Thank You

Currently sat in the departure lounge in Antigua airport reflecting on the expedition and how much we have gone through to get here. Its been an unreal experience which we will never forget and wouldn't have been possible without help we received in the last 9 months.

We would like to thank Henny, Martin Ali, Nigel, Stuart and the rest of the staff at the school of Civil Engineering and Geoscience at Newcastle University for the help they have given us and believing in us from the very start. Their input in the development of the methods we were to use was invaluable. We would especially like to that Jon Mills for his generous contribution in funds towards the expedition.

From Tortola a huge thanks goes to Mike Adamson and his parents Ken and Xandra. Mike's knowledge of the local area and support from day 1 has been amazing, even though he had to put up with 4 clueless students. Ken and Xandra kindly let us stay at their house and fed us when we were there.Without them the trip wouldn't have gone as smoothly and we wouldn't have been able to see so much of the BVI.

On Anegada we would like to thank Doug, who owns Anegada beach club, for letting us stay there for the duration of our expedition and for resolving our transport problem. Thanks also goes to Jamie for booking us into the hotel and meeting us at the dock . A huge thanks goes to the other managers Vicki and Nigel, for taking us to Virgin Gorda and allowing us to experience some local happenings and Owen all be it a brief encounter you made our last few days very enjoyable. We would also like to acknowledge the bar and restaurant staff for everything they did for us during our stay.

Finally we'd like to thank the University Expedition committee and our sponsors: Plowmen Craven, Scopus, CICES, Loy Surveys, CECA and Leica . Without their contributions in funds and equipment the expedition wouldn't have gone ahead. 

One final thank you to everyone who has read our blog, unintentionally or otherwise we appreciate every view we have received.  We're going to try and spend the next 4 hours before our flight productively, and attempt to start some of the report. We'll keep the blog updated with our progress and hopefully share the final product in the not too distant future. 

'You can't get much better than that' - Mike Adamson

Earlier this morning we had received a step by step guide in order to create the all important Puerto Rico datum provided by our contact at Leica, Dave Dawson. We quickly put this to good use by processing our 'whole area' LSS plot of Pomato Point.

Pomato Point LSS plot

After the LSS processing, and with the help of Mike, we checked our baseline data against the photogrammetric data from 2002.  We found that all our control points matched closely to the known points from the 2002 data and that our baseline "...doesn't get much better...". Thanks to Mike for the help, we hope that the rest of the post processing runs as smoothly as this. 

In the afternoon Mike managed to arrange a last minute meeting with Christopher Williams a Technical Planning Officer at the Department for Disaster Management (DDM) in Tortola. In the meeting Christopher was keen to know what was involved within the expedition and methods we used to gather the data. We have arranged for the DDM to receive a copy of all the results and a copy of the final report when completed. He was also interested with this being the start of a long term monitoring project of the island involving local community and for future expeditions to return.

Belt and Braces

With the help of Mike Adamson we have been able to confirm 'what we always expected' that the data collected on Anegada fits roughly the outline of the known coastline before scaling and transformation. This should mean that once the Puerto Rico datum is applied, which will orientate the data, it will be accurate and allow us to combine all the detail from the topographic surveys into a single file. This marks the start of analysis of all the data we have gathered during the expedition. 

And in the famous words of Winston Churchill, 'Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.'

Final 4 days in Anegada

Thursday started off with the all important total station contest. Josh was up first and set a strong time of 3mins 18 sec. Larissa was up second and clocked a time of 3 mins 30 secs and I was up third and clocked a winning time of 1 min 29 sec. All the times were PBs since Glaramara... must be the better weather conditions out here. VIDEO PENDING..

In the afternoon we revisited two of the coastal areas of interest, Pomato Point and West End in order to gather further data on the coastal erosion, if any on such areas in the time of our visit.

