Author: Nikiforos Delatolas

One week later and I still find remnants of my internship in my pockets. A shackle pin, zip ties, soldering wire and lots of used electrical tape. Looking back it all happened so fast but it was an amazing experience.

On September 5th at 0400 the silence was broken by the sound of the main engine that was just ignited. Half an hour later I get up excited about the work we had to do but sad since it was my last day on the Oceanus. I have been fortunate to squeeze in one last day cruise before the end of my internship, the objective being to retrieve two science buoys and two gliders.

Mooring work, I believe, is one of the most exciting things the marine tech gets to do. It takes focus, vigilance and excellent communication skills. You have to be aware of your surroundings at all times, ready to foresee what might go wrong. 

About half an hour before the retrieval we had a meeting on the bridge with the captain and all the people involved. The head marine tech, Dave, went through each step of the operation making sure that the captain, whose primary concern is safety, agrees all the way through. If not, adjustments are made in the sequence of events or methods used.

After that, we went down to the aft deck where Dave assigned us specific tasks; who is going to be tagging which of the three lines, who is going to be tending each one, who is going to operate the crane, the A-frame, winch, and capstan, and who is going to strap down the buoy on deck.

What I find most amazing is that eleven people managed to work in unison on our small aft deck through a web of lines and trip hazards, and safely secured a 700 lb buoy that was hanging from the crane, 12 feet in the air and swinging with the swell.

Which brings me to the most important aspect of my internship; the people I had the opportunity to meet and work with. From our stewards Joy and Sean that always prepared fabulous food, the Able Bodies: Doug, Mark, and Patrick who taught me how to work safely on deck, the engineers: Chip, Jay Bart and Dave, who kept me alive in the transducer well and provided all their technical knowledge, the mates: Tony and Todd and captain Jeff Crews who welcomed me onboard and let me hang out on the bridge.

Of course I cannot thank enough my mentors and marine techs Johna, Dave and Toby who were always there to answer my questions and provide all the insights of their profession. I also feel fortunate to have met the science groups from WHOI, Scripps, Oregon State University, the University of South Florida and the University of Washington, who gave me the unique opportunity to learn about ocean bottom seismometers, moorings, oceanographic buoys and internal waves.

Lastly I would like to thank Tami Lunsford and Nandita Sarkar from the MATE program that made this experience happen and arranging for me to work with the R/V Oceanus group.

This past week we have been tied to the dock doing various repairs and getting ready for the next cruise. The crew sanding and painting in the wet lab, the mechanics welding in the galley, the marine techs opening and cleaning all hardware in electronic racks, and the engineers installing a flow through system pump in the engine room.

But last Tuesday was not an ordinary workday. After lunch Jonha, the marine technician, and I climbed through a hatch below the main deck and down a 16 foot narrow tube into a chamber the size of a Volkswagen Beetle.

After making sure we had all the tools we needed, we established radio contact with Chip, the engineer, and told him to close the door and start pressurizing. Air started coming through the vents and our ears started popping as if we were scuba diving. After 30 minutes of swallowing to equalize we reached seven psi. Only then we began to remove the bolts from a thick steel plate located at the bottom of the ship. Sixteen bolts later, I lift up the plate to see the ocean beneath me as still as if it was a bowl of water.

The objective of all this was to replace the two plates with Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) transducers that emit high frequency pulses of sound that scatter off moving particles in the ocean. From the change in transmitted and received frequency we can determine current velocity. 

These transducers look like one-inch thick steel 19^th century top hats with sensitive instruments inside. Securing them into their exact position in this small space was a challenge to say the least. It took us three hours to install them both, check for leaks, repeat, add more washers and check again.

The simple physics behind the reason why we didn’t sink the ship by opening a hole in the hull is that the pressure of the water at that depth is less or equivalent to the pressure of air in our chamber, so ideally there is not fluid movement either way.

On one occasion the waterline started rising so we radioed the engineer above to increase the pressure and the water started going down. What we found out later is that every time we made a seal between the hull and the transducer the air pressure jumped up to 9 psi, so the engineers had to immediately turn off the intake and open the valves to release air. Big thanks to Chip and Don for standing by for three hours monitoring the gauges. Overall, it was an amazing experience. 

On Tuesday August 5^th we arrived at Newport OR from a two week cruise having recovered 33 and deployed 28 Ocean Bottom Seismometers (OBSs) along the Blanco Transform Fault Zone and within the Gorda plate region in the Northeast Pacific. Life revolved around those exciting seconds as I was trying to hook the primary tagline on the instrument while it was bouncing around and drifting away with the swell. I did quite well considering the conditions, missing two times out of 15 attempts.

