Black Sea 2007, Day 15
Just another day at the office.....
It seems we just can’t get a break on this expedition. But, the good news is, no one can. As I described earlier, there is so much press for this cruise we have a second boat, that’s basically a hotel, called the Flamingo. They haven’t done anything to make life easier for us.
The purpose of the Flamingo is to hold more scientists, engineers, local reporters, the crew filming for National Geographic, and an AUV team (AUV = Autonomous Underwater Vehicle). The idea was while we were working on Wreck A (as it’s lovingly titled) the AUV team would scan around the surrounding area and look for anything else. And, because of limiting space on the Alliance, there would be people transfers almost daily.
To back up a bit, Dwight Coleman, another IFE scientist of Dr. Ballard’s is in charge of what’s happening on the Flamingo. It seems all of the AUV gear got stuck in customs for a few days delaying everything. But, no matter, the crew of the Flamingo were having their own troubles and they weren’t going to be on schedule either. To make matters worse, the crew from National Geographic went through Moscow (because they left from the West Coast) and ALL of there television equipment was lost. Oops!
After a day and a half, the Flamingo finally left port. When they arrived on the ship, nothing seemed as it was supposed to be. First of all, the Flamingo say they have double births for every room. What we’re used to is two bunks per room. What Dwight and company found were double beds, meaning two people shared a bed. Oops!
Second, it seems this boat is more of a party boat, where the captain really isn’t used to “At sea operations”. When they left port, and we’re only talking 20 miles away, Dwight asked if the captain had the coordinates to meet with the Alliance, it seems the response he got was, “Eh? Don’t worry, we’ll find them.” Oh, boy.
The first morning the Flamingo arrived on station, there was the first people transfer. The deal was made that the Alliance would transfer equipment back and forth between ships, but the Flamingo was in charge of the people transfers. When Dwight got up the first morning and asked to get the chase boat out, the captain said they didn’t have any gas for the boat. Then, later, after getting jerked around by the crew some more, it was revealed they had “Some” gas. Finally it came out they had 25 gallons. When they went to put 25 gallons worth of gas in the chase boat, they found out they didn’t have ANY! Then the captain looked at the swells and said, “We can’t launch in this weather!” and stormed off. The seas were calm that morning. Sigh.
One day, the Flamingo was heading back to shore, and one of the engineers, Dave Wright, called the Control Van to ask for directions back to shore. We all laughed, knowing the trouble they’ve been having over there. Later we thought about it a little more: Was he being serious?
posted by DaveandBrian @ 3:30 AM
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