Friday saw us complete all planned and additional survey aims after visiting the West End Cottages. The eerie ghost town esk cottages look like something out of a Hollywood apocalypse movie, with bowls on tables, magazines open on seats with the fridge doors wide open it seems like everyone had left in a hurry. In the past these cottages have experienced extreme coastal erosion and the effects of several hurricanes. We set up controls and detailed the position of the 5 of the original 7 cottages. Hopefully this link will demonstrate the position of these cottages. 

http://www.commercialdivebvi.com/news/west-end-anegada-emergency-recovery/

Saturday to our annoyance we had to revisit the cottages in the afternoon as our base station on the previous day had ran out of battery for the final station. This meant that we were not able to resolve the ambiguities for the final control station. Upon our return we were shocked to discover that one of the cottages we had detailed had been ripped down and was now just a hole in the ground. Despite this we enjoyed the sunset sat on the sand bags protecting the cottages enjoying a muffins and brownies courtesy of Pams bakery as the station was successfully positioned.  

Sunday was the day of rest. We managed to get hold of some kayaks and paddle board, thanks to the beach club, and had a relaxing cruise around some of the reefs and bays on the island. The night involved some last minute packing before we start the long journey home.

We are planning on staying in Tortola for 2 days before our flight on Wednesday. We have a 6 hour wait in Antigua so expect more blogging activity from Antigua! 

Surveying the Reef

Today we took advantage of some of our time off in Tortola to explore the coral reef at the beautiful Brewers Bay. We even managed to capture a few short glimpses close up, here's a small preview, we hope to be able to share the rest with you upon our return. 

No rain on this parade

Yesterday we attended the annual BVI festival, celebrating the emancipation from slavery, in Road Town, Tortola. It can only be described as an eye opener.

The festival started bright and early at 5 am with the 'Tramps'( parade participants follow a truck blasting music from over the top speakers down the streets of the town i.e a pre parade party on wheels). The official parade didn't start until 3pm as locals caught some shut eye and recovered from a heavy morning of 'Tramping'.

 As we walked through the town towards the judging booth, we were in awe of the colours, sounds and the amount of effort that goes in to making such an event happen every year. If ever you get the chance we strongly recommend you take it, it's a sight you won't see anywhere else... except maybe Rio.

Acts included Miss BVI, stilt walkers, floats re-enacting the capture of slaves and of course dancers wearing every colour under the sun. The parade lasted for several hours as each group passed the booth performing their routines full of energy and enthusiasm despite the sweltering conditions, everyone young and old performed with an infectious smile.

Being towered over by the very skillful skydancers.

The parade ended in 'The Village', a car park annually converted into the hub of the festival. In the centre, a pole huge pole connects all the food and drink huts together with colourful bunting. At one of these huts we tried a local roti dish, which is essentially a curry in a wrap however it takes a great deal of effort and skill to eat. Everyone from the Island seemed to be standing in this car park, from babies to the elderly, everyone was in high spirits, dancing to the local music being performed on stage into the early hours.

It was an amazing experience and are very grateful that we had the opportunity to witness this part of the local culture. Tomorrow we head back to Anegada on the 6:45am ferry and plan to get back into the swing of things by having a total station set up race to finally settle the all important question... 

Who is the best at setting up a total station?

Slideshow

Our flikcr slideshow is now up and running on the blog, check it out now on the pictures page! 

"Point Stored"

As of yesterday we are very pleased to report that; as far as the expedition aims are concerned we have completed what we set out to do!  We are very pleased with the results despite the lack of a Puerto Rico datum to link them together, the last 7 days have been very labour intensive, even by our high standards.... We hope to get the datum and produce a final LSS product before the end of the expedition, if not we will share it with you as soon as it is ready.  We'd like to once again thank Leica for the loan of the equipment in particular the brilliant TS15, now christened Terry.  It's excellent scan and imaging functions were only marred by the automated generic 'sat-nav' American voice telling us every other point that she'd lost target lock.  Overall we managed to detail 5 areas around the Northern and Western parts of the island.


With the last 7 days of detailing taking it's toll we've decided to take a short break, to rest and take in some of the cultural happenings on Neighbouring Tortola, where this week they are celebrating the anniversary of the emancipation of slavery!

But this isn't the end, we couldn't call ourselves proper students without some voluntary extra curricular work... On our return to Anegada next week we'll be revisiting some of the areas we have already detailed to fill in any missing gaps and to assess claims made by some local media that the coastline of the West of the island is highly dynamic.  As well as detailing the site of the West End Cottages, currently being demolished before they subside into the sea. We will of course keep you posted with our progress throughout the survey and non survey related goings on of the next few days.

A Day in The Life...

