Author: Emily Shimada

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

2330 local time

Hiya!

Another Sunday has arrived, bringing with it the end of this first cruise. Over the last two weeks I have lead over 85 CTD deployment and recoveries and the nutrient sample vials total out at 997! Some days it has been difficult to adjust to the 0000-1200 work schedule, but I was put on a great team and we powered through the early morning shifts and crazy water sampling transects together. 

As far as science operations go, this one seemed incredibly busy and ambitious. We had 175 CTD casts and water sampling for gases, DIC, chlorophyll, nutrients, as well as grazing experiments, two incubation chambers, VPR and MOCNESS tows, and lots of at-sea analysis going 24/7. The lab spaces are always hotbeds of activity and it is strange now to see instruments and sampling stations being broken down. It is going to feel really empty in here tonight once everything is gone.

This past week has gone by pretty quickly, likely owed to it being rather eventful. In addition to normal science operations, there was a rupture in the FW cooling water line to a forward SW supply pump, which created a lot of water that had to be pumped through a garden hose running through the length of the ship to the aft OWS system. We also had an early morning rendezvous with the M/V Warren Jr. to pick up a replacement part for the towed VPR. The 2^nd Mate took the fast rescue boat over with the documentary cameraman on board. Since this happened shortly after sunrise, the watch team could observe the boat being lowered and recovered from out on the deck.

I also got to expand my deck experience to include operating the main 30,000 lb. hydraulically driven A-frame controls to retrieve the MOCNESS and deploy the VPR. Moving the directional lever outboard or inboard with over 3,000 psi of accumulator pressure provides an interesting resistive feeling I haven’t experienced before. Though the control is a simple out or in, you also need to watch your speed and pressure, as well as the potential entanglement of the winch blocks while simultaneously watching and listening to the Bosun for instruction and keeping an eye out for safety hazards.

I am curious to see what the next few days are going to be like at the R/V Armstrong as one cruise offloads and another moves on. When I arrived two weeks ago, the science vans and large equipment were already onboard, so I missed that particular operation. In addition to helping with the transition this week while the ship is pier-side, I am also looking forward to spending more time on marine technician projects. This should also be my focus during the two-week transit to Iceland. There will be fewer science missions so that should, potentially, free me up to spend more time on the various shipboard instrumentation and networks with Amy, my new mentor. I am lucky to have the chance to learn from her as she has a wealth of knowledge and experience.

Tonight, I am going to try to go to bed at a more usual hour and wake up for the day shift to try to readjust to a new schedule. My next update will be a couple of days in on our transit to Iceland.

More soon!

– Emily

0330 Local Time

Hi there!

I’ve spent the last week on board the R/V Neil Armstrong on my first ever ocean-going research vessel. I am starry-eyed over the variety of instrumentation and technology that the ship is kitted out with. It’s so cool! This includes, of course, the 3 separate satellite ship-to-shore connections allowing me to be online and sharing my experiences with you.

The current mission objective is to complete 12 cross-shelf section transects of the Middle Atlantic Bight, which is an area of diverse productivity well known to local fisheries. Our first few days were dominated by heavy seas, which made for some difficult and uncomfortable working conditions for a majority of the science team (ie. wide-scale, debilitating seasickness). I was placed on the 0000 – 1200 hydrology watch with some truly delightful people and am gaining some good insight into field sampling methodologies and the herculean effort required to complete a study of this magnitude. The amount of water we constantly collect and filter through is on a scale I was previously unfamiliar with. It has been a week, and for nutrients alone, I count 400 individual sample vials now frozen and waiting for analysis.

My role as a nutrient sample collector has also given me the time during watch to get familiar with the deployment and recovery procedures for the CTD carousel. For our safety, we communicate with both the bridge and the winch operator during casts. The combined weight of the CTD, Niskin rosette, Video Plankton Recorder (VPR), and the frame is significant and so following safety procedures is paramount!

An added bonus of being on the 0000 – 1200 team is watching the sun rise out at sea, which is always a beautiful and welcomed sight.

When I am not working with the science team or sleeping, I am shadowing the two Shipboard Scientific Services Group (SSSG) technicians – Cris and Joe – to get a foundational understanding of their job duties. So far, I’d say this has been an incredibly eventful week and I have already absorbed so much. I look forward to more and will be back next Sunday with another update.

– Emily

0745 local time

Hello!

My name is Emily Shimada and I am a UNOLS/MATE long-term, marine technician intern. That smiling portrait above was taken off the coast of Maui on my senior training cruise this past July. I am graduating in fourteen days (but who’s counting?) from the California State University, Maritime Academy with a BS in Marine Engineering Technology and a minor in Marine Science.

Marine technician work is the dream job that I never knew existed before coming to Cal Maritime. It combines my love and passion for scientific research with my desire to be out at sea and getting my hands dirty. Later today I will board the R/V Neil Armstrong at Woods Hole and am really looking forward to meeting the crew and science teams. My trusty duffel is packed and ready to go.

This is an amazing opportunity, and I am very excited to get started. I have a lot to learn and will be posting my experiences here each week. More soon!

– Emily