Check out my SPOT adventure for a map and pictures.

It was a gorgeous day and we were at anchor so liberty boats were sent ashore. Practicaly everyone wanted to go so there was a bit of a line. To save time I threw the kayak in and kayaked ashore. Once ashore I stripped down to my swim trunks donned my swim cap and goggles and met up with some like minded polar bears to jump in the bay.

After that a few of us hiked up to a lake and I convinced more people to go swimming with me despite the lake being about 2 1/2 feet at its deepest with another foot and a half of silt/muck.

We hiked back down and I took the kayak back to the ship.

So I haven't been on here in awhile, but I'll be around more often now. We're getting underway for the Gulf of Alaska today and I plan to be posting more. I got a video camera so expect videos as well. Have a good summer all!

It was gorgeous yesterday, below is the coxswain taking us to a small island to maintain a GPS base station. And below that is the point that the station is on.

In Juneau over the last two in-ports I found a small bakery and cafe called Paradise Cafe. It is both eclectic and cosy. Many of the chairs have plain white slipcovers. Many of the tables contain random objects for entertainment such as magnetic poetry or jumping jacks. On a far wall they have an antique tandem bicycle attached for display. But most importantly they have excellent baked goods and the best coffee in Juneau. I spent several afternoons developing an odd relationship with the place.

My first time in the cafe I found my spot at a table next to a window overlooking Marine Park and Gastineau Channel. The table was in a corner by the far wall with the tandem bicycle. On the window sill was a lamp, a drawing of a band and a yellow flower. On the table were the jumping jacks mentioned earlier and a small windup toy of a green robot rapper (I could tell it was a rapper because of its $ bling). I had brought my origami bag with the aim of folding something new.

In my origami bag I keep a book titled "Origami for the Enthusiast" from which I have folded possibly a third of the designs. On that first day I decided to try something new. I folded a robin, then a bunny. Next I finished a stink bug. I am less interested in the final object than the process of making it. Therefore, more than often I will give the origami to someone or leave it as a "random act of origami." On this day I decided to leave the pieces in the window sill. I had a sense that they would be appreciated.

I visited a few more times and found my pieces hadn't left the sill. The presumed owner shared that a few customers had been very intrigued by the origami, especially the free standing robin. So I added a mountain goat.

On the following in-port I visited again, I ordered a scone and a latte, he said it was on him. I thought of it as compensation for the origami. I will be curious to see if anything is left next year.

Harassed by a pod of Dall's Porpoise.


Fished for icebergs.
( Picture behind the cut )

Installed horizontal control and maintained GPS base station on small overgrown island.


Carved pumpkin.
( Picture behind the cut )

Mustachio Bashio, also known as Mustache-apalooza.
( Pictures behind the cut )

Visited the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor's Center


Stood under waterfall.
 

Just finished the project in Icy Bay. Got a beautiful send off, as seen above. Headed to Juneau now for the weekend. We're expecting to arrive in about 36 hours. I'm excited for a break and a chance to see Juneau. We've been working long days.

We saw some snow and a lot of ice the last couple days while working in the bay.





Also set up a GPS base station on a very cool benchmark that was originaly set in 1974 by flying in with a helicopter (NGS Datasheet: UV3076).

I took a break for two weeks to go home and see family and friends. I met up with the ship Saturday in Cordova. I'll try to post about Hydropalooza later.

Just had to point out the picture of me in a recent feature article on the NOAA.gov website titled Seeing the Sea Floor .

Also, I was the second hydrographer aboard the launch that found the wreck shown towards the top of the article

staying at the posh Kasitsna Bay Laboratory marine research lab

The ship was working in the Shumagin Islands today. We got here around 10am after a rough twenty hour transit from Dutch Harbor. The weather turned quite beautiful despite the forecast of a storm on its way.

I started out yesterday afternoon feeling the nine foot seas, despite the motion sickness medication. I slept through a good portion of it and slept quite soundly through the night with the mild noise of the engine and the rocking of the boat.

