Not much has transpired since my last post. Time has continued to fly by and business has been as usual. The reality of departing from all of these new friends I think is starting to set in. We’ve played more board and card games than I ever did with my family growing up which says a lot about ship life. We have had a lot of fun and shared many jokes. We’ve consumed millions of calories from sugar while chasing a sugar high. We’ve bickered about current events. We’ve pulled all-nighters. We’ve sprawled out on the fantail on the maybe 4 days that we actually had sunny weather. We philosophized about life and the potential existence of life on other planets. This was truly a great group! I preached about always learning in my week 1 blog and that is not limited to just marine tech knowledge for this internship. In fact, I think meeting these people, learning about them and their goals, and making memories are the most important part in making the MATE internship an experience.
Although I had already been at sea for three weeks, this week, I still managed to find myself in spaces on the ship that I had not yet been to. For one, I finally found myself in the engine room working on a project with the electrician to disassemble and replace the ball bearings in a hydraulic pressure pump motor running to the propellers. While down there, I got to learn from the engineers and oilers about the fascinating machinery that keeps this baby running and the many ways in which each of them interacts with and maintains it.
I also had the chance this week to practice stick welding with one of the oilers again. This time using 60 rod and stainless steel rod, both of which are somewhat different from the 70 rod I learned with last week and slightly more challenging to weld with. Still, each is useful for different fabrication applications, and fun to work with in its own way.r
Later on in the week, while going over the basics of marine fire emergency operations with the Captain, I once again found myself being exposed to spaces and equipment on the ship that I had not previously seen or noticed. It is incredible how differently each member of our team looks at any given ship space through the lens of their responsibilities and specialties. Each of us operates within such a niche role, and although we often interact with one another, it can be easy to start looking at the ship and its operations from a narrow perspective. However, it’s always good to be reminded how much there is to be learned from the other people you share this floating home with. If there is one thing this experience has exposed me to, it is the seemingly endless pieces of equipment, feats of engineering, and unique skillsets that make the work we do possible…and how much there will always be to learn about it all!
This week was my second week for my internship but also my second cruise. This week was for the BATS team (Bermuda Atlantic Time Series Study). We left Sunday morning July 14th and returned Friday morning July 19th. The BATS team does a cruise once a month so they have got it down to a routine and very structured where they sample and what they are looking for. ?”They have collected data on the physical, biological, and chemical properties of the ocean since 1988” as said on the BATS website. ?They are learning about the role of carbon in the ocean and about the effects climate change has on the ocean. This cruise is incredibly interesting and important for understanding how our earth’s climate is changing over time. We did a very deep deployment of the CTD to 4500 meters. It is really amazing to feel water from the bottom of the ocean it is so cold and it is really cool to experience being out in the ocean in such deep water. We did a lot of CTD deployments, water samples through niskin bottles, sediment traps, and plankton nets. Along with all those other pieces of gear, we deployed the MOCNESS 3 times which was great because our last cruise we were having issues with this piece of gear. We were able to fix it in time for this cruise and it worked every time we deployed it which was very exciting. In the early morning on wednesday we deployed a production array that has a solution in each flask and we attach floats and a spar buoy so it can sample in the ocean all day testing amounts of carbon. We retrieved it later that night. This piece of gear is a little more complicated with the depoyment and recovery than the other gear so it is great to learn more about different kinds of gear and how to properly deploy and recover so that there is a successful sample. There have been the most beautiful sunsets while being out at sea as well as the full moon this week. The colors of the ocean are gorgeous and its great being out at sea with nothing around and experience the beauty the ocean has to offer. We had great weather the entire time and calm seas. We got back to BIOS on friday morning and began to make sure we have everything prepared for the NSF inspection. The crew went through a refresher on SCBA (self contained breathing apparatus) training to have a refresher on how to use them so if there was a fire or a dangerous situation and there needed to be an escape through dangerous atmospheres. This was conducted just to make sure they would be prepared. They all have been through this training before but it helps to go through a refresher and they let me participate as well. The picture attached is of me learning how to use the SCBA. I’ve only been here for two weeks but it has gone great so far and I am learning so much. I cannot wait to see what the rest of my time here has in store.
