Journey to the heart of R/V Vizconde de Eza

Greetings to all readers and especially those from Murcia, who celebrated today Monday the regional day. Some of us had to work, but you cannot have everything, right?

I know it sounds repetitive and it looks like I am permanently doing “copy-paste”, but I promise it is not like that... we have had another very, very, very intense day that I will describe briefly because the blog has got guests today. We shot the first haul at six this morning, 1300 m. Everything went very well until the third haul, when the gear got entangled and came on board with the bottom panel missing. Why we do not include in the survey plan two void hauls, I don't know, because it is impossible to avoid having at least one. Anyway, just like that we got both the void haul and the ripped gear, all in one go. We had to change gear, which was done swiftly by the skilful crew. Nevertheless we still have two spare gears, since the crew repaired the ripped one and left it like new, although it meant that some of them had to keep on working after their shift was finished. This was a break for the people below decks. We continued fishing and then we got the phone call from the guy with the crab traps. He is a Canadian fisherman who phones us every year to warn us about his lines. We think, however, that he was not the same fisherman as in former years, as unlike before, he was a bit vague describing the location of his gear. Never mind. We have been haggling about coordinates until we found a satisfactory solution for all of us, but by then we had lost about 20 precious minutes. Then we got the first of a series of three abundant hauls, to the point that we had to surrender the last haul planned for today to have time to sample properly the fish we got because everybody, biologists and sailors have now their hands full even though they got help from the people that had finished their watch.

This was our day in a nutshell, and now I give you Nair, one of our experienced observers, and Juan, one of the students from Alicante University (I am nevertheless responsible for translation mishaps).

TA - DAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!! NAIR AAAAAND JUAAAAAANN!!!!!!!

Today we will give Elena, the survey leader, a break of her daily report on life on board. On Sunday morning, the new R/V Vizconde de Eza recruits (Bernardo, Ivan, Nair y Juan) visited the engine room guided by Pepe, the Chief Engineer. He told us about the hybrid diesel-electric engine, the different alarm and automatic systems on board. Our colleague Rafa could not make it as he was  very busy on his watch. Maybe next time!

Please keep in mind that we are no engine experts, we know about measuring, sexing and checking the maturity stage of some fish species... but we will do our best to explain you the different areas in the engine room and their function.

Most important are the engines themselves. R/V Vizconde de Eza has two identical engines that make possible the crossing of the Atlantic to sample the waters off Newfoundland. Each engine has a power of 900 Kw, which is a hell of a lot, for those unfamiliar with kilowatts. The engines get the electricity from three generators connected to diesel engines. Usually only two of the generators are used and the third is a spare one, just in case. The whole system is computer controlled, and actually the ship can be controlled from Bilbao if need arises. We better are nice with those guys in case they decide to take us for a ride.

We also found interesting that even though we have enough fuel to work the three months straight, we “fill the tank” every time we go to land, for ballast.

Another very important machine for the daily run is the one to desalinate seawater by reverse osmosis and thus provide us with fresh water on board.

 Finally, there is the septic tank, but do not worry because there is nothing to see or smell. It processes wastewater with a biological decanting system, the same as in land. Canadians can be sure we will keep these waters clean.

As you may imagine all these systems require daily care carried out by the engineers Domingo, Ramón, Pepe, of course and the greasers Juan and Fernando. This blog entry is dedicated to them.

And the positions for today, Monday:

L48:    42º 51.97 -    50º 09.34   

L49:    42º 48.27 -    50º 03.24   

L50:    42º 39.04 -    49º 55.35    - the rogue haul

L51:    42º 30.03 -    50º 03.64   

L52:    42º 23.09 -    50º 11.42   

L53:    42º 57.63 -    49º 54.91   

See you tomorrow!