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21 April

As we were nearing the end of Line 9N this evening, we had a near disaster, the outcome of which is still in doubt. At 1924 (7:24pm), we were tooling along, within 200 m of the end of line, with 8,924 m of cable out. Twenty minutes later, we were just about to call the turn when Bill (who was on the winch) realized he had no control over the winch. Jay immediately leapt up and headed for the aft deck. When he reached the vicinity of the winch, he saw hydraulic fluid spewing from a broken hose. His first thought was to secure the diesel. With no pressure, the cable started to pay out and the drum started spinning, faster and faster! Jay ran to the side where the brake is (we could see him on the deck camera), as the drum continued spinning. According to those in the vicinity, it was screaming like crazy. Jay kept cranking on the brake, standing right next to the spinning drum.

Meanwhile, the vehicle settled to the bottom in 30 seconds, coming to rest at 1955. It was dragged a bit, and turned to starboard, but Tom D had the ship stop. The weight of the cable pulled us backwards at 3 knots as it settled to the bottom. Tom and I watched the monitor as the drum continued spinning, apparently out of control. I looked at Tom, and said, "We've lost it, haven't we?" He didn't comment.

All of a sudden, the drum stopped spinning as Jay got the brake engaged! The winch brake is supposed to do this automatically, but the "fail safe" brake failed.

Tom worked to manage the ship to slowly drift backwards and lay the cable down in front of the vehicle. The vehicle is holding steady on the bottom, not being dragged any further. So, things were stable. For the moment.

After that, we discussed the last resort of cutting loose the cable and dropping everything on the bottom for future recovery. The trick is still to do it safely. Mel and his engineers are helping prepare acetylene torches and a plan for safe release of the tons of cable dangling below us. We have not despaired of retrieving the system, however. There is some promise that the second hydraulic motor was not severely damaged, and could work if cleaned up and rebuilt.

The damaged motor before being rebuilt.

22 April - Night of Heroes

0620 - Over the course of the night, Rod-io and Jeff worked to rebuild the aft hydraulic motor, our remaining hope of getting the system off the bottom of the ocean. They tinkered with it for a couple of hours, comparing it to the other (destroyed) one, and cleaned it meticulously. A radio engineer and a RENAV analyst rebuilding a hydraulic motor! Rod insisted it could be done, drawing on his experience on the farm in Kansas as a kid. Mel helped, but he gave it a 10% chance of working. I gave it less than 50-50.

Rod and Jeff rebuilding the damaged motor.

Shawn, et al., installed it. Now it was time to haul in, and Shawn carefully began to draw back on the stick, using local control. The winch responded, and the drum began to turn! Slowly, but quick enough at 1/4 speed (15 m/minute), the system began to haul in. Five tons of steel began to inch off the bottom. The counter showed 8,783 m out, although we knew this was low by about 150 m. Hauling in started at 8,930 m, so we were already making progress. After a few minutes, with everything going as smoothly as could be expected, Shawn increased to 21 m/minute, 1/3 the maximum speed we get with the diesel.

The crew working on the winch.

0819 - 5,000 m at 35 m/minute. NOMAD coming up. The ship is turning into the sea, tired of being dragged slowly backwards! Every meter increases the chances that we'll get the system to the surface. The HPU and hydraulic motors are doing great!

1017 - 570 m, at 55 m/minute pay in. Time to go to the railing to watch recovery, I hope.

Tom and I stood on the 3rd deck and observed the proceedings. It was a nice, sunny day, with calm seas and beautiful sky. Some birds flew by. Tom Bethge was in charge on deck, and was watching anxiously for the vehicle. When he saw it and signaled, I felt like we were going to make it.

After a few moments, we saw NOMAD break the surface! A cloud of muddy water washed off its skids as the water splashed over them. We were running the on-board K-990 camera, looking forward, and we later watched the recording. You could see the bottom of the ship loom at the top of the field of view, then the propellers swishing the water, then breaking through to the sunlight above. You could read DAVIDSON - SITKA, AK on the stern as it rose out of the water, then a figure appeared - Tom Bethge! In the background you could see the rest of the crew on the aft deck and even Tom and I up top!

NOMAD being brought aboard

On deck, we watched as the hookers snagged the vehicle, and Shawn winched it up. Sue drew back the A-frame, and in a moment it was on deck! We all started cheering and clapping, and the ship gave a blast of its whistle! What a moment! Almost a million dollars of equipment snatched from the deep!

We all shook hands and congratulated one another. A solid night of hard work by a determined group of people. Like Debbi Lang's quote, they never quit. They are champions!