091 science narrative A text document for drafting and archiving the science blogbook entries. Please include day, location information, and narrative of the day's science deployments/findings. When possible, upload entries as separate (daily) posts with tag "Science BlogBook." e.g.: Sunday 4/19/2009 FHL to Jones Island Transited under electric power... discovered giant squid. Sunday 4/19/2009 FHL to Jones Island Transited under electric power. OK we didn't discover giant squid, but the students did get a chance at the helm of the Gato Verde. The students were very efficient in moving all of the gear and food out of S1 and onto the Gato Verde so that we made a good start from FHL. We even got a chance to see Anne Harmon one of our students from 2007 on the dock at FHL. She is now working for Kwiat, the center for historical ecology. The journey was a smooth one under partly cloudy skies and we tied up easily to the mooring bouy on the south end of Jones. Monday 4/20/2009 Jones Island to whales to Mitchell Bay Students raised the main sail for the first time on the Green Gato, and we Sailed slowly from JOnes Island to the beginning of Spieden channel. There the wind died, so we started motoring to Roche Harbor, where Val sped off to shore in the dinghy. We continued motoring towards Mitchell bay, and caught the wind for a while. We noticed a little cluster of whalewatching boats in Canada, so we motored over to check it out. There they were on the first full day! Wahoo! It was T40 with four females Transients, frolicking and porpoising with glee. We stayed with them for about an hour, recording behavior and boat numbers. They started travelling north, and we lost 'em. We motored back to Mitchell bay, deploying the hydrophone as a demo on the way. We moored in the sunshine for an evening of swimming, burritos, and Grimm fairytales. -hmm. Tuesday 4/21/2009 Stayed at Mitchell Bay There was a heavy fog all morning. Students went over data sheets and thought about how easy it would be to run statistical tests on data collected and how easy it would be to turn into an excel spreadsheet. We also made a list of science goals. Analyzing our data sheets were at the top of the list followed by behavior recognition improvement, ID the whales from yesterday, practice hydrophone deployment, read the journal article for journal club and possibly deploy the Vemco acoustic tag receiver. At around noon the fog finally cleared out and we had a quick lesson on sailing and how the boat moves using the wind and then we went out to practice. After sailing in about 20 knot winds for an hour or two we came back to Mitchell Bay. We continued our sailing lesson and went over terminology and ended the day with learning how to tie knots. In the evening we read the journal article for our journal club discussion and tried to identify the transients we saw yesterday. We positively identified T40 but could only identify one female, T37b. We need an updated transient ID guide because the guide only has photos of the left side of the saddle patch and most of our pictures were of the right side. EB Wednesday 4/22/2009 Mitchell Bay, SJI to Prevost Harbor, Stuart Island. After stopping at Roche Harbor for lunch and switching captains, we began sailing towards Stuart Island. At 14:00 we deployed the CRT hydrophone. The cable for the hydrophone was very sensitive causing interference and picked up a lot of flow noise. At 14:30, the hydrophone array was deployed. There was still some flow noise interference, but it was much better than the CRT. As we reeled in the hydrophone array at 14:50, a group of Dall's porpoises swam alongside the Gato Verde. There were 5-6 which included a hybrid with a Harbor porpoise. They were seen at latitude 48 deg. 43.08 min. N and longitude 123 deg.14.90 min. W. While the Dal's porpoises were riding around our boat, a male elephant seal poked his head above the water for a minute. MW Thursday 4/23/2009 Prevost Harbor to Mitchell Bay At 09:30 hours Val did a lecture on localization. Right after the lecture we did an exercise on localization involving the 'clangs' at the OrcaSound and Lime Kiln hydorphone's (there are some msyterious clanging/clinking sounds that have been heard intermitently on the hydrophones this winter/spring). Our results indicated that the hyperbola leads to Discovery Island / Beaumont Shoals. This is just an estimate from where the sound source may be. Then at 13:25 hours we had an encounter with three transients whales. We have IDed them as T10,T10B, and T10C. We first saw them at Mandarte Is. and they were traveling northwest. Then at 1400 hours they switched direction and started heading north towards Stuart Island. Then entire time they were traveling. We also found traces of whale poo! It was another interesting encounter with the Transients. It was a surprise encounter as well because they just popped out of the water and shocked us all! Finally at 16:20 hours we did the localization exercise with the array and our sound source on the dinghy. The position of the exercise was at N 98 