Author: Kyle Hebert Page 1 of 2

This is my last week as an intern working with the F.G. Walton Smith. I have learned a lot and gained a lot of invaluable experience from my work here. The crew has been great to work with and I really appreciate them taking it upon themselves to mentor Alesha and I through working on scientific equipment and research vessels. It has been quite a unique experience being a part of the midlife refit of the F.G. Walton Smith, repowering it with brand new 2022 built Cummins engines. It has been especially wonderful working closely with Jonathan, Alesha, and Denis.

I was set to leave on Wednesday, August 31, so Denis had us working on R232 serial connections and calibrating/rotating out some of the sensors in the flow through system. I felt that Alesha and I have come full circle the last couple of weeks, taking what Denis was teaching us at the beginning of the internship about the 7 OSI layers, networking, and data communications and applying it in the physical layer to get a larger idea of how to be a Marine Tech.

On Monday, we finished closing up the Rox Box after running the 12 strand shielded wires for the engine displays (start/stop), and a 2 stranded shielded wire to serve as the data link for the engine controls. It was difficult to get the wires in, hold all of the rubber pieces in place, greasing up each piece and putting the next layers on but after the wedge was put in it all fit nice and snug. Alesha and I realized that it is very important to make sure that the seam of the rubber pieces lies parellel to the wedge in order for the pieces to compress together the correct way (and avoid it being so difficult to take apart). Here is a picture of the finished Rox Box in the Tween Deck:

We then began work cleaning the debubbler, C3 sensors, and to switch out the MicroTSG (Thermosalinograph). The Turner Designs C3 Submersible Fluorometer sensors read Chlorophyll and CDOM with 3 optical sensors. We took them apart and cleaned them up. Here are some pictures of the flow through system and the sensors:

We went through troubleshooting some of the programmed language that it was pulling off the sensors, when we went to run them. We also took on a project to make R232 serial connections and ran a terminal emulation program to see if we could communicate to each other from laptop to laptop. We went through some troubleshooting figuring this out as it wasn’t as straight forward as the RJ45 ethernet connections. We realized that Alesha had made a female jack and I had made a male jack on the same wire, which then connected to our computers through a male adapter to USB. At first it registered that DTR (Data Terminal Ready) was lit up, which meant that power was recieved and it that our communications were ready to receive, however the data wasn’t being transmitted or received properly. We thought it might be the RTS (Request to Send) and CTS (Clear to Send) IP protocols that weren’t allowing the data to be transmitted without permission. So, we jumpered those connections in order to fake it out allowing data to be transmitted and received. This still didn’t work and so we thought it might have had to do with the crossedover female and male connectors. So instead of using a null modem (because we didn’t have one that we could use) we switched the receive and transmit pins. It worked and here is a picture of Alesha and I able to send data from one laptop to another real-time:

On Wednesday, Denis showed us how he makes the .322 Cable termination. This was incredibly awesome as he uses an older method of ensuring a strong termination by melting a metal alloy into the birdnested wire, inside of a custom stainless connector. He uses a Cerro Alloy which can be reused through every connection by making his own molds. The metal has a very low melting point, is very strong, and cures very quickly. It only took a few minutes for the metal to start melting and a few more for it to harden again. Here are some pictures from the process:

This has been a great experience and I have learned so much. I got an offer recently to start applying some of my newly learned skills onboard the R/V Atlantis with WHOI, which I am excited to embark upon in the next few weeks. This internship has been very motivating for me to continue working in the research fleet. I have enjoyed the passion and attitude that everyone shares working on the F.G Walton Smith. I am excited to keep blending my experiences as a sailor with scientific pursuits. I have grown confident in my abilities to learn quickly and figure things out methodicallly, which I think will carry me where I want to go. There is always so much more to learn and I am excited for the challenges that await. Thank you so much to the crew of the F.G. Walton Smith, Alesha, and Maria for the opportunities and time shared! 

Week 14: After major successes getting the engines onboard and in place at the dock, the engine project has come to a slow down as the boat has to wait for contractors to fabricate and install exhaust parts, control parts, and weld electrical boxes/plumbing parts in both engine rooms. As Alesha and I have been very busy and heavily involved getting the engines in and put together, Denis’ projects were waiting for us to take on, so this week has been very tech heavy, which was a nice transition as these projects were less dirty and not as physically demanding. It is funny as I made the joke that working with the engine side of the house you use the biggest tools lying around, while working with the tech side of things we use the smallest tools available. 

