Category: Vessel/Laboratory Page 72 of 89

11/07/16
Backing and Ramming

Since I last wrote we have made considerable progress: We sailed through Unimak Pass in the Aleutians, north through the Bering Sea, past the Diomedes and the Bering Strait, and finally across the Arctic Circle. Though now our progress has come to an icy halt. Four days ago we began crunching through thinner first-year ice, avoiding pressure ridges and following the path of least resistance as far as it would take us. 
This lasted roughly a day before the ice got so thick that we had to begin the process of backing up and then ramming into the thick multi-year ice. This has been going on virtually constantly over the past 48 hours. Our GPS trackline has changed from straight on course to a curved sawblade, as we back and ram constantly within the drifting ice. Fortunately we are drifting towards our waypoints where we can then hopefully begin science operations. I say begin because we have only done two test stations which were meant to smooth the process of deploying and recovering the instruments. 
The samples and measurements from the trial stations were nothing groundbreaking so the science party has little left to do but wait. The marine techs and I are also in somewhat of a holding pattern. We have been able to help some of the scientists get their instruments talking nicely with their computers and making sure the Healy’s veritable cornucopia of geophysical sensors are functioning. So far this has involved making terminations for winch wire, rewiring communication lines, cocking niskin bottles (for water sampling), and of course power cycling the gravity meter. Quite alot of time has also been spent trying to figure out the server that displays the map, position, and various image overlays like the daily satellite ice image. When not doing any of the above we’re usually eating, watching ice break from the bow (never gets old), or looking out for wildlife. Speaking of which we have seen THREE polar bears in the past four days. A pretty spectacular start I think. 
And again I will say I will have some updates by next week since we will have made our first (hopefully second) station by then. It has been said that “No plan survives contact with the ice”, and that is certainly ringing, or rather, rumbling true.

Photo of Nick and MapSurfer from Croy Carlin
 

04/07/16
Holiday at Sea

Happy 4th of July from the USCGC Healy! Today marks day 3 on our expedition to the Arctic and things have been going smoothly. We have been sailing southwest along the Aleutian Trench since the day before yesterday and I anticipate we will make a right turn into the Bering Sea sometime in the next day or so. Since today is the 4th there are a few activities scheduled: the crew will kick off a cornhole tournament (possibly ping pong) and there will be some sort of “pyrotechnic training”. There is also a USA themed movie marathon on the ship’s tv channel.
Since getting on board, I have slowly been able to find my way around the ship both physically and on the various networks we have here. Step one was finding the route(s) between the computer lab, stateroom, and mess deck. From there I could begin mounting troubleshooting strategies for the various instruments we have here. 
Much of the work we have done so far is to make sure that these instruments are sending accurate data to the right place. If you want a visualization any of these, they are usually a black cylinder with various tubes and plugs leading in and out. Yesterday I checked that the fluorometers (which measure how much chlorophyll is in the water) were calibrated and sending that data to the right port on the network. I later checked to make sure the configuration file for the computer that runs the instruments on the CTD (a water sampler that also measures conductivity, temperature, and depth) was set up so that the serial numbers matched. And the day before we left Seward my mentor, Croy, had me change a gyro on the gravimeter in the bottom of the ship. I worked very carefully since it was one of the more sensitive (and expensive!) instruments on board. It made a full recovery with its new gyro. You don’t often get to work with the guts of a gravity meter.
I’m learning alot obout the serial interfaces between instruments and computers as well as the myriad software that parse the data. Day to day duties involve looking at all the various fires and then trying to put them out, which keeps things constantly changing. 
This also reminds me: We had our first actual fire alarm yesterday! Nothing major, but since it was a few hours after the first drill it caught a few by suprise. 

Perhaps next week I’ll be able to say that everything is running perfectly. However I’m dubious, plus we will be at our first station by then so I’ll have some updates.

Until then,
Nick

Photo cred: Croy Carlin of the OSU Martech group

Blog update 3

After a ten day journey, I have finally returned home. My journey has been an incredible experience. The USCG crew flew their way across the Pacific Ocean and arrived at Seward Alaska 1 day ahead of schedule. The ship couldn’t dock at Seward the day we arrived because it was busy unloading containers from cargo ships.  Instead, the coast guard arranged flight ops with the air operation division in Kodiak, Alaska. For most of the day, a helicopter landed and took off from the ship helipad to practice in case there was an emergency. I was able to come close to it and take some pictures.

