a nice way to get to know my coworkers and to hear stories about their past.  But the best part was hearing stories about what Alvin used to be like from the people who were actually there.  One of the people who we were talking to pulled out a picture of the wreck of the titanic and pointed at the massive pile of sand in front of the bow and

said, “I ate my lunch right there”, as if it were the most casual thing ever.  He then went on to describe what it was like to drive the sub up to the main staircase of the Titanic as if it were a regular dive.  I couldn’t believe I was talking to one of the few people to lay eyes on the titanic in the past 100 years!

 

Finally, the night concluded with a big handshake from Bruce, the guy in charge of Alvin, as he said ”Welcome to the team!”

 

I’m so excited to see what the rest of this trip holds; I have such a good feeling that its going to be amazing!

 

Week Sixteen: Arctic Chill

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On August 12, 2018

In MATE Blog Archive, US Coast Guard, USCGC Healy

1900 Local time

Hiya!

We are currently on Day 6 of an impressively varied and productive science cruise. This morning we crossed to 71º North heralded by an air temperature drop to 30ºF and the promise of sea ice on the horizon. So far, the science operations are going well since picking up the science party in Nome this past Tuesday. That morning the deck crew lowered the port gangway and landing platform alongside and a small boat made the trip back and forth to shore three times to get everyone and some of their gear on board. With no time to waste, we pulled anchor that same afternoon and started steaming to our first station.

I went ahead and took an 0500 to 1830 work day in order to get the chance to work with both STARC technicians and also provide some meal relief during this 24-hour operation. It’s great because I get to work with all the USCG rotations in the winch shack and on deck and also get to see multiple science shifts come and go. Early on in our operations we were getting faulty pressure/depth readings on our CTD. After some troubleshooting in the water and on deck, we decided to pull the unit and swap it for our spare. This was a great learning experience for me because I got to test the readings on each sensor, swap them over, and secure them to the new fish and then on to the frame. Thankfully, the spare was working just great and we were able to resume CTD casts within 2 hours.

A fun and new operation component for me is recovering and deploying acoustic moorings with a variety of release mechanisms and instrumentation packages. For the Healy, these operations first involve using a mooring release transceiver to send enable, range, and release codes to the underwater mooring release mechanism via the hull-mounted transducer. Simultaneously, the fast rescue boat is launched to retrieve the float once it breaks surface. They drive over and hook it to the winch cable to the float at which point the deck crew brings the entire thing on board.

It’s been an interesting cruise so far and is about to get a lot more exciting with the introduction of sea ice, sail drones, and more processing stations and moorings. Stay tuned!

– Emily

1: From one boat to another

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On August 5, 2018

In Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences & Arizona State University, MATE Blog Archive, R/V Atlantic Explorer

“Skylark1,” Jessie calls at me through the wind. I lift my head and watch my crewmate as she shimmies toward the shrouds and climbs down the mast. I step aside and allow her to pass, but for a moment she pauses beside me and we look around in silence. There is no sight greater than the ocean from above. The water is clear clear clear and I bet we can see a hundred feet beneath the surface before the blue and green turns to complete darkness. The bow of our ship splits the waves and brings forth white ocean spray like torrents of sea glass. Evening renders the clouds pink2 and crisp against the setting sun, and there are tears in my eyes from the wind whipping my face and hair about. The air is clean and dry and warm. Everything is perfect. I turn and Jessie is gone, already on deck, another sixty feet down.  

Emily at the helm.

For the past few months, this elegant brigantine has been my home. Our homeport is San Pedro, in the heart of the Port of Los Angeles. The surrounding cranes, cargo ships and industry are a stark contrast to the wooden hull, canvas sails, and thick fibrous lines of our tall ship. Every morning, we depart our berth appearing to be caught in the wrong century. With calloused hands we spend the day hauling lines; lifting sails we hope will fill with wind. By day we coil lines, furl sails, mend tears, scrub the deck, and at night we bunk up side by side in our humble crew quarters. It is a unique lifestyle: definitely out-of-date, but probably kept alive for its uncanny ability to build character in just about anyone and the unparalleled beauty of it all.

Crew leaders after their completing our first voyage. 

I am leaving this boat and heading East3 where I will spend six weeks aboard the R/V Atlantic Explorer as a MATE Intern. It has been three years since I was aboard a Research Vessel; in college, I signed up as a volunteer scientist through NOAA to survey Atlantic Scallops on the R/V Hugh R. Sharp. In fact, it was on that cruise that I first heard of the MATE program and internship, and first became interested in the role of a Marine Technician.

