Well, I am about to be unfurloughed part-time....which means slowly getting back into the rhythm of work. Not sure what that rhythm is going to be because I am not allowed back in the office or labs yet and lots of kit is still to be organised before people can get out on the vessels alas in the meantime this is summary of the science we've been up to at SAMS before lockdown.
Seol Mara, this wee beauty above is getting her recoding survey completed next week which means if all goes well we might be able to get back onto the water mid-July! In the photo above we were going through a big tidal race just south of Easdale, I was helping Max deploy a mooring. Such a beautiful hot day for January.
Max a postdoc at SAMS who loves being outside and was super psyched to have a day out on the boat. We managed to deploy his ADCP to get him some current data. Straight from the depths of Wiki, "an acoustic Doppler current profiler is a hydroacoustic current meter similar to a sonar, used to measure water current velocities over a depth range using the Doppler effect of sound waves scattered back from particles within the water column and explained even better by this study and diagram.
I had a great trip back soaking in the sun and doing some revision!
On another day I accidentally rolled the drum too far so lots of wire fell off the drum of the winch...Norman banned me to the wheelhouse to drive to the science station whilst he and Emily sorted out my mess...haha thanks, guys! All in the life of learning to be a good deckhand I suppose.
I love working at SAMS the location is perfect for a lunchtime activity of anything from a swim, dive, Mtb, road run, trail run, road cycle, snorkel, sit on the beach, a walk...anything! Could even fit a cheeky flight in from Oban airport or pop into Oban to do your weekly shop.
Something new for me today....usually a radar because snow reduced the visibility! The snow is only just melting up high here in Glencoe (June).
More plankton nets up Loch Etive!
We, scientists, have a habit of congregating around pieces of a science kit. This time it was the CTD and a new light sensor that one of the students had made herself!
Photos don't show how rough it was on this day in Feb when we were trying to deploy an AUV called a Gavia.
This is a Gavia, Em is giving her a freshwater rinse so all of the salt crystals don't form.
On this day Norman let me practice my driving on a rough day. Seol Mara has a low AVS (angle of vanishing stability) which basically explains how much a boat tips side to side. Feel free to correct me or ask for more clarification, but when it's rough like this, you need to drive the vessel at an acute angle to the wave, going a beam if big enough could capsize you. The rule being if the wave is the same size as your beam, you're going over if you go beam on. So when turning you need to plan when you turn, so watch the waves and put the power on to go through the height of it. The track above shows how I had to go really far south and then back into Dunstaffnage. A great learning day for me, no science was done but everyone had fun watching me sweat haha.
This was the pic Emily took of me when we got back in and I still had the stress sweats so parking was super stressful!
My little project at SAMS is the wee RIB Uisge. Uisge means water in Scottish Gaelic. Since last year John and I have been working together to get her running and this year we sold an old RIB to give the boat budget some cash to give the old RIB an upgrade. This was the end result...repositioned some things, like the life raft to give us more deck space, upgraded the nav system with anew touch screen Lowrance...amazing!
Before we got to this stage, we argued lots...mostly over me making a mess haha
John gave me a row for not wearing gloves to protect my hands...got to listen to the mentor!
Learning good tips on how to pull wires through and using buckets to organise the bits I had dismantled. This is me resealing the hatches to keep them a bit more watertight.
The worst bit was reversing in and out of the " Ships" store haha
Here are a few other odd jobs I was called into help with!
Mud samples up Loch Etive for an assemble plus student. Mixing it up between driving the winch, identifying species, collecting the data, sifting mud and making lunch. Life of a techdeckhand!!
Completed my diesel engine course as part of the RYA Trinity house scholarship!!
Wherever I am, a cuppa tea in the sun always resets me!
Watching Em through the window as she makes new sensors!
Elaine, Norman and I completing the audit on the vessels. I am slowly getting better at paperwork...I think...and hope!
Out in the rain with the students, up Loch Etive again. I learnt how to deploy the big ecoCTD.
I finally got out to see the seaweed farm with Adrian!
We have also been doing lots of ROV driving with Euan - see next blogpost!
One of the last things we did before lockdown was deploying a sea glider!
A few of the tech team, me and Colin whizzed out to Tiree to drop off a sea glider with Mark and Struan from Coastal Connections. It was a bluebird day, with dolphins, seals and birds all over the place! Estelle, Emily, Colin, Mark and myself have been waiting since November to get the NOC glider Bellatrix out as part of the CLASS, Ellett Array glider deployment. You can see where Bellatrix is from this website:
http://vocal.sams.ac.uk/dashboard.php The most hilarious thing is that because we are so far offshore we need to use the satellite phone to call Emily and Estelle who are checking on the sea glider, also through an Iridium connection. When I say talking, the are doing basic checks like its set up, waypoints, check it's not leaking!
Stay tuned to hear about the ROV workshop I hosted at SAMS in February alongside the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). If you don't know what an ROV is, check out the next post in a few days. And also a different blog post about collecting microplastics from a rowing boat around the Coast of Scotland!!
Once you work for BAS you never really leave, even if you're not getting a payslip from them...its like a family haha!
Talking of BAS these images popped up the other day, me sitting on the balcony of Fossil Bluff (near Rothera, Antarctica) in a sleeping bag reading a book with a cuppa in a very happy place.
Learning good tips on how to pull wires through and using buckets to organise the bits I had dismantled. This is me resealing the hatches to keep them a bit more watertight.
Watching Em through the window as she makes new sensors!
We have also been doing lots of ROV driving with Euan - see next blogpost!
