Laboratory Officer crossover notes

Owned by jr_moortgat
Last updated: May 28, 2024
4 min read

Eric Moortgat...mic drop...

START

  • Napoli, Italy.

  • Crew change was 8 April 2024.

  • Departed for Amsterdam on 12 April 2024 @ 07h00.

END

  • Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 

  • Arrival on 22 April 2024 @ 11h00.

COPE Mitigation notes

  • There were no COPE mitigation protocols in place aside from keeping two quarantine rooms open for five days after departure.

  • There were no positive cases of COVID-19.

Logistics

DHL (FAF) was picked up on 22 April, immediately after arrival in Amsterdam.

During the transit to Amsterdam, the RadVan was prepped for removal. It was removed from the vessel on 23 April.

There were no issues with the removal, everything was done in a controlled and safe manner by the shipyard staff. It was, however, not removed from the dock until 30 April.

World Courier picked up 29 April.

RAF picked up 6 May.

Cores to the BCR & GCR were picked up on 7 May. Both trucks arrived multiple hours after their scheduled ETA.

The 402T air freight arrived and there was a serious issue with the stuffing of one of the KBoxes. Eight of the nine boxes of tracer for Exp403 were on their side. This is completely unacceptable. Word was given to the Logistics Department. I doubt that there will be any accountability.

Staffing

Because we were not stamped out of Europe in Napoli, it became apparent that staff returning to DEMOB in August will have issues with Schengen Immigration. The allotted period that you can be in a Schengen country is 90 days over a 180 day window. Most of the staff would be over this 90 day period by the time that DEMOB was half-way completed. Decisions had to be made.

It was decided to send a number of staff home as there time in the Schengen area was more important for DEMOB activities. The following staff departed the vessel at various times soon after arrival into Amsterdam : Heather Barnes, Oscar Cavazos, Bridgette Cervera, Etienne Claassen, Kirby Garrett, Jurie Kotze, Zenon Mateo, Bill Rhinehart and Alex Roth.

This made the remaining time challenging for the remaining staff, especially for the School of Rock and finishing 402T DEMOB activities.

I had asked that Kara Vadman come to the ship mid-May to help with the School of Rock, DEMOB activities and other EOX tasks.

Education & Outreach activities

Twenty-two members (plus EPM Laurel Childress) boarded in Napoli for the first set of E&O activities, JR Academy. They were onboard from 10 April to 26 April.

The second stage was a School of Rock and they were onboard from 19 May to 28 May. There were twenty-four members (plus EPM Laurel Childress).

DEMOB prep

Staff started to document connections to the instruments/PC for a more seamless re-install back in the GCR. Each lab (for those that were started), should have a DEMOB / iGCR link in Lab Notebooks.

A full on effort to inventory and enter into AMS pallets for shipment occurred. It was a huge effort and definitely will alleviate some of the stress during the actual DEMOB activities.

A local (Amsterdam) crate builder vendor came 24 May to get an idea of the work scope involved in building what we need for certain instruments/etc. There was a feeling that he foresaw no issues and it can readily be done. A quote will be sent to John Van Hyfte.

Area-by-area summary 

Bridge Deck

For a period of time, when the shore Engineers were working on iRIS, we lost JRNav. There has to better communication from them about when they are going to work on something like that (cRIO) and when services will be non-functional.

Core deck

XMAN scanner was finally removed. Most of the bits are in the RadVan. The STMSL is ready for Exp403.

Weekly vitals were taken on the SRM and seasoning of both XSCAN sources.

The blue mats were rolled up and put in the Splitting Room. They can be re-installed or finally thrown away.

During the transit from Napoli to Amsterdam the Paleo Prep Lab flooded from a broken inlet water hose to the port-side faucet.

The Catwalk vinyl doors are up but still work needs to be done to have them ready for the cold weather.

Forecastle deck

For some reason we found the exhaust from the bead-maker physically plugged. It was coming to an elevated temperature.

Prepped and analyzed remaining 399 samples on the AERIS XRD, LOI, EA and ICP.

Upper tween deck

Stairs down from the Main Deck were painted.

The CnC's filter/regulator/lubricator contraption developed a leak and a new one should be coming for 403.

Ready for core boxes and freight.

Reefer

Ready for DTubes.

Misc

  • RADVan chemicals (in BHAZ)

    • Isotopes can be incinerated w/ corn cob?

    • COUNT-OFF / CONTRAD 70 neutralized w/ acid waste and then poured down sink? Incinerated w/ corn cob?

    • Scintillation cocktail - hazardous waste disposal during DEMOB.