Leighton is one of those people on board who is always on watch. He is one of the technicians working for NERC. His tasks are to take care of the whole computer network on board and make sure that every ship measuring instrument is working properly; from the communication system to the bathymetric swath (the instrument thatmeasures the depth of the ocean) and the two keel-ADCPs (that measure the speed of the currents).
 |
| Leighton's corner |
When he wakes up, he first checks his maintenance planning (a list of things or instruments on board that need to be checked on that day) and sorts that out.
He then shows up in the main lab ... and there, scientists, technicians, the master, the chief scientist, seamen, jump him with problems. "Leighton my computer doesn’t work. Leighton, the SBP120 is off. Leighton internet is slow today!"
Before noon he will probably go to the top of the mast to fix the antenna, produce maps of the seafloor and check the met system that records different meteorological parameters (temperature of the sea water, speed of the wind, air temperature, etc).
While the ROV is in the water in the afternoon he will check that the USBL system (that records the location of the robot) is acquiring good data. Yes, one very important thing Leighton does is to make sure that the science GPS is working so that we can then locate our collection data for further studies.
He also makes sure that every single datum is recorded and saved properly to be sure that we will have access to all this information while working on the cruise results later on.
The one thing Leighton hasn’t done is get a haircut before leaving ... and now he is complaining all the time!