Leg 2 - Random ramblings...

8 February 2007
We bid adieu to Tom and Candy two days ago, and watched them waving goodbye on the dock – so sad. We also said goodbye to crew Corey and Bob – chief engineer. Bob will be back (quick visit to Seattle – his hometown), but Corey couldn’t hang with the seasickness, so he’s back to Hawaii. In their place we got Laura (working for Tom – acoustics) and Mark (working as oceanographer in Candy’s place) plus Tommy – chief engineer, and Mike – local HI guy as crew. It will be different without Candy’s chipper South African accent and craziness, and Tom’s voice on the radio (and no one for Jim and Richard to make fun of!). I think we’ll adjust though.

After a few days in port it was nice to be back on the ship, even though it was sad to say goodbye to good friends...We steamed out of Apra Harbor in Guam and headed north along the West side of Guam – we could see Guam (including Tumon Bay – the downtown area - on our starboard side all day. We also passed Rota, the island to the north of Guam, before sunset, and Saipan later that night. Rota is a pretty small island, but we could clearly make out a little village with colorful buildings and some sort of school with a baseball field behind it. Looked pretty cool, actually.

Immediately upon leaving the harbor we all remembered why we enjoyed being in port so much – pounding 10 foot seas, 25 knot winds and salt spray greeted us and stayed with us until this morning! There were a bunch of cool bird flocks as we steamed north to our first transect line, but it was so bumpy it was hard to keep the binoculars on the birds long enough to identify them...We surveyed the area as we steamed north, just because we could. We haven’t stopped working once yet due to high winds or sea state (Usually we stop search efforts around Beaufort 5-6 because the data is worthless and we generally don’t see much). However, this cruise is different because 1) we know there is no end in sight to the high winds this time of year and 2) we have a limited time to survey the entire area, so we do what we can. However, no bad weather (e.g. no work) days means I haven’t had time to do all my activities I’d planned! Like work on publishing my thesis, reading a ton of books, etc. Oh well...Mostly now I read a bit when I’m off for 2 hours, or nap, or eat or workout. That’s my typical day!

Anyhow the first day and yesterday at sea were definitely bumpy and unpleasant. And (no surprise here) we saw nothing but birds – lots of birds, but that’s it. Red-foot boobies, brown noddies, sooty and white terns...The usual. They came in close for some good looks though.

Movies watched: Poseidon (about a ship getting hit by a rogue wave and sinking) and The Guardian (about Coast Guard rescue swimmers in the Bering Sea)...not the typical selection I’d choose while actually sailing on a ship, but at least we now know what to do!

We’ve also had lots and lots of sashimi – and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. We caught 2 big onos (aka Wahoo) and 2 mahi mahi’s in one day! Actually you don’t really want mahi as sashimi, but fish nonetheless! Pretty good diet for me. Ed, our cook, is so good – lots of healthy food for a change...
This morning I awoke to gentle waves rolling me in my bunk – and knew we’d reached our waypoint and were finally heading slightly downswell – at least for the day. Our plan is to get as far north as possible then go south with the waves to minimize the pain. It seems to be working so far – we’ve already seen a sperm whale, unidentified large whale (too far to ID) and some dolphins! Not too bad! Later in the day we saw a group of sperm whales pretty close to the boat – and one was spyhopping (sticking it’s nose out of the water). As we were heading back to “course and speed” and leaving the whales behind, one started breaching behind us! Pretty cool to see a 50 ton animal launch out of the water...and hard to miss the splash it creates! The final topper to the day was a sighting of a short-tailed albatross – the first time I’ve ever seen one! These birds have wingspans up to 6 feet across – huge compared to most of the terns and little storm petrels we’ve been seeing. It actually come in close enough to get some photos, too – although I don’t have a very fast lens so they’re a bit blurry. Note the bubble gum bill...diagnostic...

9 February 2007
Last night I spent most of the evening playing with my digital photos on my computer and updating my iPod with new podcasts and music to play while on watch on the flying bridge. I tell ya, it takes a lot of time to organize photos and music! I need a “bad weather day” to catch up...Too bad that doesn’t look likely. Although last night it started raining pretty hard, didn’t let up til about 10:30 pm. We also changed course and are currently riding in one of the 3-4 different troughs in the ocean right now. The seas are so confused that no matter which way you go, you’ll be in some trough, which means a violent rocking back and forth of the ship, forcing you to cling to anything you can grab and make sure your coffee cup is secure (along with everything else). Add to that the rain and fog that’s returned, and it’s making for a “bad weather day”. Although it’s not official yet – we’re all on “standby” to see if the weather clears up and we can go back on watch...If not, it’s movie time!! My record is 6 movies in one day (on the David Starr Jordan in 2005 – CSCAPE cruise). I don’t think that will be broken anytime soon, plus I should work a little anyways...Ed’s making wonton soup for us for lunch...to warm us up.

