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by Michael Dessner

One thing I have come to learn is that I’m a lot happier when the girls are working longer missions.  They have the ability to work 24 hours, roughly 18 hours of bottom time at full depth. On this job, once we finished the overall site survey and switched to the higher frequency and camera runs, we have been working shorter sorties due to the operational profiles, about 14 hours or so.  Do the math on that.  It brings us to three launches and recoveries (each) a day.  While we would normally run 10 to 12 guys on such a job, we only have six out here, including myself, due to space limitations.  That is making for some real grinder hours.  Last night we deployed both Ginger and Mary Ann, finishing up around 2 AM.  With our first recovery slated for just after lunch, a few of us got almost 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep.  It felt like a vacation.

I woke to much calmer seas, the ROV headed down to the site and pizza in the galley.  Super bonus good times.  It’s just after lunch and we are gonna be looking at a couple boat recoveries…

Curious Neighbors
Well we did a couple boat recoveries and they were pretty uneventful.  A cool thing about the last couple days has been the Pilot Whales coming back in. Last night as we were getting set up for a ship based recovery a pod came in and clearly followed the vehicles around for a bit as we drove it on the surface to position for a recovery.  As the vehicle maneuvered on the surface they would follow, when it turned toward them they would scatter and then form back up to follow it again.  For the first time they seemed to be ignoring the ship, coming closer than ever before but keeping a pretty steady distance from the vehicle.  Damn cool.  Then this afternoon we did the boat recoveries and the pod seemed to set up just perfectly for pictures off the starboard rail.  I’ve been adding more pictures to my Facebook page about the whales than anything else.  I personally find them completely fascinating.

3am
We put Ginger in about an hour ago and just checked out Mary Ann for a launch which we will do in a few minutes.  I don’t even know what day it is anymore and we are getting just plain goofy.  Since Mark, Andy, Greg and I have the most experience with the equipment, we tend to work together while Fred and Kevin come in to spell us when the vehicles get down to depth; they monitor them while we rest up.  Andy and Greg take quite a bit of additional strain as they have further duties.  Andy is still cranking out mosaics for planning missions which Greg then writes up. But everybody else wants Andy’s product too.  It’s like data crack cocaine.  One hit and 15 minutes later, they’re back for more.  It doesn’t help that the analysis computers are right in the middle of a high traffic area of the ship and that the wireless routers are right next to him as well.  Data processing, IT help, deck ops, questions about this picture, that sonar record, more mosaics, run down to the deck, run crane, hop in a boat and work a recovery, and back to the computers to download 12,000 pictures. Oh, and by the way, have you gone through them to see if we have a picture of the boiler yet?  Poor guy can’t catch a break and yet he very, very rarely loses his sense of humor.  No, he’s usually helping us keep ours.

We’re not going to get a full picture of all the data we’ve collected until operations cease and we can step back for a big picture look.  One thing I do know, if Andy makes up a mosaic of the site and then lays the girl’s tracklines over the top of it, you almost cannot see the data, so thick are the various missions we’ve run.  We are piling up data like crazy, terabytes worth.  That is a helluva lot of sonar data and pictures.  Folks from the imaging lab and navigation come over and ask for something and Andy dives into the pile of bytes and pulls it out of a hat.

Now that the ROV is down below a lot of the tension that had been building during the bad weather has dissipated.  The heads (as I like to call management and ‘experts’) are all smiles but that ain’t getting us any more time in the rack. So when we go out on deck things get plain old silly.  Last night Mark, Andy and I were out there and the rain was coming down in sheets.  I asked Andy if he thought it would rain, he looks up and as the water cascades off his face says, “No, I don’t think it will…”  It seems so silly now but, we all howled with laughter for 20 minutes.  “Yep, not a cloud in the sky..” Which, of course, we can’t see at all.  God, it brings a huge foolish grin to my face just thinking about it.  These guys are such good men, it’s a honor to work with them.  And there is just nothing like cracking up with a bunch of your buddies over the most stupid shit.  Those are moments you remember, not exactly what you were all laughing about just that you were laughing.  In the rain.  With water dripping off your nose, a wet ass and soggy socks.  And your boys.  Sometimes, when you’re feeling it, you ask yourself ‘why the f*#k am I doing this crap?  I’m cold and wet and uncomfortable and I don’t give a crap that everything is working ’cause all I want is an hour off my feet, a nap, a cup of Starbucks and an Egg A Muffin‘.  Then you get a little rest and wake up wondering why your ribs hurt and remember cracking up with your pals the night before.  It’s pretty damn special, and, ya know, Titanic is on the TV just next door, right?

4:30am
Both the girls are working.  “Spirit in the Sky“ is playing on the iPod and I have been promising you a peek into the imaging lab for days now and guess what?  It ain’t gonna happen tonight, either. My ribs hurt and the girls are working and my socks are wet and I could use a shower.  So, my friends, at the risk of making myself a liar in your eyes, I say to you that I am going to see if any of the boys need anything, then go put my rack to good use.

How about another whale picture?  HAHAHAHA!!!

Whew.  I entertain me.  More tomorrow, I promise, I have some pictures of the lab and have been taking notes on how many computers and monitors and people put all that together.  I swear I will do something on it tomorrow.

Promises. Promises.

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