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!