Using a portable hydro survey system from on board the shallow draft workboat Poco Loco gave HHF the ability to manoeuvre easily within the berthing areas, which was particularly useful in detecting sections of dredging which had been missed, thus avoiding damage to the podded propulsion systems used by many modern cruise ships.

Portability of equipment is a critical consideration for HHF, which conducts topographic and shallow water hydrographic surveys in more than 20 islands of the West Indies. Their initial choice of survey equipment included the SonarLite portable echo sounder, TidaLite portable tide gauge and Ashtech Z-Surveyor GPS receiver with base station. In recent months the equipment has been upgraded to now include the new Ohmex SonarMite Bluetooth echo sounder used in conjunction with the ruggedised ‘Recon’ PocketPC device from Trimble.

As early technology adopters, HHF have quickly found the benefits of using equipment which incorporates modern technology such as Bluetooth communications and digital depth measurement. Using a modern software platform such as the PocketPC has the advantage of near seamless integration between Windows CE data logging and Windows XP post-processing design software.

MJ Information No: 20434