All in a weeks work for our First Mate Jake!
Silurian is not just a research vessel, she’s home to the hundreds of volunteers who join us each year and doubles up as a floating classroom, welcoming on board school children to be inspired by their local marine environment. Our First Mate Jake has recently spent some time giving our hardworking vessel some TLC.
Silurian has been at sea for 152 days and hosting 247 volunteers so far this year, with two more research expeditions to go until the summer field season ends in mid-October. She works hard in challenging conditions off the west coast of Scotland - it’s a full time job keeping all equipment on board up to scratch and working smoothly.
Jake has been busy replacing the much loved oven this week. The galley is often thought of as the heart of any vessel and as many of you know Silurian’s oven, is crucial to be able to churn out cakes, haggis, neaps and taties, and all manner of exotic dishes our volunteers rustle up in the evenings. Cooking on a boat does come with challenges, its quite normal to have a lopsided cake for instance, but they do always taste great as we sit around the saloon when the anchor is down and talk through our day of cetaceans and salty smiles. The new oven is in place and will ensure that plenty more cakes and delicious meals are fuelling our volunteers in the future.
With all the science equipment, computers and hydrophone onboard, Silurian needs plenty of power to keep the equipment running, data collecting and our Fieldwork Manager happy. The alternator fits to the engine and produces this electric power. These are quite complicated parts of the engine that have to work well to be able to operate. Luckily Silurian has a spare and we have been able to get our primary alternator serviced, make sure it’s working well and producing enough power for our systems on board.
As a sailing boat, when possible we use the wind to sail Silurian around the west coast of Scotland. With the engine off our volunteers love the experience of sailing, listening to the rush of water under the keel and hearing more through the hydrophones. When sailing however, we are not producing power through the alternator, and so Silurian also has a generator to produce electricity. Volunteers will know we tend to use this during breakfast to run the toaster and to keep the freezer and our provisions cold. The generator is essential for us to spend up to 12 days being self sufficient at sea. Jake has given the generator a good overhaul and service to make sure it’s working as well as it can be.
Another engine on Jake’s list was the outboard, we have both a petrol and a purely electric outboard. The outboard engine powers the dingy, taking volunteers ashore to explore at remote anchorages during an expedition. It is great having two different engines we can use, the petrol is more powerful and is better suited to certain conditions, where the electric is completely silent and the more environmentally friendly option.
As well as engines, and ovens, Jake has also been resealing some of the hatches onboard. Getting plenty of salty waves over the deck is a normal occurrence. With 10 warm cosy bunks to keep dry, making sure the hatches don’t leak is an important job! Salt water can be quite corrosive, and the sealant used for hatches degrades over time. Jake took the glass out of the hatch, scrapped off all the old sealant, cleaned and prepped the glass and hatch, before re-applying some fresh sealant.
All of these jobs were completed by Jake in a couple of days between trips. It’s really important that we factor in some maintenance time during the field season so that we can keep on top of these jobs and keep Silurian running. There are plenty of bigger jobs to do and these wait until the winter and are fitted between our winter surveys. This year will be looking to lift Silurian out of the water and apply a layer of coppercoat to the underwater side of her hull. This will help stop growth of algae on the hull, and keep her efficient at sailing, reduce drag and noise on the hydrophone. This is just one of a long list of winter maintenance jobs. Silurian wouldn’t run without the hard work of our volunteers and amazing crew.
If you have some time over the winter and some maintenance skills, and want to get involved with a painting, varnishing and plenty of other fun jobs to keep Silurian going, then we are always looking for volunteers to help our boat team. Just get in touch with Charlie outlining any relevant experience.