Hello my name is MacKenzie and I am one of the MATE interns aboard the Healy 1901 cruise. My major is in Environmental Geoscience at Texas A&M University. My background, as it relates to this internship, is in microbial and biological oceanography with a touch of GIS. I worked for the International Ocean Discover Program for a couple of years on the shoreside end of core sampling and XRF imaging. I’m excited to learn about the Tech side of science and work hands on with the various instruments. I have never been on a ship like this before and don’t really know much about the coast guard so all of this is completely new and exciting!
Hello everyone, my name is Amitav Mitra and I will be joining the USCG Healy in Seattle next week as a MATE intern. For the next five weeks I’ll be onboard working with and learning from the technicians as we sail north into the Arctic Circle.
I have spent time at sea as a deck cadet at a state maritime academy, where I was working to earn my 3rd Mate’s license while studying electrical engineering. I am privileged to have the opportunity to sail on the Healy this summer, and I am excited to learn about the work that marine technicians perform. This internship provides me with the opportunity to learn new skills and practice old ones, all while supporting scientific research in the Arctic.
I look forward to providing updates in the coming weeks as the cruise progresses, and I thank everyone who has helped me get this far!
-Amitav
Working a sea-going job can include spontaneous whale watching, perpetual beach hair, and being present for scientific discoveries, but not without sacrifices. In past and upcoming cruises, I have been/will be at sea during holidays, anniversaries, graduations, celebrations, loved one’s birthdays, and the death of a family member. Today, I am at sea for my 22ndbirthday.
The day started no different than any other with watch, breakfast, and the gym, but it was my fellow shipmates – my family for the month – that made it special. At lunch I devoured a slice of ginger orange peel vegan birthday cake baked by the talented chief steward, and went on my way to learn about replacing motor bearings from the electrician and 3rd engineer. Before dinner I received a card signed by the crew and science party, wishing me happy birthday in each of my shimate’s native languages. Later, after nearly two weeks of cold grey days, the clouds parted and gave way for a spectacular viewing of sunset and a lunar eclipse of the moon. Not only was July 16thof this year a lunar eclipse, but it was also the 50-year anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11, and what better place to celebrate than on board the R/V Neil Armstrong!
I’ll miss spending these kinds of moments with my loved ones back on shore, but the collective understanding and support from my shipmates – a shared ukulele song out on deck, a roaring ‘happy birthday!’ from the crew in the lounge, a favorite dish cooked at mealtime – make all the difference. Among the technical skills that I anticipated this internship would teach me, I hoped I would get to learn from a resilient, passionate, conscientious, enthusiastic team of individuals, which has undoubtedly been the case.
Photo: Ella observing the sunset along the aft port rail
Photographer: Ella’s GoPro (suctioned cupped to the rail)
After my brief stint on the R/V Rachel Carson, I catch a flight to the East coast and arrive in Woodshole to meet UW’s larger ship, the R/V Thomas G Thompson. The boat is docked all the way at the end of town, but I can see the mast towering high above the buildings as I walk down the street. This small, coastal town is a major hub for Oceanography, and essentially is built around and consists of the Woodshole Oceanographic Institution. I can overhear people discussing their research while walking down the street. There are flyers for a plankton exhibit taped on store fronts. Everyone sports shades of blue.
The Thompson is enormous. It can house about thirty crew and thirty scientists. There are four different science labs, a library, a lounge, a gym. It is much larger and more stable than any other ship I have ever sailed on. When we leave the dock, there are no sudden movements or strange noises. So, it’s only when I look up and out the porthole and see the masts of other ships going by that I realize we are underway. Out we go, to the continental shelf!
About one hundred miles off the coast of New England, the oceanic plate dives under the continental plate, resulting in a sudden drop from relatively shallow coastal shelf to deep ocean. The Gulf Stream runs northward along this boundary, and every so often, the inner edge of the stream catches and peels off in massive eddies. In the main lab across the passageway, a satellite image is displayed on the projector screen. Shades of the rainbow illustrate where the warm water from the Gulf brushes against the cold, nutrient-rich shelf water. To the south of Woodshole is a massive swirl of red that is unmatched in size by any other feature on the screen. A warm core eddy. By its side is a bright blue ribbon that snakes out into the open ocean. The scientists point and call it the streamer.
