Beam Reach

Co-Chief Science Officer’s log
Sea Date 10-1-06 (Day 13)
Heading back to sea is always a good way to start the month. We left the Friday Harbor labs at around 14:30 to head over to the Port of Friday Harbor to pump out our holding tanks before we hit the high seas. Captain Todd has […]

I would like to announce that at 10:48pm my paper presentation and everything else was DONE!!! WhooHoo!
I spent the last 3 nights working until 3am! It was great. Research is cool. Analysis is cool. Significant results are even cooler - but no luck this time. I have faith though! I still have confidence that theres […]

10/17/06
Another beautiful day in the San Juan’s. Although there are no whales today, it is sunny and cool, a perfect October day. We anchored last night in Fisherman’s Bay on Lopez Island. It is a nice anchorage and appears to be a bit more of a small island community than places […]

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 […]

Yesterday concluded our final week at sea (and my twenty third revolution around the sun!) We awoke to a splendid sunrise from the south end of Jones Island looking out across San Juan Channel to San Juan Island, our final destination. But before I describe our homecoming, let me recap the week. After […]

As October weather sets in (and really, who doesn’t just LOVE October) we are all preparing for our final week at sea. Last week was a mixed bag of ups and downs. We had three days with J Pod off the west side of San Juan Island in Haro Strait, two days of […]

So, my time here with Beam Reach is almost over.
I’ve begun analyzing data, and I’m not gonna lie - I’m excited.
The boat… has been the boat, and it’s definately not an ideal research platform, but we’ve been able to have several good enocunters with the whales regardless.
Dalls porpoises are in love with […]

Well, what can I say besides we are still alive. The great October sunshine has officially disappeared and the rain has come. Thankfully I like the rain in moderations. This week was harder than most because we had a relief captain and the boat broke AGAIN! We have been using the dinghy as the only […]

As of today we have now completed our third week of the sea component. We set out with new methods and ideas for projects ready to test them in practice. Also, Scott joined us for the week to get a sense of what we’d accomplish and to work out difficulties we’d been encountering. I’d have […]

It has been far too long since I’ve “blogged” and much has happened. First and foremost, I’ve seen breaching Orcas and bow riding Dall’s Porpoise and its been great. There are only 3 weeks left of the course, unbelievably. In the 7 weeks we’ve been here we’ve been to Lime Kiln State […]