The full nights rest was a good catch-up from the previous few days. Thursday, Friday, and much of Saturday we were doing 24 hour operations collection data in the southeastern Bering Sea, which becomes Bristol Bay at some point. My shifts were four to eight am and four to eight pm. I got a short nap midday Thursday before the night shift and stayed up through the night to get a good rest the following day. On Friday morning, I got to bed after falling asleep in my chair sitting at the computer after my shift. Three hours into my "night's rest" I got woken up by a fire emergency. I mustered to my station to assisting in the dress out of the fire team and then found out it was a false alarm. By then there was no way I was getting back to sleep. Stayed up through the night again and got some decent sleep mid-day Saturday.

Towards the beginning of last week a couple of people in the survey department went to tend and visit the grave site of Karl Mueller. Karl Mueller, along with Maurice G. Rudisell, died in a hydrographic survey accident aboard a launch of the U.S.S. Surveyor in May of 1938. Their boat struck a previously unknown reef now called Rudisell Reef. The bay in which the accident occured was named Mueller Bay.

Rudisell was buried near the site of the accident on Umnak Island approximately 200 miles southwest of Dutch Harbor and the city of Unalaska where Mueller was brought to rest.

In addition to tending the grave of a fellow fallen surveyor we established a GPS benchmark on the plaque over his grave.

On the weekend of August second and third I got out on the island with the XO and one of the junior officers. We went camping in the hills around Dutch Harbor. The majority of the trip was in the fog. Even got a little lost with the XO while taking a walk away from the camp site. Sunday the fog lifted around noon.

After joining the much of the crew at the Grand Aleutian Hotel for an excellent Sunday brunch we headed back out to explore more of the Island.

As we drove the dirt road that makes a loop over the Northeast end of the island we stumbled on a trail to Ugadaga Bay. The trail was historically used by the Unangan People as a portage route to trade pelts in Unalaska. We spent much of the afternoon hiking the trail, exploring the beach and napping in the tundra.

And just a little something to leave you with, I got a shipment of several corncob pipes and accessories two weeks back. I have been practicing with the pipe every few days since the shipment came in.

Several people have asked why I started smoking a pipe. With a bit of a grin I respond one of two ways, either "What better way to epitomize a sailor?" or "I see it as a life skill, much like scotch tasting."

I started plurking, you should too. I've seen it refered to as micro blogging, kinda like twitter, but a cleaner interface with a timeline, and the ability to comment.

On the way into Dutch Harbor early Thursday morning we stopped to investigate discoloration of the water in Unalaska Bay. The discoloration started a few weeks back at the same time as some volcanic activity nearby. So we went volcano hunting. We saw what could be a vent in the bathymetric data!

Yesterday I took a walk along the beach and found some old structures from WWII, also found some sea urchin shells. The town is an odd little place. It wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the fishing.

Today we tested some of the equipment that we brought aboard for FISHPAC.

So I'm hanging out in Kodiak again. We're waiting on some personnel to get underway on Monday to Dutch Harbor where we'll pick up a bunch of scientists and start on FISHPAC, a habitat research project that will be conducted in the southeastern Bering Sea.

Planning on a few hikes this weekend before we leave. Also a bunch of the crew are going bowling this Friday at Tsunami Lanes here on the Coast Guard base. I think it might be the preliminary tryouts for the Fairweather's team for Hydro-Bowl this winter (the Hydro-Bowl trophy is currently in our possession).

I had a good time in Homer last week. Picked up a few books at a used book store, which included a collection of Leonard Nimoy's poetry. Also got some new music, its a local Homer band called Three Legged Mule. And spent some time at the infamous Salty Dawg Saloon drinking the local Homer brew which is exclusively bottled in Sobe bottles.

For work we setup two tide gauges for our work in Kachemak Bay in August. The gauges were installed in Katsitsna Bay and Bear Cove (click either to see the active tide data on tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov).

