Playing Catch Up
It's been about two weeks since I got back from Pole and my schedule is just about back to normal. I was working when I was at the pole but my shifts were being covered by the other night operator. Since weather extended my stay from 3 to 6 days he was forced to work 6 12-hour shifts in a row. I covered some of his shifts when I got back which meant for a little over a week I wasn't doing much other than working and sleeping.
In the blur of the last two weeks one of the day-shift operators left to go to start a winter contract at Palmer station on the other side of the continent. Palmer only has 20-40 people at any given time and the area is teaming with wildlife so Palmer contracts are coveted. His leaving meant one of the winter-over operators came here a month early. She wanted to swap with me so she could work nights so I agreed. This means I've transitioned from working days to nights four times in almost a month. I can't complain since the swaps let me take this job and get to pole. I am a little tired right now, however. I have two days off coming up and I plan to take full advantage of them.
The biggest change on station is the arrival of liquid ocean. While I was at pole the first of two icebreakers came in to help clear a channel for our resupply ships. There is open water in the channel and one guy in the power plant saw whales in it this morning.
The first icebreaker is a Sweedish ship called the ODEN and the second to arrive is the U.S. Coast Guard POLAR SEA. The POLAR SEA is based out of seattle so they came with "good" coffee and some people from station stood in line after a quick tour of the ship to get a cup of Seattle's Best Coffee. (I still don't drink the stuff)
The highlight of last week was a tour of the engine room on the POLAR SEA. I managed to meet the AEO/chief engineering officer while I was aboard for the quick tour and arranged a tour for Matt the Mechanic (see link at the right) and me. The engine rooms are tight and there is a maze of passageways to climb down. I usually have a good sense of direction but I was lost pretty easily as we climbed up and down half flights of stairs and ladders onto metal gratings. At one point I realized I was standing on a solid floor and the officer told me we were standing on the keel fuel tank 25 feet below the water line.
Much like a diesel locomotive the POLAR SEA uses diesel engines to turn generators and make electricity. The electricity is then fed to electric motors that turn the giant stainless steel propellers and move the ship through the water. This set-up allows the diesels to run at their most efficient speed while the electric motors can more easily have their speed adjusted. When eight diesel locomotive engines don't have enough power the ship can switch to using gas turbines which are effectively jet engines to turn the propellers. These burn a lot more fuel but quadruple the power output of the ship, allowing it to push a 400' long hull of 3" thick steel on top of the ice. The weight of the ship then crushes the ice underneath it and opens a channel.
What I was most impressed by, though, was the equipment they had replaced. One of the electric motors needed replacing a few years ago. It is a in a 10 foot cube of a box that surrounds the propeller shaft. Since the propellers are at the bottom of the ship this 10 foot cube needed to be hoisted 7 stories out of the ship. Problem was, there was a ceiling 1 foot above it. Some contractors in port cut through 7 decks of the ship making holes in bedrooms, bathrooms and anything in the way to take that motor out. Once they had put the new motor in they welded everything back into place so there is only a small seam around the edge of what used to be a gaping hole. If I hadn't been told about it I never would have noticed. It's crazy to think how much effort goes into keeping the dozens or hundreds of aging ships the navy has running.
In the blur of the last two weeks one of the day-shift operators left to go to start a winter contract at Palmer station on the other side of the continent. Palmer only has 20-40 people at any given time and the area is teaming with wildlife so Palmer contracts are coveted. His leaving meant one of the winter-over operators came here a month early. She wanted to swap with me so she could work nights so I agreed. This means I've transitioned from working days to nights four times in almost a month. I can't complain since the swaps let me take this job and get to pole. I am a little tired right now, however. I have two days off coming up and I plan to take full advantage of them.
The biggest change on station is the arrival of liquid ocean. While I was at pole the first of two icebreakers came in to help clear a channel for our resupply ships. There is open water in the channel and one guy in the power plant saw whales in it this morning.
The first icebreaker is a Sweedish ship called the ODEN and the second to arrive is the U.S. Coast Guard POLAR SEA. The POLAR SEA is based out of seattle so they came with "good" coffee and some people from station stood in line after a quick tour of the ship to get a cup of Seattle's Best Coffee. (I still don't drink the stuff)
The highlight of last week was a tour of the engine room on the POLAR SEA. I managed to meet the AEO/chief engineering officer while I was aboard for the quick tour and arranged a tour for Matt the Mechanic (see link at the right) and me. The engine rooms are tight and there is a maze of passageways to climb down. I usually have a good sense of direction but I was lost pretty easily as we climbed up and down half flights of stairs and ladders onto metal gratings. At one point I realized I was standing on a solid floor and the officer told me we were standing on the keel fuel tank 25 feet below the water line.
Much like a diesel locomotive the POLAR SEA uses diesel engines to turn generators and make electricity. The electricity is then fed to electric motors that turn the giant stainless steel propellers and move the ship through the water. This set-up allows the diesels to run at their most efficient speed while the electric motors can more easily have their speed adjusted. When eight diesel locomotive engines don't have enough power the ship can switch to using gas turbines which are effectively jet engines to turn the propellers. These burn a lot more fuel but quadruple the power output of the ship, allowing it to push a 400' long hull of 3" thick steel on top of the ice. The weight of the ship then crushes the ice underneath it and opens a channel.
What I was most impressed by, though, was the equipment they had replaced. One of the electric motors needed replacing a few years ago. It is a in a 10 foot cube of a box that surrounds the propeller shaft. Since the propellers are at the bottom of the ship this 10 foot cube needed to be hoisted 7 stories out of the ship. Problem was, there was a ceiling 1 foot above it. Some contractors in port cut through 7 decks of the ship making holes in bedrooms, bathrooms and anything in the way to take that motor out. Once they had put the new motor in they welded everything back into place so there is only a small seam around the edge of what used to be a gaping hole. If I hadn't been told about it I never would have noticed. It's crazy to think how much effort goes into keeping the dozens or hundreds of aging ships the navy has running.
posted by Adam at 8:34 PM
2 Comments:
I was asking someone what they wanted to do next year (after they graduate) and they said, "I'd kind of like to work in Antarctica." She was wondering how you go about getting a position down there. Got any tips?
Good question Ben,
I decided to write my next post on it.
Adam
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