Lil Sinker, the snow and the apocalypse

Isa Rosso

Photo: Rakesh Rao
Posing with Lil Sinker before its deployment. From left: Anoop (co-chief), me, Nivas (seaman) and Zoe (doctor) 

January 22, 2018

Anoop proudly poses with Lil Sinker, wondering if it will rocket up to the sky.. I point out that it will actually sinks.

Let’s start with something good and exciting: Lil Sinker, aka Apex #12781 was deployed yesterday night (January 21, 2018 at 18:59 UTC) under the snow and with big swell, at 56° 58.83' S, 57° 39.08' E!!

Deploying Lil Sinker
(white stripes are snow blown by the strong wind)

The float was adopted by Cheryl’s class at Frenship High School. Thinking about the float’s cycle, which is all about sinking, drifting, sinking again and resurfacing, the class picked the name Lil Sinker. The float, indeed, after its deployment, is programmed to sink to a depth of 1000 m, where it drifts with the ocean currents for 10 days (who knows what it sees down there!? What would sharks and whales think when they see it? 😲 ). 

Then, it sinks again to a depth of 2000 m, after which it comes back up acquiring and storing data. Once at the surface, it sends the data using Iridium Satellite and GPS. The cool thing is that everybody can see and use this data, and who knows what we can find! 😉 Just check for the float #12781 at the SOCCOM website and visualize its data. The deployment of Lil Sinker, apart from being freezing cold under the strong wind and snow, went very well.

“Everything will be fine, Lil Sinker!”

The days before the deployment... not so.

Wind direction and magnitude in the south Indian Ocean

It all started on the night of January 18, with a wind gust of 97 kn (although now there is a debate between ship crew and scientists about the reality of this value). After which, a constant 40 kn wind managed to make the ocean wild and furious. The roll was almost with no control. At midnight, staying in bed became a challenge. At 3am, completely impossible. Things were dangerously flying around the cabin. I got hit multiple times by the phone that flew from the desk to my bed. The guitar case was heavily hitting the bunk bed and the wall. In the cabin of my friend Zoe, the portable AC laying on her couch flew directly on top of her bed, passing over the table between the bed and the couch (thank god she didn’t get hurt!!). 

At 3am we were all up, trying to keep enough balance to not fall and hurt ourselves. We ``ran’’ to the helicopter hangar, where the disaster was at its most intensity: the ship’s tilts were so intense that nothing was secured to the deck anymore. All the boxes, crates, bottles with samples and chemicals, the boxes with our floats, chairs, glasses, tables...all went crashing to each other, rolling back and forth, like a dense and unstoppable wave. Some of us wanted to jump in the massive washing machine that the hanger turned into, but we had to stop to avoid serious injuries. And when we lost the 2 engines, there was no control whatsoever. The ship turned, with the side against the violent and huge waves. 

The washing machine effect in the hanger

No tap water was available. And even though the galley was a disaster too, the incredible kitchen staff and stewards managed to prepare something to eat anyway. They are our angels, seriously! 😇 In the afternoon, I was so exhausted from the lack of sleep and the constant motion of the ship’s rolling, that I tried to go to bed again. But despite the tiredness, the direction of the roll made it impossible to sleep in my bunk bed: the floor of the lounge made for a better bed, and I managed to get some sleep.

We had a maximum tilt of 40 degrees. At 50 degrees, the ship does not come back up. I have to admit that Zoe and I were planning what to bring with us to the lifeboat! 😮 

Late at night, we got the engines back on (thanks to the hard work of engineers and crew!!!), and we could flee from the messy ocean state. Some of us managed to access the hangar and start cleaning up, enough to secure things down again. We cleaned for 4 hours at night, exhausted from the lack of sleep. In the morning I was in the hangar again, together with the cadets, to finish cleaning and securing everything properly. None of my samples got broken, thanks to the wonderful protection that the sample boxes offer, and by a visual inspection of the floats, none of them looked damaged. I’m now holding my breath to see the first profile of Lil Sinker, hoping that everything will look great!

After all the cleaning, I also helped my friend Zoe the doctor with some delicate medical procedure for a patient, which, despite the difficulty, went very well! Woohoo!! There’s always a lot that you can learn at sea!!

We are in some better conditions now, but definitely the phone in my room hasn’t stopped to try to knock me down at night! And the rolling is always so strong that I can barely sleep 4 hours per night.

But, what can I say? The energy that I feel here, from the power of the waves, and the whips from the wind, makes me feel alive. I LOVE THE SOUTHERN OCEAN!!!

January 23rd - Update

Lil Sinker has reported its first profile back; all the sensors are operating well!!! EUREKA!!!