OCEAN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

November 12, Tuesday: We first gave our draftman a copy of the program(me) and sketches to be prepared, then went to the workshop where the surfwheel was almost ready and they had started on the surf-crawler. Then Sullivan took us to the Field Processing Plant which looked rather heavy and clumsy, containing a crusher, jig, sorter and baby ....(?).
After lunch we returned to the workshop but were summoned back to a large meeting with CDM and Anglo-American officials, including Messrs Devlin, Shand, Stocken, McGonaghee and Murray. We were first berated for not giving a copy of our program(me) to Mr. Devlin; then Francois gave a good and concise summary, and I talked about American Cyanamid's chemical grout, AM9. They will do statistics and look into the grout through Boart and Metal. We then went on to the beach, put on our diving suits, and tested the surfwheel, which we left anchored nearshore. That evening we saw "Italian Divorce."

November 13: Apparently our "surfwheel" had survived the night! We took it back to the workshop. I made computations about the AM9 chemical grout, which would be rather expensive to use, but CDM has a propensity to disregard expenses...Our draftsman (draughtsman) is hard at work. We went to the workshop where the surfwalker was almost ready. We arranged for a test at 14:30. Our Landrover had reached 520 miles so we took it in for lubrication etc.

the surf-crawler or surf-walker

At the test, the whole gang was there, including Fry and Sullivan. The machine was heavy, dug in, turned over easily and did not perform according to wishes. Good thing we had the caterpillar available! And our diving suits.

November 14, Thursday: Worked on AM9 calculations till 10:00, then proofread Francois' progress report which was concise and excellent. Then tea-break - a common pass time here - followed by a trip to the workshop where modifications had been implemented. That afternoon, another test, this time viewed by #2: Shand. The surf-crawler worked better but still goes too slow. It tipped over once while we were body-surfing close to it, but a pull by the Caterpillar straingtened it out. We left it anchored in the surf again. We had dinner with Derman and took him to the club that night.