Month: January 2024

The third week was all about getting the transducer conduits and transceiver room ready for the new transducer cable runs.

Transceiver room pre-transducer cables

Where the cables come out from the bottom of the ship

That meant opening Roxtex wedges, removing foam from the Rx (reciever transducer array) and Tx(transmit ducer array) wells, Roxtex blocking the existing cables in the transceiver room, chasing every thread in the Tx and Rx to make sure they are clear of crud, and working on my IRT project. The fourth week was main event. The Rx frame was carried in by the techs but the Tx frame was brought in by a telescopic forklift by lifting one side of the frame and attaching the other side to the forklift with straps so it made a triangle. 

Tx frame on telescoping forkliftTx frame rolling in on casters

Moving in the Rx frame

Tx frame ready to be lifted

Lookin like a million bucks 😛

Raising the transducers into the Tx frame, they are super fragile so every surface they rest on needed to have foam on it

The transducers slide between the pegs, then a plate is screwed into the pegs to lock the transducer in place

After the transducers were lifted into the frame, their cables needed to be pulled through the conduits into the tranceiver room. This involved techs tugging on the cables from the transceiver room, a gallon of lube, and no end to the jokes. Once all the cables were pulled into the transceiver room, all that was left was to dress (apply Locktite) and torque the bolts. All 150ish of them.

 Transceiver room after pulling the transducer cables

We finished that today so the next couple of days should be inside! I love working outside but I also like hands that dont cramp when putting my socks on so it’ll be nice to give the muscles a break.

Thanks for reading,

Sarah 

Last week I ended with the Sikuliaq scheduled to be lifted the next day. Well, due to high winds, the boat lift ended up being delayed two more days. There was some work to be done on land at the UAF warehouse, such as running salts samples and working on my IRT (Infrared Radiation Thermometer) project, but I mostly spent those days getting to know members of the crew better and seeing Seward. I visited the Alaska Sealife Center, got some work pants at Ukanuzit, petted a really cute corgi puppy at Gypsea Treasure Trunk, got burritos at the Lone Chicharron, and skipped rocks at the Lowell Point Beach. It was nice to have a break but by the time the ship was able to be lifted out of the water, I was ready to get back to work.

Lowell Beach

Sunset at UAF warehouse

And oh did the work begin. The big project that we did was removing the transducers from the hull of the ship. Snow gear was put on, hard hats donned, wrenches and allen keys grabbed, and we went to the bow of the ship. Our workspace consisted of a steel metal sheet about 3 feet under the belly of the ship. You are on your back with the enormity of the ship looming above and only some wooden blocks preventing you from becoming jelly. But, you get used to it. We quickly discovered that rolling on your side is the best mode of transportation and any time I moved between tasks, the Mission Impossible theme song blared in my head. The first step was to remove the sea glass panels which followed the centerline of the ship and a line from starboard to port. These panels are invisible to transducer pulses and are made of titanium spacers and polyurathene. The next steps were removing any obstacle from the transducers, including side panels and old wires. With every bolt undone, a crumbling of ocean sediment would fall on your face so I learned quickly to wear eye protection and a face mask. We then removed the transducers from the frame (seen in the image below as blue squares) and lowered the frame from the ship. This will make room for the new transducers being installed later.

Pre-work fit

Working to remove the transducers

Empty frame

The next project was to pull all of the transducer cables running through what smelled like the large intestine of the ship haha. This was somewhat difficult as the wires had fused to the inside of the pipes so we used a come along to help pull. But in a day, we were able to pull about 18 cables from the ship in order for people to come in and clean it the next day.

Small break

Pipes holding the transducer cables

Hired muscle

Pile of pulled cables

Thanks for tuning in for this episode of Dirty Jobs! I’m your host, Sarah:)

I arrived to the Sikuliaq in the midst of her overhaul. On my first day, my boss Ethan gave me a tour of the ship and told me about the equipment stored in each room. The ship has a lot of diverse machinery in order to support life on the ship, do world-class science, and operate in the icy Arctic. For example, the propellers face the bow of the ship and “pull” the ship through the water in order for the ice-hardened props to chop through ice.

My first intern task was to map the terminals of some network patch cables from the main switch kept in the computer lab. This main switch is connected to all the edge switches located around the ship so during my mapping I was able to go exploring and visit many of the main rooms the techs work in. During the overhaul, a major project is to redesign the computer lab which acts as a hub for all the equipment the techs operate to do science and also help the ship navigate. This includes operating the winches for CTDs, monitoring the MCGs (motion sensor and gyro compass) for navigation, as well as data collection points. Mapping the patch cable locations will help the techs get things up and running again once the computer lab has been configured. That kept me busy and getting lost for the rest of the day. After work I watched Fight Club with some of the crew. Not allowed to talk about it buuuut it was weird. Worth a watch.

My next main project was running serial and ethernet cable from the 03 lab to the computer lab on the 01 level. These cables will allow techs to have a direct feed from the MGCs and get heading data. This involved removing panels in the stairwell to run the cables inside the walls and then running the cables overhead in cable trains in the hallways. This also involved Roxtec wedges and blocks. Imagine trying to play Jenga but all the Jenga pieces are slippery, have cables running through them, you’re cramped into a tiny space with the Jenga stack above you, and you are wishing you had the upper body strength of Rhea Ripley but your musculature is more in tune with the cables you are trying to wrestle into place. This is installing Roxtec. It is important to install though because it allows for cables to run through the walls while keeping the walls watertight and fire tight. After work I went to trivia with some of the crew and found out that there are other people who hate Wes Anderson movies too! It was great.

The next task was to button up any things that needed to be completed before we got underway as the ship was heading to the JAG Seward Shipyard to be lifted out of the water. This included lowering the centerboard to be flush with the hull of the ship. The couple-ton centerboard is usually in maintenance position so that the techs can get access to the instruments in the bottom of it but since we are letting out a lot of ballast water in order to get ready to be lifted out of the water, we want to make sure that the ship isn’t too top heavy. My boss, Ethan, also introduced me to a project that I will be working on in the coming weeks which is to design a stand that will hold two infrared radiation thermometers that will be used to collect data to study the thermal skin effect of the surface ocean. Standby for progress on that.

Yesterday we got under way to the JAG shipyard which was really cool to see as this is the first ship I’ve been on. I got to go up to the bridge and see the captain and mates steer and bring us to the dock.

Today I helped my bosses, Julian and Carmen, with the redesign of the computer lab as the boat lift has been delayed until tomorrow, hopefully! Fingers crossed. Next week I’ll remember to take pictures! See you then.

Sarah