Although this whole region has been widely sampled and studied, scientists have yet to thoroughly examine and quantify the streamer itself. The science party on board is an interdisciplinary group, made up of labs all over the country. They have come together to seek out this streamer and learn everything they can about it. To do this, they have brought an arsenal of instruments on board with them. As one of the technicians, one of the largest aspects of the job is to assist in the safe deployment and recovery of these instruments. My first deployment on board is with the Video Plankton Recorder (VPR) which looks like a small black fixed-wing plane. In its nose is a strobe light and in the starboard wing is a camera, so as the instrument is towed behind the ship, it takes images of an area the size of a cubic centimeter. It essentially acts as an underwater microscope, which can communicate a live feed of images to us up in the lab as it “flies” through the water. On board is also one of the Remote Environment Monitoring UnitS (REMUS) from the Woodshole Institution of Oceanography. This robot comes with its own team of technicians that are responsible for programming, communicating, and troubleshooting REMUS. Although it looks like a glider, REMUS has a propeller on its tail, which gives it greater control over its movement and a greater range of travel throughout its mission. The deployment is a bit more complicated, since the robot will be free floating, we lift the 700 lb REMUS up into the air with our crane, then slowly lead it overboard and out into the water. As it hit the surface of the water, we pull a line that releases a pin mechanism on the bridle of the instrument, and the robot is free.
During our cruise, REMUS unexpectedly aborted one of its missions. Communication with the instrument while it is underwater is limited to echo sounding, which only works when the instrument is within range. To “talk” to REMUS while it is close by, but underwater, the team has a hand-held transducer that can be lowered just over the rail and into the water. There are a variety of commands that can be communicated through a series of clicks. Judson holds the transducer up to my ear and sets the dial to “Abort”. I hear it crisp and clear; click, click, click-click-click. He sets the dial to the next setting “Run”. Click, click, click-click-click. I can’t tell the difference at all. Judson is all smiles. Clearly excited, he explains that the commands may all sound the same to the human ear, but REMUS can differentiate between them and respond accordingly. However, when the robot aborted its mission, the transducer wasn’t even in the water. By some sort of miracle, that exact series of clicks was generated by something somewhere out in the ocean, and REMUS heard.
When the data from all of the instruments and sensors are combined, we are able to see the ocean in a rare and beautiful light. Instead of just a satellite surface layer image, the screen now flashes through 3D graphics of the streamer with red and blue and green swirls indicating temperature fronts, high and low salinity, blooms of phytoplankton, areas with oxygen, areas without. To the average person, this swath of sea would appear desolate and lifeless. Perhaps a few would notice amber fronds of sargassum floating by; maybe others would spot a storm petrel riding the high pressure wind under the crest of a wave. But for the most part, the North Atlantic, to the naked eye, is an endless blue desert. So if you are lucky enough to tag along with group of thirty oceanographers at sea, do not hesitate, for they will reveal to you a world that is teeming with diversity and incredible forms of life.
The last week has been an eventful one where time has seemed to fly by quickly. We began the week with a ship-wide fire drill where there was a fire in the main lab, our primary muster station. Luckily, common sense prevailed and all of the scientists found the secondary muster area at the CTD hangar. As the week progressed, we began tackling an issue that has been plaguing our XBT (Expendable Bathythermograph – sound speed velocity) data. Multiple XBT probe deployments were showing noisy false data before the probe reached the water so we started troubleshooting. It was noted that the data was normal when the wire for the XBT launcher was not touching the deck so we checked the wire insulation for nicks and we made some repairs. It worked! Scientists were happy and techs felt proud. Truly a terrific moment on the R/V Neil Armstrong followed by a highly entertaining scientific meeting. Arman, a visiting scientist, gave a fantastic no-BS presentation on volcanology pointing out the key ingredients for explosive eruptions which are volatiles. It is not widely known that volatiles in magma, mainly water, cause the explosive eruptions that we envision when we think of volcanoes (or see when we watch Dauntes Peak). Later in the week, we visited the engineering department and got a full tour of their spaces. We also learned how to replace bearings on a CPP (controllable pitch propeller) motor. Overall, a very educational and fun week!
