Re-Supply
All four of the squadron of craft will be expected to remain on station throughout the hurricane season. They will therefore need an extensive re-supply system to ensure that they are always ready to respond to an alert.
The tender craft are visualised as RORO (roll on/roll off) ferries carrying either a load of smallish electric lorries each carrying no more than say 3-4 tonnes, or operating as a tanker carrying fuel and fresh water. Two tenders (one in each role) are required for each re-supply operation. These secure to the wing tips of Albedo in an exact position (using set length mooring lines) so that the roll-out bridge carried by the tender is exactly lined up with the tip to tip roadway in Albedo. The bridge is secured with a two-axis hinged joint at each end to allow some relative motion between the two craft, and the joint in the tender also has some longitudinal freedom which can be spring loaded to push away from Albedo and thus tension the mooring lines.
Fig.5 shows the general arrangement of the RORO tenders engaged in re-supply.
In Albedo the storage compartments are on either side of the roadway and each pair has a small hoist on an overhead trackway to transfer the loads from the lorries into its designated storage position. The lorries are pre-loaded according to their destination store and loaded into the tender so that they emerge into Albedo in the right order.
On entering the craft each lorry is driven to its designated unloading point where a light hoist moves the load sideways into its destination compartment. On completion of unloading the lorries are driven forwards to the other wingtip where a the second tender is secured first to transfer fresh water and fuel and then to receive the unloaded lorries.
Throughout the operation Albedo’s ballasting team will be engaged in pumping ballast in order to maintain the correct immersion and centre of gravity of the craft. They will also be responsible for the distrbution of the fresh water and fuel being transferred from the second tender.