The Sea Life in Angola

Even with two Angolan stamps, one full page 15 day transit visa with a photo and a work visa is on the way, I have yet to step a foot further than the hot crumbling Lunada Airport. They started building a new airport with all the oil money, but they found diamonds as they were excavating, so that was halted. So it’s the old one. I’ve now been in and out of Angola twice, but only in her waters – south of Luanda. Visas have been an issue, so on the transit visa I wasn’t able to stay or go anywhere. Hopefully with the work visa (if it actually happens) I can see a bit more of Angola.

Here is what I can say about Angola:
There are lots of sharks, turtles, and barnacles and all three affect my everyday life here on board.
Sharks. They like to bite the cables (no kidding). And when they bite the cables, then sea water intrudes the cables and there are electrical faults. This unfortunately means that we have to stop production and either retrieve the cable(s) or go out in the work boat and change a cable section. If it’s in an easily accessible location and day light, this may only take an hour to rectify (although we have to stop production) however if its night or in a less accessible location, it could take a day or 2 (which equates to a lot of money lost).

Barnacles. Angola is barnacle heaven, or else the world’ breeding ground from barnacles. Fortunately for the barnacles we are going slow enough (less than 4.5 knots), that they can attach themselves to our streamers. Unfortunately for us, this causes us lots of problems. These problems include large amounts of drag, which creates large amounts of tension on the cables, and lots of noise on the hydrophones, which means lower data quality. Imagine 4 inch barnacle flowers flapping around on top of a microphone – its adds a lot of noise to the data. The tension is actually so great that we have to slow our speed down to 3.5 knots, which results in a loss of control of our cables and a tendency for them to cross each other, which as one might guess is not a good thing – 8 km spaghetti is never good.

Turtles. Turtles eat barnacles. So the turtles hang out around the cables and feast. Unfortunately they hit the cable when they eat the barnacles. It hits the cable and then the whole cable shakes and creates a lot of noise on the hydrophones. Its like a huge bang against a microphone. We can actually watch the turtles work their way down the streamer from our computer screens in the instrument room.

Of the three – sharks, barnacles, and turtles, barnacles are the most constant nuisance and they require us to go out and clean the streamers about 3-4 times a week. I love it, as I get to be out on the work boat, drive it sometimes and just spend the whole day outside. The smell though can get pretty bad – imagine lots of barnacles or any sea food sitting outside in the baking sun. Plus it’s a pretty messy job. We go along the cable at about 7 knots and the barnacles come flying off with our jaws of death tool. I think the pictures show just how many barnacles there are!