On Saturday August 9^th we departed for the second, shorter leg for more OBS work, deploying and retrieving another 20 instruments. This time I had the midnight to noon watch helping the Scripps technicians on deck and monitoring the science instruments, data logging and network. After breakfast I would work on my small project soldering and potting cables for a Conductivity Temperature Density (CTD) instrument  but if I could not fall asleep I would read Linux for Dummies- it works extraordinarily well. 

By far the most frustrating thing to troubleshoot onboard the Oceanus has been the satellite Internet. Unfortunately, it’s what we need to fix on a regular basis and what people care about the most. Simply put, when the Internet is working people are happy and think highly of the marine tech’s capabilities. When it’s not, well you get the idea.

Early Saturday morning after deploying another Ocean Bottom Seismometer I returned to my station and realized that the Internet was down. I rushed to the main lab to have a look at the L-band satellite modem but all indicator lights were looking good with reasonable numbers for azimuth, elevation, and Automatic Gain Control (AGC). Puzzled by the fact that things looked ok I went up again to inspect our network router, but that didn’t seem to have any problems either.

At this point my limited knowledge prevented me from doing much more. I really didn’t want to begin pushing unknown buttons potentially causing greater damage. Instead I started going through the 500 page modem manual trying to find what could make the Internet go down but have all green indicator lights, waiting for Johna, the marine tech, to come on watch. 

What is frustrating with this complex system is that it could start working by just rebooting, never knowing what was wrong. Other times we go through a long series of diagnostic tests treating probable errors. In the end we are never 100% sure that what made it work is a direct result of a specific sequence of actions we took. 

Once Johna arrived we spent two hours trying to narrow down the source of error. It could be our network router, the satellite modem, the antenna control unit (DAC), the gyroscope input, or even a loose cable. She had a feeling that something might be wrong with the power of the antenna, so we asked the captain if we could use the iridium telephone to call technical support. Steve, from customer service, confirmed that we where outside the footprint of our satellite and we had to increase the power. So we logged into the page interface and changed the power level from -26Dbm (Decibel-milliwatts) to -24Dbm and just like that the Internet started working.

Lesson learned: when we are more than 200 nm off the coast and the internet goes down for no apparent reason increase the power level and see if that helps. 

The first 24 hours onboard R/V Oceanus where rough. The vessel’s normal ±30 degree rolls eliminated my interest in any kind of food and slowed down my thinking process. I spend extended time on deck staring at the horizon or in my bed trying to rest. Since then I have been feeling much better as the sea has calmed.

The day of our departure I helped load and secure 24 ocean bottom seismometers (OBS), as part of the Cascadia Initiative offshore component. Technicians from WHOI have been deploying them at specific locations in a counterclockwise pattern approximately 170 nautical miles offshore of the Oregon coast.

I have been on deck for all deployments so far, having the unofficial duty to take down and setup the section of rail the instrument has to clear to go overboard. It’s fascinating being involved in this process; always being aware of staying out of people’s way but still being around to learn and help. It’s also amazing to see all the specialized smaller teams coordinating with and among each other. The four WHOI marine technicians on deck that know all about the OBSs have to communicate with the scientists inside the lab that determine the deployment position, the Oceanus marine technician operating the crane, the crewmember overseeing the operation and of course the bridge where all actions are radioed in for approval.

In addition to that, I have taken up a small project to solder and pot cables that will connect the old Conductivity/ Temperature/ Density (CTD) instrument to the new type of cables. It takes extra patience with this precision work especially on a rolling vessel.

When I am not busy I read manuals on troubleshooting and operating the resident science equipment, how to use the various software, and learn how the satellite communication network works.

It’s almost midnight Monday the 7th, and I just finished packing my backpack, charging my electronics and gathering any important documents that I might need the next couple of months. I’ve been going through the checklist of things I need to complete before the internship starts and this blog post is the only one unchecked. In a few hours I’ll be waking up to catch my flight to Oregon to begin my internship onboard R/V Oceanus.

Just two days ago I arrived to the continental US from the island of Hawai’i where I was living in the small town of Hawi on the northern tip of island, a beautiful place with sporadic cell phone coverage and limited internet access. Every Monday the public library would be open after 1700, so after work I would go and check my email for any news from my MATE or OSU mentors, sing up for the COOP course, and start reading operations manuals, safety standards and guidelines for marine technicians.

I am so excited to start this internship tomorrow. I know there is going to be lots of hard work and plenty to learn these coming months but I really think it’s worth it-I feel very fortunate this opportunity was offered to me.