Patrol report Subsim meet 2009

[Bas Langenhof]

Very good reports Biek , can't wait to read the other ones.

[Onkel Neal]

Awesome, this is what I've been waiting for!

[Von Hinten]

Thanks guys, and I'm finishing up the rest of the days as we speak.

Stay tuned for more!

[Von Hinten]

After assembly downstairs we all went over to Peter’s 'hobby corner'. A really great site if you are technically challenged like me which I guess most of us are. You feel like a kid who spots a load of toys to play with; you have no idea where to start looking. Loads of ship parts lying around, tons of even smaller parts and even, slightly camouflaged by a bigger boat, a little submarine! Well little, with a weight of roughly 40 tons, this is hardly rowing boat material. She’s just an amazing beauty.

Then Peter arrived and asked us all to introduce ourselves so he got a rough idea on what people he'd get aboard. When the guys from Ubi introduced themselves Peter couldn't help making a small tongue in cheek remark on how today they would find out how wrong some things in their sims are, even though, like we later found out, he really enjoys playing the Silent Hunter series as much as we do.

After this introduction round he took us all to the sub and started explaining a little about her. Meanwhile John got into a diving suit and was on cleaning duty. While we were making sea food jokes (see Marcus' pictures for the explanation), he submerged to make sure we would be able to see something useful from the portholes in the side of the sub. This may seem like a not too honorable job but with the sun blazing down on us and the open area we were in, I almost wouldn't have mind doing the job myself just to cool down a bit. And he seemed to have enjoyed the dive as well when he got out.

Then we all went into the sub in small groups which allowed Peter to explain the inner workings of his sub. To me, the way he explained all the various stations and mechanics made perfect sense and he never came across as someone who would build a sub on a trial and error basis. Everything aboard was well thought of and served a clear purpose. Well maybe apart from the altimeter in the front but it was a nice touch nonetheless.

The start-up procedure itself went pretty well but one of the oxygen masks wouldn’t work and even though Peter, John and Oliver did their very best to fix it, they couldn’t get it to work which meant that there was one person less going with the sub each dive. That was a real shame and we could clearly see that Peter didn’t like it too much either.

While they were trying to get the oxygen mask to work, however, the rest of us were hanging out, talking and looking at the sub. Neal was still inside, Dan and Mihai were on deck. At some point Dan asked Neal down below if he wanted to use time compression to have it pass a little quicker. When Neal agreed that would be a great move Dan explained that it unfortunately was not available because the boat was too close to land. I laughed so hard I nearly tripped over. It's the kind of fun you can only have with a special breed of guys.

Then it was time for the first trim dive which even from the shore looked pretty cool. The sub went down, stern first and then, after some minor extra trimming was done, she submerged completely. Peter was in radio contact with John the whole time, making sure everything went according to plan and for John to warn Peter for available targets … ehrm I mean oncoming traffic, sorry …

They moved around underwater a bit more and sailed the sub into more open waters before coming back around and head back for the docs where another crew would enter. The sub and that crew would then make a surface trip through the harbor area to the place where Peter has his workshop and where we could start or dives the next day.

After surfacing Peter explained what the plan was and when going over his checklist he came to the conclusion that for this trip he would need 'a f*cking good guy' to serve as his engineer while he would steer the ship from the tower. I volunteered for the job and got it right away. Come to think of it, this was by far the most responsible function I've had so far and at the same time easiest job interview yet.

Peter then took me below and asked me to have a seat in the captains chair while he explained the seriousness of the task. He stressed that while he was up in the tower, all control in terms of movement of his 40 ton submarine would be in my hands and that therefore I had to look out for upcoming trouble as much as he would. After explaining to me how to operate the throttle handle and what to look for he gave me a pad on the shoulder, wished me luck and went back up.

During the trip he was in contact through the radio, simply calling in the orders with me acknowledging them back to him. I think we made a good team and it all went pretty well until we came to the point where we would park the sub. Upon going from forward in neutral I nudged the lever just over the top position and slammed the gear into reverse, stalling the engine. I was already having my finger on the starter button when Peter's voice came over the radio 'Biek … please restart the engine'. 'Restarting engine' I repeated. A little shame that this happened, it would have been a flawless trip if it had not. When we were docked, Peter himself still was happy enough when he came back down and complimented me on the rest of the trip. Job well done after all.

