Boyan Savov, B.V.S. Consult Ltd. Varna, Bulgari.

“Our relationship with the founders of Obscape dates back over 15 years. During this time we have appreciated the innovative design and reliability, and at the same time the low operation costs for monitoring marine and  coastal environments”.

“We are proud we were able to test and deploy their devices”.

“We learned a lot in the course of this collaboration, we feel dedicated to share our opinion and experience this with others. Wave Droids were successfully deployed and operated by B.V.S. Consult in the last 4 years. Some of the experiences are illustrated below”.

Acajutla, El Salvador (15.05-31.12.2016)

B.V.S. Consult Ltd. worked on a soil investigation for a new LNG terminal at Acajutla, El Salvador. It was a very challenging project because of the ocean conditions. The work was undertaken on a small jack-up pontoon with limitations for maneuvering and jacking, including a wave height up to 1m. Given the weather circumstances, these limitations had a critical impact on the working conditions. Having real-time wave data was therefore of utmost importance. This is how we experienced the benefits of the Wave Droid on our first use. The Wave Droid’s data allowed us to confirm a real time stand-by status due to a wave height greater than the set limitation. On the other hand, we were also able to monitor & confirm ideal operating ocean conditions, which significantly reduced the risk for the barge and the crew.

Burgas, Bulgaria (05.05.- 31.07.2016):

In 2017 B.V.S. Consult was appointed as the Consultant Engineer for the building of a new terminal at Port Burgas. Because of the configuration of the coastal area (bay area, breakwaters, etc.) we decided to deploy a wave droid for a specific time period to correlate the forecast with the real measurements of wave parameters. By doing this, it was proven that the wave forecast provided gave reliable data which served the project to the end of its execution. On Figure 5 correlation between forecast and measured is presented.

Varna, Bulgaria (26.06.2019- ongoing):

The Oceanographic station HERMES BG1 was deployed on June 26th 2019 on the western coast of the Black Sea, near the Bulgarian city of Varna located just offshore from Saint Constantine and Helena beach at a depth of 22 m approximately.

The northern edge of the Varna Bay location was chosen because from this particular angle the station is exposed to the most wave activity.

The station was in operation over a course of 12 months (including winter season) & proved its reliability and easy service

Some of the station’s main components:

Obscape Wave Droid- real-time directional wave buoy;

Obscape Tide Droid – real-time tidal gauge based on radar facing down;

Obscape time-lapse camera for real-time visual monitoring of the area.

The wave data set was obtained in real time or downloaded via the Obscape Data Portal.

The Obscape WaveDroid BlockIII, is a  premium buoy model. It served the needs of the project as expected.  With its robust design and easy operation, WaveDroid BlockIII made life easy.

Alongside the objectives of the HERMES Project, another  immediate use of the wave data was undertaken to study wave penetration in a marina under construction. The advantage of having real-time wave data allowed us to simultaneously measure the wave inside the marina with a small portable wave logger. This way we could verify the results of the HARES simulation for the current incident wave pattern.

In the course of one-year measurements, three storms events were recorded with a maximum wave height of 5 meters at the storms peaks. Pictures taken during one of these storms are presented below.

Shijnjin, Albania (20.12.2019- ongoing):

B.V.S. Consult Ltd. was contracted by Albanian Company to assemble and deploy an oceanographic station similar to the one we installed near Varna. This deployment also included the use of our larger HERMES AL-1 buoy

About 60 m onshore from the big Hermes buoy, we deployed the Obscape Wave Droid Block III

The deployment in Albania was undertaken during the buildup of a storm and wave heights were already 4 m. Twelve hours later, the maximum wave height reached 10 m and this was the first good test for the installed equipment.

Obscape Tide Droid & Water Level Gauge:

The Obscape Tide Droid, was installed at the Varna Oceanographic station, as shown on figure below ( left side).

It worked well. Occasionally we had to replace the battery pack, but this was mainly due to the short sampling interval. When a longer interval of around 2 hours was selected, the battery life span was much longer.

This unit has been replaced at Varna Oceanographic station and B.V.S have now installed the new Obscape Water Level Gauge (on the right side of figure 18 and the newest version of the Obscape Tide Droid) in its place.  Boyan really enjoy working with the new Obscape Water Level Gauge because it is a very compact device, with no external parts or wires, & all electronics & sensors parts placed in a single strong acetal housing. In addition because The device is using much less power, Three solar panels easily re-charge the battery. It is also very easy to install and operate the Obscape Water Level.