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         The dredging has set in full force. We dredged for three days nonstop save for the occasional repair to the dredge. My job is assisting in bringing a dredge up out of the sea onto the table, dumping the contents, and setting it it back out again. Once a dredge is completed the deck has to be washed down with the seawater hose as there is a surprising amount of organic debris left from the dredge. A dredge takes around an hour to complete depending on what we catch. The ease of the dredge entirely depends on what is hauled up. Those that are filled with large rocks, are sandy or muddy, and those that are extremely large in quantity are the hardest to shovel and sort. I’ve seen all sorts of amazing creatures that were caught in the dredge. Not only have there been scallops, but I have seen octopuses, squid, mussels, monk fish, skates, hermit crabs, sand dollars and sea stars at the top of my head. The first few days of the week were consumed by continuous dredging and made for quick but arduous watches.

         Shortly into the beginning of my watch on June 1st, we did one last dredge before we secured the dredge on deck. It was time to head into Woods Hole, MA to refuel. We steamed into port at around 9:30 am and had a couple of hours off until it was time to head out again. Before I could go and explore the town, we had to dump the garbage. This was a fun process of chucking trash bags over the side of the Sharp onto the dock where the bags were then brought to the trash bins nearby.  I enjoyed wandering the town and in particular enjoyed the food and coffee at a cafe called Pie in the Sky. All too quickly, it was time to head back to the ship and we were off by noon.

            The next watch, the midnight since leaving Woods Hole, the sea had picked up considerably and there were strong winds. We were not able to dredge in this weather and all we could do for hours was wait for the weather to die down. By daybreak the seas had calmed and we were able to place the Habcam in the water. As Habcaming requires nothing of the techs, the day was spent peacefully and quietly up in the bridge. The peace was broken by the time my next watch began on the 3rd. When I woke up we were back to dredging since the one of the computers of the Habcam had broken. One of the dredges we pulled up that early morning was of note, we had caught ourselves an old lobster trap, two lobsters included! After breakfast we got great news from science saying that they fixed the computer and the Habcam was ready to be put back in. Once it was deployed, there have been no further issues and we have been Habcaming up until today. Tomorrow we will be back to dredging but we had a certainly had a nice break.

See  you next week,

Maia

            In the past week, the R/V Sharp has transitioned from Leg 1 of the scallop survey to Leg 2. While Leg 1 almost entirely used the Habcam (as pictured above), Leg 2 and Leg 3 are a hybrid of dredging and Habcaming. As such, the last days of Leg 1 were spent with the Habcam in the water. We pulled the Habcam from the water on Sunday so we could steam back and make Monday’s 3 pm high tide in Lewes. We were doing well for fuel so we started up the third power generator, thus increasing our speed. The Captain wanted a large cushion time for arrival since he did not know how bad boat traffic would be on Memorial Day. We arrived at Lewes before the tide was high enough to let us in so we had to lurk outside for roughly 30 minutes before moving in. It was pretty funny to see all the Memorial Day weekenders out on the beach staring and taking pictures at us. We spent two nights docked in Lewes cleaning the ship for the next leg and changing out the crew and scientists. Of the original twenty of us, only three (myself included) would be staying for Leg 2. Most of my time was spent helping prep the ship by vacuuming, taking out the trash, and changing the linens. The crew wanted to take advantage of being on land so the workday would end in the afternoon. I spent my free time wandering around Lewes and enjoying the nice weather.

            All too soon, Wednesday at 4 am we left dock. Since I was rooming with a volunteer scientist, I had to be put on the science watch schedule. My watch changed from 6 am to 6 pm to midnight to noon. Adjusting to new times had been difficult and I have been experiencing seasickness despite the nice weather. However luckily, both Wednesday and today there was minimal work for techs and I have been able to work on recuperating. There was some Habcaming done but the real work, dredging, begins this afternoon while I sleep. I will be kept very busy with the dredging schedule for the rest of the leg.