degrees 34.902 W 23 degrees 11.881. The data was uploaded to the Beam Reach computer and will be analyzed at a later date. PV Friday 4/24/2009 Mitchell Bay to Griffin Bay After a hearty breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes thanks to Hilary we had an early start from Mitchell Bay out into Haro Strait. As we headed south in Haro Strait we ended up with a decent breeze from the SE which we took advantage of for some nice sailing. We practiced tacks, chicken jibes and a hove to. The hove to was performed in between Discovery Island and Beaumont Shoals, the area we thought was the potential source of the mysterious clanging on the hydrophones at Lime Kiln and Orca Sound. Although we listened for 15 minutes we heard no clanging, but did hear the numerous container ships passing by. There was not a lot of wind and we were at slack low tide, so it may not have been the appropriate conditions needed to generate the mysterious clanging. The breeze died down in the afternoon, but we did manage to ride what wind was available and the currents towards the south end of San Juan Island and into Cattle Pass. We got to experience Cattle Pass on a raging flood. As we were sucked north by the current we managed to see 16 Stellar sea lions hauled out on Whale Rocks as well as cormorant nests on Goose Island. Rounding the bend Captain Mike showed us how to anchor off the shore of American Camp in Griffin Bay where we worked on our localization exercise using the software Ishmael. Altogether a sunny, breezey and pleasant day. JW Saturday 4/25/2009 Griffin Bay to FHL We woke to find that our anchor had held and that the water was glassy still. We got underway pretty early and motored to Friday Harbor. We pumped out at their finicky pump station and made our way back to the labs. We reprovisioned with our second week of NOLS rations and fresh goods that Jason brought, cleaned the Gato Verde and disappeared to town, the showers and the laundry room. It was a beautiful day to be able to walk on land and we all managed to shower, finish our laundry and catch up on internet time. HR Sunday 4/26/2009 FHL to Mitchell Bay We slept in and left FHL at about 10:30 this morning. We cruised south through cattle pass then headed along the southwest side of the island. There was no wind for sailing, so after rescuing the sea from a lost red balloon, we calibrated the hydrophones in the array and did a behavioral data exercise involving Jason in the dinghy with uncooperative dry erase markers. After all that we headed to Mitchell bay, where we moored for the night, anticipating a long and exciting trip to port angeles tommorow. -hmm Monday 4/27/2009 Mitchell Bay to Port Angeles Today we had an early start so that we could get out to Port Angeles in hopes of catching whales coming in the straight. We stopped by Race Rocks along the way so that we could deploy a hydrophone and see if the current generator makes any noise. We made two recordings and watched the stellar sea lions sun bath on the rocks nearby. There were also three bald eagles and a lot of harbor seals sun bathing as well. After the recordings we milled around the area and deployed a hydrophone every once in a while to see if we could hear any whales in the area but we had no such luck! Eventually we headed into Port Angeles to anchor for the night and plan our trip back to the islands tomorrow. Our new science goals that we discussed are to calculate the calibration for the hydrophone array, and work on the behavior exercise. We also plan to read this week's journal article by wednesday for a discussion on it. The biggest goal that everyone agreed on was to find those whales! EB Tuesday 4/28/09 Port Angeles to Garrison Bay The stong ebbing in the Straight of Juan de Fuca kept us anchored at Port Angeles until lunch. We spent the morning working on our research proposals and calculating the calibration for the array of hydrophones. As the currents began flooding, we cruised along keeping an eye out for the Southern Residents. We deployed the listening hydrophone at 15:35 for a period of 15 minutes to try to hear the whales. After a day of searching, all we were able to find was a couple of harbor porpoises. Since people have been paying attention in the 1970s,the Southern Residents have always returned to these waters in April. So we should have a better probability of seeing them with each passing day. MW Wednesday 4/29/09 Garrison Bay to Roche Harbor to Reid Harbor We first started off our day heading towards Roche Harbor to do a captain switch and pick up Val. Before we went into Roche Harbor we did a range (distance estimate) exercise. We had to guess how far an object was then Jason told us the real answer. Then we got to play with the radar and see the difference. Then I got to radio the Harbor Master to find out where we were going to dock while we waited for the rest of the crew!! While we were there the meat eaters got their fix. Once Todd showed up with the supplies we refueled the Gato Verde and headed out to Reid Harbor. Before we went to Reid we