I thought we were in the tropics, man! What’s with the rain and fog? At least I’m still in shorts, just added a rain jacket to the top. Plus, it is February, and we’re heading north (we’re about 18 degrees north right now – that’s 1000 miles north of the equator – each degree is 60 nautical miles.). That’s one thing I’m learning more of – and enjoying – is getting all the ship and nautical type stuff down. Plus my identification/observer skills...It’s fun!

We worked our way north along the Northern Mariana Island chain, and actually got to see some islands through the rain and fog! We came upon Guguan – an uninhabited island with an active volcano about 1/3 the size of Guam. It’s the 6th island north from Guam. Although uninhabited by humans, there were a lot of seabirds roosting on the tropical green foliage lining the volcanic rocks – red foot boobies, sooty terns, frigate birds, and tropicbirds. We also were greeted by about 10-15 rough-toothed dolphin (my first time seeing them!) as we moseyed along the western side of the island. They didn’t stick around, just passed under the bow and were on their way. As we continued north the next island, Alamagan, came into view – much smaller, but also rocky coastline. There were tons of bird flocks feeding off the island on schools of flying fish and other types of fish. I even saw a frigatebird (“pirates of the sea”) knock a fish out of a brown booby’s claws mid-air and grab it and eat it! Pretty cool...Next up came Pagan Island – the one with the largest active volcano – I looked for smoke but it was too foggy.

14 February 2007

The last couple days have seen “winter-like” weather – rainy and foggy, but still wearing shorts (just with rain jacket on top). Crossed over a stationary front with lots of fish breezers, birds, and some mammals...We had one day of nice weather – Beaufort 4 and sunny, but mostly big squalls, big waves, and strong winds. Still lots of birds – frigatebirds, Bonin petrels, Matsudaira storm petrels, streaked shearwater, Herald petrel, terns (sooty, white), and boobies galore! Red-foots, brown, and masked boobies – they’re pretty cool birds. Plunge dive for flying fish, soaring over the waves...I even saw two boobies flying together – synchronized boobies (although that just doesn’t sound quite right...). The sightings have been pretty slow – some pilot whales, striped dolphins, beaked whales (that I never saw), sperm whales, bottlenose dolphins bowriding for about 5 seconds. All the sightings have been pretty quick, and nothing spectacular, since it’s been such bad weather...ah well...Interestingly enough, the acoustics team has been hearing sperm whale clicks, humpback songs, and navy sonar all at the same time...weird...

We are now on the northeast side of the Mariana Island chain – we have Saipan and Tinian Islands in sight off the port side – lots of history out here on the islands – Japanese occupation, American invasion, etc. I’m learning about it all as I see them and ask questions. Also, apparently Saipan is where a lot of “designer” clothes are made – American brands – check your labels in the back of that Gap shirt – very interesting – it’s such a small island. I think I’m going to head up there and check it out on a port call – plus Rota as well, two “laid back islands”. Why not?!

Other than that still enjoying my daily ono sashimi intake and plenty of cheesy movies – “Dukes of Hazzard”, “Welcome to Mooseport” , “Dr. Strangelove”, “Sideways”, and “Alien” to name a few.

20 February 2007

Ah, sitting here sipping rum and juice after another nice sunny day. Couldn’t be better! Well...

So around February 16 or so there was a significant change in the weather – for the better! Not that it’s glassy and no wind, clear skies, but definitely nicer, with a gentler breeze (which means less white caps) and sunny skies. We’ve actually had two days now with Beaufort 2 conditions (around 5-7 knots of wind, which is nothin’!!). Most days it’s more like Beaufort 4 with some rolling still on the boat, but at least I don’t have to cling for dear life (most of the time) to anything attached to the boat!

We’ve seen some more animals now, including False killer whales (Pseudorca)!!! Or, as we like to call some people on the boat – rather than “true orcas” (killer whales), we switched it to “Truedorca”. That applies to most of the people on board, since deep down we’re all pretty much true dorks (as opposed to pseu-dorks). Okay now I’m really establishing myself as a dork. But if you’ve read this far you already know that!

So anyways, the Pseduorcas (talking about the animals now!) are very cool – they came up and were bowriding – and they’re big! Up to 17 feet long! They look like killer whales except without any white markings, and not the tall dorsal fins on the males (actually more like pilot whales). Very cool! Since our first sighting we’ve seen them off and on in small groups – and one time even came upon a group feeding on some big fish (we’re guessing Mahi mahi)!!