Here’s to fair weather and yummy scallops!

Maia 

Hello!

My name is Amber Batts.  I’m a recent graduate from the Marine Technology program at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, NC.  I’ve been working towards this opportunity since my first semester at CFCC in August of 2013 so I couldn’t be more honored and proud of being selected for this internship!  I hope I represent the Marine Tech program well.

I’m simultaneously in the process of moving out of my apartment the same week I’m scheduled to leave for Delaware; so I’m anxious and excited (slightly nervous) about the next several months.  But if anyone is familiar with the program at CFCC, then you know we have all been trained to keep our cool under pressure; thank you Mark Miller 🙂

I do love to photo document everything so I look forward to sharing my learning experiences aboard the Sharp!

Amber Batts

         The first week on board the R/V Hugh R. Sharp has gone well! I was picked up at the tiny Salisbury airport by KG, one of the technicians that will be on the second and third leg of the survey, and his visiting friend. They drove me from Salisbury, Maryland to Lewes, Delaware. Along the way we had lunch at a local diner and bought some heavy-duty foul weather gear, including a pair of rubber steel-toed boots. Sharp was docked next to another vessel and an associated administration building. The building had offices as well as workshop space to maintain the ship. I was given a tour of the Sharp and was introduced the crew. Afterwards I was given time to unpack, grab dinner in downtown Lewes, and have an early night to recover from my 5 am flight. Tina moved in that night as well. She’s an independent contractor technician that is with us for night watch of the first leg. On the second day, we started work at 7 am and I mostly followed Max around, the technician that will be on all three legs of the scallop survey. The ship was already prepped and ready on the tech side of things so I mostly watched the scientists ready the fiber optics cable, learned my way around the ship, and learned the daily duties aboard the ship. We had lunch on the ship and the crew went home about 3 pm to pack and get ready for the upcoming cruise. I had dinner again in Lewes. It’s a nice mile or so walk into downtown from where we were docked.

         The next day, everybody was loaded up and we set to sea. During the day we test deployed the Habcam, the CTD, and the dredge. The Habcam is a giant apparatus that has  cameras and various other equipment attached to a frame. It is dragged behind the ship just above the sea floor and it takes pictures of the sea floor, including scallops. The dredge on the other hand scrapes the sea floor, collecting everything there, and dumps out the haul on a massive metal table to be sorted through by the scientists. The scientists are transitioning over using the Habcam more than the dredge to lessen their environmental impact. Another vessel is dredging the same area as us so the first leg uses only the Habcam while the second and third legs will alternate between them. However sometime during the test deployment, one of the main power connectors to the ‘brain’ of the Habcam flooded from an imperfect connection. We went back into Lewes that night as it was unclear whether the Habcam’s ‘brain’ would work once dried out. We docked for a couple of hours until it we found out from science that the Habcam is fully functioning. We headed back to sea and continued on track.

            In the following days, I’ve fallen into a routine. Watch is from 6 am to 6 pm with breakfast at 5:30 am, lunch at 11:30, and dinner at 5:30 pm. I spend most of my time in the bridge with the rest of the crew that’s on watch. I have been reading (finished 4 books so far) and chatting with the crew. Everyone is very friendly and science will enthusiastically talk about what they’re currently working on. The Habcam does not require anything from the techs so days can be slow. There have been some equipment issues that keep us on our toes but other than that, we only have to do a daily check on the systems. The daily check includes cleaning a filter, washing down the CTD, and double-checking that the weather readouts are accurate. All in total, it only takes 20 minutes or so. Today, we tested the dredge again and got some sea stars, sand dollars, fish, crabs, and scallops. During a dredge, Max and I are in charge of attaching the dredge to the winch and assisting getting the dredge back on board. We have to shovel the catch into piles so that the scientist can sort it and wash everything down once finished. All in all, I’d say that things have gone well. The weather has been calm and the trip has been fascinating. See you next week!

– Maia