Monday, we started out in the tight spaces of the Tween Deck running wire through the Rox Box that gave us so much trouble the last couple of weeks. Well, our struggles continued and Alesha and I learned quickly that this was a major pain in the butt. The Tween Deck is a space where the framing of the hull runs between the pontoons and supports the main deck and superstructure. There is an entrance in the starboard side Engine Room as well as another entrance in the Dry Lab. It is a very tight fit and must be traversed lying down and manuevering through lightening holes that are only a few feet in diameter. Going through the hatch from the Engine Room there are 4 lightening holes to pass through on the way up forward towards the Rox Box as well as Fiberglass insulation at the entrance. Alesha and I ended up running five pull strings leading from the Marine Tech lab to each engine room (3 to the starboard, 2 to the port side) to be used later to pull wire through the space from the spool. We pulled the new POSMV Coaxial cables as well as the shielded and heat resistant Cat 5 cables for the new cameras to be mounted in both Engine Rooms. Here is a picture of the broken Rox Box wedge that we have to replace: 

Also here are some pictures in the Tween Decks to understand the confined spaces we were crawling through and some of the piping and we had to work around: 

On Tuesday, we worked on fixing up some of the wiring we ran for the two wifi systems onboard and the time server display in the dry lab. These were all RJ45 connections with Cat 5 cables running to Keystone Jacks connected to Patch cables that allowed for easier access when troubleshooting or maintainence projects. We also replaced a structural wire that we had run to the Chief Scientist room for the exterior cameras that are getting mounted on the port and starboard sides. Later in the afternoon, we learned about R232 terminations including the pin configurations for DB9 and DB25 connectors. This is a serial type connection that allows specific IP to be transmitted and recieved on specific pins. We learned about a bit about the different types of IP (Internet Protocols) including RTR (Ready to Recieve), RTS (Request to Send), DTR (Data Terminal Ready), Rx (Recieve), Tx (Transmit), CTS (Clear to Send), DSR (Data Set Ready), etc. We then learned how to make the connections crimping different wires to pins and putting them into the connection ports. We then learned how Null Modems work as there are DCE (Data Connection Equipment) and DTE (Data Terminal Equipment) that when connected communicate through different pins and therefore require a Null Modem to cross them over or fake out DTE from recognizing a DCE as another DTE. 

On Wednesday, we worked with Jon learning more about electrical connections and different guages of wire, the capabilities and limitations determined on length and size of wires, as well as how to make terminations on larger wire diameter. We then made the connections on 3 Awg wire for the battery terminals leading to the Engine starters. Here are a few pictures of the terminations:

We ended the day working on the wiring for the A/C unit that we had mounted at the beginning of our internship. 

On Thursday, we started deconstructing the CTD, cleaning up the wires and sensors, and rotating them out with the calibrated sensors that were delivered from SeaBird. We learned a lot about the care of the sensors, how each sensor worked, and the importance of having a calibration and maintenance schedule to keep the sensors in good working order. A major part of Denis’ job as a Marine Tech. Here are some pictures of the sensors and Alesha and I taking deconstructing it:

On Friday, we finished rotating out the sensors on the main CTD and secondary CTD, as well as prepping the tertiary set of sensors to be shipped out for calibration. We learned how to set up the config file in Seabird’s SeaSave program as well as put in the new calibration data sets. We also finished the wiring and set up for the A/C Unit in the Scientist Cabin, which turned out really nice! Here is a picture of Alesha and I shivering underneath our working A/C unit:

We concluded this busy and great week with a Crew Morale night at Top Golf, which was a wonderful cap to getting the engines in and working with this great group of people. It has been a great experience and I am appreciative to have been a part of such a major overhaul. I have learned quite a lot of many different things and am very appreciative for the crew taking it upon themselves to share their knowledge and wisdom with me. 

After ending our week last week struggling to get the Rox Box out, this week started on a high note. We woke up early 0630 to get the starboard side engine out on the pier with hopes to time lifting it onboard with the low tide at 0700. We did it just as before and it went seamless utilizing the A-frame to get the engine onboard. Alesha, Ron, Lock, and I got to work moving the engine on the portable A-frame towards the starboard side soft patch. Which went quickly as we have been working closely and well together for the last couple of weeks. However, it got a little hectic when we were ready to lift the engine into the starboard engine room as AME, the vibration and alignment guys, as well as Pye Barker, the CO2 fire system guys, were scheduled to come in at the same time as the lifts that day.

