Today our dredge yielded a disappointingly small amount of rocks; only three in fact. However, we are becoming more proficient at operating the dredge with minimal instrumentation, but with the assistance of the computer simulations. Though the simulations can not show the actual position of the dredge at all times, they can show how different variables alter the dredge’s position in the water. For instance, early in the morning the hydraulic fluid poured out of the winch, which caused a slight pause in its functionality, however it was evident that the ship could not stop to make the repair. Instead, since the wire hanging out of the dredge was longer than the depth of the water, stopping the ship would cause the dredge to not only hit the bottom, but may additionally cause the wire to coil, further entangling the dredge.

Running the computer simulation showed us that in terms of vertical distance, changing the ship’s speed by a tenth of a knot is equivalent to reeling in massive amounts of wire. This more easily enables us to make small corrections with the ship, which can happen more quickly than reeling in wire, especially when the winch has technical difficulties.

Despite our best efforts though, two of the weak links on the dredge gave way, and though the dredge was still connected by the other two, the severe re-shaping of the dredge by this deformity is perhaps what contributed to the slight number of rocks acquired. The down time, due to the few number of rocks, has allowed us some time to work on both simulations, and other computer aids to help in dredging, which is pretty fun to work on. All of the ship’s sensors are tied into the computers, so it is very easy to read all of the data, making the real challenge to come up with innovative and helpful ways to display all the information at hand.

Ryan Delaney onboard the R/V Kilo Moana.