Beam Reach

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

We emerged from Prevost Habor after enjoying a quiet night on the dock and the chance to stretch our legs.  We listened with Lon’s single hydrophone while we drifted in Boundary Pass on the flood tide.  After an intercalibration of the array with the Interocean Systems hydrophone, we sailed southward at various speeds using a protractor to understand how the angle of the weighted line changes as function of boat speed.  After pulling the hydrophone the wind picked up.  An exciting moment occurred when attempting to furl the screecher.  It wrapped near the top, but a substantial patch of sail ballooned out and halted the roller furler.  There was a classic rattling of sail as the entire team worked to lower the sail to the deck and control it.  Finally, we had it lashed securely in the nets and headed for Roche.  There we pumped out, dropped Scott off, and the completed our transit to Garrison Bay and our Wednesday evening rendevous with the land group.  Mike Vouri capped the day with a presentation on the history of the San Juan Islands.

Passing in the night

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

We departed MacKaye Harbor at 7:45 after receiving a call from Val who had heard J pod on the OrcaSound hydrophone at 7:00. He mentioned that Ken Balcomb had also heard them at 9:00 pm last night at Lime Kiln (only 2 hours after we dropped anchor!). As the calls grew fainter at OrcaSound and weren’t heard further south at Lime Kiln, Val thought they were headed north, though he couldn’t see them. We motored and sailed up the west side of San Juan Island, stopping to listen intermittently. Half way up Haro, we coordinated with the Western Prince whale watching vessel to search for the southern residents. The orcas apparently continued traveling to the north while we stopped to drop Shannon off for her break and sighted a lone Stellar sea lion. We continued north, sailing fast; Mike hit 9.6 knots and then Wessal topped 10! After rounding Turn Point, we tucked into Prevost Harbor for the night, tying up to the dock and taking the opportunity to run, walk, and stroll on land.

Traveling with transients

Monday, October 1, 2007

Worked our way south through Mosquito Pass after a quiet night in Roche Harbor. Headed southwards with the flood tide, intending to return on the ebb if we didn’t encounter the whales down south. As we passed Lime Kiln mid-Haro, we started hearing VHF conversations about killer whales. We nearly circumnavigated Discovery Island E of Victoria before joining a group of about 7 transients. They proceeded northward in Haro Strait on the western side and we monitored them and the surrounding whale watch fleet with the array. We didn’t hear any calls or clicks (but weren’t listening carefully all the time). The session was recorded, however, to the tune of about 1.2 Gb of data. Just north of Kelp Reef we turned and headed towards the south end of San Juan Island. We knew the southern residents were exiting the Sound around 130pm and our calculations indicated we might meet them near Salmon Bank. It was nearly dark when we finally pulled into Mackaye Harbor. Little did we know that the orcas were likely just a few miles to the south of us at that point!

Rainy Roche changeover

Sunday, September 30, 2007

 

We woke up at Garrison Bay to a drizzly, windy, grey morning.  After breakfast, we lifted anchor and headed over to Roche for the changeover, while we completed our chores.  At Roche, we cleaned the boat, finalized data entry onto the boat’s hard drive, and packed up.  We had a quick, early lunch before the other group arrived.  While the instructors met, the students discussed data collection and potential overlap in projects.  Then, Scott and Jason led a discussion on transportation and sustainability.  Afterwards, Val’s group headed back to the labs while Jason’s group got dinner ready.  We pulled away from the docks at Roche before 1800 and anchored out in the harbor.  Shannon and Jason read proposals, while Kenna, Elise and Liz read the chosen article for this weeks journal club.  Wes continued to localize calls and analyze data, and Heather caught up on some rest.

Oil and swell don't go well

Saturday, September 29, 2007

We woke up at Snug Harbor to oatmeal for breakfast and a full holding tank to pump out.  After chores and cooling the fridge, we headed to Roche where we emptied the holding tank, topped off the water tank, stocked up on a few essential items (i.e. cocoa), got our espresso fixes, and posted postcards to lucky, lucky recipients.  We had our voyage planning in the cockpit as we left Roche.  Anne informed us that we were under a gale warning for the weekend, with winds predicted up to 30 knots.  A superpod was reported southwest of Victoria heading west, so the group decided to motor sail south for a few hours and see what the weather and whales were doing after lunch.  Alex and Anne prepared quesadillas for lunch and heated up leftover stew from last night.  Before 1400, the wind had picked up and the pager informed us that they weren’t going to be sending out anymore messages.  After a few unsuccessful phone calls to try to find out more about whale whereabouts, the group decided that whales weren’t happening today and the seas weren’t suited for studying.  We turned around and headed back to Garrison Bay to take shelter from the storm.  Anne and Tim did some dinghy driving training, Alex plotted a graph of VATO’s water usage, and Ash caught up with the pager data.  Todd passed out the sail assessment test, Scott planned our Sunday turnover, and Shannon wrote this.  As the students tried to catch up on entering data, Scott and Shannon prepared chili and cornbread with cheese and sour cream on the side, because as Tim declared earlier today, “oil and swell don’t go well.”

Whale soup

Friday, September 28, 2007

We woke up at Snug harbor and Leslie rang to tell us that she could hear the whales off Lime Kiln, so we lifted anchor right after breakfast and put off our morning chores until later. We spent most of the morning chasing the whales—writing down pager information, listening to the radio, and making phone calls to try to figure out which way they were headed.

