This week has been a difficult learning experience. Working 12 hour shifts can be very difficult and hard on the mind. At this point I thought that we would have been up and running without any interruptions, but it has been full of small issues and quick problem solving. Over the past week we have had 3 separate times when we had to power down due to a protected species in our area. All of these instances involved turtles being in the area. During this time we are required to only fire the 40 in3 mitigation gun. This allows us to stay online without hurting the animals or having us completely shut down. We also had other problems with the P-cable not recording data properly and one of the EELs (p-cable streamer) on the cross cable not functioning. These errors were generally fixed within several hours of them being present. Even with all of these issues, about 15% of the prospect area has been successfully completed.
At this point I could safely and efficiently perform the duties of an observer after spending over 75 hours watching and training. I also spent time working with the gun mechanics this week. I got my first try at welding while on a boat. As you can imagine it is much more difficult than welding on land because you must move with every pitch and roll of the ship. I have also found my regular spot for recovery and deployment of the gear. When deploying or recovering the doors my job is controlling the wide tow winch and helping to handle the lift lines. I have started to get an understanding of why we are out here doing this survey and how everything works. Everyone on board that I interact with has been very helpful and welcoming even though I am new to the vessel. One of the largest morale boosters is the food! Every night we have had some type of meat and fish along with vegetables and dessert of course. My next few weeks will be focused on learning the navigation and data processing side of the operation.