09/14/23 – 09/21/23

We just arrived back in Woods Hole! We spent the week transiting and thankfully avoiding Hurricane Lee in the Atlantic. Besides collecting data when we were outside of other country’s EEZs, we haven’t worked on any science operations so the crew has been using the time to catch up on work, start end of cruise reports, or relax. Highlight of the week was playing mario kart.

For personal projects, I cleaned the pesky PC02 filter again (if you don’t clean it periodically, it fills up with marine critters like krill and can get gross real fast, see below), made a sail bag out of old foul weather gear, 3D printed a cover for the cordless phone on the bridge so it won’t fall during a roll, wrote my resume and CV in LaTeX, organized some miscellaneous hardware pieces, helped Emily and Croy prepare for the Starlink installation once we’re docked, and packaged the final science data hard drive using Linux to give to the Chief Scientist.

The PC02 culprit

QOW: What is a marine technician, and what do they do?

The role of a marine technician depends on the ship they’re on and the institution they’re working with. For WHOI, marine technicians are classified as Engineering Assistants and are part of the Shipboard Scientific Services Group (SSG). It’s a unique niche on the ship. They act as a liaison between the ship’s crew and the science party, helping out with science operations and making sure the data that are collected underway are being archived properly. On the Armstrong, the SSGs service the science equipment like the CTD and flow-through system in the lab, and handle any troubleshooting issues with equipment that arise. At least with WHOI, marine technicians sail anywhere from 6-8 months out of the year. That might seem like a lot of time to most folks, but a huge benefit is they may have several weeks off at once. This makes it an attractive lifestyle to those who can handle being away from home for long periods of time and like having extended time and freedom to travel or explore their hobbies more in-depth.

More information here: https://www.whoi.edu/what-we-do/explore/ships/marine-facilities-operations/marine-facilities-operations-support-services/shipboard-technicians/