In general I really enjoyed this trip. I love that I learned so much about while under way on the ship. Andrew and Kyle were amazing people to work with, very helpful, intelligent and all around good people. Casting the CTD was one of the most fulfilling part of the trip. Me and Kyle worked on having it ready for a test cast. We installed an altimeter, flourometer and transisometer to the CTD. All nerves ended when the CTD came out of the water and all its components came up. 

The adventures I had on this internship will stick with me for a long time. From getting sea sick the first day of the trip to walking out the door and seeing land for the first time after they voyage. Adventures and experiences like this are the reason why I really want to be a Marine Technician. Apart from cool adventures, helping out troubleshoot a machine that goes up to 4000 meters under the sea is also fulfilling. I hope to one day, find a job where I can assist marine scientist with their electronics while under way in missions.

I would like to thank the crew of USCG, Andrew and the marine tech, Nandita at MATE and everyone else who helped me receive this internship.  

Introduction and Anticipation

Hi all, my name is Nick Benz and I will be sailing on the USCGC Healy for the next six weeks. In approximately eighteen hours I will have finished packing and repacking, and then board my first flight on my way to Anchorage. I’ll then board the Alaska Railroad south to Seward, where the US Coast Guard Cutter Healy is docked. From there the opportunity of a lifetime will begin. 

I have had a bit of experience working on research vessels, but I expect Healy to be unique because it is a Coast Guard ship. Also, I have learned that the primary goals of the cruise will target the biology of the focus sites. My background is in geophysics so I’m sure there will be a learning curve for becoming familiar with the intricacies of the survey methods. This should make for fairly exciting blog posts. 

By this time next week I will be able to report those details. For now I would like to thank those who were instrumental in my attaining this awesome internship. I am honored.

Nick

      I arrived in Honolulu on June 19th after a grueling sixteen hour travel day that started at 2:30 AM in Boston, Massachusetts. My first two days aboard the Healy were spent in port, where I used that time to familiarize myself with the ship and got to know my fellow companions that would be accompanying me on the voyage. Once we left port, my mentor Andrew Woogen had us set-up and trouble-shoot both flow-through systems connected the the Science Seawater System. The main flow-through system went together rather painlessly, but the flow-through in the wet lab was not so easy. Everytime we were able to get the sensors related to the TSG box online the other sensors would seem to cut out and stop working. Once we ironed out the problem, all the sensors in the wet lab came back online and we then began to organize and label the rats nest of wires that were associated with the flow-through system.

    The following day we were met with much rougher seas and my fears of becoming seasick finally  vanished. I had no problems tolerating the rough conditions and actually found the situation rather exciting. The task of the day was to install and connect all the necessary sensors associated with the CTD.  My duties included installing the altimeter, the PAR sensor, and mounting and installing the transmissometer. I was also shown the basics of how the software associated with the components onboard the CTD work and how all the instruments are programmed. I ran into some trouble finding all the correct wires necessary for each sensor, but with the help of my mentor together we were able to source all the appropriate cables and get the CTD completely wired up and ready for a connection test.

    Since the cables for the CTD were difficult to find and some important ones were scarce, the following day I was put in charge of categorizing, organizing, and inventorying all of the CTD cables aboard the Healy. I decided to organize everything first, then when through and created a spreadsheet and checklist of everything we had, and what we needed. In my spreadsheet I noted that the cables I inventoryed were only the ones that I deemed “Plug and Play” or “Complete”, being that a majority of the cables have been cut or spliced at some point. My mentor also suggested that a particular Y-cable that would run both the fluorometer and the transmissometer off of one connection would be helpful in future deployments of the CTD. My second task that afternoon was to source that particular Y-cable using Sea Bird Electronics website as a guide. I was able to narrow my search down to two options of cable that I believed to be the correct ones for the application. Since I wanted to guarantee I had the correct cables, I decided to email Sea Bird Electronics to ensure I had the correct ones. 

     My mentor was pleased with the way that I organized and inventoried the CTD cables, and suggested that I email my spreadsheet/checklist to an incoming marine technician so he could get a head start on gathering the required cables for his future research mission. At that point, I hadn’t heard back from Sea Bird Electronics on whether I had the correct cables or not, so I decided to email the incoming marine tech the two cables that I thought were the correct ones, and noted that I wasn’t one hundred percent sure they were the proper cables. I also added in my email other necessary supplies that we knew we in need of.

    I look forward to updating this blog later on this week or sometime early next week as we cruise toward Seward, Alaska. At some point we are supposed to start in on the Science Seawater System so in the next installment of my blog I will hopefully have some good info and experience with that equipment. 

    Stay Tuned–

        Kyle Yusen