We loaded the CO2 containers back into both engine rooms while AME started to align the port side engine using lasers for accurate alignment up to a 100th of an an inch. We lifted the starboard side engine utilizing a strap towards the aft side (bellhousing) and a chain fall towards the forward end of the engine (towards the dampeners). The idea was that we wanted to lower the front end of the engine first allowing it to come in at an angle and another chainfall on a padeye in the engine room to take some of the weight bringing the engine forward above the transmission. This helped as there wasn’t a lot of clearance on this side due to the hydraulic tank that powered the crane. It went in smoothly and just as we planned. 

Tuesday and Wednesday we moved the engine forward and dressed it with all of the additional parts that were stripped to reduce the engines weight and make it slimmer. This included the aftercooler, exhaust manifold, oil cooler, fuel supply system, coolant reservoir, heat exchanger, turbo charger, alternator, and raw water pump. AME also needed the port side engine to have oil and the simulated weight of the coolant for proper alignment. Here is a picture of Alesha and I filling the engine up with oil: 

Thursday, we went back into the tween decks as the next steps to get the engines powered up were to run wires up to the bridge and doghouse. We also have the POSMV wires and a few camera RJ45 wires to run to both engine rooms. There also might be some wiring that needs to be ran for the new controls that are being set up by another contractor. So we attacked the Rox Box this time with a drill, some PB blaster, a couple pry bars, and a hammer. After quite some time and toil we got the box out and ran some cord through the tween decks and all of the lightening holes leading fore and aft so that we can pull the wires we need through in the next week or so. Here is a picture of me coming out of the hatch leading into the tween deck and yes it’s a tight fit, lol:

Also, I got PADI Dive Certified this weekend:

Monday, Tuesday and Half of Wednesday this week was spent getting the starboard side bilges cleaned, prepped, and painted so that we could get the last engine onboard and move the ship back. We had to muck all of the solid waste and oil out of the bilges then power wash them heavily. We then had to grind and sand the surfaces of all of the cracked loose paint. We then applied a two-part epoxy based bilge paint that made the bilges and engine room look 100x better than they did. 

We were at a stand still with the port side engine as we had to wait for an order of stainless washers to come in for the engine mounts. Once they came in on Wednesday, we finished buttoning those up and moved the engine into place securing it to the mounts ready for the vibration and alignment contractors to align the motor and the shaft. 

On Thursday we started putting parts back on the port side engine, the after cooler, the exhaust manifold, oil cooler, coolant reservoir, and heat exchanger. This is the engine all in place with all of the parts on it. On Friday, Alesha and I worked for Denis going in the tween decks to inspect the RoxTec Boxes that kept a watertight seal from the tween deck between the engine room pontoons and the forward tween deck. These RoxTec Boxes are meant to be taken apart and have adjustable squares that allow for different size wires to go through them. However after trying to get these Rox Boxes out all day. Struggling in cramped spaces with screwdrivers, wedges, hammers, knives all day, we still weren’t able to get the Rox Box out. So, we decided to call it after a long, hard week and go swim in the ocean. Also, to get the fiberglass stuck in my back from crawling in and out of the tween deck space out. 

This was an exciting and successful week! We developed a plan to move the F.G. Walton Smith aft a few feet so that it would rest flush against the finger pier that tied up the stern, so that the A-frame would be directly above the dock and therefore would be able to lift the new engine onto the deck. This manuever had never been done before and so we needed to test if a couple things were possible first, so there was a lot of contingency planning and troubleshooting weaknesses in the plan. Some of the problems trying to lift the new engine block with the heads on were:

– The cranes onboard couldn’t lift the full 4780 lbs of the new motors with the jib fully extended. Therefore we needed to find a way to get the engines on deck and resting next to the soft patch, so that the cranes could lift with the jib knuckled in. 

– The finger pier structurally has these wooden slats that are along the middle of concrete supports, which run along the whole pier. The worry being if the big forklift with a large boom extension carrying the new motors would be too much weight for the wood slats to bear. These wood slats are comprised of 3 2x4s held together by rebar with small 2×2 spacers in between them. We found out later that they are made of Ipe, a brazilian hardwood, that is actually one of the five strongest woods in the world. However, the slats are varying degrees of age and degradation and there was still worries. 

– The A-frame boom rams when resting on the supports are completely stowed in the ram cylinder and provide an approximate 5-7 foot overhang off the stern. The centerline winch runs off the hydraulics powered by the generators and is rated for 7,000 lbs, which would make it ideal to lift the engines. The only drawback was that SWL was rated with the A-frame in the stowed position and not with the rams extended, therefore it was undefined and untested how far the A-frame could  boom in. 