Peter then took us to his workshop where he briefly explained his plans on building a one man rocket. That man has vision like no other I've spoken to and I honestly believe that he'll make it happen one day. Outside he had a test block where he had been testing the smaller rockets he had been building so far and the latest was 'a small 2000hp rocket'. The results of that burn were clearly visible, there was almost a crater like marking on the tarmac showing where the rocket had been burning. That must have been an awesome sight.

Inside he already had parts of a bigger rocket getting ready for assembly. A few pieces of the hull which would contain the fuel and the part where the actual astronaut would be standing in were already available. Peter drew his plans on a whiteboard and that again all made sense. It may seem farfetched to shoot a one man rocket into space but it would surprise me if he would not succeed.

He stated that the idea was to find a way to create one man rockets at the cost of around 50.000 dollars each which would in terms fund the bigger plan of him, and possibly his colleague, going around the moon. It's simply mind blowing what this guy and his team are up to.

Then it was diner time and Peter joined us. The guy behind the counter had a little trouble serving the large group that came walking in but in the end everyone had a nice meal. Bas and myself had a 139 and Dan I believe had a 141 but that may have been the other way around, I'm not sure. All in all that was a great day, but it was long from finished.

Because next up was the Silent Hunter 5 presentation by the Ubi guys and for me personally I can sum it up with the same two words our Danish tour guide used: extremely good. Man, it was just awesome. We saw the new interface, game features and talked about what Dan had in mind when designing 5 and its various components.

I'll leave the more detailed review of the presentation to others since I may be a little bit biased for liking all this new stuff way too much. After the initial part was done, Dan saw a chance of getting back at me for making fun of him in the first patrol report(s) by saying that he could go on for quite a bit, but that ‘a few people’ were almost falling asleep (I guess I deserved that ;-)) so we called it a day and went back to the hotel.

Along the way while we were walking back, there was still a lot of talking going on about what we had seen and I can imagine the Ubi guys having gotten their share of questions before we reached the hotel.

[McBeck]

Awsome!! Love it!

[Von Hinten]

Today was UC3 Nautilus day II.

It began by us first going over to the place where we left her yesterday, docked at the harbor. Peter passed us on his bicycle when we were almost there, mentioned that he had to take care of something small first and joined us a little later on. After opening up the sub and getting her started he then explained that he wanted 4 people to join him on the sub to sail it on the surface to the place where Oliver would meet us to get people on and off the ship from his boat.

At first I hesitated because I had already been on the sub the day before and there were also people present who hadn’t, but when no one was stepping up and Peter looked like he was ready to go I volunteered again and was happily invited on the sub again. Upon going below I greeted Peter with a cheery 'Good morning captain!'. He turned around, saw me and replied ‘hey there is my engineer, welcome back on board Biek’. Cool guy, the day could have ended right there and it would still have been a good one. Luckily for all of us it didn't and would have plenty more in store.

Then 4 more people joined in so we were with 6 on the sub, Peter included. This meant that before the sub could dive, Peter had to re-trim the sub in order to adjust it for the new weight and it was pretty cool to see firsthand how all of that worked as well. Peter then explained his strict but absolutely necessary rules, we made sure enough breathing device and goggles were accounted for and we commenced with the dive. Peter had everything ready and said 'right, let's see if she will sink'. Just in case we didn't hear it correctly we quickly made sure he actually meant 'dive' and then we were on our way below.

As some of you now know, the only outside view Peter has from inside his sub is his digital periscope. On it he has mounted 4 digital camera's which provide a 180 degree view forward and roughly 90 degrees to the back. The main screen is in color and when the sub went down we could first see the bow go under water shortly after followed by the conning tower. We've all seen this view in movies a couple of times but let me tell you, to see such a view in real life is just amazing. As soon as the whole boat was under the screen turned greenish with lots of air bubbles passing by. A very peaceful sight, he should make a nice recording from that and make it available as a screensaver.

Peter then re-trimmed the boat which made it hover in the water nicely level and enabled him to go up and down as smooth as silk. He explained to us he was going to set the sub down on the bottom but when doing so the actual landing was barely noticeable. We then went up again and Peter suggested we should do a emergency surface drill, ‘you know, just to see what happens’. Later on I heard that this isn't something he normally does with his guests so another special treat for the Subsim guys. We'll have to watch out not to get used to these or we'll probably end up being one arrogant bunch of people. *grin*

Now I’ve done countless of those maneuvers in the game to get back to the surface, either because I needed to or just because it looks so darn good, but experiencing one in real life was absolutely amazing. As smooth as the sub had touched the ground, going back up asap meant that the boat was going to move up pretty violently. Peter started opening the valves like his life depended on it and after the initial smooth, say, half a meter, the front of the boat went up really, really fast resulting in the sub going up in a guestimated angle of30-35 degrees. This was pretty cool but none of us really expected it to tilt that fast, so we were really surprised by the sudden movement of the sub. Later I heard from the guys ashore that it must have been an amazing sight to see the sub break surface like that.

