I am one week into cruise 1 of 3 that I will be on during my internship. This cruise began in Nassau, Bahamas where we picked up the science crew. From there we have spent the last seven days traveling up and down the islands at a Navy base (AUTEC) with an AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle) collecting acoustic data. The AUV is deployed at 0600 and goes underwater along a pre programmed route that we follow so we can pick it up in the afternoon.
At the same location we deploy the AUV, a CTD scan is done at 600 meters to collect data about the water profile such as water temperature and salinity. Immediately after, a trawl is put out and pulled behind the vessel at a depth of about 1700 meters. The catch is used to determine the deep sea prey of whales. A hydrophone is also dropped into the water and pulled along behind the stern to pick up any sounds of whales. We do this entire process twice a day, putting the AUV back on board just before sunset (we tried once in the dark; QUITE difficult).
So far things have been operating smoothly. There was an issue with the CTD cable which was producing 9 modulo errors on a single cast, so the technician and I went up and pulled out the slip ring to the sea cable termination and soldered several wires and everything worked perfectly afterwards. Definitely a good learning experience for me. Other than that, the days are going by without any problems. I’ve also been learning a little bit from the engineers whenever I have a chance. I watched them fill up the hydraulic oil reservoir and operated the winch for the A frame today. I figure anything I can learn will be useful.
All together I have been on this boat for 15 days straight and still haven’t lost my mind or gotten sea sick so I think all is well! I still love it and I have so much more to learn. There are two people on this cruise that are former MATE interns. The Chief Scientist, Chad Waluk and the Marine Science Technician, Kenneth Fairbarn.