On Feb 17th we came very close to the island of Saipan – and found a big group of sperm whales (with some calves) offshore of Garapan (the main town on Saipan). As the sun set we watched the lights on west side of Saipan, played some music on the back deck, and drifted all night. It was very cool. The acoustics team spent the night recording and tracking humpback whales that we’ve been hearing in the area. All the observers slept soundly while they were up all night doing all the work. When we awoke refreshed in the morning all the acoustics girls had to do was direct us to where they thought the humpback whales were...and, lo and behold – there they were! Very good job for the a-team (acoustics team that is). We spent most of the day with the whales, which it turned out were a couple of groups of males chasing a female. Thus, there were some good visual displays as the males jostled for position with the female (lots of breaching, spyhopping, and all around excitement!). After most of the day spent photographing the whales and watching their behavior, we set out to survey the east side of Saipan. We wrapped around the north end of the island, passed a lot of beautiful cliffs – one area named Banzai Cliffs because it’s the site (sadly) where many Japanese soldiers and families jumped to their deaths to avoid being captured by American troops in WWII. There were a lot of crosses and markers, memorials along the shoreline. The east side of Saipan looked like more of the “local” side with quaint small Mediterranean style villages and beautiful empty white sand beaches. Can’t wait to go back there and explore. We cruised down the east side of Saipan and then cut through the channel separating Saipan from the island south – Tinian. The channel isn’t very wide, and we got some good looks at the lava rocks making up the islands, and the natural “blowholes” produced by the swell hitting the lava. We had a surprise visit from some spotted dolphins briefly under the bow, then headed west to check out Esmerelda Banks and called it a night.

We briefly celebrated Fat Tuesday, but we’re all so wiped out that it wasn’t much of a party (I tend to go to sleep around 10 at the latest out here!). Anyways, the jam sessions still occur now and then, plus lots of good movies, reading, and talking. Some recent movies include “50 First Dates” and “Failure to Launch” as well as “Alien II”. I’m really starting to appreciate all those action flicks I missed or ignored growing up --- they’re good! I can’t wait for Alien III and IV!!! What will happen? Who will die??

21 February 2007

Reunited with Moby:

Today was one of those crazy days that you will never forget for the rest of your life. Where do I even begin? I know I’ve told some of you already, but essentially we got rammed – yes, I said RAMMED!!! – by a sperm whale today! I mean, like the boat shuddered with the impact, the whale pooped when it hit us, seriously hit!

So here’s the story:

We spotted a group of sperm whales out in the distance and started heading over to them to get photo id’s and count how many there were (standard procedure). I was watching them in the big eyes and could see a lot of splashing, spyhopping, etc going on. As we got closer I spotted a big male – I started calling him Big Poppa – plus some others further off in the distance – including a cute little calf! Anyways, Big Poppa and all the rest of the whales (about 10 in total) turned to face away from us (butts to us). Then BP promptly turned around and started swimming straight for our boat – and veered around the bow – we got some good looks at him – he was HUGE and had all these scars on his head. Anyways, he just swam by, and we kept moving slowing towards the rest of the group. Then we noticed two other big males in that group and I said something to the effect of “Wow we’ve reunited with Moby’s kin”. Then, before I could process what was happening, the other two big males started swimming full speed at our boat – I just said “Uh oh” and watched dumbfounded as the whale swam straight for our bow and got maximum propulsion from it’s flukes (tail) to hit us! It was a big thud and then the whale pooped and swam under the boat. Seriously, all I could see was whale, no water! Then the other big whale looked like he was going to do the same thing, but missed and dove under. Meanwhile, the calf and the rest were waiting off in the distance, peacefully. We have tons of pictures and video of it – you can hear me going “Uh, what’s going on?” and then all of go “Holy sh#$!! The whale just hit us!”. I think the whale still has a headache from that one...Anyways, it’s the first time that anyone has ever heard of a research vessel being struck by a sperm whale (obviously it’s happened to whaling boats in the past). Quite an experience! Check out the pics...

26 February 2007

So we’re back in port again – in Guam – catching up on sleep and drinking. Oh and other stuff too – emailing, etc. The last couple days at sea were really nice – pleasant weather, lots of good sightings (including a Bryde’s whale cow and calf!), tons of streaked and wedge-tailed shearwaters streaming by us to the Northwest, and more spotted, striped and spinner dolphins. Plus we had “Ruby” the Red foot booby hanging out with us for over 24 hours, just hitching a ride on the bowmast. Occasionally she’d swoop down and scoop up a flying fish, then promptly return to the boat to digest (and poop on us). Thanks Ruby...

Anyhow, it’s nice to relax and swim in the warm water here, hang out on the coral sand beaches and decompress...Until next time!