Author: Jenn Willson

Happy Saturday! We are back on the R/V Kilo Moana for the last cruise of the internship—just 5 more days of sea-time and adventures in the North Pacific Ocean until I return home to Seattle. The nice part about the cruise is I know exactly what is happening this time and feel more confident assisting with deck operations and asking better questions. Most marine techs I have met have explained this exact feeling—each cruise gets more familiar and you will feel more confident with your skills as you continue to settle. I am counting down the days until my next cruise, wherever that will be!

The days of the cruise tend to blur together for me but I remember the exact moment the excitement happened. I was assisting Trevor with a CTD deployment in choppy waves and decently strong winds. I held the walkie-talkie and was communicating with the bridge when the CTD was starting to drift under the boat. Almost immediately, Trevor took back over control and was not-so-calmly asking the bridge to move the ship ASAP because the wire angle was too much and he worried the CTD would get stuck in the prop—an expensive issue. From that point on, the weather dictated most of our operations and made it difficult to fall asleep with the crashing waves between the hulls of the ship. The big waves and strong winds halted operations for 8 hours while the science and OTG teams created a new plan.

The following 3 days blurred together with deployments and recoveries happening back-to-back to make up the time we lost. Lots of CTD casts, trace metal casts, net tows, and VPR casts kept us busy. Kelsey, on the science team, was armed with a camera through most of it. To wrap up my blog for this internship, please enjoy many photos of my last few days on the Kilo Moana.

I absolutely loved my time on board the ship and created many great memories throughout the internship. I would like to give a huge thank you to the HOT team, OTGs, and the crew of the Kilo Moana for hosting me and supporting me through an unforgettable 5 weeks in Hawaii this fall! Thank you so much!

Jenn

(Dan Sadler, Fernando, me, Hunter, Carolina, Dan Fitzgerald)

With the cruise plan pushed back an extra day, we spent extra time in the lab on Monday and Tuesday with last-minute preparations. On Monday, Hunter and I joined the chief scientist, Dan, in the Marine Center Lab. Dan primarily focuses on chemical analysis of the samples we collect on board including dissolved oxygen samples—which can be temperamental. He has an automatic oxygen titrator system that makes it quick and easy to collect great oxygen data on the boat but the machine tends to drift so we need to calibrate it often. Hunter and I assisted with the calibration procedures and competed against each other to see who was the more accurate titrator…it was a tie according to Dan.

The next day, we worked with Carolina in the labs at CMORE to make enriched seawater for the cruise. I was expecting a fancy machine to dissolve the nitrogen gas into the water but was happily surprised that this required more hands-on effort. Colder water holds more gas so we let the bag of filtered seawater chill in an ice bath for an hour before introducing the Nitrogen gas. Carolina then took out a fly swatter and started smacking the crap out of the bag over and over! Hunter and I were cracking up that the method was actually working and didn’t need any fancy machinery, just some built-up frustration to take out on the bag.

On Wednesday, the OTG team invited us to help them onboard the Kilo Moana. James, one of the 3 main OTGs we worked with, escorted us all the way down to the sea chest (unfortunately not full of gold). This adventure took us down 2 flights of stairs and then 2 additional ladders to crawl down to the bottom of the hull. Submerged inside the sea chest is the sound velocity probe. This probe is technically still working but there was serious corrosion around the instrument and James taught us how he troubleshoots these issues with a multimeter. Hunter and I agreed that we still have a lot to learn about electronics and how we can use a simple tool like a multimeter to check connections and dissect the issue. After testing our cabled connections multiple times to be sure, we decided to send the instrument back to the company for them to fix the internal issue.

Upstairs, Ben and Trevor showed us a few more network components and the hot glue method for cable splicing. I am looking forward to being back on the boat in a few days to keep learning from them.

Carolina and Dan gave us the day off on Thursday (our last day on land) to explore. I rented a car for the day and took off East to drive through the Botanical Gardens near Kaneohe which were stunning! After watching the sunset and going for a swim, I returned to the campus housing and packed up for the cruise on Friday.

Loading Day! I am always impressed by how organized and efficient this team is at loading and unloading their boxes and instruments for the cruise. It is seriously one big game of Tetris to fit everything but they have a system down after doing this cruise for 35 years. The weather forecast says to expect some stronger winds this time around so I am looking forward to an exciting cruise to Station ALOHA tomorrow!