I was largely involved in the additional work outside of the actual gauge installation. We had to recover any existing tidal benchmarks, set additional benchmarks as necessary and reference the benchmarks to the gauge with differential leveling. I was one of the few people with ample experience with the tasks from my previous job as a land surveyor. It was particularly difficult conditions so it was a good initiation to leveling for the people without much experience. And I recovered one of the benchmarks that had been buried over the years! They had no expectation of finding it.

The ship has been in Homer since last Wednesday and I think we'll be leaving tonight. The picture is the mountains to the southeast of Homer. I'm on my way to a tide gauge that we installed last week. We're finishing the work to estabished the benchmarks we are referencing for the gauge.

Above are a few photos from a hike across Old Womens Mountain during the in-port in Kodiak over the last weekend. Its more of a ridge than a mountain. Its a 4 mile hike with 1200 ft elevation gain which is basically all in the first 3/4 mile. Went out for sushi twice over the weekend and it was surprisingly good.

Last night we came into the Shumagin Islands just south of the Aleutians, midway out the chain. The "total population as of the 2000 census was 953 persons, almost entirely in the city of Sand Point, on Popof Island." I'll get some photos in the next few days. Pretty remote, so we're not getting the Dish Network out here so instead of watching TV I went down to our "gym" for about an hour and a half. The weather is pretty dreary, foggy, winds 15-20 knots and raining. We anchored up in reasonably protected little bay. After the gym I hid from the wind and rain in a corner on the fantail and drank tea and smoked a pipe with one of the Junior officers while a few people fished off the fantail.

Today we went into Sand Point very briefly and we should be headed back out shortly and get some ships hydro done.

So I made my way up to Ketchikan, Alaska, on friday. Got to the ship just fine and went out drinking with some of the crew.

Saturday I just bummed around in town. I found a little stand that said "locally roasted coffee" so I got talking with the guy. He had worked in Seattle for about 6 years at a coffee shop and commented that his current setup made it hard to make decent esspresso, but the tourist coming off the cruise ships could care less. The roastery, Raven's Brew Coffee, has a shop up the road from town. One of the blends is called Three Peckered Billy Goat, which I thought was funny.

Yesterday went for a hike on the Deer Mountain Trail (a photoset). It was a 2 mile hike in with 2,000 feet of elevation gain. We got up into the left over snow pack from last winter!

Today we got the launches over the side for patch testing. We will be using them next week for the project!

See you all later. It will be harder to update once we're under way because the internet connection is painfully slow and costly. Our next inport should be two weeks from now, but it may be sooner.

Also I made a little links and info page with some usefull stuff for keeping tabs on me.

I still have to sign paperwork in the next week, but I should be shipping out June 6th to meet up with the NOAA Ship Fairweather somewhere in Alaska.

So the first thing that I'm gonna try to fix is the ship tracker. In theory it updates every hour, but it hasn't updated in the last month. So watch that if you're interested.

Got out of the office today, which meant traipsing through the forest, machete in hand, killing nature that got in my way.

Well, I think so Brain, but... balancing a family and a career? Ooh. Its all too much for me!

Well, I think so Brain, but if they called them SadMeals, kids wouldn't buy them!

I think so Brain, but if Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why does he keep doing it?

I think so Brain, but it's a miracle that this one grew back (holding left leg).

Uh, yeah Brain... but where are we going to find rubber pants in our size?

I think so Brain, but the Rockettes?, I mean its mostly girls, isn't it?

Well, I think so, Brain, but if Clark Kent wore contact lenses, wouldn't he look just like Superman?

http://blather.newdream.net/a/areyouponderingwhati_mpondering.html
http://www.patman.org/interests/comics/ponderings.asp

I googled myself today... I've done it in the past and I've been like the first three pages, now I'm the first 5 pages. Not sure how I feel about that. Not really important stuff though. But I found that a photo of mine was credited and used on the KEXP blog!