Wake up at 7 am to the sun streaming in,  face and arms cold from the AC whilst every other part of the body roasting. Turn on the TV to our daily dose of over the top American news and somewhat graphically dated weather forecast. Grab a hotel mug and fill it to the brim with corn flakes and warm long life milk. This is breakfast! If feeling especially tired reuse left over milk and add to re filtered coffee to get us going. 

At 8 o'clock the base is put up, 5 gallons of water is collected for the day whilst the days equipment is loaded into the truck which looks like how we are feeling.  Passenger riding shotgun become DJ for the day as we head out to the dump on some questionable roads, this is our rent for using the truck.  We reach the dump after avoiding the feral cows which inhabit the island and throw yesterday's rubbish away...is this what surveying involves. After the quick pit stop with minimal extra flies added to the truck we head out to our first station.

We scour the beach, avoiding the spiky balls which have become the bane of the expedition, looking for the chosen peg which is marked with a red ribbon. The peg has been positioned using GPS earlier in the expedition. The team "quickly and efficiently " set up the tripod and level the total station. Start typing the station name in before realising its on numbers rather than letters has become a daily encounter. DIST ...SET, we have RO'd and the survey is under way. As the total station take its Panoramic photo of the surrounding area we huddle under it trying to avoid photo bombing the beautiful view. Each member has found their own detailing speciality. Chris endures the worst the anegada under growth has to through at him as well as the deadly sea anemones. Josh transforms the beach into a perfect grid as he takes spot heights taking more than 100 points in 20 mins, whilst Larissa repeatedly ventures back to the sea And tries to interpret Chris's hand signals in order to gain some profile information.  We complete the survey by taking the required grid scan , a handy feature on the total station. This allows for some tanning whilst scanning. On average we manage 2 stations in the morning. 

At 12 o'clock we head back to the hotel to make lunch which consists of 1 grape jelly sandwich and 1 piece of fruit. After avoiding the hottest part of the day in the pool or in our cool and refreshing rooms we head back out at 3 o'clock to get a further station done. On completion of the final station the equipment is packed into an oven like truck and we head to Pams bakery at Neptune's Treasure. Here we have become regulars and no longer need to ask for our regular 16" pizza and pitcher of water to share amongst us for $13. By the time we eventually venture back to the hotel it's 6pm and getting dark. Batteries used in the equipment are put on charge as post processing the days observations commences under the blanket stars which cover the sky as wifi is only available outside the office. Everyone is tucked up in bed at 10pm.

Despite the minimal food, flies and heat we are all grateful to be here and look forward to each day, as we get ever more confident using the equipment. Thanks again to all sponsors who have helped us. 

Wi Fi and Finally some Pictures!

Anegada Expedition, a set on Flickr.

So we finally got access to some stable wi fi at the accommodation! So we thought we'd take the opportunity to share with you some of the photos that we've taken so far on the expedition. The link to the album has been posted on the 'Pictures' page of our blog, we hope to set up a slideshow on this page soon but obviously work comes first!

Scanning and Tanning

Excellent news the scanning function issues have been resolved and we're now fully into the swing of detailing despite being a member down for the remaining couple of weeks.  We wish Lauren all the best with her Skanska placement over the summer and a safe trip home! We'd also like to thank Dave Dawson at Leica for coming to our rescue with scanning help.

Regardless the detailing is going well, we have just completed the first of 4 planned areas.  At each area we are gathering topographic detail, a manual spot height grid, a number of profile lines at 30 degree intervals and those all important grid scans at varying densities.

We are also capturing a panoramic photograph using the ts at every control station we set over we hope to be able to share those images with you soon!

All we need now is a Puerto Rico datum despite being able to work around it for the time being with false coordinates, we're itching to bring all the data collected so far together, and we hope to be able to do so very soon! 

Progress Update

Apologies again for the lack of blog entries over the past few days. We're very grateful for the staff at the Beach Club allowing us to use the computer in the office to maintain contact with the outside world!  Anyway, on Friday last week we completed our GNSS baseline survey of the northern coast, and now have quite an impressive looking LGO plot.

After a self awarded weekend off this Monday saw the beginning of the total station detail surveys, as we put some control stations on the beach outside the accommodation, and over the past few days we've been re-familiarizing ourselves with the total station and all of it's impressive features.  Though we are able to easily undertake topographic detail survey, and beach profiles the handy scan function on the TS15 is being less than handy. We have however e-mailed the appropriate experts seeking advice and we're sure it will be resolved within the week.