floated around Haro Straight hoping to see the Southern Residents. We deployed the listening hydrophone at a latitude of 48 degrees and 38.7 North and a longitude of 123 degrees and 12.72 West. We did see plenty of Harbor porpoies, but we heard no whales. So then we turned everything off and had journal club discussion which I lead. The title of the paper was "Underwater noise of whale-watching boats and potential effects on killer whales (Orcinus Orca), based on an acoustic impact model" by Christine Erber. During journal club we reached Reid Harbor and Matt and I started to cook. We did not see any whales today, but I am sure we will see them as the season goes on. PV Thursday 4/30/09 Reid Harbor to Mitchell Bay After an efficent morning chore period, we had a long discussion of our current scientific methods and how they need to be changed and improved. Jason also began to examine the OrcaMaster data set. In the afternoon, we sank a Vemco receiver in front of Val's house to pick up the pings from the salmon experiments. The Vemco was deployed at 14:45 at 48, 33.7 and 123, 10.81 in around 10 meters of water. The serial number was 100913. We did a quick drill with the hydrophone array and recorded the noise of the Gato Verde at 4 knots and varying speeds below as it slowed down. We did a quick man overboard drill with a hockey helmet that we'd found and then spent the early evening learning how to motor around in the dingy. After a filling dinner, everybody worked through the evening. Peter and Val analysed some of the data we took on the Gato Verde's noise levels and found some interesting results that will need further experimentation. HR (in place of JW) Friday 5/1/09 Mitchell Bay to MacKay Harbor This morning we had a quick breakfast and collected a gray water sample for Erica and Peter's surfactant sustainability project from the water used to wash dishes. We spent the morning discussing our progress in becoming comfortable with data analysis methods. We pumped out and filled up with fresh water and then headed towards Discovery Island to try to record the metallic plink that you can hear on the Lime Kiln and OrcaSound hydrophones. Because we didn't hear the plink we recorded the noise produced by the Gato Verde with various electronics on. We spent the afternoon motor-sailing and working on our individual projects. Hannah and Jason made a lovely dinner of falafel, tzatziki (sp??) and veggie stir fry. Hannah and I attempted a repeat performance of the Team H Caramel Covered Chocolate Spice Cake and we all enjoyed some deck yoga. HR Saturday 5/2/09 Mackay to Jones Island The seas were almost barf-inspiring today as we battled the wind northward along the west side of San Juan. We tucked into Mitchell Bay to drop off Val for his haircut appointment (?!) and then continued around the northern tip of the island. All was going well until we got to Spieden Channel, where the current began pushing us backwards. We were forced to turn on our engines in order to make it to the north bay of Jones Island. There we romped around in the rain and finished up the eveining with a double header: Return of the Plankton (dum dum dumm) and The Life Aquatic. HMM Sunday 5/3/09 Jones to FHL Today we went back to Friday Harbor Labs for our wekk on land. Gato Verde got a deep clean and we are halfway done with the program!! Now it's time to work on those proposals! EB Sunday 5/10/09 Friday Harbor, San Juan Island to Active Cove, Patos Island We left FHL at around 14:00 and were heading towards Jones Island when we were alerted by whale watchers on the radio that killer whales were by Sinclair Island and heading north. We continued north, passing Jones and Orcas Islands and cutting in between Sucia and Matia Islands to arrive in Rosario Straight. We first saw the whales on the west side of Matia Island at approximately 17:15. They were traveling towards the south side of Matia Island. We went west along the northern coast of Matia and met up with them again as they traveled north between Sucia and Matia. Male J-1 was easily recognized from the other individuals. We began recording with our hydrophone array at 17:27 and continued for a little more than an hour and a half. Clicks were present throughout the first hour and twenty minutes and through the final twenty minutes there were whistles and calls as well. There were quite a few tail slaps throughout the entire process along with a couple breaches and spyhops. We parted ways from J-pod as we passed along the northern side of Patos Island which caused us to choose Active Cove for moorage for the night. A listening hydrophone was left off of the stern overnight so we would be able to hear if the orcas travel south through Boundry Pass. MW Monday 5/11/09 Patos to Echo Bay We were greeted by rain in Patos' Active Bay this morning. We ate a hardy breakfast and then headed out into the current. We hung around off the Northeast bit of Patos Island, hoping for more whales. We found no whales, but they did show up near us towards the end of the day. Unfortunately by that time