This was a short ­­­week for us working because Monday was a holiday that RSMAS observed. I spent Monday relaxing and recharging for the upcoming week. Tuesday, we jumped right in with learning about a new tool for determining the length, condition (whether its fit for use or now), and the category (Cat. 5, 5E, 6, …) of the wire. After we were introduced to the tool we were sent off to take reading of the wire to the port engine room and bridge. After conducting the tests, both wires came back in working condition, further confirming that our wire has no physical problem. Later that day we noticed that the few ants we had inside the cabin had grown significantly and were streaming in. I spent a great time that afternoon killing ants and trying to find the nest. We were removing deck boards in area where many ants were traveling then hosing the area for a few minutes to try and wash anything away that might be there, but by the end of the day we had no luck, the ants were still coming. The next day we spent the morning under the navigation panel in the bridge removing the dynamic position system electronics. This was a very tedious job because of all the wires we had to disconnect to be able to remove different drives. Everything had to be removed from within the housing before we could access the bolts that held the whole component to the bulkhead. Kyle and I also started a new weeklong project of removing and replacing an AC unit in one of the staterooms. Later in the week we removed the CTD and its instruments from the carousel and capped all the connections to avoid any of the pins from being bent. We will further dive into taking apart the CTD next week. For the weekend, a few of us went rock climbing one day and the next we went on a mission to get a Force 5 (a 13’ 10” sailboat) a gentleman was giving away. We met the man at his house and planned to put it in the water (he lived on a canal), rig it there, and sail our way back to campus. When we told the guy that he let out a slight chuckle hoping we were joking, but we weren’t. We rowed it out of the canal before we set the sail and prayed for the wind to pick up. There was only a slight breeze, but it was slowly increasing in speed. There were many unique and very memorable events that happened along the trip. To start off, we arrived at the house with no leaves on the trees moving, fully prepared to row the sailboat the whole way, 8 nm, back to campus. We then decided to stop at an island to resituate ourselves and gear. Once we got to a depth of 3 feet Kyle decided that he would hop out because he wanted out. Well in the process of him hoping out, me and Jon were both on the opposite side as Kyle, so we slid out too as soon as Kyles weight left. We referred to this island as party island because of the amount of people there and food boats (like food trucks but a shed on pontoons with an outboard), as well as the numerous jet skiers that we feared our lives from. Once we got situated and left the island came the next and best memory, we were approaching a draw bridge, with a clearance of approximately 15 feet and we had no clue what our height to the top of the mast was, but as we were within 5 feet of the bridge, we knew it wasn’t enough… we were closing in on the bridge as the horn was sounding to lift the bridge and there was a guy carelessly running along. Within inches of hitting the bridge it starts to open, we cleared it! It was our saving grace. We spent the rest of the trip back laughing and joking about it. As we passed under the Rickenbacker Causeway bridge, we knew it was our final stretch of the journey. This is where it was the roughest, with any wake from a boat, our heading was thrown off and our speed lost. It was a struggle to get closer to land. But once we did, Kyle hopped off and swam to shore. It was only about a half a mile walk back to campus, but we realized the boat was more maneuverable hitting the wakes. We finally made it back to the boat and relaxed in the ocean and joked about the whole journey even more. It was a very successful weekend in my books.

 

The before and after pictures of the DP system electronics.

Me helping to remove the CTD.