It’s week three and we’ve nearly completed our western survey lines, parallel to the Reykjanes Ridge, about 300 – 500 km east of Greenland. Daily work has continued to consist primarily of monitoring multibeam, sub-bottom, magnetic, and gravity data acquisition, as well as post-processing multibeam data and routinely launching XBT’s to maintain an accurate sound velocity profile. During watch, I have also been studying the installation, maintenance, and acoustic theory behind the Kongsberg EM122 echo sounder system and creating a short training document using what I’ve learned. The marine technician role encompasses diverse responsibilities, meaning that one might benefit more from a good understanding of many instruments than a specialized understanding of a few of them. However, it is certainly valuable and inevitable for a marine tech to expand upon their understanding of such instruments as they go. As I have learned more about acoustic theory and the components that make up the EM122 multibeam, I have found myself in a much better position to effectively operate this system as a tech and I’m sure the same will hold true as I move on to studying other systems in-depth. As the lead marine tech aboard the R/V Neil Armstrong has repeatedly pointed out to us, a big part of being a tech is knowing how to locate reliable resources and teach yourself more about the systems you find yourself responsible for.
While studying your systems is a necessary and important skill as a tech, it is also valuable to expand upon the diverse niche skills that come in handy as a tech or general member of the crew. Although there hasn’t been a lot of hands-on work to be done this cruise, I got to improve multiple such skills this week. During one of our XBT casts, we experienced an issue in which the probe was sensing that it had been “launched” prior to actual launching. We decided to switch to our back-up gun, however the cable on this gun was too short to run the length of the fantail and had the wrong termination. To fix this, fellow MATE intern Ella and I spent part of the day soldering in a new section of cable and new 5-pin termination, as well as then waterproofing each joint. In one short project we were able to expand our troubleshooting and soldering skills, as well as our understanding of the XBT’s internal mechanics and cabling.
Later in the week, I learned more about magnetometer software troubleshooting when a minor issue arose, as well as practiced suturing wounds and putting in an IV with the Chief Mate using training skin and a dummy arm. Best of all, having done a lot of MIG welding in the past, I had the chance to practice stick welding with one of the Oilers. Stick welding was a different beast from MIG entirely, especially on a moving ship, but it felt great to pick up on a new welding technique! As always, I’m looking forward to seeing what next week will have in store!
I arrived in Bermuda about a week ago. A beautiful island with gorgeous clear aqua blue water and the most beautiful flowers and plants. It is truly paradise. When I arrived at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences I was blown away at how beautiful the institute is. The buildings are structured in a way to collect rain water as that is their main source of drinking water and used for showers. It makes you appreciate and conserve as much water as you can. When I arrived the ship was gone for the night so I was able to stay in Wright Hall which was very comfortable and surrounded by nice people. There are many different programs, research, and classes that are taking place here and people from all over the world. I am lucky to be here and be surrounded by people from all over the world and learn from their experiences. BIOS is unique where everyone becomes friends instantly and hangs out all together. I have only been here for a week and I have made so many friends. I moved aboard on Saturday July 6th and we left on Monday for a research cruise with BIOS-SCOPE (Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences – Simons Collaboration on Ocean Processes and Ecology). They focus their research on the ocean’s smallest life forms. There were scientists from all over the world studying microbes and zooplankton. We used Conductivity-Temperature-Depth (CTD) rosette to document the environmental conditions of the sampling site and had 24 niskin bottles attached collecting seawater to be studied at various depths. Other gear was used such as WTS-LV (Large Volume Pump) which collects suspended and dissolved particulate samples in situ into a membrane filter which is used to sample a number of things including phytoplankton. We attempted to deploy a MOCNESS (Multiple Opening and Closing Net, with an Environmental Sensing System) but unfortunately it did not work properly but after hard work we were able to get it working again and ready to be deployed on the next cruise. Being aboard this vessel is such a great opportunity to further my marine technology skills. I am learning a lot more about marine electronics and how to assess and fix electrical issues aboard the vessel. The crew and everyone aboard the vessel is absolutely amazing, welcoming, and funny. The food is some of the best food I have ever had. It has only been a week and I am having such a great time and learning so much I cannot wait to see what the future holds. I am glad to be in Bermuda for so long because it is definitely going to be a hard place to leave. We are leaving again today July 14th and will be gone offshore until Friday July 19th. This upcoming trip will be for the Bermuda Atlantic Time Series Study.