Jenn

The stars aligned this week with the annual RVTEC conference in Honolulu while Hunter and I are on land here in Oahu. Our mentor, Carolina, was incredibly generous and let us attend the conference on Monday and Friday of this week to learn and meet marine technicians from other UNOLS ships. The first day of the conference was exciting and intimidating all at once. The theme of the day was cybersecurity and networks which was almost entirely new information for me but it was great to learn where the field is going in the future.

On Tuesday, Hunter and I helped Brandon clean most of the sampling bottles from HOT 345 in preparation for next week. We worked through the pile of bottles, rinsing each with a hydrochloric acid solution and then deionized water to ensure any microorganisms were all rinsed out and would not contaminate our new samples next week.

After our day of lab work, we rejoined the conference networking event in the evening. I loved meeting techs from other ships and hearing about their experiences as MATE interns and how they transitioned to a job afterward. Connecting with the alumni and current techs from boats like Scripps and WHOI has been a highlight of my internship. I feel reassured that this is the right path for me and it reinforced my enthusiasm to start applying for marine tech roles on these ships when I return home.

On Wednesday, we worked in the CMORE (biogeochemical research) labs on campus with Brandon analyzing chlorophyll samples with the fluorometer. The instrument we used was built in the 80s and is incredibly accurate and reliable…however, it took almost 3 hours to analyze a single rack of samples. Sometimes the older technology has pros and cons.  

After work, we attended the conference dinner at the Waikiki Aquarium which was unbelievably beautiful! The dinner was wonderful and I loved meeting even more people in the community including a technician visiting from Australia. It warms my heart to see a community of people who usually are all working in different oceans of the world all gathered in one place.

Thursday was our particulate inorganic carbonate analysis day. This was my first time doing a gas analysis to measure the CO2 as a proxy for the calcium carbonate in each sample—very cool! Hunter and I spent the afternoon carefully working through each sample from our sediment traps. It is amazing to see the data after everything is analyzed because you can gain more context for the work we do out at sea. The magic is absolutely in the data we collect and it is even more rewarding to collect samples at sea when you have the bigger picture in mind.

Our final day this week was a half-day attending the intro classes by Tom Wilson at the conference. Even though these classes were a bit more intense than I expected, I still learned a ton about electronic design and serial communication. I am excited to continue learning independently online and out in the field in my first job. One of the biggest takeaways from the week at the conference was that everything is specific to each ship. I can barely contain my excitement to get started in this world and learn how these systems are tailored to the next boat I have the opportunity to work on.

I’m looking forward to another week on land preparing for the HOT 346 cruise departing next Saturday!

Jenn

We are back on land this week to help Dan and Carolina in the lab. And with a view like this on my commute across campus, I cannot complain!

This past week we focused on physical oceanography with our mentor Dan. He worked as a marine technician on board the R/V Kilo Moana for 10 years before joining the HOT team so he is the go-to guy for marine tech questions! The first job for the physical oceanography team is analyzing the salinity samples we collected on the cruise using the Salinometer. Fernando explained how the instrument works and that it can be sensitive to changing temperatures in the room so we had not one, not two, but three different thermometers to ensure our samples stayed cool. It was high maintenance!

Fernando was also great at explaining how the team processes most of their CTD data. He broke down their methods and how they have stayed consistent in creating their time series over the last 35 years of the project—everything must be consistent! He gave us great resources to continue learning about data processing on our own time and I am looking forward to practicing my coding skills in my free time.

Back in the lab with Dan, we helped splice cables and switch the CTD configuration from vertical to horizontal. It was surprisingly difficult to move the oxygen sensors and tubing to a different position while still ensuring that water could flow without issues. There is a ton of detailed thinking that goes into how these systems operate and whether the data could be significantly affected by repositioning the instruments. This next cruise will be the second test run to see if the data is heavily impacted but we have faith in the new system because most other UNOLS ships use a horizontal configuration.

Thursday and Friday consisted of taking things apart to see how it works and putting it back together again. First up was the LADCP which is similar to the ADCP we would see on most ships. It was much heavier than I thought it would be and the circuitry was cool to see. Then, we fixed up a new carousel to replace the old one.

On Friday, we took a field trip to the marine center to work on the CTD rosette and take apart a Niskin bottle. Hunter and I took turns un-hooking the spring inside each Niskin (an often-neglected part of maintenance between cruises to prolong the lifespan of the springs). We were able to replace the carousel inside the center of the rosette with our newly fixed version. Accessing the screws to this part of the rosette is deceivingly difficult. I could not reach them by climbing on the top (this was clearly designed by a man with longer arms). Instead, I had to crawl under and inside the rosette like a rock-climber to unscrew the old parts. Dan said it is even more tedious on a moving ship but that maintaining the rosette is a huge part of a marine tech’s job.

