Beam Reach

Weeks 7 8 & 9

So much to say and so little time! As everyone has been saying in their blogs, the realization that the end of BeamReach is setting in. We are back on solid ground, and as much as I liked living at sea, it feels good! The last three weeks on the boat have been… shall I say… eventful. Because the Gato Verde is in the process of switching to a bio-deisel electric propulsion system, there are lots of things that had the potential to go wrong, and that did go wrong. Its a super cool idea and sets a great president, however, when you are in the middle of the process it is both very cool and very frustrating. Besides the saga of the boat, between the multiple generators breaking and getting replaced, being pushed by the dinghy, maxing out at 3 knots and not being able to catch the whales, there were lots of great things this past voyage. First of all, we saw whales, lots and lots of whales! We saw some very tame dear and a mink up close and personal on Jones Island, a mike whale from the bluff on Stewart Island, some bow riding Dalls porpoise in front of Lime Kiln, and some sea lions in cattle pass. In terms of Science, we got some nice recordings, tried the dinghy / NOAA pipe test maybe 3-4 more times and finally got it right. Ishmael is still not cooperating, but in addition to the Sea Snake, we got another 4 element array, Willy. After tinkering with it a bit, and sending it off to the doctor (val) and his office (his garage), its worked wonderfully. Everyone chipped in for multiple rounds water quality testing every two hours from about 6pm to 8am. (Except for Scott and Jason who slept on the cat walk and saccrificed a lot of sleep in the name of science.) As for oter memorable events, we hiked to the lighthouse, played some basketball, got to pet some real kittys, and soak in the view from a bluff looking out on the water just before sunset on Stewart Island. We had a night passage from the west side of San Juan Island to the south end of Lopez Island, complete with bow watches, crafty navigation, walkie talkies, and night vision (not headlamps). We witnessed numerous beautiful mornings and beautiful sunsets. In fact, the Last time we saw the whales in fact was J pod heading south down the West Side wbehind them was the sun dropping behind Vancouver Island, AND to make things even better,it was Peggy’s birthday!

So now that we are back on land, its crunch time to get final papers and presentations done. Its time to enjoy the last week of island living until heading home and catching up with family and friends!

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Week 6

Back on land! We got back two days early due to the propulsion system on the boat. The Generator, and electric engine weren’t working, so we hooked up the dinghy to the back and used the little outboard on that along with some help from the Buzzard to get back to the labs. Not the ideal way to travel, but it worked. One good thing about having to come back early is that I finally got to see the movie “Little Miss Sunshine” as it finally made it to the theatre on island! I highly recommend it to everyone, its hysterical!

So now, the Gato Verde is safely at the dock, we are back in the cabins, sleeping in our own beds, showered and wearing clean clothes. We have switched from living on the boat to living on land. This week had been dedicated to improving our projects, giving progress presentations and finalizing our proposals. As usual we had a numerous guest lecturers come which is always great. This time four of them along with the four instructors sat on the panel as we all gave our presentations. I think mine went well and so did everyone else’s. The rest of the week we worked on proposals and I along with others tried to figure out Ishmael. We have been calling and emailing the author and others who know the program really well asking for help and explaining our situation. They are all super busy but have been very nice and given us some of their time and helped us out! I am confident, while it doesn’t work perfectly, we will be able to make some progress. Any progress is a step in the right direction. While it is really frustrating now, someone has to do it. Once it gets figured out, not only will it be really important in analyzing acoustics, it will be really cool to know that I helped, even just a little.

To get away from science, we again watched Greys Anatomy as I now have season 2 on DVD and its free to watch the new episodes on the internet AND as a little (and very much appreciated) end of the week present Scott brought “Life Aquatic” up with him, which we are well overdue to watch!

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Weeks 4 & 5

The hydrophone array (or what we call the Sea Snake) I am using for my project kept breaking, the software Ishmael I use to analyze the recording wasn’t working, my computers hard drive broke, and the propulsion system on the boat was on the fritz. That’s what happened for our first 2 weeks at sea. Everyone handled it well (especially Mike our relief captain who had to deal with lots of things going wrong). What I have to say to that is oh well! Being out on the boat was amazing! We finally got to see the whales (the reason we are out here) up close and personal, actually try the methods we have been figuring out since we got here, got to interact with more visiting researchers, learned the basics of how to sail and living on a boat (cleaning, cooking, passage planning, maintenance etc.), get to be a part of pioneering and promoting a quieter more environmentally friendly way to sail/motor, and nothing beats being out on the water. So yes, lots of things went wrong, but that’s life and that’s what happens in science.

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Week 2 & 3

I haven’t been staying up to date on my blog book, oops. This is not because there is a lack of things to write about but because there is lack of time to write about everything. The past two weeks a lot of things have happened lets see if I can remember it all… we have had many many many guest lectures that all gave very interesting talks. It’s really cool to have contact with them, bounce ideas off of them, and learn about their research. We went on a tour of the Center for Whale Research, played down at the dock with some hydrophones, and had a lovely potluck dinner down at smugglers cove. Labor day weekend, people scattered about to Seattle and Victoria. I stayed on Island and spent Sunday on the water with Kari and Soundwatch which was so much fun. Tomorrow we leave for the first 2 week excursion on the boat! I am so excited! We have spent the last few days, once it hit us that we were 54 hours away from boarding, running around making lists, buying food, packing, debugging equipment, downloading software, and building all sorts of things. Hopefully everything will go relatively smoothly… either way it will be great to be on the water and with the whales!

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Week 1

It is hard to believe that I have already been here at the Friday Harbor Labs for a full week! This is the first entry and a lot has happened so here goes…

Arriving here was crazy! I got up 3 am east coat time on about 4 hours of sleep (my moms 50th birthday surprise party was the day before) hopped on a plane, a shuttle, a ferry, and a taxi. Once I had arrived sweaty, tired and nervous I got to meet the people I would be spending the next 10 weeks with, what a wonderful chance to make a good first impression… everything went fine. The next days were filled with logistics of the program, getting to know one another, introductory lectures, and tours of the Island. We went to Lime Kiln state park on the west side, heard the whales were coming saw them about a mile out and then they turned around. So we saw them but only as small fins through binoculars. We went to meet Val and his wife Leslie where we got a nice intro to some equipment and current research on the orcas as well as a treat of homemade berry muffins. While there Fred Felleman stopped by and talked to us about the political side of the orcas. It was great to have his perspective and learn some about the role of NGO’s, individuals, and policy in conservation efforts. Another speaker we went to go see was John Stern. After driving up a road I thought would never end, we arrived at a beautiful house just in time for sunset. Dr. Stern was giving a talk to an EarthWatch crew and we tagged along. He is ‘the’ minke whale man as well as quite a character so it was a wonderful trip. Kari Koski the director of Soundwatch came and gave a presentation to us which gave me some more insight into the human impact / boat traffic that could be affecting the whales and ultimately influenced me to change my project to focus more on that topic (as of now I am looking at the masking affect of underwater sounds created by vessel traffic on orca communication). On Friday we did our swim test, and while many of us were dreading having to jump into the cold cold water, it was a sunny 78 degrees outside, so it was rather refreshing (but still chilly enough to make sure and stay out of the water while on the boat). Other non-academic events have been going to see a local production of “The Merchant of Venice”, walking to town, visiting the Whale Museum, going out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner, and having a group viewing of Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

All and all it has been a very exciting and rewarding week. Being in such a beautiful location with a great opportunity to learn even more than I already have… I cant wait for the next 9 weeks.

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