North, south, then north again

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Tim cooked potatoes for breakfast and as we were starting our morning chores, we headed to Roche to pump out our holding tank and fill up our water tank. We picked up a few essentials (including chocolate chips) and discussed voyage planning for the channel. J and K pods were up north, so we started heading out past Spieden Island, heading towards Flattop Island. But then, we began receiving pages informing us that L pod was heading north up the coast of San Juan Island. L pod seemed more attainable, so we turned around and headed back south. The winds and the seas were picking up considerably. Val and Ash made bean burritos and heated up the last of the stir fry for lunch. After lunch, Sam and Anne worked on the set up for deploying the array and Anne and Tim worked on the high frequency. The students took turns sailing as we made our way south. Unfortunately, L pod switched direction and began heading south as well. Late in the afternoon, we switched direction one more time and headed back into Snug Harbor for the night, where we sat down to lasagna and Greek salad prepared by Scott, Sam, and Shannon.

Friday Harbor Lab Dinner

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Shannon woke up early again for a direly needed morning stroll and returned in time to prepare breakfast with Val and Anne. After breakfast and chores at Prevost, we sat down to voyage planning and goals for the day. The superpod was resting south of Vancouver Island, so Todd went over parts of the boat and points of sail. Sam and Tim heated up stir-fry leftovers and cream of potato soup for lunch, as Marla, Anne and
Shannon replicated the sound propagation experiments from yesterday with Val and his speaker playing calls and clips from the dinghy. We pulled into Snug Harbor and unloaded Marla’s gear onto the dock before anchoring. Val’s wife, Leslie drove Marla to Roche to pick up her car after Sam and Anne had their last chances to pick Marla’s brain. Jason picked us up at 3:30 and we headed to the Friday Harbor Labs to meet with the other group and discuss data collection and science narrative protocols. We also took the opportunity to grab quick showers, try to catch up on email and make a few rushed phone calls. Afterwards, we sat down to dinner and learned what the visiting scientists at the labs and their apprentices will be studying during their time in the San Juan Islands. There were some particularly interesting research projects on fiddler crabs and worms. After dinner, we headed back to Snug Harbor for the night and to dream of superpod sightings for tomorrow.

Sound propagation and drive-by's

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Shannon and Tim woke up early to go for a morning hike before breakfast and returned just in time for oatmeal. After chores and a never-ending deck wash, we used the mechanical pump out at Reid Harbor before heading out. Conditions were calm and skies were clear, so we set up an experiment to measure sound propagation. We deployed our high frequency hydrophone and array, and Marla deployed her array as well. Val and Tim boarded the dinghy with a speaker while Anne, Sam, Ashleigh, and Marla recorded the calls and clicks played. Shannon gave the distance between the dinghy and Gato Verdeusing the range finder and Alex and Todd held the hydrophones away from the boat’s hull as they were pushed by the current. After recording both calls and clicks at a range of distances (approximately 25 m to 300 m), a number of dinghy drive-bys were recorded with the high frequency hydrophone. Alex heated up the eggplant parmesan, while Shannon prepared egg salad for lunch. After lunch, Val recorded the speed of sound (1484.55 m/s), the students analyzed their data, and Shannon wrote this. Data analysis continued into the late afternoon, as Tim and Anne tried to troubleshoot the high frequency hydrophone. As the sun was beginning to hang low in the horizon, Val and Sam boarded the dinghy for more drive-bys. Anne set up the high frequency hydrophone with the boat hook as an outrigger, Tim recorded the data, and Shannon perfected her range-finding abilities. We said goodbye to a lone male elephant seal and headed for Prevost Harbor on Stuart Island for the night as Anne was preparing veggie and tofu stir-fry.

More hydrophone calibrations

Monday, September 24, 2007

After Anne’s freshly baked bread for breakfast, we completed our chores and sat down to voyage planning. We discussed goals for the day, as well as goals for the week. We lifted anchor and motored out of Snug Harbor for a quick lunch and then set up our hydrophone calibration. The speaker was dropped off the starboard side of the Gato Verde, while 7 hydrophones strung together were lowered off the port side. We played S1 calls, cal tones, and tones to try to calibrate our hydrophone array, high frequency hydrophone, and Marla Holt’s high frequency hydrophone. After disassembling all of the gear, Todd spotted two cargo ships on the horizon and Tim wanted to try to record vessel noise with the high frequency hydrophone. Shannon took photos, Anne held the hydrophone, Alex found distance with the range finder, and Sam helped with recording data. We rolled out the jib and sailed north for a little, waiting for the ferry at 1630. As the ferry approached, Tim used the high frequency hydrophone again to record vessel noise. After the ferry passed, we headed to Reid Harbor on Stuart Island for the night. We tied up to the dock, and Alex made eggplant parmesan with linguine for dinner. Shannon was aching for a stroll—so, she, Val, and Ashleigh attempted to check their voice messages at the top of the hill, but only Val was successful. Then Shannon updated this blog and Ashleigh and Marla discussed Marla’s thesis research. Anne baked a second loaf of bread. Alex caught up on her Vanity Fair reading. Sam tried unsuccessfully to get online. And Tim worked with Val on creating a calibration curve for the high frequency hydrophone.