Today is day 5 on the R/V Atlantis. I boarded the ship Monday morning at the shipyard in Anacortes, Washington. I made it to town easily and enjoyed the plane ride here! It was a cool experience with great views. We started Monday off with a tour of the ship and unpacking our bags in the Science Berthing hall, also known as the ‘snake pit’. I was introduced to what felt like tons of new faces and was honestly in awe by the size of the vessel. Within a few hours of boarding I took the time to walk around and familiarize myself with the ships layout, safety plans, and escape routes. Thankfully that helped me learn my way around quickly. I met the SSSG team, they will be acting as our mentors during the cruise. Everyone on board is very friendly and open to answering questions or talking about their work or interests. In the past 5 days I still don’t think I have met everyone since everybody is on different schedules. I have enjoyed listening to their stories and experiences, and what they like about Woods Hole and the Atlantis.
We left the shipyard at 0900 Thursday, July 16th. The Captian invited the interns to watch us depart from the bridge and that was an unforgettable experience and view as a crowd of people on the docks and surrounding ships bid farewell to the Atlantis. SInce we left the shipyard we have spend most of our time in Puget Sound up until a few hours ago. Now (1600) we are heading towards the open ocean!
Since boarding the ship Monday I have spend most of my time shadowing the SSSG team. I have watched them troubleshoot, work on wifi connection problems, work on patch pannels and tons more. In addition to that, I have soldered wires, made color-coordinated ethernet cables for the patch panels, installed desktops, downloaded programs and files, and cleaned the Hydro Lab. I have observed a deployment of a Sonardyne Compatt 6 Transponder to test its connections and readings, and I have observed real time data from the hull mounted multibeam sonar from the computer lab. Readings from the multibeam should be coming in 24/7 during this whole trip so I am looking forward to seeing the different terrains we pass over. While the ship was in the shipyard, it was completely stripped clean dry to its bones. New equipment was installed, maintence was done and new painting, flooring, and many other things were done to the Atlantis. In the past few weeks they have been working on hauling everything back on board and putting the ship back together just enough to cruise. This means the multiple labs, office spaces, and more common spaces are piled high with boxes and containers. The labs specifically are basically storage spaces. Ultimately the goal of this cruise is to both return the Atlantis to Woods Hole, and get it close to ready for a science expedition. This means having all the labs set up, all electrical wiring completed and the computer terminals in place, desks, shelving, and chairs assembled together and everything inside deep cleaned and some spaces even painted. I admit it is a lot to do and I am a little skeptical of how much willl actually get done. Electrical work isnt exactly my background, however I am looking forward to learning all I can. Besides, who knows when you’ll need to make a custom length ethernet cable on whim. It’s a skill, like all, that I am glad to have.
In total my first impressions of the ship and its crew is overwhelmingly amazing and I am looking forward to the rest of the cruise. It is hard to believe that 5 days have already passed, feels like only 1 or 2 days ago I boarded the ship..
Until next time-
