Hello,
I have completed my second week of this unique experience. I had no time for pictures during this hands-on week against the clock. I had the chance to be a part of a small team that needed coordination to overcome major obstacles when the time mattered.
The planned sea trial was canceled due to the CTD winch’s level winder and the CTD with a Rosette attachment not working. At the time of the issue, we had a cruise in a week and needed to become operational soon. The crew utilized a three-team system to tackle both problems.
Part of having a small crew (around 10, including myself) means that we have to adapt our strategy to complete work on an older 146-foot vessel. Often, if it is a singular problem and if there are no other tasks present, all of the crew will get together. The job title is disregarded in these cases. This time, there were two major problems, with the CTD and the Winch level winder. The crew split off into three teams. The first team, made up primarily of engineers, focused on fixing the CTD level winder. The second team I was a part of was made up of four Marine Techs (counting myself) who focused on getting the CTD and Rosette operational. The last team tackled the remaining tasks around the vessel and assisted with the engineers when needed.
Troubleshooting the CTD
During the start of last week, the Scotch cast around the CTD wire termination I completed had turned out good. When we plugged everything in and went to turn on the CTD system, we blew a fuse in the deck box. It was a demoralizing sight, especially knowing I was the one who completed the termination. Luckily, later I would find out that the CTD termination I made was working normally.
I will keep this brief, due to the amount of trial and error we went through. We utilized a multimeter to check for breaks and shorts in the cable and junction box. We also redid multiple terminations, which included the slip ring termination leading to the drum. Then we would test the connection using a multimeter.
In the end, the problem ended up being that the color coding at the junction box was somehow flipped. The black wire, which was supposed to represent common, was the signal. The white wire in the junction box, which was supposed to represent the signal, ended up being common. The way we identified this was when testing at the junction box, the multimeter was reading a negative 270 volts. Thus, the connections were flipped.
Once we got the CTD operational, the techs showed me how to use the CTD with the water container rossette and the software. Then they showed me how to set up all of the ship’s computers to display necessary information about the CTD. Using the software that controls the CTD with the Rosette seemed very straightforward. Although setting up all of the systems and computers was a lot to take in, they will have me operate and control the CTD a lot during our next cruise.
Troubleshooting the Level Winder
The Engineers tried to fix the level winder for the CTD for most of the week. Ultimately, they had to call someone from the manufacturing company to fix the level winder. Once help arrived, it took a full day to get everything fully operational.
Conclusion
Although it was an extremely hectic week, I learned many valuable lessons. I am excited for the next two weeks of this internship and learning even more! If everything stays according to plan, on Monday we should be going on a brief sea trial, then the cruise will start on Wednesday. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day, and thanks for reading!