The Boat's Last Upgrades

This week, or really the very end of last week, we got the BlueBoat back with her final upgrades. Our amazing colleague who has been outfitting the BlueBoat to make her research-ready retires in a few weeks and we asked for a few small additions and modifications before he enjoys retirement. Pictured here is the BlueBoat with her three new features: handles for easy retrieval and carrying, additional cable security and waterproofing, and side bumpers to protect the BlueBoat from scratches if she runs along the research vessel. Our colleague also added protection around the metal A-frame to prevent accidentally cuts, but the protection impeded the sensor housing so I had it removed. We also upgraded our computer and purchased a Rough Book to make field work more convenient. Previously, I had been using my work laptop in the field and while we didn't have any major problems, our Rough Book is more weather and splash resistant than my work computer. These upgrades will come in handy as I set out in the field next week for our June water quality sampling trip and then I will bring the field laptop when I cruise on a multi-day expedition a few weeks later. More on that multi-day cruise in a later blog.

One item that we couldn't upgrade due to timing and slightly due to the availability of materials is the long cable you can see on top of the BlueBoat wrapped around the extension cord reel. This cable connects to the power box inside the protective gray case, which gets power from an onboard battery and provides power to the nitrate sensor that we mount on the stern of the BlueBoat. However, this cable is 25 meters long (82-ish feet), so it takes up a lot of room on top of the mounting platform. I had hoped that we could find a way to store the cable in one of the pontoons but the challenge is that the cable would have to enter AND exit the pontoon through two different waterproof entry/exit points. I found two options but neither were large enough to fit the cable and I don't feel comfortable drilling holes into this vessel to create a workaround. There are companies that sell the cable we use in smaller sizes so we could perhaps purchase a smaller cable and solve the challenge of having excess cable on the BlueBoat.

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