I am certainly getting used to living in protective gear. Much of the drydock work requires full PPE – respirator, safety glasses, hard hat, gloves. Now I can add a harness to my list of working gear. This week, I ascended the forward mast to uncover our forward meteorological sensors and give the forward mast bolts some TLC. This required two days working aloft.

That’s me up there!
View from the top of the forward mast

This week, the Sikuliaq team also tackled the physical installation of the sonar suite and EK2042 shallow water multibeam on the new centerboard shoe. This project required lots of creative problem-solving and careful cable management within the shoe. The team had to drill out and align a new bolt pattern for the EM2042 installation. We also installed 3 zincs inside the shoe to prevent galvanic corrosion. The new shoe houses a Tonpilz transducer, EM 2042 shallow water multibeam echosounder,150 kHz ADCP, EK 80 sonar suite including a 70 kHz transducer, 120 kHz transducer, and 200 kHz transducer.

Newly installed centerboard and sonar equipment
Matching colors with the transducers

Installing sonars on a giant moving platform was a learning experience in correctly managing cables. Additionally, this project took away a lot of the mystery in how data is transmitted from the sonars to our computer systems. Much of the installation process also required working in a very tight environment (see window plate installation below).

Installing the window plates on the centerboard shoe

The new shoe is looking great with the sonars installed. Next step: testing & troubleshooting.

-Paige FitzPatrick