The problem child was at it again (the Triaxus, Max, not you)...Max, the MT whose shift I relieve, knocked on my door after 4 hours of restless sleep. It was only 9.30pm, my shift starts at 11.45pm, what was going on THIS time?
Apparently the Triaxus had managed to fly into a piece of debris or something, causing a significant tension spike on the smartcable. The plan was to bring it on deck for a quick inspection and then release it if nothing was damaged too badly (all of the data recording instruments continued to work flawlessly). We were all ready to execute this plan until we both realized that the smart cable was not working anymore, stranding the Triaxus behind us. We tried switching the winch controls to remote and then local locations, turning the winch off for a 10 count, but none of this was working. Soon enough, the whole boat was awake. The Captain looked at the inside wiring, but everything checked out. Eventually, we turned the winch off for a longer period of time, say 2 minutes, and somehow this worked. With the winch operational again, we brought the Triaxus on deck to find that one of the 4 pontoons had taken a direct hit to the front, crumpling the cone shape flat, as you might see a defective milk jug base. Embedded in the wound was a few chips of old looking wood. A tree? A mast? Any guess is as good as the other. I told Captain I would make him a T-Shirt stating "Nearshore Towing Rules!"; he had previously stated that he hates nearshore towing, because its a suicide mission. Not exactly what he envisioned when he requested the Triaxus to match the people at UMinnesota (who do deep water measurements, as the Captain wanted). Apparently this damage was quite minor compared to other incidents in the past and the Triaxus was redeployed and was not troublesome during my shift, at least.
Side note: The Triaxus is made of carbon fiber, and there is a local RaceCar body repair guy in Milwaukee who is on speed-dial for these occasions. The last bill was for only $3,500, a small sum in my estimation, especially seeing this most recent 'ding' and it being called a scratch in comparison.
Apparently the Triaxus had managed to fly into a piece of debris or something, causing a significant tension spike on the smartcable. The plan was to bring it on deck for a quick inspection and then release it if nothing was damaged too badly (all of the data recording instruments continued to work flawlessly). We were all ready to execute this plan until we both realized that the smart cable was not working anymore, stranding the Triaxus behind us. We tried switching the winch controls to remote and then local locations, turning the winch off for a 10 count, but none of this was working. Soon enough, the whole boat was awake. The Captain looked at the inside wiring, but everything checked out. Eventually, we turned the winch off for a longer period of time, say 2 minutes, and somehow this worked. With the winch operational again, we brought the Triaxus on deck to find that one of the 4 pontoons had taken a direct hit to the front, crumpling the cone shape flat, as you might see a defective milk jug base. Embedded in the wound was a few chips of old looking wood. A tree? A mast? Any guess is as good as the other. I told Captain I would make him a T-Shirt stating "Nearshore Towing Rules!"; he had previously stated that he hates nearshore towing, because its a suicide mission. Not exactly what he envisioned when he requested the Triaxus to match the people at UMinnesota (who do deep water measurements, as the Captain wanted). Apparently this damage was quite minor compared to other incidents in the past and the Triaxus was redeployed and was not troublesome during my shift, at least.
Side note: The Triaxus is made of carbon fiber, and there is a local RaceCar body repair guy in Milwaukee who is on speed-dial for these occasions. The last bill was for only $3,500, a small sum in my estimation, especially seeing this most recent 'ding' and it being called a scratch in comparison.
No comments:
Post a Comment