For me, having assisted Peter with engineering the Nautilus one day, sailing it on the surface the next, actually being in there while diving it and getting it back up hurry-style, this really was a once in a lifetime experience and I like to again extend my gratitude for everyone at this Subsim met that made this possible. So Neal and Jonathan, the other guys from Subsim who took us all over town and of course Peter and his submarine. Thank you guys, I’m in your debt forever. Thank you so much.

Next up was a new challenge: a game of getting people on and off began and that proved so much more difficult to do than you would normally think. Having a sub floating at the surface with a moderately strong wind makes it move around a little so when you want to attach a boat to it, move the sub around and meanwhile get people on and off it will make things just a little bit, say, 'interesting'. But with Oliver behind the wheel all went pretty good and he did a great job on getting the new crew on the sub. Well done m8.

After my time on the sub was done, it was a matter of waiting around until all who would go down had their chance. But that was by no means a boring experience. I mean come on, having a real life sub diving and surfacing right in front of you is always an amazing sight, that stuff just ever gets boring. I enjoyed watching her going under, wondering if the guys inside had as much fun as I had. Judging from the expression on their faces when they got out, they sure did.

The final Nautilus crew got to sail her at periscope depth to the final destination. After a thank you speech from Peter, which I unfortunately mostly missed because we were the last to get picked up by Oliver, we departed to the same restaurant and had a good meal. This time the guy behind the counter had requested we all took the same dish so that the cook could prepare the lot a little easier. No problem, 20 times ‘the 139’ were ordered and we had to grin a little when the waiter came out asking ‘who ordered the 139’s’. Erhm ... actually, we all did pal, thank you. ;-) The diner was as good as the day before and lots of talking went on during.

From there on we all went back to the hotel to unload our stuff and to get ready to head back into town but that wasn’t going to happen before Neal opened up his seemingly 'never running out of goodies'-bag and started handing out gifts to us guys. Apart from the Ubi team, who naturally got a few really nice gadgets for their contribution to the past few days, a bunch of t-shirts were handed over and a few caps as well.

To determine who would get what from Santa's bag, Neal had thought up, or was doing so right then and there, a few challenges. One was to find out who had goofed up the most during the past few days and I hesitated to mention that I had managed to stall the engine of a submarine. That would probably have been a clear winner but sometimes it's best to keep stuff like that hidden. I mean you never know who's listening in so I waited my chance. In the end I still ended up with a very cool Subsim shirt and I’m sure each and every item that was given away will be worn and used with great pride and will add to even greater memories of the 2009 Subsim meet. I'm 110% sure mine will.

After this everyone got a chance to clean up a bit, change into our new shirts and then we head back into Copenhagen to get a drink and some snacks. We landed at a nice terrace on the opposite side of the Ferris wheel which I think was next to the Tivoli. There I was introduced to a new way of getting coffee and enjoyed that and talking to Chris and David very much.

Meanwhile Chad had a hard time fulfilling his new goal in life: getting the waitress on camera. As soon as he explained his plan to Lars, the later started calling Chad's bluff and I guess because Chad wasn't moving fast enough Lars got up and got his picture taken with the waitress. You know, probably just to show Chad the ropes. In the end Chad got all his strength together and asked her too. Luckily for his chapter this patrol report she accepted, so in the end both men succeeded. :-) And when she finished her shift and left, the camera friendly waitress waved the entire crew goodbye so I guess she enjoyed the whole thing as well.

The evening got on with us talking only to get interrupted by a small bathroom incident which involved poor Chad as well. I'm still grinning like silly just thinking of that one. I guess, in all honesty, our end of the table was having a little fun with Chad but he took it like a true sport.

With the evening getting on, and after him explaining that he was at legal alcohol age, we pushed our luck a little bit further by talking him into having a go at an Irish coffee. When the bowl arrived we could almost see the whiskey burning down his throat and he quickly decided that it wasn’t a very good idea for him to finish the entire thing. We pressed on a bit but having a few more sips he declined indefinitely so David and myself emptied it for him.

Good stuff that was, I had a truly great time.

[McBeck]

Love it