Today, marks my seventh day onboard the F.G. Walton Smith and it has been a bundle of great experiences so far! On the first day, I arrived to the RSMAS campus after a long redeye flight just in time to meet with the Marine Operations Manager, Don Cucchiara, and the whole shoreside team. We caught the lines for the F.G. Walton Smith as it returned from a 4-day cruise diving to recover a few 3-5 year old moorings off the coast of Jupiter, Florida. While underway on that cruise, the crew was having trouble keeping the port main engine alive, so they were limping back to the dock on one engine.
My introduction to the ship and the crew was quick as I dove right in! Right away the Chief Engineer and previous Mate Intern, Jonathan Raymond, took me and Alesha Gregroire to troubleshoot the engine. We first tried to switch the Fuel Actuator and High Pressure Sensor from the starboard engine to the port engine as we wanted to test if those had gone bad on the portside. We also tested the connections with a multimeter to see if there was a short somewhere in the Engine Control Module (ECM). Finally, we deduced that the ECM was cutting power to the engine when it sensed there was a problem with something internal. As the engines are upon their death bed at a little over my age, 22-23 years, it was decided for the next cruise we would bypass the ECM on the port main engine. Essentially, we hotwired the solenoid of the ECM straight to the battery as we didn’t have time to find out what the internal problem was.
The second day, we spent some more time with the engine as we figured out it couldn’t be shut down with the bypass wire. So, we added a switch. There was also a problem with the head system as it wasn’t providing enough suction. So, we replaced some duckbill valves by the pump. We helped load stores when the cook arrived and helped load the scientists gear when they arrived as well.
At 0400 on Friday, we set sail with both engines up and running on a 7-day cruise to collect water samples and CTD profiles from stations outside of Miami down to Key West and back around to Tampa and Florida Bay. Onboard there were scientists working from NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Lab (AOML), the MOTE Marine Lab, and Kristin Buck’s Lab at the University of South Florida (USF). This was a great introduction and experience to research vessel operations as Alesha and I learned how to deploy and recover the CTD, Net Tows, and collect trace metal Samples over the side. We also stood navigational bridge watches and learned new card games from the scientists.
By the third day of the cruise, the F.G. Walton Smith was becoming super hot as the A/C system was struggling in the Florida humidity. Jonathan and I took a look into the compressor system and found numerous pinhole leaks, which were contributing to loss of cooling abilities. We worked to fix the leaks and everyone onboard was grateful to have the A/C back up and running as it was 82 degrees with 90% humidity throughout the trip.
Watches were exciting as their was plenty of life to watch between pelicans divebombing fish, dolphin pods following the ship, and bioluminescence at night. There were also plenty of boats to avoid as Florida is riddled with amateur boaters and crazy for fishing.
This has been a great experience so far and looking forward to spending more time with the crew!