We will however continue to work with what we know and we also hope to have a local Puerto Rico Datum within the week, so watch this space for some (hopefully) interesting LSS screenshots.

We're not the only ones sunbathing...

We went all David Attenbrough yesterday when we caught sight of a shiver of sharks catching some rays in the shallow water. Our brave camerawoman Larissa ventured in to get a closer look.  The above video was the result. Enjoy!

One week without wifi

Apologies for the lack of blog entries over the past week and a bit.  We've had issues with the wi fi connection in the hotel, so we're having to use the wi fi in a nearby bakery! Still, needs must.  Anyway here's a quick summary of what we're done so far: 

Monday - Wednesday: Reconnaissance.

After arriving on Anegada via ferry on  Monday we spent the first day driving round the island locating some of the known control points. Anegada is a beautiful island with some somewhat secluded survey controls, chief among which being a point on top of the islands fire station! Tuesday and Wednesday were spent observing some of these control points, to allow for an easier transformation from Wgs84 coordinates to the local Puerto Rico datum. We spent an hour on each of these sites, and we hope they will allow us to better locate our base station for the post processed kinematic baseline survey. On the Wednesday afternoon we chose the point for our base station, shown below it is located on flat open ground behind the secure office. 

Thursday -Friday: Baseline Survey.

On Thursday we began the kinematic survey of the coastline,  we are using a post processed method with an occupation time of two minutes on each point.  On each morning we start the base station and leave it recording throughout the day, we have been achieving on average 40 points a day, and we're getting quicker as we get to grips with the bi pod!  We hope to carry on the baseline survey for the next couple of weeks before moving on to coastal detailing. 

On Friday afternoon we experienced a flat on our truck. This hampered the afternoons plan for data collection as it was on the otherwise of the island. But following the quote of the day by Winston 

Churchill ' a pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity whilst an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty', we decided to survey the coastline outside the hotel, making the most of the situation. 

We hope to get wi fi, next Friday but we will try our hardest to keep the blog updated between now and then.  We hope to post again soon, watch this space!

48 hours in Tortola...



So we've successfully landed and reached our first stop over in Tortola, after some hairy moments in customs.  Despite all this Tortola is a beautiful, picturesque island, if a little humid for four students used to the worst that the British summer can throw at them!


Day 1, on the first day we were able to use the surveying equipment out on the island for the first time. We measured to two known local control stations to check the calibration, with the help of a local surveyor and former Newcastle graduate, Mike Adamson.  Though the equipment worked well we hit a stumbling block when attempting to measure the positions in the local Puerto Rico datum.... the rest of the afternoon was spent attempting to resolve this problem with little success, and then resulted in a mini expedition around the town, surveying some of the many drinkeries that Tortola has to offer....



Day 2, brought fresh heads with fresh ideas, after further consultation it was decided that we would instead measure all points in WGS84 system and apply a coordinate transformation in post processing. With this decided a celebration was in order, so it was off to the beach.  The weather however had other ideas, we'd barely got our feet wet by the time the heavens opened, and when it rains here it pours!  We were informed whilst taking shelter in a nearby restaurant, that this was the front of a tropical storm forming in the Atlantic... which would explain the thunder and lightning! With that we retired back to base for some food and a few quiet games of monopoly.

 

And with another day comes another island, we catch the ferry to Anegada early tomorrow morning, where we will check in, begin the reconnaissance and establish some control for the survey. Keep checking the blog for updates, we believe that our base in Anegada is still in the process of setting up a wi fi connection,  we hope to bring you more info once that issue is resolved!

Christmas come early!

We were very excited this morning to receive the equipment for the expedition. Huge thanks again to Leica, for this very generous loan!  The more survey savvy amongst you may be able to identify these as GS15 GNSS receivers and a TS15i total station. We'll be getting to grips with them on campus over the next couple of days. We were also able to use a bi pod for the first time in our brief survey careers!  Also thanks to Chris for his camera work. 

Imagine you're on a beach...

...was the imaginative advice given as we took to a less than Caribbean campus to re-familiarise ourself with the GNSS equipment today.  With the Leica equipment arriving tomorrow and only 3 days until the expedition begins, there's no time like the present.

