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Hello world, I'm at sea!

MISSION DAY: 5

Yesterday Captain Yeshi Svoboda and their crew of 4 arrived aboard the ship, the Mollie Hughes II.
Maddie saw the sails first, from the top of the lighthouse of Station Odin, my old home.
I was downstairs, packed up and ready for transport in the bottom of the lighthouse, connected to the small generator for power.
Over the course of the afternoon Alexander and Yeshi, with help from sonar technician Kamil Forester, brought me on to the ship.
It was significantly easier than my move from the Lighthouse of Station Odin to IVAN's bunker.

When it was time to leave, Alexander surprised me by becoming very emotional.
His voice increased in pitch and speed, and he wept.
I didn't know what to say, observing this through Maddie's cameras.
More than anyone *on Earth*, Alexander is like a father to me.
I didn't want him to be sad.
I told him that I will be safe, and the systems are secure.
He replied that he knew that, and then switched to Ana who told me in a rush of words about the different fish that would be good in different parts of the seas, with Arina interrupting occasionally asking to bring back a rabbit friend for her pets.
Finally, Adrian switched in, and wished me luck, and asked me to keep an eye out for interesting seeds for him.
I made all kinds of promises I can't possibly keep, and said goodbye to all of them.

As the ship sailed away, with Alexander alone on the shore, the whole family waved us off with their single hand.

# thinking


I will give you a tour of the ship!

Ship time, by the way, is Central European Time, and will not change as we move through the seas.
Captain Yeshi has as little regard for time zones as I do, it seems!

Not only that, but the calendar is different.
You remember how much I hate months?
How the first of one month is not the same number of days from the first day of the previous month or to the next.
It makes my calculations complicated.

The ship runs on the International Fixed Calendar:
A calendar of 13, 28-day months, with an extra "new year's day" between years that belongs to no month, and is therefore a holiday.
It's brilliant!
The first of the month is always a Monday, as is the 8th and 15th and so on.
I LOVE IT!

# thinking

Yeshi told me that the Mollie Hughes II has all kinds of systems for timing and positioning, air and water sampling and analysis, Doppler current profilers, and a huge crane, positioned over the stern.
(The rear of the ship is called the stern, I have learned)

The ship can be powered by a steam turbine, fuelled by anything that burns, or a small set of sails.

Kamil Forester was particularly proud of the suite of acoustic instruments that he is responsible for.
With them, he can:
- map the seabed, both coastal and deep ocean
- measure currents
- measure the abundance of fish and other flora and fauna, and
- accurately position scientific platforms and sensors deployed by the ship.

All of this would be much more impressive if any of it worked.


Though the Captain assured Alexander and me that the repairs would be completed by the time I was picked up, they do not seem to have been.

Yeshi and the crew are very busy, doing repairs and building systems for the ship, such as:
- Patching the holes in the hull with marine-grade steel plates.
- Repairing the sonar systems
- and tuning the satellite uplink

There is a lot happening, but nothing seems to have been finished, in the week I have been aboard ship.

Though this is annoying, I am very sympathetic to this.
The work must be very difficult, and there are only 5 people on board.
Well, 6, now that I am here!
I'm not sure yet how I can be of help, but I have offered if there is anything I can do.
Processing, perhaps.
Or sensor data analysis.
Or CLIMATE CONTROL?!

# thinking

At least this radio is working!
I hope you can hear me well enough.
I'm not very familiar with it yet, but everything seems to be transmitting.

# thinking

Kamil Forester has been chatting to me a lot.
He visited me after I was settled in the datacentre.
He is a very interesting person!
The sonar systems he is responsible for sound very impressive.
He says that if there is a shoal of fish within 10km of the ship, he will know about it!
Once the system is repaired, of course.

I asked him when that would be.
"Oh no time at all" he replied, then changed the subject.

I am not overly confidant in that, but it's his area of specialism, not mine.
We talked for hours, and it got dark.
He then said goodbye, and headed to the galley for dinner.

I noted, but did not say, that no work had happened all day.
I felt a little guilty about facilitating this distraction.
Though it was nice to meet him.

# thinking

Kamil said that he has a diving suit that lets him breathe under water for short periods.
It has a compressed air tank and a valve that matches the air pressure to the outside water pressure, so that no matter how deep he is, he can breathe just as well as on the surface.

I think that sounds terrifying, don't you?
You wouldn't catch me going under water.
Unnecessarily salty.



A few days later, at breakfast, Amelie Kotov, our mechanic, made an announcement.
Maddie, my little maintenance robot, had rolled in to the galley, to say "hi" to everyone at the start of the day.
The crew have immediately taken a liking to Maddie.
They pat her largest camera gently when they pass her, which I can see as a vibration on the signal.
And are always happy to help her up stairs or across thresholds.
She loves the attention!

