Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Innocent Until Proven Drooling


Since Jason wasn’t in the water at 0400 for my watch, I spent it in the computer lab making sure that the bathymetry survey of the surrounding areas of Station Aloha continued as planned.  This meant occasionally glancing at the screen on which the colorful bathymetric data was being painted in wide strokes. This activity was accompanied by curling up in a blanket, this time more like a dumpling than a burrito, in a chair that swung me around with the roll of the ship. If the control van was freezing yesterday then the computer lab was 0 Kelvin this morning.  Trevor, an ocean technician on watch with the same assignment, tried to keep me occupied for a while teaching me knots. By 0600, we reached the point of making up knots and he was attempting the interwoven monkey’s fist. Though I was intrigued to find out how it ended, my eyes were apparently not. They found other ways of passing the next hour, namely remaining closed. Apparently I had several visitors during that hour, all of which decided against waking me up in favor of mocking me later for my dumpling position in which only my face was visible. There is no photographic evidence, thank goodness, nor drool remaining on the keyboard so I will plead innocent if prosecuted for relinquishing my watch responsibilities. My eyes were conspiring against me, anyways. The bathymetry survey painted its picture without hitch, you’ll be happy to know.

The observatory, the anchor and the AMM all require a little bit of attention everyday to remain content equipment. This morning’s attention was focused on trimming. It has apparently been a while since their last hair cut so Cammy and I took the clippers to them and trimmed the ends of the zip ties. The anchor was also feeling a bit monotone with the green cable wrapped around it, so Cammy and I added banana yellow chafe gear to the delicate ends of the cable for a cheery accent.

After reconnecting to the cable termination that was tried yesterday didn’t succeed, the thought for today is that there is a problem with attenuation in the Junction box.  This would mean that there is a loss of signal through the cables and connections. I am told that could be recovered relatively simply through some edits to the system.  The plan, then, is to have Jason recover the J-box and bring it to the KM where it will be worked on overnight and sent back down in the morning.

I stood my watch for Jason from 1600 to 2100 when this operation occurred.  At first, Jason removed the Homer and USBL beacons from the camera tripod. As the camera is now located near enough to the rest of the observatory to be found again, there is no need for these locators.  The next job for Jason was to disconnect the J-box from the cable termination and bring the J-box up to the ship. Though this sounds like a series of simple pushes and pulls with the manipulation arm, everything underwater becomes more complicated.  Jason’s arms are so powerful, and the connectors so fragile and crucial that it takes almost 20 minutes to remove one.  Jason must also be careful not to sit on a cable – for he is no dainty fellow – yet position himself as close as possible to the J-box.  In addition to these technical obstacles, the seafloor was particularly void of current so when Jason sat down, a cloud of silt surrounded him, which didn’t settle for another 10 or 15 minutes.  After disconnection, Jason needed to attach the J-box to the shackle hanging from the end of Medea in order to be lifted up. Remember two days ago when it took 20 minutes to move the J-box suspended from Medea 10 m to the left?  This watch we waited over an hour to position the ship, thus Medea, thus the shackle directly above the J-box. At 2000, when I was supposed to go off watch, the shackle appeared just meters away from position so I waited another hour to see the final operation and ascent of Jason, Medea and the J-box. My watch was filled with much waiting, for the silt to settle and for shackle to hover closer, punctuated by tense moments of operation.



1 comment:

  1. Having witnessed said drool, I don't need proof of guilt. Punishment: walk the plank, matie, or I'll gore you with me hook! Arrrgh!

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