Well we made it to
Freeport to meet up with the
Acadiana. All was good except for the mounting plate for our
multibeam system, there was no power, debris everywhere, missing cables for the multitude of screens we had for viewing all the instrumentation we had and the
mosquitoes were larger than herons. We fixed
everything before departing the next morning to
Galveston through the
intracoastal waterway. The mounting plate issue was the real problem. We are lucky that
Freeport is an industrial town. Found a welding mecca that is open 24/7/365 for the lovely chemical processor
Dupont. They did a quick welding job for us and we were glad to front them some beer money for their efforts. After departing
Freeport early with no navigation within the channels, which meant cruising after dark was a big no no. We saw quite a bit of damage from afar on the west side of Galveston but pictures were no help. When we got to the I-45 bridge at 0930 the railroad bridge was down and had a tow boat waiting on the other side. We radioed the bridge and found out they were not going to open the bridge until noon. Well that sucks. So we were in the process of
tieing up next to the bridge when they decided to open it. Guess the workers needed a break. We got through but about 10 minutes later we felt a strange vibration and then the
steering went out. Turns out we lost a wheel. That is a
propeller to you landlubbers. Broke the shaft and struck the rudder which took out the
steering. The captain had to take a swim to verify all this. We were able to fix the steering as a hose came loose on the hydraulics, but it made an awful racket for the rest of the trip. We limped around on one engine the rest of the trip which was cut very short of the original 8 days we were suppose to be out. Only 2 days of data and we stayed inside the inlet (Bolivar). Our goal was to get out on the Gulf side but it was way to rough to risk it on one engine. We did get some nice data for the time we were there, but it was that strange feeling of Katrina all over again. As we departed Galveston seeing all the workers lining up to clean. It really wasn't too bad but there were some historical losses. Not sure of the casualty count but I don't think the authorities really want that number to come out. Eiree feelings all around as we were trying to do science and not helping with more pressing issues. I hope they can recover as soon as they can, but they should know now that the seawall there isn't as safe as they think it is. Just like the levees back home.
Well we made it to Freeport to meet up with the Acadiana. All was good except for the mounting plate for our multibeam system, there was no power, debris everywhere, missing cables for the multitude of screens we had for viewing all the instrumentation we had and the mosquitoes were larger than herons. We fixed everything before departing the next morning to Galveston through the intracoastal waterway. The mounting plate issue was the real problem. We are lucky that Freeport is an industrial town. Found a welding mecca that is open 24/7/365 for the lovely chemical processor Dupont. They did a quick welding job for us and we were glad to front them some beer money for their efforts. After departing Freeport early with no navigation within the channels, which meant cruising after dark was a big no no. We saw quite a bit of damage from afar on the west side of Galveston but pictures were no help. When we got to the I-45 bridge at 0930 the railroad bridge was down and had a tow boat waiting on the other side. We radioed the bridge and found out they were not going to open the bridge until noon. Well that sucks. So we were in the process of tieing up next to the bridge when they decided to open it. Guess the workers needed a break. We got through but about 10 minutes later we felt a strange vibration and then the steering went out. Turns out we lost a wheel. That is a propeller to you landlubbers. Broke the shaft and struck the rudder which took out the steering. The captain had to take a swim to verify all this. We were able to fix the steering as a hose came loose on the hydraulics, but it made an awful racket for the rest of the trip. We limped around on one engine the rest of the trip which was cut very short of the original 8 days we were suppose to be out. Only 2 days of data and we stayed inside the inlet (Bolivar). Our goal was to get out on the Gulf side but it was way to rough to risk it on one engine. We did get some nice data for the time we were there, but it was that strange feeling of Katrina all over again. As we departed Galveston seeing all the workers lining up to clean. It really wasn't too bad but there were some historical losses. Not sure of the casualty count but I don't think the authorities really want that number to come out. Eiree feelings all around as we were trying to do science and not helping with more pressing issues. I hope they can recover as soon as they can, but they should know now that the seawall there isn't as safe as they think it is. Just like the levees back home.
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