1630 Local time
Hiya and Happy Labor Day!
We are hours away from pulling in to Seward, Alaska and I think the entire crew are buzzing with excitement to finally have several days off in a row before the next science mission up to the ice.
This week has been focused on wrapping up various projects and gaps in documentation. Early on in the cruise we were having faulty depth readings on one of our CTDs. As we only had one spare, this was cause for concern, especially on a CTD-heavy mission. Thankfully, the backup fish performed beautifully, but our issues mean that we are picking up two additional CTDs when we pull in to Seward. One is on loan from University of Alaska, Fairbanks (UAF) and the other is on loan from Orengon State University (OSU) and should be plenty to make it through the season of science operations. During our transit from Dutch Harbor, we stopped off in 200 m of water, attached a weight to the CTD frame, and deployed it over the transom using the A-frame and aft 0.322 wire. This setup had been previously used on the BONGO nets/FastCAT assembly during our science mission and made the most sense for this quick test, as we did not have to take apart our careful rigging of the CTD on the large rosette on the starboard side and we already had a termination ready to plug into on the aft wire. Thankfully, the depth readings looked good both on deck and during the down and up-cast. We did see some small drifting out of the water, but Seabird technicians have assured us that it is within the acceptable range for the pressure sensor.
Another round of troubleshooting cropped up when testing each of the three XBT data acquisition units on board. I can honestly say that this past month was the most XBT system-intensive one I have had throughout this internship; from installing a new DAQ unit to re-wiring the junction boxes and troubleshooting the data drops from what ended up being a faulty launcher splice. This particular day, one of our units worked perfectly during a probe launch but when we switched over to our backup unit, we were unable to establish communication through the network. We power-cycled, swapped cables, switched ports and toggled between static IP to DHCP. We think there is some trouble with the recent USCG firewall updates, and so we wired up a crossover cable directly from the acquisition unit to the server and finally established communication. It is not a permanent fix, but it works for now. The final test was the third unit, which is a legacy unit running off a separate Windows 7 machine. This is the same machine I placed in the server rack after arriving on Healy and had to reinstall the software, driver, and update the firmware. Thankfully, the probe launch worked perfectly.
In addition to hardware and networking fixes, we have also been cleaning up and providing missing documentation for the STARC operation. On my own part, I have been playing with LucidChart in order to make comprehensive drawings for the science seawater system as well as meteorological sensor maps and updated server rack cable maps. I also made a comprehensive SOP for the AutoSal Salinometer in the hopes that technicians and science party members will have some guides to turn to if they have any questions.
Another note I want to make is to highlight the incredible beauty of the Aleutian Islands: volcanic peeks viewed from a distance across the water, ice-capped mountains and glaciers lining remote bays, and falling dramatically away on some of the many hikes I have been lucky to take while in port. If you have a chance, I would highly recommend coming out this way to Kodiak, to Dutch Harbor, to Seward and get up close and personal with these majestic mammoths.
More soon!
– Emily