We have continued to be busy with our different types of
scanning off the coast of Montenegro. Due
to the continuing swells on Thursday, we stayed within the harbor walls to work
on the AUV. To do this, we needed to
bring down our rescue raft. This
involved using the crane to lower it off the top deck and into the water.
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| Lifting the rescue raft off the top deck. Emily Kovacs |
Once we got the raft in the water we waited for Cameron to
create a mission for the AUV to run. He
had gotten GPS coordinates for the break wall at the ports entrance. The plan was to scan the wall at a 1 meter
depth to find out what the underwater area is for future test missions. After working through some technological
errors with the AUV, we were ready to set out.
Myself, Cameron and Richard went out to do a hour long scan.
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| Getting ready to scan the break wall. Emily Kovacs |
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| Crew heading out to test. Emily Kovacs |
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| Into the harbor. Emily Kovacs |
Upon reaching the break wall we readied the AUV for the
mission. Without difficulty we lowered
it into the water and sent it off on its route.
We followed it in the rescue raft about 10 meters behind it and
watched.
After it reached
about 300 meters, it popped back up at the surface to make its turn for the next
lap. To our dismay, it moved closer to
the wall. Once an AUV is on a mission,
it is very difficult to stop. At this
point we watched the AUV go into the concrete slabs making up the break
wall. We directed the raft towards the
shallow rocks, careful not to get too close.
We have a hard bottom which could have cracked on the concrete. I luckily spotted the AUV hiding within a
crevice, undamaged. It must have slipped
in through a hole. Cameron was able to
jump onto the slabs to lift out the AUV.
He then passed it to me on board and we managed to push off the wall
without any problems. The whole time
this was happening the AUV was still motoring on trying to run its
mission. Poor guy, just wanted to do it’s
job.
Yesterday the seas were calm enough to go back out and
attempt AUV scanning and sector scanning.
The crew broke up into teams and we set off for our
missions. Our focus today was working
further with the sonar image data and assisting on the back deck with the
cables. I enjoy learning to use the
sonar imagery. It is very rewarding to
view these ancient ships on the sea floor.
We sector scanned two wrecks yesterday and were able to get full scans
of each one.
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| Sector scanning wrecks on Loren's laptop. Emily Kovacs |
By time we finished up and got back to the dock the crew was
ready to relax. For the past few days we
have had new “neighbors” on the dock.
The Italian navy ship, the Palinuro,
has been keeping port with us. They had
an open house last night which allowed everyone to see the ship’s deck.
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| Palinuro. Emily Kovacs |
The ship was absolutely gorgeous. All of the intricate woodwork and laying of
the lines was perfect. From a brochure
they gave us, the ship was originally built in 1934, in Nantes, France. In more recent decades it has been used for
training Petty Officer Cadets.
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| Lines on the Palinuro. Emily Kovacs |
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| Main mast. Emily Kovacs |
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| Bow of the Palinuro. Emily Kovacs |
Well, we just set off the AUV on today’s mission and are
currently en route to sector scan. The
AUV should be running for the next 6 hours.
“Fingers crossed” everything goes well.
We will keep you
posted soon!
Emily
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