So, at the beginning of the week we coordinated with the Campus Facilities personnel to put metal plates into the pier in lieu of the wooden slats. But upon later testing found that we also needed to strengthen those supporting it with the wooden slats and 6x6s as well. We moved the ship back timing it with the outgoing tide and working the lines, I learned from school this is called ‘warping’ a ship. The next step was to test the A-frame, pier, and forklift capabilities to move the engines weight. The crew had some old train wheels that in total weighed 5200 lbs lying around in the shop and those were forklifted out to the pier, brought down the finger pier and hoisted with the A-frame. The results were a success as the A-frame was capable to lifting the weight safely until at a vertical angle with the deck. It then would be possible to walk the engine from the center of the deck next to the soft patch utilizing Lock and Ron’s portable A-frame chain hoist bar. After these initial tests, we accomplished getting the brand new portside engine onto the deck and into the port engine room by Thursday afternoon. Here are some pictures of the whole process:

It was very exciting to conduct all of this planning and testing to find that it was a very plausible idea to get the engines onboard and moved where they needed to go and very rewarding to finally do it after all was said and done. On Friday, we put the engine mount dampeners in, moved the engine forward and blocked it up, then got back to cleaning the starboard side bilges. The starboard side engine room brings more challenges than the first, so our successes with the portside engine quickly turned into worries about doing the other engine. But that will be figured out hopefully soon as the plan is to attempt to get the other one on board next week. 

After a busy last week getting the engines out, it has slowed down this week. We have had to pump out slop from the bilges, clean them with the pressure washer, get them all dry, and put paint in the bilges before the new, clean, red engines go in. This mostly took up the beginning of the week along with some crane ops and moving/removing various items ranging from engine room parts to tools and materials. The ship is a mess with so many projects and equipment being used. Alesha and I have many side quests from Denis to install the wifi, run the POSMV wires and set up that system, run the wires for the starboard and port side cameras, reconstruct the CTD, and make new terminations on the 3-2-2 wire. We also have side quests from Jon to finish the A/C installation in  Cabin 9, make a shelf, and insulate some more A/C piping. The main mission of course right now is figuring out how to get the new engines at around 4,500 lbs onto the ship and into the engine room cleanly and safely. Then, to repower and run controls to all of the steering stations onboard. 

In the latter part of this week, I worked on making some holes in the overheads to run RJ45 wire to the two different wifi modems. I also had to mount the modems and figure out where to put the relay boxes for easier maintenance later on. 

This past week was full of sweat, hard work, and heavy lifting. Starting on Monday we started stripping the starboard side engine’s after cooler, exhaust manifold, coolant reservoir, raw water pump, and decouple the wiring harnesses. As the weather was favorable, on Tuesday we were ready to attempt taking the portside engine out. We had several pallets full of heavy engine parts to get off the deck and the soft patch over the engine room to bring up before we could attempt lifting the engine out of the hatch. We decided to use the Dillon Load Tester on the crane to see how much the engine weighed with the heads on as it would be the most ideal situation to leave the internal parts of the preexisting and new engines unexposed. However, upon lifting the engine we discovered that lifting the engine out with the heads on would be impossible as the crane was only rated for 3,300 lbs with the jib fully extended. The engine with the heads on weighed 4,600 lbs. So, we managed to get the engine back on blocks and started breaking the heads loose. This includes taking off the head covers, taking out the rocker body, removing the injectors, and taking off the exhaust and intake valves. Here is a picture of me with the head covers off and internal valve springs exposed:

Wednesday morning we were ready to try again and get the engine block out. It weighed 3,560 lbs with the heads off and so it was a bit sketchy when the crane moved it to the center of the deck but everyone was highly vigilant and making sure everyone stayed safe. It was a success and we put the oil pan and flat plate back on while it was on deck. It was then picked up by the second crane and moved to the pier to be taken away by the forklift. Here is a picture of Alesha and I with the engine block resting on the back deck:

On Thursday, we continued stripping the starboard side engine and removing the heads as we learned our lesson from trying to lift the other one with the heads on. We then began to move the engine aft on the A-frame. This was a bit more tricky as the hydraulic pumps and tank for the cranes was in the way to get the engine out of the soft patch. It was a long day as it had taken us two days to move the other engine back in three regroups of the A-frame, while we did this engine in one day with two regroups of the A-frame. It is pretty cool working with everyone though as it is like solving a puzzle of finding the best and safest ways to clear things in our way. It seems that ideas flow and as soon as someone is off on a mission to get the right tool or another block of wood that another idea pops up that suffices. It was a very collaborative effort made fun with jokes, music, and a little edginess of lifting something so heavy around such a cramped engine room. 

