Weather
Clear Visibility: 10 nm
Wind direction: 200
Wind speed: 10 knots
Seawater temperature: 11.1 degrees C
Sea level pressure: 1011.4 mb
Temperature dry bulb: 13.3 degrees C
Temperature wet bulb: 11.1 degrees C
Science and Technology Log
I continue practicing navigation underway using radar and dead reckoning. Three of the fixes I checked fall right on the ship’s course. A few others fall within an acceptable error. The swells were a little rough so I take a break from the radar screen and charts until the late afternoon.
The NOAA Ship RAINIER anchors in Northeast Bight, Nagai Island for the night.
In the pilot house, from left to right, ENS Olivia Hauser, Jr Officer, ENS Megan McGovern, Jr Officer, Umeko Foster, and Jacquelyn Hams
NOAA Teacher at Sea
Jessica Schwarz
Onboard NOAA Ship Rainier June 19 – July 1, 2006
Mission: Hydrographic Survey Geographical Area: Alaska Date: June 22, 2006
Assistant Engineer Kelly Baughman at the center console in the engine room onboard the RAINIER. Kelly fired up the engines to get the ship underway this morning!
Science and Technology Log
This morning the RAINIER changed locations from Kanga Bay to Hot Springs Bay. I had an opportunity to go down in the Central Engine Room Control (CERC) and see how the engines are fired up to get the ship moving again. Kelly Baughman, the ship’s Third Assistant Engineer (3AE), took some time to explain what I was observing down there before she got the engines going. Being in the engine room was really cool. I was completely surrounded by buttons to push and knobs to turn and although very tempting, I didn’t touch any of them. The RAINIER has two main engines to motor her, one on the port (left) side of the ship and one on the starboard (right) side of the ship. There are two generators that put out a total of 400 kilowatts of electrical power to the ship. An additional smaller emergency generator is also a part of the ship, but it puts out significantly less energy than the two main generators.
On the bridge, Vessel Assistant, Kelson Baird is logging the ship’s position from four points on the radar screen. The position of the points is recorded every half hour to monitor the effectiveness of the anchor.
Kelly also explained how the bow thruster works on the ship. It basically looks like a fan and helps to maneuver the ship from the bow. There are several other things that are monitored at the center console, but we weren’t able to get to all of them. Kelly said tomorrow morning will be a better time to go over some of the other things in the engine room since we’ll be anchored in the bay. After visiting with Kelly, I had a nice afternoon talking with crew and soaking up ship life. I made my way up to the bridge where General Vessel Assistant (GVA) Kelson Baird was monitoring weather data. He was excellent at explaining all the different instruments used in collecting weather data onboard the ship. Every hour, on the hour, Kelson recorded weather information. He started by logging the ship’s position (latitude/longitude). Next he recorded an overall weather condition such as cloudy, rainy, drizzle etc. Today was cloudy and rainy. Kelson then stepped outside the bridge and looked to see what point of land was the furthest he could clearly see from the ship. Once he found his point of land he came back inside the bridge and used the radar screen to determine a distance in nautical miles that point of land was from the ship. This gave Kelson a visibility reading. Other information Kelson recorded was wind speed in knots, using the ship’s anemometer, as well as wind direction. Wind direction (measuring from the direction the wind is coming from) can be measured using a gyrocompass, which is an electronic compass measuring to true north.
Dry bulb and wet bulb used to record air temperature from the RAINIER.
If the ship were underway he would have also had to record wave height, swell wave height, and sea wave height. Kelson said this would be done by a very scientific method called “eye balling it”…or as I like to say, EBI. Another measurement taken while at anchor was water temperature, which, by the way, was 49° F while I was in the bridge this afternoon. Just as a quick side note: crew of the RAINIER surf in this water and are very excited to surf in the break off of Kodiak Island when we arrive in port. I think they are crazy, but I’d love to watch them! The last weather measurements Kelson recorded were air temperature and atmospheric pressure. Two air temperature measurements are taken: one from what is called a wet bulb and one from a dry bulb. Then he recorded sea level (atmospheric) pressure measured by a barometer.
Kelson went on to explain about “Big Weather”, which is an ongoing data collection project where weather information is sent every six hours via satellite to be used by NOAA’s National Weather Service. Pretty amazing all the work that is being done on the RAINIER!
Personal Log
I am seriously impressed by how well I am being fed on the ship. Each meal I have several hot meal options to choose from and there is always a vegetarian option for those who do not eat meat. The soup has been excellent! There’s a full salad bar directly next to a freezer fully stocked with Haagen-Dazs ice cream! I think that’s pretty good. Coffee is available all day long as well which makes me very, very happy. I won’t indulge on hydrographic survey days. We’ve already talked about that…
Calling All Middle Schoolers–We Need Help Answering a Few Questions!
Third Assistant Engineer Kelly Baughman explained to me today that the ship can carry up to 16,800 gallons of freshwater. She went on to say that on average the ship’s crew uses anywhere between 1,500-2,000 gallons per day.
