As I recall, I promised an update on the ADCP install in my last blog post, so I’ll start off with that. To save you all from 30 seconds of laborious clicking to remind youself what our problems were, I’ll throw in a quick recap from last week. We put the new sonar in, which went swimmingly, but when we connected the cable that would connect the sensor to our computer lab, the connecter was barely too big to fit in the housing. Luckily, barely too big is better than regular too big, and it let us resort to the tried and true cheat solution of stuffing it in and hoping it doesn’t break. Despite our worries, it did fit, although the cable got bent a little more than we would have liked. It seems to work, but we’ll see when we float the ship and finally turn it on.
Anyway, finishing the ADCP project means that we completed all of our big projects for shipyards, so we’ve shifted to tackling all of the small things that got shoved aside when we drydocked. When we first got to the yard, I uninstalled a small sonar sensor from the centerboard. For some reason, using the sensor was causing the metal rods holding it in place to corrode instead of the sacrificial anode. We figured that 3D printing new rods would stop this from occuring. At first, it seemed like a genius idea, but designing and printing these rods was deceptively difficult. Each rod needed to have threaded holes on both end, but taking the support material out of the piece usually caused us to ruin the threads instead. It took us a while to figure out, but eventually the solution we used was to insert metal springs, which act as threads, into the holes. Usually these springs are used for repairing damaged threads, but it works, so I’m not going to complain. Our other centerboard project was a little easier. The centerboard isn’t watertight, and since it fills with water anyway, we wanted to use it as another intake for our seawater systems. However, the only inlets for water were two tiny holes, so we took off two hatches from the centerboard and had them turned into grates for better water flow. Although it wasn’t as big as the cable spooling or the ADCP install, the centerboard project has been going on for a while, and finally wrapping it up was very satisfying.
Finally, we can move on to our other task this week. All of the sensors mounted to the bottom of the ship are covered by ice windows to protect them from getting damaged during cruises in the arctic. These windows are big, heavy sheets of polycarbonate, and they do a fantastic job of blocking ice. However, they’re not watertight, and being flooded for years at a time means that they tend to get a little dirty. And by a little dirty, I mean covered in a thick layer of really gross mud. So we spent several days taking down every ice window and giving each of them a much needed cleaning. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, especially once we appropriated the shipyard’s pressure washer for our cause.
Those are the important things we covered this week. There’s also been a bunch of even smaller projects going on, but we’re all just waiting for the ship to float again so we can start some new fun things. That’s supposed to be this Friday, but we’ll see when we actually get to go back in the water.