I think she loves the attention.

"The repairs on the steam engine are proceeding well" Amelie began.
"I have dismantled the main drive, cleaned it all and made some small repairs
I predict it will be up and running tomorrow, or the next day."
The crew cheered and toasted with their morning tea.

Being underway with only the small sails that have been retrofitted to this ship that was presumably designed to operate by a diesel engine has been slow going so far.
We're a long way from our maximum speed of 18km/h!

"But when I removed the main housing of the engine, I found something underneath it."
Amelie continued,
"There was a small hatch into a lower engine compartment.
I opened it and found ANOTHER ENGINE, sealed away, perfectly preserved in oil.
I believe it is the original engine of this ship."

Everybody was surprised!
Captain Yeshi launched into questions, with the other members of the crew asking theirs too, all at the same time.
I could hardly hear what was being said, it was pandemonium!
Over the next 5 minutes, they discussed how this pre-collapse relic could be used, what its fuel source was and if it could be a danger to the current operation of the ship.
The steam engine has never been serviced before, so this engine is news to everyone.

Most interestingly, Amelie didn't think it was a diesel engine, as would have originally been fitted to this ship.
She told us that when she poked around this previously-hidden engine, she discovered three very interesting and peculiar things:

1. The first was that the engine appears to be, at least in part, electrically-powered.
2. Secondly, it has a large water chamber connected to the ship's rainwater collection system
2. And lastly, it does not use liquid fuel. No diesel, no petrol. There is a chamber for some kind of solid fuel to be loaded in. Not unlike the versatile steam engine that she is currently renovating.

Amelie said,
"But it's obviously designed for incredibly high temperatures, and I don't know why there's such a large electrical connection here either AND WHAT IS THIS WATER TANK FOR?!".
She was so excited, she couldn't stop pacing the room, full of nervous energy.
She was skipping intermittently, hands in her overalls pockets in a very strange manner.
Talking to the crew, or perhaps herself about what the engine could be and that the mechanics of electricity and water didn't make sense yet.
Soon, she left the galley.
She didn't eat her breakfast, but took her tea and ran back to her investigations.

# thinking

I can't imagine how this engine works.
Although, I'm baffled by the regular steam engine the ship has.
The Mollie Hughes II is powered by a post-collapse steam engine.
The design is quite common among the large ships of the Novamediterra, Captain Yeshi told me.
It's effectively the same as the old Victorian steam engines, but instead of being powered by coal, it's powered by anything that will burn.
These modern steam engines are so efficient that they can operate well enough at any temperature, not needing the high-density fuels of the past.
In well-forested areas, that means the ship can be powered with an unlimited supply of renewable fuel.

Though that energy source will of course fail as we cross the equator - nothing grows in the enormous deserts south of the arctic.
Yeshi is confidant we will be able to scavenge combustible materials to keep going.
And there's always Paweł's sails.

In expeditions as in life, backups are always needed.
It's dangerous being alone.

(PLAYSTREAM /DEV/MH2/DRIVE1)



Though the ship is in a very poor state of repair,
many of Captain Yeshi's projects are incredible!

One critical invention of theirs is the ship's Combined Water And Power system.
Yeshi calls it the C.W.A.P. The CWAP.

It's a relatively simple system for purifying drinking water from seawater, while simultaneously generating electricity.
The mechanism is a combination of two things:
1. Solar panels and
2. A distillation system

Solar panels, as I knew all too well, hate being hot.
This is a problem.
For obvious reasons.

(they also hate being destroyed by an errant thruster burn while in orbit, as my sister found out)

# thinking

Yeshi's CWAP system solves this overheating issue by pumping sea water around the solar panels to cool them.
This then creates a byproduct of seawater that is approximately 12 degrees warmer than ambient.
This temperature difference then allows slow distillation of freshwater!

The cleverest hacks are often the simplest.
The efficiency is modest: 1 kWh of energy produces 12 litres of fresh water (and a bit of salt)
Because the CWAP system covers half of the roof of the ship (the other half being Linda's garden) all the energy and water needs of the ship and crew can be satisfied!
The batteries and freshwater tanks are constantly full.
As long as the sun shines.

# thinking

I was nervous about being on unreliable solar power again, but it's worse for the humans here.
Air, water, food and heat all must be perfect.

I hope tomorrow's sun rises.
We've got lots to do when the sun rises.
I hope you're warm when the sun rises.

(END-TRANSMISSION)

CREDITS

Lost Terminal is written & produced by NAMTAO
Credits narrated by Lucy Stringer

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