Greg Stone gets video of the ROV taking it's first dip in the Celebes Sea.
04 Oct 2007
day 9
cruise day 4 - we are here
The alarm went off around 5:30AM this morning because we thought we'd be on site at 6AM and work would start then. Before anyone moved in their bed, Caron said that she had been to the bridge at 2AM and they said we wouldn't be on site until 10AM, so we decided we weren't in a hurry to get out of bed. We were still up in time for breakfast at 6AM, though, and then hung around until we were on site at 9:45AM.
When the boat stopped, absolutely everyone, including kitchen staff, went out on deck to watch the ROV set up. The Navy Seals were outside in full camouflage: one with a gun, one with a pair of binoculars looking around the boat, with the other two wandering the deck.
It was quite hot today and the strong sun beat on all of us standing on deck who were anxiously awaiting the ROV's launch. We are about 5 degrees north of the equator, much closer than before. We couldn't ask for nicer weather for running equipment or for the photographers to take photos, though.
The first test dive for the ROV didn't happen until 11AM, so we waited in the sun for a long time. Before the ROV went in for the first time, Michael Aw and Greg Stone went in on scuba to take photos of the ROV while it was underwater. Nick and Lee stayed on deck to video from above.
I was sitting in the back of the very small control room with 3 others: Joe, our ROV pilot, Emory and Russ. I was trying to figure out a way to annotate the ROV video logs in real time. During the first dive Joe realized that the camera for the suction sampler jars wasn't working right and we couldn't see if things made it into the sampling jars or not. They think that it was an overheating problem, so they brought it back on board and I think they put some ice on it to cool it down while we ate lunch.
It was almost 1PM when we began ROV test dive 2 and we had actually waited about 20 minutes for it to get started, so I ran upstairs to get something to do in the meantime. When I came back there was a picture on one screen and I asked if we were in the water and Emory and Joe said no and that the picture we were seeing was from the first test dive, but it turned out that the ROV was indeed in the water and no one outside had said told Joe. Then Joe switched on all the equipment and his monitor didn't work. All the other ones did, so he drove a bit using the other ones until Toshi figured out that the monitor's connection in back had come loose. All 3 photographers had jumped in the water to take photos and video this time and we got video of them taking pictures of the ROV.
Things seem to be working well, so they decided that they would turn the test dive in to a real dive to at least 75m, but of course, the fathometer/sounder? on the ship had stopped working that morning, so we didn't really know how deep the ocean was at that location. Then when they tried to put the clump weight over the side, the winch wasn't working. During this dive, Emory and Russ decided that there was something wrong with the HD video camera, too. It wasn't focusing properlys. And even though the bridge said the bottom was at 100m, we went to 154m and never saw the bottom.
The big problem for the day is that the HD camera is not focusing correctly. I think the ROV crew and Nick and Lee are in the lab working on fixing it right now. HmŠ Russ also just finished towing a bongo net, so he'll be in there with the new plankton sample soon. It's going to be busy in that lab tonight. I think Cabell is also dropping his VPR right now, but I don't think he'll need lab space.
Being crammed in a little room for over 3 hours was hot and apparently tiring. I'm falling asleep as I am trying to write this.
04 Oct 2007
day 9
cruise day 4 - we are here
The alarm went off around 5:30AM this morning because we thought we'd be on site at 6AM and work would start then. Before anyone moved in their bed, Caron said that she had been to the bridge at 2AM and they said we wouldn't be on site until 10AM, so we decided we weren't in a hurry to get out of bed. We were still up in time for breakfast at 6AM, though, and then hung around until we were on site at 9:45AM.
When the boat stopped, absolutely everyone, including kitchen staff, went out on deck to watch the ROV set up. The Navy Seals were outside in full camouflage: one with a gun, one with a pair of binoculars looking around the boat, with the other two wandering the deck.
It was quite hot today and the strong sun beat on all of us standing on deck who were anxiously awaiting the ROV's launch. We are about 5 degrees north of the equator, much closer than before. We couldn't ask for nicer weather for running equipment or for the photographers to take photos, though.
The first test dive for the ROV didn't happen until 11AM, so we waited in the sun for a long time. Before the ROV went in for the first time, Michael Aw and Greg Stone went in on scuba to take photos of the ROV while it was underwater. Nick and Lee stayed on deck to video from above.
I was sitting in the back of the very small control room with 3 others: Joe, our ROV pilot, Emory and Russ. I was trying to figure out a way to annotate the ROV video logs in real time. During the first dive Joe realized that the camera for the suction sampler jars wasn't working right and we couldn't see if things made it into the sampling jars or not. They think that it was an overheating problem, so they brought it back on board and I think they put some ice on it to cool it down while we ate lunch.
It was almost 1PM when we began ROV test dive 2 and we had actually waited about 20 minutes for it to get started, so I ran upstairs to get something to do in the meantime. When I came back there was a picture on one screen and I asked if we were in the water and Emory and Joe said no and that the picture we were seeing was from the first test dive, but it turned out that the ROV was indeed in the water and no one outside had said told Joe. Then Joe switched on all the equipment and his monitor didn't work. All the other ones did, so he drove a bit using the other ones until Toshi figured out that the monitor's connection in back had come loose. All 3 photographers had jumped in the water to take photos and video this time and we got video of them taking pictures of the ROV.
Things seem to be working well, so they decided that they would turn the test dive in to a real dive to at least 75m, but of course, the fathometer/sounder? on the ship had stopped working that morning, so we didn't really know how deep the ocean was at that location. Then when they tried to put the clump weight over the side, the winch wasn't working. During this dive, Emory and Russ decided that there was something wrong with the HD video camera, too. It wasn't focusing properlys. And even though the bridge said the bottom was at 100m, we went to 154m and never saw the bottom.
The big problem for the day is that the HD camera is not focusing correctly. I think the ROV crew and Nick and Lee are in the lab working on fixing it right now. HmŠ Russ also just finished towing a bongo net, so he'll be in there with the new plankton sample soon. It's going to be busy in that lab tonight. I think Cabell is also dropping his VPR right now, but I don't think he'll need lab space.
Being crammed in a little room for over 3 hours was hot and apparently tiring. I'm falling asleep as I am trying to write this.
No comments:
Post a Comment