Rescuing Sea Birds

 We have had many recurring visitors in the submersible hangar. These visitors have all been small, dark feathered birds with webbed feet. Just the other day I was informed that there was one stuck in the hangar and injured, so I put on some gloves and went over to where the bird was located. After carefully removing some metal poles that were keeping the bird's right wing stuck, I gently cupped it in my hands and brought it out on deck and placed it into a milk crate. It looked visibly healthy, only shaken up a bit from being stuck. After about fifteen minutes I placed it on deck, and not long after it flew away. I kept my eyes on it for as long as I could see it to gauge it's health in the air, and it looked good as new. I discovered based on some research and image matching that the most likely species of this bird is the Sooty Shearwater. This is a sea bird which travels long distances over the ocean, and lives out here. Not all birds need land to live, however there are some instances where land birds will live on the ship while in port and get stuck on the ship after we leave port. I haven't seen any of these land birds, and I am glad for that. The day after saving this bird, we found another one in the hangar. I followed the same procedure. Five minutes after I placed the bird in the milk crate it flew back into the hangar, bumped into my coworker, then into my head, and then flew out the side of the hangar. Since that occurrence we have found one or two each night for the last 3 days. I know that there are nests of sea birds near the bow, so I think that is where they are coming from. Good news is that this species is independent once fledged.

We had our first delayed dive this morning. One of the battery cables which alerts of a leak in the starboard battery was not giving a satisfactory continuity reading. What is difficult about this problem is that in order to replace the cable, the main j-box has to be drained. A major component of working on Alvin is pressure compensation. Air is very compressable creating implodable volumes, but replacing the air volume with oil significantly reduces the compressability. So underwater these boxes do not get caved in and implode There are many "j-boxes' compensated with different types of oils. The main j-box is filled with about 8 gallons of a mineral oil. The box is drained and filled through a small hole so it takes a long time. I worked on draining it and removing the cover so that the electronic technicians could access the cable. After their replacement and successful testing I had to put it back together and refill it. Connected to the box are large tubes with wires which run into the sphere through what are called penetrators. These are very important because they penetrate the sphere supplying the electronics that run the controls and sensors. A sphere is one of the most efficient shapes at withstanding high pressure. When you take a piece out of the sphere to run wires into it, you are creating an area that is less efficient at withstanding pressure. It is extremely important that the air is chased out of these tubes to prevent compression issues underwater. Overall this process delayed the dive time by two hours and it took the efforts of everyone on the ops team to take care of it. A normal morning turned stressful just like that, but I enjoyed it. 

We are scheduled to get into San Diego the morning of the 19th, and I found out a couple days ago that I am staying on for the next trip which runs all of April. I am stoked to be able to continue this learning opportunity. I wouldn't complain if it lead to a job, but we'll see what happens.