Middle Valley TRF Installed
Middle valley TRF installation is now completed, as both the Lodbrog
and the Atlantis steam toward Victoria to retrieve the next node and TRF, slated for Barkley Canyon. The Lodbrog's ETA in Victoria is 1300 UTC on 10-July.
Problems with positioning equipment
During placement, it is critically important for Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks to accurately locate ROPOS as it waits on the seafloor. During this install, however, there were troubles with the combined subsea positioning systems.
Thus, it's necessary to repair these systems and the Atlantis is returning to Victoria with the Lodbrog for this purpose. ETA for Atlantis at Victoria Pilot is 1200 UTC on 10-July. The ROPOS team is working hard to arrange for spares, service techs, customs, equipment transport etc.
This Victoria port call will be extended to (a minimum of) 48 hours while the Lodbrog engineers do some fault finding on the hydraulic system for the steering gear. These two maintenance tasks will likely set back the installation of the Barkley Canyon node by 2-3 days, with lowering likely to occur on Wednesday, 15-July.
Photos from TRF deployment in Middle Valley |
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An octopos eyes ROPOS eyeing it during survey work in Middle Valley.
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This fish kept an eye on ROPOS for several hours as it waited on the bottom (2500m) during the descent of the TRF.
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The view on a reference monitor after the Middle Valley TRF touched down on the seafloor.
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(Click the images to enlarge them.)