Today's 6am-noon shift was one to put into the books.
I woke up at 5.15am and soon thereafter the MT I was relieving knocked at my door, telling me we were 'on station' and needed my assistance. So I hurriedly ran down to the wetlab and got everything ready. Skipping breakfast. Not good. Still in the am fog (in my head, not outside), we deployed the Rosette, flawlessly and then moved to the Triaxus. This is where things got interesting. I was in charge of the Triaxus once it entered the water, and I acted within protocol to a 'T' from my end. Unfortunately, the inexperienced mate, in charge of the boat during my watch, had come up to towing speed faster than I could safely pay out cable to the Triaxus and the result was a machine that was 90 deg off center, trying to right itself, while skiing behind the boat at 6 kts. The result of this was an intense amount of chirping in my ear questioning my actions. I was just happy I could see the Triaxus, I told the mate to slow the boat down until the Triaxus submerged, when it did, everything ran smoothly (almost). There were some glitches in the software that were not interfering...yet. At this point, I was wide awake, and ready for breakfast.
The next fun time came exactly 6 hrs later, when I was being relieved. Tell me if this sounds familiar: Rosette went spectacularly, Triaxus in the water, everything going well. Yes? Well as soon at the MT that was relieving me went to change into comfortable footwear and fetch some iced coffee, the software froze in front of me. This is kinda awful. And it froze at the bottom of an undulation. About 2 m from the bottom. No communication. I started running through failsafe options. Click. Nope. Click. Nope. Pay in cable? Nope, not that. I look up and there is the Triaxus, at the surface, correctly oriented. Apparently, if communication is broken this is what it does. I tell the Captain to slow down while I sprint out and reel the sucker in. Looks ok? Maybe? The other MT returns and reboots the software, we re-pay out the cable and start the program...it seems as though I was able to avoid being fired TWICE in one day. It could possibly be a miracle, if there ever was one. I hate this machine. Stop towing it nearshore, EPA, it is not reliable.
I woke up at 5.15am and soon thereafter the MT I was relieving knocked at my door, telling me we were 'on station' and needed my assistance. So I hurriedly ran down to the wetlab and got everything ready. Skipping breakfast. Not good. Still in the am fog (in my head, not outside), we deployed the Rosette, flawlessly and then moved to the Triaxus. This is where things got interesting. I was in charge of the Triaxus once it entered the water, and I acted within protocol to a 'T' from my end. Unfortunately, the inexperienced mate, in charge of the boat during my watch, had come up to towing speed faster than I could safely pay out cable to the Triaxus and the result was a machine that was 90 deg off center, trying to right itself, while skiing behind the boat at 6 kts. The result of this was an intense amount of chirping in my ear questioning my actions. I was just happy I could see the Triaxus, I told the mate to slow the boat down until the Triaxus submerged, when it did, everything ran smoothly (almost). There were some glitches in the software that were not interfering...yet. At this point, I was wide awake, and ready for breakfast.
The next fun time came exactly 6 hrs later, when I was being relieved. Tell me if this sounds familiar: Rosette went spectacularly, Triaxus in the water, everything going well. Yes? Well as soon at the MT that was relieving me went to change into comfortable footwear and fetch some iced coffee, the software froze in front of me. This is kinda awful. And it froze at the bottom of an undulation. About 2 m from the bottom. No communication. I started running through failsafe options. Click. Nope. Click. Nope. Pay in cable? Nope, not that. I look up and there is the Triaxus, at the surface, correctly oriented. Apparently, if communication is broken this is what it does. I tell the Captain to slow down while I sprint out and reel the sucker in. Looks ok? Maybe? The other MT returns and reboots the software, we re-pay out the cable and start the program...it seems as though I was able to avoid being fired TWICE in one day. It could possibly be a miracle, if there ever was one. I hate this machine. Stop towing it nearshore, EPA, it is not reliable.
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