Did a bit of a picture tour of the ship. I took many pictures, but I’ll just put the real interesting ones up here.
This shot is of a swath of the bottom of the sea. It looks colorful: but the colors simply represent the different depths of parts of the ocean floor. We’re going to be driving back and forth along the bottom (“mowing the lawn”) until they have a full topographical map of the bottom out here: one very expensive map!
Here’s a shot of me with the third mate (3/M) on board. Funny that his hair looks wet, it’s because he’s in the HOT TUB.
a sample chart of the approximate routes that we’re going to be following while driving around out here making the map of the bottom.
here’s me on the bridge of R/V Melville. See! I get to wear what ever I want here, and I haven’t shaved for two days. Amazing research vessels…
Here’s my room. You can see that there is double storage, as the room is supposed to have two people per room, but I’ve got the whole thing to myself. There to the left of the laptop is my “cruise assignment.” It’s a big assignment, so I made a summary of the project, and printed it out so I could stare at it whenever I feel lost. I do a lot of staring at it. To the right of the dresser on the bulkhead (wall) you can see my whiteboard for daily stuff I need to take care of, and below that a little calendar that I made counting down the days. I’m not in any rush to get off, but I like to know how much time I have left!
The ship has 3 large Caterpillar and 1 small(er) Caterpillar engine. All four engines make electricity which is piped (I say piped because the cables are really big) to the “motor” room in the aft of the ship. Interesting point here: an engine has internal combustion, makes locomotion from fuel on it’s own, whereas a motor changes external power into motion. So these diesel engines make electricity for the big electric propulsion motors.
So Melville is a research vessel. Two of the main things they do are: tow some sort of instrument behind them, and lower instruments down to the bottom of the water. Currently we’re towing an MR1 from the University of Hawaii (http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/HMRG/MR1/), and when we’re finished with that project, we’re going to be doing some dredging of rocks and dirt from the sea floor. These two very large spools of cable have a Safe Working Load of about 30,000lbs and will have the dredge (old picture of a very similar dredge we’re using) jaws/net lowered to the ocean floor, then drug along to pick up rock and sediment samples.
Here is the engine control room. They don’t really have any windows – I’m glad I don’t have to work down there!
The funny thing about the control room is that it’s facing the stern of the ship. I was told that this wasn’t normal, but the engineers here seem to think it is normal! Just so everyone is clear: STBD=starboard=right, PORT=left. Ass-backwards!
our messdeck where we eat all our meals
a shot of the galley. You can see the fryer, the grill and a few ovens. This galley wraps around to the back with more stuff on both the island and around all the walls. There are two cooks June and Richard: they’re fantastic!
if I’m not hanging out in the library, or my rack, I’ll probably be trying to find some brainless, interesting dvd in the lounge between meals or something.
Me with one of the Galapagos islands in the background. I think this one is called Pinta, like one of the three Columbus boats. No idea if there’s any connection there…
Well, that’s all for now my friends. More to come later,
drew