Beam Reach

Sailing and Whale Museum Talk

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

We woke up in Aleck Bay at Lopez Island. Still no whales, but the wind had picked up, so we decided to try our luck and sail west towards Vancouver Island. We raised the main sail and the rolled out the screecher. Mike discussed the use of emergency flares and VHF marine radios. Kenna and Shannon went through the phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliet, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Unicorn, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu). The whole group also practiced knots—bowline, clove hitch, figure eight, square knot, round turn and two half hitches, and sheet bend. After lunch, we discussed sustainability and issues such as how to eat meat sustainably, what sustainability means to each of us, and sustainability in different cultures. We then had to prepare dinner for a pot luck with the land team. Jason baked bread and whipped up a veggie curry. We met up with the other group at English Camp in Garrison Bay to catch up socially and further discuss sustainability as we enjoyed dinner. Afterwards, we piled into the van to drive to our weekly whale museum talk. D.B. Giles discussed her thesis dissertation research on biogeography of the southern residents. We toasted Val’s birthday on Thursday and headed back home to clean our dirty dishes.