the day was leaving us and our generator was melting down. We kept ourselves well entertained all day though, playing with the echosounder, the fish camera, and plankton. We ended up mooring in Echo Bay and taking the dinghy to shore to stretch our legs and run into CMC friends. Hopefully we'll reconnect with the whales tommorow! -hmm Tuesday 5/12/09 Echo Bay to Prevost, Stuart We first started off the day excited to see whales. We kept in contact with Ivan, Jim, and Mark in order to work as a team to find the whales. The whales were spoted on the south end of the San Juan Islands and heading towards south of Discovery island. The big problem was we were way up north and it was going to take us three hours to get to the middle of Haro Strait. DUring our long journey we played with the fish cam, sailed, and Scott gave us a lecture on Temperature and Salinity Oceanography. Then it was a battle with the waves! As we went further south, the waves got higher as we began to feel sick. WE all kept it together in the name of science! Once we were down south, we got a message on the radio by Jim that the SRKW were being heard on Orca sound! It was time to head north and find the whales! We saw lots of boat action as we got closer to Stuart, and saw lots of the vapors from their blow holes! WE kept tracking them, but failed because they were head up to the Swanson Channel, in Canadian territory! We failed and had to turn around and try tommorrow. We were defeated today, but there is always tommorow! The Beam Pod is ready for another day of SCIENCE! PV Wednesday 5/13/09 Prevost to Mitchell Bay We woke to a rainy, gray morning in Prevost Harbor. We desperately needed to pump out so we went to Roche Harbor first thing and held our morning meeting on the way. We spent the morning discussing Hannah's journal club article and headed to the Lime Kiln area, hoping to catch the whales while we satisfied our other science goals. We were finally able to record some ship data for my project but we were eventually driven north towards Mitchell Bay and shelter by bad conditions. Before entering Mitchell Bay, we took a conductivity, salinity and temperature cast and also practiced vertical plankton tows. We took a quick reading of the water clarity using a Secci desk and then proceeded into Mitchell Bay at about 6:15. Scott and Jason made amazing minestrone soup, cornbread and salad for dinner and we settled in for a quiet evening, fending off the wet and cold. HR BLOGSPOT Thursday 5/14/09 Mitchell Bay to Mitchell Bay Waking up this morning to the sun shining through the windows was great! You couldn't even tell that the day before was dreary, wet and cold. It was a beautiful day that started with a hair cut for Hannah as we left Mitchell Bay. We decided that the average girl could cut hair without messing up. It turned out well. The plan for the morning was to remove the vemco at Val's house and redeploy at False Bay but that ended up changing very quickly. We found out that the whales had been spotted near Blakely Island at 8:30 and were heading South. We started making way south to catch the whales at the South end of San Juan. We eventually caught up with them despite engine problems. We recorded a lot of clicks and calls which was very exciting. We were able to stay with the whales until about 5 p.m before we needed to head back to Mitchell Bay for the night. On our way back we had a delicious macaroni and cheese dinner. We ended the trip back with a mini lecture on the properties of the ocean and global warming and how to possibly fix the carbon problem in our atmosphere. Now everyone is hard at work trying to analyze the data collected today! EB Friday 5/15/09 Mitchell Bay to Friday Harbor Labs We awoke to find J Pod just to the south of Mitchell Bay. We had the fortune of being with them for approximately 6 hours. Unfortunately, they did not vocalize much after the first 30 minutes. They were resting throughout the day which explains why we were able to keep up with them for so long. During our time with the whales, we encountered a boat that was leapfrogging the whales. They would stop their boat in the direct path of J Pod, forcing the whales to swim past their boat and then would repeat the process. Our attempts to communicate to the boat over the radio were ignored, so Scott used the megaphone to try and get them to talk with us on the radio. We were hoping to educate them on the Whale Wise guidelines, but they chose to ignore us. We also used our hydrophones to measure the sound levels created by Ken Balcomb's NOAA research vessel. We will process the information and return the knowledge to Ken. Even with our incident with the private boater, it was a nice day spent with the whales. MW Saturday 5/16/09 Friday Harbor Labs On our day of land for the week, Friday Harbor Labs had it's annual Open House. From 11 am to 4 pm, we answered questions and taught the public about the Beam Reach program and our boat, the Gato Verde. It was a fun afternoon interacting with everyone who visited the labs and seeing the community's