Old Style Charts

More photos will be added soon

Charts

Charts are like maps.  They delineate the shape of the ocean floor. They show the depth of the water.  The shallowest waters I’ve seen as a passenger aboard the Thompson have been 26 meters.  Fully loaded our boat dips into the water 6 meters feet.  Yikes! 

Charts also point out hazards; under water features like rocks and reefs.  No go zones include marine sanctuaries and military areas. Everyday the route is penciled in on the chart and then every hour our location is recorded. This all happens in the map room aft of the bridge.  The mates and able-bodied seaman and women do this.  There are always two of them on duty and commonly when we are close to other boats or in a harbor the captain is present.  The charts are also updated with information, such as ferry routes and oil dereks as we go. 

Learn more about nautical charts at: http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/

Photo of a Chart

Compasses

There are huge compasses with sights in the bridge that make clicking sounds when the boat is changing position.  There are two of them and I didn’t see anyone use them.

Photo of a Compass

Lookout

The bridge crew is on lookout with one of the two looking most of the time and correlating radar sightings of objects visually when possible. 

Photo of the view from the bridge

Foghorn

The foghorn blows when it is foggy to warn close ships.

New Style

The chief scientist John Collins determines the ship’s course.  He is in charge of putting out the Ocean Bottom Seismometers.  The locations have coordinates in latitude and longitude.  The coordinates are called waypoints.  The captain is in charge of getting them to the sites.

Radar

The ship has two radars to locate ships and objects that could prove hazardous.  Radar works the same way that SONAR works.  It uses radio waves instead of sound. 

Want to know more check this out.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/doppler/how.htm

GPS Waypoints

Global Positioning Satellites

Satellites are used to locate our position. In 1983 civilians were allowed to use this technology that was developed by the Department of Defense for nautical navigation and scores of other purposes such as surveying. 

The ship’s technology guys type the coordinates (waypoints) into the ship’s computers and then they navigate towards them.  When I observed the mates and able-bodied sea-person in the bridge they make minor adjustments as they go, but it is pretty hands off.  They make an estimated time of arrival (ETA) and off we go to the next one. 

More about GPS- http://www8.garmin.com/aboutGPS/

Photo of Ian Maury second mate turning the ship pulling back on the joy-stick pushes the boat in that direction.  Kind of weird!

Gyroscopic Ship Orientation System

To know the exact orientation of the ship in the water two gyroscopes are used.  Gyroscopes are like the gimbal system discussed in the OBS-Gremlin entry.  They keep a constant orientation even when the ship is moving. They look like toy tops.   Thus they can measure the ships rolling, pitching and heaving.  These are basically the x, y and z coordinates of three-dimensional space and the ships relationship to them.  Moving a ship across the sea with currents and winds is complex and requires a navigation system.

Learn more about Gyros at:

http://www.howstuffworks.com/gyroscope.htm

Photo of Gyroscope’s read out

The Navigation System

Computer programs couple this all into the navigation system.  The navigation system puts all of this together. The mate on duty then uses the following screen to make modifications of the coarse.  The ship may be steered manually or completely by the computer. 

Photo of main propulsion

To learn more about this system consult:

http://thompson.ocean.washington.edu/science_info/winfrog.html

Conclusion

All in all I was surprised to see the use of pencils and a chart.  Maybe at night our crew is secretly controlling the boat manually and using the Southern Cross to navigate.  The new and old have coupled to make our cruise possible and safe. 

Video of Goofy Behavior While Somebody Else Steers in the Cook Strait

goofing-off-cook-strait

DT with his little buddies the seismometers

The Thomas G. Thompson

On the Boat

Yesterday David Culp and I got to Lyttleton via the West Coast Shuttle from Arthur’s Pass.           We went to three security gates before we were let into the restricted harbor.  Larry Manzano from Squim, Washington was doing dock watch when I talked to him about being an ABS-Able Bodied Seaman.  His wife thought his last job, as long-haul trucker was too dangerous so he became a seaman again for the second time. The test in his opinion had not changed from when he had last taken it.  An ABS has an eight-hour shift.  Larry’s is from eight to four.   The first thing he does everyday is sanitation; cleaning the ship including heads.   The he performs maintenance; the painting, repairing equipment and watching the scientists do science.   One of Larry’s skills is welding which he does regularly on board.  He says that he has been on seismology ships before and enjoys learning from the scientists There is also a submersible on board with cameras etc…

Larry the able bodied seaman

Brent Fraser Interviews

The first person we saw from our field trip was geophysicist Peter Molnar he was being interviewed by TV New Zealand.  He was animated and seemed to be enjoying himself.  The cruise has been in the local newspaper as well.  John Collins from Woods Hole, the head scientist had been interviewed earlier.  We then became film extras and were filmed looking at computers appearing as if we were doing science.  

 Safety First

Safety then science is the priority on board.  At 5:30 last night we were given the rundown on safety.  We went over fire evacuation-emergency breathing devices and mustering about in an emergency.  Mustering about is to count crew and make plans.  We tried on our survival suits, which made us all look like red, penguins and made me a bit nervous thinking about jumping into the sea. 

survival-suit

Pushing Off

All sorts of people show up on the day that you go out to sea.

We had breakfast with the agent; his role is to see if the ship is complying with the rules of the harbor.  Peter was a pleasant man who spoke of how good the weather was expected to be over the next seven days and how fast it can change. 

“Southies” can come up and instantly give sustained winds 45-60 of knots per hour and swells of 10 meters.  This apparently happened to the ship on the way over delaying it. 

Another person is the pilot.  She is responsible for navigating the ship out of the harbor.  There she was up in the bridge saying give me ten degrees to the south.  The most exciting thing was when the pilot boat pulled up along the starboard side and she jumped onto it and zipped away leading us out of the harbor.