Milestone Passed! SubC Imaging and Intrepid Travel Teams Load Research Equipment on the Ocean Endeavour. Conduct Fit Tests in the Door.

 

Boxes of deep ocean research equipment are loaded on the Ocean Endeavour.

SubC Imaging has been hard at work for months to develop and test the technology that was just successfully loaded on to the vessel. The loading and measurement tests are an essential milestone that sets up the whole expedition to move forward. Due to some incredible time management and spreadsheet project planning by SubC the mount, cameras, red and white lights, tether, oceanographic winch, and crane have all been acquired and made it on time to be loaded on the vessel when the Ocean Endeavour is at port (for only a day) in St. Johns, Canada. Missing this crucial window would have meant potentially shipping the large oceanographic equipment to the bottom tip of Argentina from Canada and facing exorbitant costs and customs issues to make it there by December in time for the first expedition.

 

It’s all going to fit! Chad (left) and Brent (right) from SubC position a wooden mock-up of the crane to make sure the equipment will fit through the door and swing to extend away from the vessel.

 

Templates for the winch, crane and drop camera system were 1:1 scale printed on special paper, glued to wood sheets, and cut out with a jig saw. There was no time to put the actual equipment in place for the day, so this was the best way to ensure it would fit and visualize it in the space.

The SubC team developed measurement models and 3-D mock-ups for the last few weeks about how the crane and winch will be positioned in the door area, but it’s hard to truly tell this until you are on site, on the boat. In the spirit of ‘measure twice, cut once’ the SubC team created a wooden scale to simulate the size of the crane made out of 2x4’s and positioned it out of the door to make sure it will have enough clearance to deploy the camera system.

From Chad at SubC Imaging: “Because of the tight logistics of the day, there was no time to unpack the actual equipment and try it in situ. Our team had to prepare ahead of time and print and hand-make scale 1:1 templates of the equipment and test fit it in location. We had a number of good conversations with the Captain of the ship, the Chief Engineer, Chief Mate and Chief Electrician. Everything will fit and work!”

 

We will be deploying from a door on the first floor of the Ocean Endeavour. If you squint, you can see zodiacs and people messing around there.

Luckily the SubC Imaging headquarters is in Clarenville, only a couple hours drive from where the vessel was docked in St. John’s where the Ocean Endeavour stopped after conducting tours in the Arctic. Newfoundland, where all this took place, is an exciting global hub for ocean technology and research, which also happens to harbor arguably the world’s friendliest people.

The whole expedition was dependent on hitting this equipment loading deadline and making sure it will fit through the door and extend into the ocean. Two major breakthroughs that get us one step closer to successfully searching the depths of the Southern Ocean for a really big squid.

 

Intrepid Travel and SubC teams finally meet in person after a year of prep calls. You can tell from the smiles the day was successful.