Beam Reach

out to sea

i didn’t get a chance to post these at port while at sea- so here’s my journal entries from the last few weeks:

4-20-08

Well it’s my first official night on the Gato Verde. Lo and behold I ended up in the portside forecastle – I volunteered, I kind of like it. It’s definitely the smallest space I’ve ever slept in – but it’s roomier than I thought – though I wonder how organized I’m actually going to be (and how moist).

But here the sea is completely around me, literally 6 inches to the right and left of me – I can hear every creek of the boat and the ripples of the water – I have a little port hole window looking out to the water and a hatch to look straight out to the sky – I know I’m not very far away from everyone (I can hear Juan and Ryan talk at the moment) but I’ve already gotten lost in solitude here.

I remember my time in the forecastle last time in the Harvey Gamage – the initial anxiety that soon turned into comfort, ease, and enjoyment – I’m just slightly in the anxiety phase right now – that I hope I can do everything phase-

In fact tomorrow I’ll be getting up to explore Jones Island a bit with Scott!

 4-22-08

Earth Day!

Today we headed out of Prevost Harbor into the high seas after spending the night at the dock at Stewart Island. We had maybe 3-4 foot waves with 20-30 knot winds! It was my favorite time to sail – I love the adventure of it!

The night before I strolled around Stewart Island – it was so quiet – all I could hear was my echo travel in a circle around the inland water and the croaking of frogs.

5-2-08

So much has happened that I haven’t blogged about- guess I’ve been out at sea too long (I’m not complaining).

I definitely got over that anxiety part- I sure don’t mind my bunk and life on the boat got easy pretty quick- I don’t even mind not eating meat (except with a few occasional binges on shore). We haven’t seen any whales yet (we’re starting to wonder why they aren’t here), but we did see some Stellars and a Dall’s Porpoise (I’m still pulling to see a Gray whale). There have been some wonderful quiet nights and sunsets while anchored on the Gato Verde and it’s great to just be surrounded by nature and the tides are the currents.

Even though some of us seemed a bit groggy to get back on the boat last week for our second round, I quickly woke out of it when we decided to head out for Port Angeles in search of transients. I had very much wanted to go to the Olympic Peninsula – and it was good to on a “far” voyage from the San Juan islands – though we didn’t encounter any rough seas…I don’t think mountains or the sea for that matter will ever cease to fascinate me!

And yesterday I caught my first ever fish (3 for that matter…)!! (and yes I have been fishing before- I just was never lucky enough to catch a fish!). Eric came by to try out his fish tags for the lingcod- and I caught a 26-inch lingcod that we named Ted for our first candidate! The surgery went well and after my shaky release of Ted we could hear his sonar tag with the hydrophone! Today as we wait as Roche Harbor for our broken engine were going to go back out again to get another fish for the second tag- all of the few fish we caught yesterday afternoon either became eagle food or food for eagle disputes – perhaps I’ll catch another one!

Other than that my primary work has been to figure out how to make my own high frequency “clicks” to play under water. So far I have attempted to burst a light bulb and get the speaker to play some previously recorded clicks, although they don’t have a great enough amplitude yet in my opinion to be heard under water, or travel very far either- but I think once I get part this hurdle I can really move forward in my project, and while I don’t need the whales as my as my classmates- I really do hope they come when we are back at sea in a week.