interest in our program and the research we are conducting. MW Sunday 5/17/09 FHL to Mithcel Bay We made an efficient start from the labs at 9:00 this morning after having spent the day yetsterday showing off the boat and talking to visitors to the FHL open labs about the Beam Reach program. We had information from Jan who had logged hydrophone detections of Southern Residents late last night suggesting that they were heading south in Haro Strait. Unfortunately we also got news that they had been spotted heading West in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We did have a lovely sunny and windy day so that we managed to sail most of the way. We also had time for a lively discussion of Navy sonar this afternoon followed by our journal club discussion after dinner on a paper by Alexandra Morton and Helena Symonds discussing the impacts of acoustic harrasment devices on Northern Residents. Monday 5/18/09 Mitchell Bay to Peregrine to Mitchell Bay The Gato Verde remains wounded, but we headed out into the Straight regardless. We sailed with the teeny bit of wind that was around, but it wasn't enough to catch us up to the whales. We decided to charter Jim Maya's boat, the Peregrine, and ended up getting a huge chunk of great data! The calls and clicks were almost nonstop during our entire session! Also, the call diversity was incredible! When we made it back to Snug Harbor we dried off and hunkered down to an evening of data analysis and Star Wars. Oh the nerdyness... -hmm Tuesday 5/19/09 Mitchell Bay to Roche Harbor Today was a day full of whales and data analysis! We started off the day with our typical morning meeting and we all decided that today was a day full of data analysis! We went out into Haro Strait and we all took turns sailing hoping to run into the whales. Around 16:56 we ran into whales! We saw them just south of Turn Point heading south. We got over an hour in a half of data! While we are on our way to Roche Harbor to pump out and stay the night, the starboard engine breaks down! Jason had to push the Gato Verde with the dinghy! It is a pretty cool site to see, but not so cool for the Gato Verde! I hope tomorrow brings "A New Hope" for the Gato Verde! ...PV Wednesday 5/20/09 Stayed in Roche Harbor The plan for the day was supposed to be analyzing data since we are still immobile, but we were able to get Spencer to take us out on Island Paradise for a few hours. We left the Gato Verde around 11 and caught up with the whales just South of Roche Harbor, and they were traveling North. They weren't very vocal today because they were resting again. We were with them until around 3 p.m. We left them still heading North around Turn Point. Back at Gato Verde Mike fixed the starboard engine but we are still waiting for a new port engine. The rest of the evening will be dedicated to analyzing data and finishing off the star wars trilogy! -EB Thursday 5/21/09 Stayed in Roche Harbor The day is spent analyzing data and completing things on our "to do" list. Todd arrives back on the Gato Verde with a new engine and Mike returns home. Todd works tirelessly on fixing the motor as we do the same with our data analysis. MW Friday 5/22/2009 Roche Harbor to Mitchell Bay We began the morning with coffee cake made by the breakfast crew and after a quick morning debate about data analysis, our day off and pumping out, we decided to climb the mast. All five of us made it up, no problem and the view was lovely. That particular adventure yielded lots of good video footage and pictures. Todd managed to fix the port side motor this morning, kudos to him, and the Gato Verde was on her way for the first time in a few days (without the help of Gatito). After some testing, we went looking for the whales and were able to spend some time with them in the afternoon before pumping out in busy Roche Harbor and heading to Mitchell Bay to spend the night. HR Saturday 5/23/2009 Mitchell Bay to Mitchell Bay Today is our day to reprovision food and get showered! We all decided not to use up the gas to drive around the island to Friday Harbor so we kept the boat in Mitchell Bay and carpooled over to Friday Harbor. Everyone got to shower, do laundry and use the internet for the day. We came back to the boat unpacked this week's food and had a nice dinner. We will stay in Mitchell for the night and tomorrow we will be off to find the whales! EB Sunday 5/24/2009 Mitchell Bay to Prevost We were on the move early this morning. We weren't out long before we heard that the whales were at Constance Bank. We met them traveling to Lime Kiln at 1 p.m. They were very spread out and traveling pretty fast. We spent the rest of the day skipping from small group to small group and collecting data. Again the whales weren't talking much. There were plenty of clicks but not many calls. We left the whales aroung 6 p.m and motored to Prevost for the night. Everyone was excited to walk around Stewart a bit after dinner. It was nice to stretch our legs! The rest of the evening will be spent analyzing. EB Monday 5/25/09 Prevost to Westcott Bay