If the RAINIER were to be at sea for 21 days without coming into port to replenish its fresh water supply, how many days would it take for the ship to run out of fresh water?
How would the ship be able to produce more fresh water without having to go into port?
NOAA Teacher at Sea
Susan Just
Onboard NOAA Ship Oregon II June 15 – 30, 2006
Mission: Summer Groundfish Survey Geographical Area: Gulf of Mexico Date: June 19, 2006
Science and Technology Log
There is very little to report today. The only science being done aboard the OREGON II is the data compilation of Kim Johnson, the Chief Scientist. As far as technology goes, the main action was the efficient repair of the forward radar so we could get underway again.
Personal Log
I know I should be focused on the mission but I have to admit that I have benefited from this down time. I’d been moving fast and furious since before school ended. Taking some time to read and rest has made a new woman of me. We expect to be on station in about 20 hours so my next watch will still be clear. I’ll get some interviews in, hopefully.
Question of the Day
What do fisheries research interns do on watch when the boat is steady steaming?
There will be no fish caught today. The OREGON II is steaming to port in Galveston. One of the two radars has failed. The ship is required to have two functioning radars in the event that one should fail. Therefore, we must return to port and make repairs.
When the radar was lost, we were underway to the tip of Texas, off the coast of Brownsville, to begin surveying in preparation for the Gulf Coast shrimping season. We expect to make port this afternoon and get underway south again sometime Monday.
Personal Log
I don’t mind having this time off from the fish. Part of my mission is to write lesson plans that correspond to the activities aboard. This will give me time to work on the plans.
Question of the Day
What does the radar do?
The radar serves as a set of electronic “eyes.” It recognizes obstacles in the distance so that they can be avoided by making necessary course corrections.
I spent the morning in the radar (chart?) room listening and taking in what I could of a training session on putting the physically captured information into a program called Pydro. Obstructions like new rocks are marked as primary or secondary, or for example a ledge with a rock together may be marked as primary. There seems to be a lot of room for discretion by the person entering the information. There are many folders of information such as AWAIS, which means there is a shipwreck feature. There is an entry called reports that allows information to be included in sentence form. This information will not show up on the finished product but is helpful to the cartographer that is actually making the final map. It may make his work more accurate. Yesterday I talked about the dotted line that might be drawn in that shows an area that is not navigable–I think I called it an obstruction line, in reality it is called a foul line. I was also given a Julian calendar which means the days are numbered 1-365.
We are pulling anchor and getting underway. We will be leaving Eagle harbor for Sandpoint, which I have not found that on the map. We pulled anchor at 1:30. It is quite a process and again it is necessary that the crew is communicating effectively with one another. The crew uses some sort of sign language as well as radio communication with the bridge. It is necessary the bridge knows what is going on because they may have to move the ship in order to keep the anchor in the correct position for retrieving it. The anchor is pulled up by a large motor and stored in a side well of the ship. There are actually two anchors on this ship; the size of the ship dictates how many anchors it has. I thought maybe they used both of them when anchoring in deep water, but was assured that using both was not done very often because of the motion of the water and the possibility of “braiding” the anchor lines is very real and an immense problem. If for some reason they would use both anchors, there is a way to do it that puts the ship and the two anchors in sort of a “V” pattern and this would help with the braiding problem. As the chain of the anchor was rolled onto the ship it was hosed off.
Answer to yesterday’s question about what happens to this information: The completed maps are used by any ocean going vessels. Because shorelines and the ocean floors change constantly, and because new technology is constantly being developed, this is an ongoing process that needs to be continually updated. Charting the coastal waters was first begun under the direction of President Thomas Jefferson and has continued on to today. The first use of the information is for commerce and right behind that is the fisheries industry. The information is available on a web page. Some of the specialized equipment actually comes from those other countries, especially the Nordic countries. The davits come from England.
Personal Log
As I visit with Crewmembers, I have found that there is a great deal of turnover in this profession. NOAA ship personnel are required to spend two years at sea, then three years in offices, in places like Seattle, then another rotation at sea. Many wage mariners choose to quit after the first five years. Being at sea means making many sacrifices. The FAIRWEATHER goes out on “legs” of about 10-12 days and then comes in at one of several ports for a couple of days. They are on the water over 200 (220?) days a year. During the off-season they go to school to learn to use new equipment, and/or work on repairs for the ship.
I dropped one of my cameras on the way to the laundry room and parts fell everywhere. Hopefully I found all the pieces and will try putting it back together later. The LCD is not readable so I will use the other camera a lot. I did my laundry this evening and while waiting I did some reading. Some of the crew visited Sandpoint by launch. I chose not to go. The last launch that returned about 12:30 a.m. had some trouble when they went to dock at the FAIRWEATHER. According to stories this morning the adrenaline was running a little high for a few minutes, but they managed to get the launch in safely, and there was no imminent danger involved.
