I am approaching my final weeks at LUMCON and I cannot help but to feel melancholy. While it is exciting to move on to new endeavors, it is sad to leave a crew and ship I have grown so fondly of. I will be riding my last cruise solo, and will be the only technician on board. I am excited to work independently, but even more excited to spend time with the crew before I leave.
On my final cruise, we worked with an organization named fugro- whose mission was to retreive, service and deploy a weather buoy. In addition to assisting with deck duties, I spent a majority of my time assissting in the deep CTD casts.
Fortunately no major issues, that I could not problem solve, occured- aside from some small monitor and electrical failures. During buoy operations, our aft driving station monitor blew out. Luckily our captain was able to drive without them, but the issue proved to be an exercise in futilty because after reterminating all the RJ-45 cables and rewiring our VGA cables, I found the monitor had simply gone bad.
Prior to the screens going out, our gfi outlet tripped when both our hydraulic crane and winch were powered on. The outlet tripping resulted in several computers and breakers down. The problem was easily fixed by resetting our systems, but the monitor was not completed until after the cruise. Aside from a few scratches, it was exciting to solve issues independently and I felt proud when I finally conquered an issue.
Leaving LUMCON is a bittersweet experience. I am happy to move onto new endeavors, but saddened to leave friends who taught me so much. During my internship I have learned and grown immensely. I say with a chuckle- I did not know how to properly fasten a ratchet strap prior to my internship. Now, I have a well-rounded knowledge of tools, scientific instruments, practical engineering, computer softwares and I can even terminate most cables. I am very proud of myself and to this program, for the accomplishments I have achieved. I am excited to see what Bermuda holds for me!