Large tidal exchanges allowed us to cover a lot of ground this memorial day. We left Prevost and made it down to False Bay on a raging ebb tide. The whales had lingered up north last night and decided to come down Haro Strait, so we had to turn around since we were further south than they were. We found them around Dead Man's Bay and followed them south for about an hour and a half before heading north on the flood tide to get up to Roche to pump out. We then went around the corner and into Westcott Bay for the evening. Other than the new recordings the students spent time today analyzing data to try and make sure they are ready for the final week! JW Tuesday 5/26/09 Westcott to Snug The whales made their way out of the Straight of Juan de Fuca today, so we were left high and dry in terms of data collection. Data analysis, however, was in full effect as we stayed moored in Snug all day. Everyone was very productive and the sun even came out to join us. -hmm Wednesday 5/27/09 Snug to Snug Today we went out into Haro Strait and made like plankton. We were all on whale watch today, taking turns looking out for whales. From the chatter on the radio and the empty strait there was no whales to be seen or heard of. We did see a nice line of harbor porpoise's by Lime Kiln. We all hoped to see transients behind them, but no luck. I espically really want to see transients again! They are so cool! Anyways, around 4:30 we went down Mosquito Pass to head towards Rouch Harbor to pump out and fill up water. Then we had an excellent dinner of fried rice thanks to Hannah and Hilary. While we were eating we made the our way towards Snug Harbor to spend the night. Around 9 at night the TV producer of Orca: The Sea Wolf, Alexis, came aboard to be ready for our big day of filming tomorrow! -PV Thursday 5/28/09 Mitchell Bay to Mitchell Bay The videographer, Jeff, from The Discovery Channel and his wife Kim joined us this morning to begin our full day of filming. The morning and much of the afternoon was spent deploying hydrophones and explaining their uses in front of the camera. It was interesting to see how a production for television is made. Numerous angles and shots must be taken to give the editors plenty to work with, so it can be a repetitive process. The repetition did not bother anyone since we are all excited to have the chance to be a part of a project showing on The Discovery Channel. We unfortunately did not see the residents return today, but saw a group of Dall's porpoises a mile south of the Lime Kiln Lighthouse. As our time on the boat is coming to an end, we all hope that the orcas return for at least one last visit with the Gato Verde. MW Friday 5/29/09 Mitchell Bay to Reid Harbor We had another gorgeous sunny day. We left Mitchell Bay in the morning to make like plankton, holding a cycle of whale watches while we carried on with our data analysis and our sustainability projects. We took a quick break in the middle of the day to help Val deploy a new temporary hydrophone at Lime Kiln. Hannah and Jason took the dinghy out to deploy it and we used the blue box to calibrate it as best we could. We enjoyed a sunny evening on Reid and everyone went for a walk. HR Saturday 5/30/09 Reid Harbor to North Bay We finally got the chance this morning to use the manual pump out facility in Reid Harbor. Based on the splashing sounds it seems like we were the first to use the facility as it was recently reinstalled by the State Parks. After leaving Reid we headed sound on the ebb tide and stopped in Mitchell Bay to take a water sample for Erica and Peter's surfactant project. In pulling into Mitchell we were greeted by a flotilla of sail boat that were just starting the 'Rhumb Race', a sailing race organized by the local sailing club. We spoke with the committee boat, and they were kind enough to invite us to join them for the second race of the day. Todd gave us a little lecture on sail racing and we got all excited while we waited for the first race to finish. Unfortunately the fickle wind let us down and only 2 boats finished the first race, so it was called, and we couldn't wait any longer. So our hopes at being the first Beam Reach crew to be tested in a sailing race were dashed! We made our way south down Haro Strait and then up into North Bay at the north end of Griffin Bay where we tied up to the mooring buoy of some friends of mine so that we are well situated for a short run into the Friday Harbor Labs in the morning. During the evening I was pleasantly surprised to have three students sit down with me and start to crunch their numbers through some statistical tests. It was great to see that they have come so far. What an enjoyable way to spend the last evening on the Gato Verde. ;) JW Sunday 6/31/09 North Bay to FHL We woke early this morning to head back to FHL where we unpacked the Gato Verde one last time and then spent the rest of the morning cleaning the boat from bow to stern and deck to bilge. We waved goodbye to Todd and the Gato Verde just before 14:00 as he headed back to his home port of Bellingham.