P-MAN XIV Update #16 - Derek arrives, everybody sees the Jake, and Dingar finally makes a deep dive.

01 April 2012

Derek finally arrived.

Maj. Derek Abbey. The BentProp team is now complete.

The ROV team took a little extra time at the dock this morning to get everything squared away. Meanwhile, back at the Ready Room, Dan and I tested out the SSS. I have a confession to make. I broke the SSS gear. As we were unboxing it, I looked over at Dan and said "You know, most of me wants this to work just fine. But there is a very small part of me that hopes it doesn't so we don't have to do hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours of straight lines at 2 knots across vast ocean spaces." Or words to that affect. I know that SSS work is invaluable in our efforts, but...as it turned out, the SSS onboard computer would not boot up.

Computers, SSS boxes, tow fish and cables.

We've been in touch with Marine Sonic, the manufacturer of our SSS unit (They graciously donated this entire system to BentProp 3 years ago and have been giving us outstanding support ever since both in employment techniques and maintenance and material support.) and they have given us instructions on how to open it up, check the ribbon cable connection and see if that fixes the issue. If it does, we'll get a reseal kit from them and use it in the remainder of the mission. We packed up shop and went to Neco Marine to meet the ROV team as they came back to port to pick us up so we could see them in action in the afternoon.

Back at the dock, the ROV was readied for sea and the boat took Derek and Pat out with the ROV team. We took them to the Jake, a popular dive spot. It's a Japanese observation float plane that was sunk in relatively shallow water during the war, just north of Arakabesan. The team swam the ROV all around the Jake showing excellent control with the higher powered thrusters. Each time this team of students runs into a problem, they work as a team and fix it. Yes, you can see the disappointment on their faces and postures, but they keep working. This is an exceptional group of kids.

Josh Nichols' first off student status dive. Photo by Derek Abbey.

Dingar coming down to the Jake. Photo by Derek Abbey.

On the Jake. Photo by Derek Abbey.

Over a Jake pontoon. Photo by Derek Abbey.

After the morning mission, they came back to the dock and had only one problem with the set up: a fuse was blowing and the one that worked was getting really hot to the touch. So what's the solution? Get a bigger fuse. Then something stopped working. I couldn't quite tell what as everyone was clustered around the vehicle. So, they took it apart, tested stuff that needed testing, eliminated possibilities, rebuilt a connector, restrung a string (I made that one up.) tested, cajoled and a couple of hours later, fixed it. Then we pushed off from the dock for the first deep search.

Field surgery.

Rebuilding a connector.

All back together and heading out.

Now the problems with the support vessel and crew came to the fore. We had to get to a particular latitude and longitude, move the boat up current/wind 50 feet or so and anchor so we could drop the ROV onto our desired point. Our two hand held GPS units had a disagreement. The anchor wouldn't bite into the smooth ocean bottom. We kept drifting just out of cable range of the ROV to our lat/long. Finally, the tactical people were waiting on the support people. Joe of course figured it all out and put us right on target.

Barb and Joe navigating.

Scott launching Dingar.

Dingar heads to the bottom. Photo by Derek Abbey.

Dingar images the ocean bottom.
White lights are scuba lights attached to the frame. Might not be needed.
Photo by Dingar. Screen shot by Dan O'Brien.

Down the bot went and then we saw the ocean floor through the forward looking camera. At about 125 feet. Then it swam and started searching. This ladies and gentlemen is everything we've asked of the ROV team. Yes, we want to find what we are looking for: clues to finding airplanes. But we can't control that. The kids CAN control a ROV on the ocean floor half a world away from home.

The ROV Team

Everyone on the boat.

We worked until almost sunset and had a very pleasant, satisfying ride back to Neco Marine.

A good debrief was held after the ROV was cleaned up and put to bed. Then we all parted company for dinner.

Since it was Derek's first night in-country, he got to pick where we ate and so to The Taj we went. We didn't want a full blown 'Robert' meal (Robert is the owner and we just ask him to choose our dishes for us.) and 'Robert Lite' didn't seem as if it would be enough. So a new menu ordering technique was developed: 'Robert Medium'. According to Derek, this is the best Indian food he's had anywhere in the world.

The entire 2012 P-MAN XIV deployed team, Flip, Pat, Joe, Dan and Derek on the porch of The Taj.

It's past the halfway point of the mission. Everyone went to bed early and slept all night long. I didn't get a single word onto this report last night, April 1st.

02 April

We just briefed as a complete team for our mission on 2 April. The ROV section is heading to the dock to do their preparations, and BentProp is making lunches, typing emails, completing reports and making our preparations to go to sea. The mission today is to go back to the same lat/long and continue the search for a piece of something that our SSS survey detected faintly last year, which the AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle - doesn't that sound cool?) from Scripps briefly saw on video and had a strong SSS hit. More later.

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