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One of our assistant engineer, Kurt Rethorn, gave us a tour of the engine room. Here's what we learned:
Kurt is an awesome tour guide!
The Engine
The R/V Endeavor is equipped with a two-stroke (providing more power strokes per engine rpm), diesel engine consisting of 16, 350-cubic inch, cylinders with a maximum output of 3050 horsepower. Also, this bad boy is outfitted with a turbo charger which uses the exhaust to increase pressure in the cylinders and improve the power output from the combustion stroke. The engine is kept lubricated by 500 gallons of motor oil, which is changed when the ship is in port based on the number of engine hours. We burn around 1,000 gallons of fuel a day while on station (between the generators and the main engine) and even more when we are in transit between sites. We left port with around 54,000 gallons of fuel stored beneath the berthing decks, but she can hold up to 56,000 gallons of fuel total (the additional space is left to allow for the expansion of fuel due to temperature changes). A fun fact about the R/V Endeavor is that the propeller only spins one direction, meaning that there is no reverse gear. In order to drive the ship in reverse, the pitch of the propeller blades is switched such that the flow of water is reversed. There is also a powerful bow thruster that can be engaged if necessary.  |
| Kurt starting off the tour (Photo credit: Kate Volk) |
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| The engine with the exhaust manifold above and access to each of the piston heads underneath the latched doors (Photo credit: Kate Volk) |
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| Fuel gauges. Fuel is consumed from both tanks at a relatively similar rate in order to keep the boat properly balanced (Photo credit: Kate Volk) |
The Generators
The R/V Endeavor has four generators. Three below the water line and one above (for emergencies only). The generators produce all our electricity directly (i.e. they do not charge any batteries). In a power failure, an emergency generator will kick on in less than a minute.
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| These are two of the generators, aligned along the centerline of the ship (Photo credit: Kate Volk) |
Water
We use about 1000 gallons of water a day between showering, cooking, cleaning, and drinking and the ship can only hold approximately 8600 gallons of fresh water. Therefore, we must produce fresh water throughout the cruise and we have two methods of achieving that. We have a reverse osmosis machine, which takes up salt water and pushes it through a long, blue semi-permeable membrane at 800 psi. The high pressure in the membrane causes the salt to drop out of solution producing fresh water. The second way we have of producing water is an evaporator. This brings in salt water under a vacuum at 711 mmHg (13.75 psi). The water is heated up and the condensation is collected, now free of salt. The reverse osmosis machine and evaporator can produce around 50 and 80 gallons of water per hour, respectively, so that we can theoretically make 3200 gallons of water everyday. However, the evaporative method is dependent upon the engine heat to turn the water into vapor, which means that it runs at a lower efficiency when the engine is cooler.
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| Reverse Osmosis machine. You can see the blue membranes that separates the salt and water (Photo credit: Kate Volk) |
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| Water quality (Photo credit: Kate Volk) |
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| Sea water temperatures in the Gulf Stream are pretty warm (Photo credit: Kate Volk) |
See you later,
Dylan Meyer and Kate Volk aboard the R/V Endeavor
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