This week with Dan was an incredible opportunity to learn more technical skills and do some hands-on maintenance that marine techs would do post-cruise. I cannot wait for next week with Carolina!  

Jenn

After leaving the rain behind in Seattle, I was thrilled to arrive in a sunny and warm Honolulu last week! My first stop was the R/V Kilo Moana to drop off my bags and get situated in my room on board.

The chief mate, Jamie, gave me a fabulous tour of the ship and introduced me to almost the entire crew. After my intern partner, Hunter, arrived and settled in, we took an Uber to Waikiki and spent the afternoon lounging on the beach before a busy work day on Friday.

The next morning, we woke up bright and early for the 6:30 am breakfast call and fueled up for Loading Day. Vans full of sensors and lab equipment pulled on to the dock ready for our help to set up the science labs on board. We carried box after box and carefully stowed them in their designated spaces in each room. The whole loading process was incredibly organized and efficient. This was the 345^th HOT cruise so they’ve got a routine down by now! We finished up after a few hours, ate lunch and headed back to the beach to enjoy our last few hours on land.

…And we’re off! We left port on Saturday morning around 9:00 am headed for our first station of the cruise at Kahe just off the coast of Oahu. I helped Hunter and Dan prepare the first CTD cast and then headed to bed after my shift ended at 3 pm. Hunter and I split up the day in shifts-I have the morning shift from 3am to 3pm, he covers the evening, and we will switch for the next cruise in November.

2:15 am. Rise and Shine! The first task of the day was recovering the primary production CTD cast and collecting water for the primary production array. The hard part? We have to collect it in the dark. Any white light could cause a spike in biological activity before we deploy the array. Luckily, we use these groovy red lights while we filled up the big jugs. The rest of the day included a trace metal cast, hyperpro and net tow before our big transit out to Station ALOHA.

The following day started with a tense moment when the hydraulics on the Hawboldt CTD winch failed, spraying oil on deck. Big efforts by the science team and crew were made to move the CTD casts to the A-frame which involved re-terminating the CTD wire and moving the CTD rosette into the staging bay–both deceivingly difficult to do. Many hours later, the other winch failed too. Ultimately, the team fixed the original winch and moved everything back to its original position.

The rest of the cruise was fantastic! I was so excited to help recover the sediment traps and the gas array. Dan gave me a shot at throwing the grappling hook around the floats in the water (which is much harder than it looks) and we eventually got it back on deck.

The two marine technicians on board were amazing resources to learn from too! Trever walked me through the steps for CTD cast deployment and recovery, teaching me all of the hand signals to communicate with the winch. Then, to my surprise, he handed ME the walkie-talkie and said “you try!” That was the highlight of the cruise. I loved stepping into the shoes of a marine technician and communicating with the winch and the bridge to conduct a safe and successful deployment (and then recovery too).

On our way back into port, we watched the most amazing sunrise over Oahu, silhouetting Diamond Head in the distance. The clouds never fail to amaze me in Hawaii.

When we arrived in port on Wednesday morning, the whole team quickly packed up boxes and sensors back into vans to drive back to campus. Hunter and I did our best to help Dan unload all of the equipment and stow it back in the lab on land. We settled into our respective apartments here on the UH campus and went back the next day to continue helping Dan with post-cruise tasks like making new cables and organizing all of the cruise notes.

I cannot wait to keep learning from Dan and Carolina for the next few weeks on land. There are plenty of samples to keep us busy before we prepare for HOT cruise 346 in November!

– Jenn 🙂

Hi Everyone!

My name is Jenn Willson and I am very excited to join the HOTS team this week on the R/V Kilo Moana as a MATE intern. I recently graduated from the University of Washington with a B.S. in Oceanography. In my time at UW, I worked as a research assistant with the Ocean Observatories Initiative where I spent two summers on board the R/V Thompson performing maintenance on the Regional Cabled Array. In my senior year, I worked at the Applied Physics Lab with the NW Environmental Moorings Team where I gained more technical experience. Both of these experiences inspired me to continue learning about marine technology as a MATE intern this fall!

I am incredibly grateful and excited for the opportunity to join the team of the R/V Kilo Moana for two research cruises this October. I’m looking forward to writing all about it on this blog in the coming weeks!

Jenn