|

|

|
|
Preparing ROPOS for the test run.
|
In the Juan de Fuca Strait
by Peter Tyson
June 27, 1998
"Full speed ahead."
"Roger."
"Come up to surface."
"Comin' up."
Keith Shepherd,
leaning over the stern rail in his tan, vigorously stained
jumpsuit, is sending commands through his walkie-talkie to his
counterpart, Keith Tamburri, up in the control room. So as not
to confuse things, the latter Keith, a barrel of a man, is
known as "Big Keith." Indeed, he looks like he could lift
ROPOS all by himself and place it in the water.
Which is where it is right now, courtesy of the Thompson's
fantail crane. After five days of round-the-clock work to get
ROPOS back together, Shepherd and his team are now giving it a
test run. We're in the middle of the Juan de Fuca Strait, with
Vancouver Island to the north, the Olympic Peninsula to the
south. The dome of blue sky overhead is clear, but pillowy
clouds still hug the horizon all around us, like the last
tenacious tufts on a bald head. The warm sun and cool breeze
are in perfect balance, and the sea is all but dead calm.
Into the water for the test run.
|
|
To the east, I can see a tanker beating towards Seattle, which
we finally left last night about 8 p.m. ROPOS was not yet up
and running, but with the Thompson costing $18,000 a day,
John Delaney
felt "the tock clicking," as he put it wth a smile, and
thought it prudent to be underway. All hands stood on deck as
we passed through the Crittenden Locks ("Serving Seattle since
July 4, 1917"). The wind bit right through several layers, but
many stayed topside until well after twilight.
Since then, we've had several prep meetings in the ship's
library. Captain Gray Drewry gave a safety briefing. Mike
Grogan, his technical guru, told us how to set up e-mail
accounts and warned us not to be wordy: each kilobyte of data
costs $.50 to send via satellite to shore.
Ed Mathez
described how the black smoker chimney to be pulled up from
the seafloor and slated for the museum would fit, conceptually
and physically, into the planned Hall of the Planet Earth.
Finally, late this morning, chief engineer
Le Olson
used hand-scrawled drawings to run through his plan for
snaring the chimneys. ("My wife is still speaking to
me—barely," he said, after explaining how he coerced her
into helping him lay the 8,000-foot line in the line
basket.)
Despite such efforts to divert our attention, all eyes have
been on ROPOS today. I slip up to the control van—as the
control room is known—to watch Big Keith in action. He
sits before a large console. There are radar and navigational
screens, and a computer monitor giving the lowdown on ROPOS in
real-time: depth, pitch, roll, attitude, and so on. Two
screens show the view from ROPOS' two video cameras (cloudy
water, with a glimmering sea surface overhead). Three others
collectively supply complete video coverage of the fantail,
where Shepherd now stands, finishing up the test.
"Okay, come slow ahead."
"Slow ahead," replies Big Keith.
"Lateral to port."
"Lateral to port."
"Full stop," says Shepherd. "Power down."
Peter Tyson is Online Producer of NOVA.
The Tug of the Thompson (June 23)
The ROPOS Guys (June 25)
In the Juan de Fuca Strait (June 27)
Special Report: A Visit To Atlantis (June 29)
Dive 440 (July 1)
Rescue at Sea (July 2)
What's Your Position? (July 4)
Phang! (July 5)
20,000 Pounds of Tension (July 8)
Four for Four (July 11)
Thrown Overboard (July 13)
Was Grandma a Hyperthermophile? (July 15)
Swing of the Yo-Yo (July 18)
The Mission |
Life in the Abyss |
The Last Frontier |
Dispatches
E-mail |
Resources |
Table of Contents
|
Abyss Home
Editor's Picks
|
Previous Sites
|
Join Us/E-mail
|
TV/Web Schedule
About NOVA |
Teachers |
Site Map |
Shop |
Jobs |
Search |
To print
PBS Online |
NOVA Online |
WGBH
©
| Updated October 2000
|
|
|