Black Sea 2007, Day 18
You might’ve remembered the Flamingo was supposed to keep a wide distance from the Alliance, well, judging by this picture something went wrong.
The last 24 hours have to be, in my personal history, one of the weirdest days of my life. It’s going to be a long story, and I hope I don’t drift too much. So, try and keep in tune with my train of thought. If you notice a long row of X’s, that’s because part of my story can’t be displayed for the world to see. But, if you REALLY want to know, buy me a beer and I’ll gab the whole thing. Trust me, it was worth it!
The day started with the President coming on board the Alliance. Dr Ballard and Dr Buxton (one of the archeologists) gave Yuschenko a presentation about what IFE is all about, what we found within the wreck, and what the future holds. The President seemed very intelligent, he was asking a lot of questions geared towards a relationship between us and the Ukrainian government. Dr Ballard’s big push is to get into the minds of children and show them the wonderment of undersea exploration.
After the presentation, the President and his wife (who happens to be an American, by the way) went up to the Control Van to watch the pilots retrieve a jar off of the wreck. The President sat in the pilot’s chair and drove Hercules. After he felt like he was used to the controls, he asked, “Can I pick up a jar?” Of course no one wants to tell the President of ANY country “No”.
So, Dr Ballard and the other scientists looked at each other and said, “Ah......er.......um.......well......”. The only way they could get out of it was by explaining to the President that it takes several years of practice to get used to the controls of the Manipulator and it would be better if he was driving the vehicle, while one of the experienced pilots picked up the jar. He agreed, we got it on tape and thank goodness he didn’t plow the vehicle into the wreck.
The President and Dr Ballard moved over to the Flamingo to view the jars that had been collected, and we got back to our regularly scheduled programming. That was until the AUV team on the Flamingo announced to us they had lost their AUV. Oh, crap.
An AUV is an underwater vehicle that is preprogrammed to do a certain set of tasks. It’s not connected to the ship by any control wires, like the ROVs we have. If it’s told to travel 3 miles in one direction, turn right, travel 2 miles, turn left, etc. it does what it’s told. All the while it’s collecting data, typically side-scanning or multi-beaming. This data is stored within the memory banks of the vehicle. While it’s doing its set of tasks it continues to send out a radio signal that tells the operators, “Hey, I’m OK. By the way, I’m over here now.” When the vehicle’s last task, which is typically “Come home”, is given, the operators bring the vehicle on deck and download the information. Sounds easy, right? Right.
Unfortunately, like most devices, things sometimes don’t go as planned. They knew something was wrong when the vehicle was sending out that signal of “Hey, I’m OK. By the way I’m over here”, but it was giving completely different locations every time. The operators were starting to get nervous. Then it stopped transmitting all together. Oops!
We had five different locations through a 5 square-mile area to search. (The next part is censoredXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. But, through all that trouble, we found it. The problem was, there was no easy way to retrieve it. Then the fire alarm went off. Needless to say, we didn’t retrieve it.
No one knew why, but we all mustered, as we had been instructed to, on the boat deck and had our names tallied. Typically if it’s a drill, they let us know ahead of time. Now this takes some of the surprise factor away, but we don’t want people panicking for no reason. We also didn’t see any smoke (a tell-tale sign of a fire). We dispersed, but later found out our bow-thruster’s engine had malfunctioned, creating a lot of heat and smoke. Dr Ballard’s comment was, “Well, here we are, back on the Endeavor!”
For those that are new to our blog, or don’t remember, last year when we were in the Black Sea we were working on URI’s boat, the Endeavor. It was a tired ship, with a great crew. Unfortunately, their bow-thruster died. The importance of such a device, is that it helps hold the ship in one position to allow the vehicles to work affectively and carefully in one position. Without it, it becomes difficult to keep steady in calm waters and non-existent in rough seas.
It was fairly late in the day, but the phone calls started, and people started looking to see if there’s a port available in Istanbul to replace the motor. If it can be done in a couple of days, we’ll stop what we’re doing, head to Turkey and have it replaced. Shore-leave for all!
Now, this crew hasn’t worked without a bow-thruster on this ship. Ever. One just doesn’t know how a ship will handle until you try. The plan was to head for the wreck site, place Argus in one position over something stationary (like on of our buoys we have setup) and see if the crew can keep steady for half an hour. As we were getting into position to test the capabilities of the crew, we received a May-Day from the Flamingo that they were taking water into the engine room. Oh, crap!
We had an emergency recovery of the vehicles, which I’ve never seen done and basically means everything they do to recover the vehicle is done at a high rate of speed. The vehicles came on deck very smoothly and we steamed at full power towards the Flamingo. The work boats were loaded with life-jackets, just in case, and we prepared food and blankets in the conference room for our new arrivals.
When we got to the Flamingo they started setting up shuttles back and forth, bringing all 34 people on board the Alliance. The first thing that was easy to notice was the stern was very low in the water, which is indicative of the engine room being flooded with water, a LOT of water. Second thing that I noticed was that they did have a pump running, and it was pumping a lot of water, but it obviously wasn’t enough.
It seems the main drive shaft’s seal had been leaking for a long time, and they never fixed it appropriately (surprised, anyone? Anyone, at all?). It gave away completely with a loud “BANG!” The passengers got up (this is all happening at about 11:45 pm) and the captain of the Flamingo told them to go back to their rooms, everything was alright. Five minutes later the leader of our group said, “OK, everyone on the deck, we’re moving to the Alliance.”
After everyone was on board, the Flamingo tied up to the Alliance, and the Alliance’s pumps were placed inside of the Flamingo. They had three pumps running at once, and they were STILL pumping out a lot of water. Jeez, how long were they going to wait to get this thing fixed before the ship sank?!?!?!?!?!
(This next section is censored) XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX “Oh, crap! You can’t do that!” XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX “No, no! Put that back!” XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX “Well, at least we got pictures!”
Finally around 3 am, a tugboat met up with us, hooked up to the Flamingo and got ready to tow it to shore. The refugees were piled, some unwillingly, back onto the Flamingo and were towed to shore.
I’ve been up for over 24 hours. I’m going to bed!
posted by DaveandBrian @ 3:19 AM
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