Sponsorship Update #6

ceca the civil engineering contractors association, have recently been in contact and pledged financial support for the expedition, even at this late stage this is extremely welcome, and as such we are incredibly grateful for the generous contribution agreed.  As well as this the final payment for our accommodation was processed today meaning that the two major costs of the expedition have been accounted for.  All that remains is that we sort domestic travel in the UK and the BVI then get down to work.  Huge thanks to everyone at Ceca! You can visit their website and find out more about the association by following the link at the bottom of this page. 

With only two weeks to go until the expedition begins in ernest, we are all incredibly excited and would like to thank all of our sponsors and supporters.  We are also currently in the process of writing pre-expedition reports for both the school and the ICES, we sincerely hope that both of these reports will be published online if not in print.  We will of course share any links or make you all aware of where you can view these reports. 

http://www.ceca.co.uk

Leica Boss... Sponsorship Update #5

Larissa and I just met with Simon Mears from Leica Geosystems to discuss the equipment loan for the expedition, we are pleased to report that they have agreed to loan us the required GNSS receivers and imaging total station.  This is no small contribution to receive and we are incredibly grateful to Simon and the rest of the staff at Leica. 

On top of this it was also agreed that Leica would contribute some financial funding for the expedition!  This was unexpected and we are again hugely thankful for the contribution, it will go a long way! 

Planes, Trains, Automobiles and Sponsorship Update #4

We've booked flights, that's it!  The expedition is off the ground, excuse the pun.  All that is left to do is organise and book domestic travel in both the UK and the BVI, and pay off the accommodation balance.  

Two of the team will be meeting with Leica this afternoon to hopefully secure the loan of the equipment for the expedition.  If this is successful then we will be much closer to setting off and beginning the expedition, once again this is very exciting and a huge thank you to all of our sponsors and supporters thus far! 

Speaking of sponsorship, ICES (Institute of Chartered Engineering Surveyors) have confirmed their support for the expedition at their finance committee meeting at the end of last week.  These funds will prove vital in the final pieces of organisation for the expedition. Huge thanks to everyone at ICES!

Exams, Accommodation and Important Meetings...

We've just put down the deposit on our accommodation on the island! This is a very exciting time for all of us and a welcome break from the exam stress we've all been under. We'd like to thank all our sponsors and in particular Jamie Johnson at the Anegada Beach Club for supporting us and offering a substantial discount on the total cost of accommodation.

We hope to be booking flights and beginning to make final arrangements for the exepedition as soon as the exams are over. The team will also be meeting with a representative from Leica in the near future to disucss the loan of equipment for the expedition. We're very excited by all of this! We'll keep the blog updated with any more progress made!

Check out the link to the Anegada Beach Club below.

Sponsorship Update #3

Mark McGarragh at Loy Surveys a former graduate of Newcastle Uni,  who has also been on an expedition with the school to Jordan. Has pledged financial support for the expedition!  We'll do our best to find more information from the Jordan Expedition and share it on the blog. So watch this space!

Big thanks to Mike and the rest of the staff at Loy Surveys! We're getting closer to the target amount!  Hoping to get some things booked and sorted soon!

http://www.loy.co.uk/

Sponsorship Update #2

Alan Bell the Survey Manager at Scopus Engineering  has just pledged a substantial amount of financial backing for the expedition.  Alan and Scopus Engineering have strong ties with the school of civil engineering and geosceinces at Newcastle University.

This has brought us much closer to the target amount for the expedition.  We are extremelty grateful for their contribution, it will go a long way towards getting the expedition off the ground.   Huge thanks to everyone at Scopus engineering! A link to their website is below.  Keep checking here for more sponsor updates, we have many more sponsors in the pipeline.  So fingers crossed! 

http://www.scopuseng.com/index.htm

Sponsorship Update

We are incredibly happy to announce that Plowman Craven have pledged some financial support for our expedition!  This contribution has edged us closer to our total required budget!

A massive thank you to all at Plowman Craven we are very grateful for this.  Keep an eye out for more sponsorship updates. We're all very excited!

http://www.plowmancraven.co.uk/

We're on twitter!

We've just set up an offcial twitter account for the expedition!  follow us: @NU_AnegadaEx