By Friday morning, we were ready to lift the soft patch and hoist the engine out which was tricky as that hydraulic pump and tank if hit or pushed up against by the engine block could shut the whole crane down. That is the same crane that we were using to lift the engine up and out of the hatch. It literally took all of the crew, Alesha and I, Ron and Lock and Ron’s son, and Don Cucchiara to figure out how to get this engine out of the hatch sharing ideas and different perspectives as we all had different aspects of what was going on and concerns. We ended up getting it out after a few hours without damaging any of the hydraulics or anyone getting hurt. Here is a picture of Jon, our Chief Engineer and previous MATE intern next to the starboard side engine on blocks:

We concluded the week by also taking out the CO2 tanks to get recertified and took a long swim on the beach as we were quite dirty and sweaty. This experience has been capitalized by a great crew, wonderful working environment, and lots of in-depth experiences on a variety of maintenance projects. I am happy and grateful to be able to extend the internship until September 13th and stick around to see the end of this engine project with the F.G. Walton Smith. There are lots of great people at RSMAS that are on the forefront of trying to make the world a better place through Coral Research and Reconstruction, Underwater Archaeology, and Hurricane Research. Here is a picture of us enjoying the weekend in Wynwood with some of our RSMAS friends:

The engine project has been started as we got the other exhaust out last friday and started pulling off parts of the portside engine this week. We first had to drain the system of coolant and oil. We then proceeded to take off the coolant reservoir, air intake, turbo, aftercooler, exhaust manifold, alternator, raw water pump, oil pan, and the pick-up tube. We had to move all that we could out of the way including the raw water piping from both the diesel generator and the main engine. The engineers that are in charge of repowering the F.G. Walton Smith are two old salty guys that have been working with Cummins, Caterpillar, Detroit, and doing these engine rebuilds for an accumulated 80+ years. Their relationship is straight out of a movie and they are fun to work with, their names are Ron Cheeseman and Lockwood. Here is a picture of me working with Ron taking apart the engine: 

By today, we have finally got the port engine decoupled and up on an A-frame attached to two 3-ton chain hoists and resting on blocks prepared to move and lift through the soft patch on the aft deck. It has been great experience taking the engine apart, looking at all of the mechanical parts and understanding how they are put together and work. It is also quite impressive to see and use the equipment required to lift these engines with such experienced guys. It puts in perspective how demanding and complex of a project this is but also how it is absolutely possible to do pretty much anything. These guys take on big jobs and get them done no matter what and have been doing it for many, many years. Here is a picture of Alesha, Ron’s son, and I with the engine on blocks:

Here are some additional pictures of the engines deconstructed and me underneath unscrewing the oil pan:

So we’re still awaiting the arrival of the engines on to the RSMAS campus. We have started the process of getting the engine spaces clear enough to move large engine parts through the hatch. This includes taking out the main engine exhaust headers which were awkwardly one solid piece of inch thick metal. They were heavy and it took all 7 of us to lift and manuever the exhaust piece with various chain fall, strap, and line configurations. It was very heavy, tiring, but also very rewarding to get this piece out of the engine room. A little foreshadowing into what we will have to do for the engine removal and install. 

With Denis, our Marine Tech, we went over the new POSMV system and how it will be installed, configured, and how it stores information on the network. This system is super important as it enables the Walton Smith to triangulate it’s position to the thousandth place using two main antennae and a tertiary antennae that use as many satellites that they can see and communicate with. The main part of the POSMV system is an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) which uses accelerometers, gyroscopes, and magnetometers to set a reference point on the ship accounting for yaw, pitch, and roll. This reference point is set as (0,0,0) on the x,y,z plane and when connected to the antennae automatically identifies the distance from the reference point in order to integrate the satellite data received to get an accurate representation of our postioning data. This is also important as it allows Denis to set up different reference points for the scientists in cases where coring operations or ROV operations are needed. The IMU is so important that it has to be logged that we have one, let known to the USCG, and locked away if going into international waters as this is the same kind of system that can be employed in aircraft, missiles, submarines, and satellites. Alesha and I have been tasked with figuring out how to mount the antennae and route the cables through the bulkheads, through-hull, and overheads then we will learn how to configure it onto the network and integrate it with other systems onboard. Here is a picture featuring Alesha and Denis as he explains the POSMV to us:

Another project we are working on is updating the current wifi systems onboard (there are two). This entails pulling down the day shape mast attaching a new antennae to it and figuring out a way to weatherproof one of the connections before running wires down to the Marine Tech lab where it can be hooked up to the network. The other wifi modem is being replaced with a newer model and so we learned how to configure it, add it to the network, and went through some of the administrator controls that give the marine tech options to set up VLAN, limit users, and look at bandwidth. We also received the necessary materials to finish our project setting up cameras along the side of the ship. 