My formal education is in Biology, although through my college, I was fortunate to participate in opportunities across the globe that also touched upon Geology, Oceanography, Art, Religion, and Anthropology. My interests span across many subjects, and one of the reasons that I find a career as a Marine Technician so appealing is because it combines my love for travel and life at sea with my interest in high quality, peer-reviewed, ground-breaking marine and oceanographic research. Above all else, I thrive when I am in an environment that challenges me to learn and problem solve. As a Marine Technician in training, I hope to do just that.

My day of departure creeps closer and closer. My bags are (almost) packed, my work visa is secured, and my passport has been located. Soon, I will be on a plane headed towards new adventures, new challenges, and new seas!

Fair winds,

Emily

 

 

1 A term used by mariners to describe the act of playing around while working up in the rigging of a ship.

2 Red skies at night usually indicate moisture to the West. Unfortunately, in Los Angeles vibrant sunsets are more often than not, attributed to smog and pollution instead of weather.

3 Travelling 4,879 miles by car and plane from San Pedro, California to St. Georges, Bermuda.

Week Fifteen: Iceworm no Longer

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On August 5, 2018

In MATE Blog Archive, US Coast Guard, USCGC Healy

2030 Local Time

Hi there!

It’s a chilly and foggy Sunday at sea and winds and swells are starting to pick up as we head north along the Alaskan coast toward Nome. We will be anchoring instead of tying up to a dock, which means that the scientists will need to take a small boat out to the Healy on Tuesday and then be ready to go 8 hours later when we reach the first station.

Having 41 scientists board and settle in with such a short turnaround time is probably going to make for a very busy day so we are prepping as much as we can in advance. There are 28 mooring deployments and so we found and tested the acoustic release deck box, which will send and receive messages to each mooring via unique transmission pulses to figure out the exact location and to also trigger the release when we are ready to bring them back on board. Additionally, we also researched terminal connections for the SBE-49 FastCAT, which will be attached to the cable towing the large bongo nets. We found the necessary pigtails, terminated the 0.322 cable, and set up the deck box in the control station. Earlier today, we also warmed up the AutoSal and did a trial water sampling run including testing known standards with very precise salinity. The machine requires quite a bit of fine-tuning, but STARC technician Kristin and I were both glad for the experience in running a sample set through it.

In addition to assembling and prepping equipment and instrumentation, I also took on a project to make XBT launches a bit smoother and faster. This involved first cutting then splicing and soldered the launch cable to a male 4-pin wet bulkhead connector instead of the 4 spade terminals it had previously. The impetus for this is so the cable can be easily unplugged and switched between our primary and back up deck box and server connections. I did some testing and rewiring and then fitted both junction boxes with a female wet pluggable connection. We completed a test cast and a real cast with both systems and it worked great!

I also had a chance this week to brush up on some old familiar skills and pick up a new one. Mike, one of the STARC technicians, brought a handful of breadboards and circuit components with the hope of creating a 1PPS signal generator, similar to what a GPS unit or oscillator outputs. He sketched out a rough circuit diagram and I learned a new web-based diagram creation program called Lucidchart in order to make a cleaned-up digital version then put it together. It was quite fun.

I love projects like these, though I had to put a hold on them for the last two days as I voluntarily took place in the Arctic Circle Line Crossing Ceremony on board the Healy. We had about 35 people participate and I am sworn to secrecy as to the various activities we completed. I will say that I got the chance to meet and work with a lot of new people and really appreciate the time and effort that the seasoned Blue Nose crewmembers put in to this. Two whole days worth! It was really impressive and, as of 0600 this morning, I have now graduated from humble ice worm to the rank of the noble Polar Bear.

Until next time! Thank you for reading 🙂

– Emily

Anticipating Alvin

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On August 3, 2018

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

Hi Everyone!

I can’t believe that in 3 days I will be heading to Woods Hole and will move onto R/V Atlantis.  The purpose of this voyage is to look for vulnerable deep-sea communities between Virginia and Georgia in advance of future hydrocarbon mining using HOV Alvin.  I will be working in the electronics shop doing pre- and post-dive checks of the sub.  

I’m currently a rising senior at the University of Rochester studying electrical and computer engineering, and I’ve spent my summer working for a defense contractor that makes computer boards for various military and civilian companies.  I spent my time creating a new testing plan for a new board that we were making, as well as writing a white paper on 1553 Communication.

After I heard about what the mission would be, I went to the Natural History Museum, and immediately started practing driving the sub that they have in their new Unseen Ocean Exhibit just in case I am called upon to drive Alvin. 

I’m really looking forward to going to Woods Hole and absorbing all the information that I can.  There is so much left to explore of the ocean, and I’m so excited to help make a dent in that.

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