While taking down the day shape mast and figuring out how we were going to rig up the wifi antennae to the top, we collaborated with Jon to use the opportunity to learn the basics of welding aluminum. Welding is an art form. It is very fun but hard as there are so many factors needed to pay attention to. Add too much heat and you will burn through the metal doing the opposite of what you’re trying to do. Add too little heat and the weld will bead up and not smoothly conjoin both pieces that you are welding. Go too fast and the weld doesn’t have time to fill in and you’re left with bubbly weld pools down the line. Go too slow and the weld pool gets too big, isn’t smoothed out, and becomes uneven. Get too close and you can melt the filler wire to the tip of the welder. Get too far away and the weld is too thin and cold. The settings of the welder’s voltage, how much shielding gas, and spool rate are also super important to a good weld. It is pretty interesting and definitely want to get better at it, which will take time and practice. Here is a picture of me learning to weld:

Following weekend adventures going rock climbing and sailing a free sailboat back to RSMAS 7.5 nautical miles with Jon, it has been a busy week. The engines have been shipped and are at Expert Diesel in Fort Lauderdale getting checked out before being shipped down here to RSMAS. Meanwhile, Alesha and I have been busy on our own projects building a new step for the main passageway (after pulling off the old, dryrotted one looking for ants) and building a new A/C unit mount in one of the staterooms. We also took apart the CTD on friday of last week and went through each sensor with Denis. Sadly, he tested positive for COVID over the weekend and hadn’t been feeling good so he was out all week. But we prepped the 3-2-2 cable to make new terminations as well as connect to each sensor and go through the programming next week when he returns. Here is a picture of me working on removing the sensor cage on the CTD:

The A/C project has been quite good experience as we are dealing with electrical, plumbing, and carpentry. We had dealt with some of the other A/C units internals when we went around cleaning all of the units a couple weeks ago. And found it crucial to make sure the insulation around the valves and piping were in good shape or else the condensation would leak through the mounts, black mold would grow, and the wood would go bad. We ended up redoing some poorly insulated A/C units as while taking measurements and figuring out how to do the wiring and plumbing for the new one we were mounting. Here is a picture of our job reinsulating the supply and return hoses for one of the A/C’s:

We also found it important that the A/C was at a slight angle towards the condensation drain attached to the A/C unit as then it wouldn’t pool up allowing black mold to grow. Here is a before and after of our A/C unit mount:

As we were making cuts for our A/C mount, we also made a wood framed step for the main entrance. I learned a valuable lesson of building things on a boat/ship through this project; that nothing is straight or level onboard and therefore each piece must be custom. I made the frame of the step forgetting that the deck was cambered and not taking in account the warped bulkhead or vinyl that sat an 1/8 of an inch off the bulkhead. We ended up taking a sheet of plastiboard and cutting a couple of rectangles to act as a shim to prop the outboard side up, which ended up working perfectly and comes with the added benefit if there is water on deck then the wood isn’t in direct contact on the low side of the space. Here is a picture of a before and after:

Meanwhile, we had been noticing that we would have momentary grinding of an A/C contactor which also resulted in flickering lights throughout the days. We replaced the A/C contactor and curiously broke apart the old one to check it out. This was also a valuable learning lesson as the contactor had some burnt up plates probably resulting from buildup of residues which was resulting in arcing from contacts resulting in more corrosion. Here are some pictures of the bad pieces below:

We are preparing ourselves for the big engine project to start next week, but so far through these smaller projects I have learned a ton and continue to enjoy my time with the crew here. It is a wonderful working environment and everyone including the small boats staff, and everyone in the office is super supportive and friendly. Looking at possibly getting an apartment down here as my girlfriend gets off of her hitch on the R/V Sikuliaq on July 28th. From what I have experienced working here and through her experiences onboard University of Fairbanks ship, we are committed to the UNOLS research fleet and making a small difference everyday! I look forward to the future and the path that this internship is setting me up for.