"You're not supposed to use speed brakes on your descent if you can help it!" That thought echos in my mind as I sit feeling the 737 hum with vibration from the extended spoilers. It is the evening of Thursday, August 2nd, and we are turning final, descending through a cloudless sunset into Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Since the past Friday, I have been in Virginia and the Capitol, catching up with some old friends and soaking up the rays. After wrapping up our first survey, we raced back to the shipyard in Seattle to play Rush Hour with 20 ft shipping containers on the main deck. Of the five containers aboard the Aquila, only two were able to stay in place. The others were scrambled and rearranged to provide a more efficient work flow on our Arctic deployment. Exactly a week has passed since I stood under our aft deck crane, sweat pouring off me and sizzling on the black steel deck. Laying alongside the staging pier at NOAA's Sandpoint facility, we loaded 45 subsea mooring systems, eight crates of AN/SSQ NAVY Sonobouys and about 3000 cubic feet of assorted scientific gear. Each mooring system consists of a 700 pound railroad wheel as an anchor, a long length of chain with numerous instrumentation packages along the chain, and finally a large yellow steel ball to hold the chain up off the seafloor. The morning I left, we loaded 8,200 gallons of JP-8 Jet fuel to supplement our 70,000 gallons of marine diesel. Why would we need a tank of jet fuel on a research vessel? Well one of our fuel tanks is a dedicated aircraft tank that has been cleaned, inspected, and approved to carry aviation fuel. Since our engines can burn jet fuel just as well as diesel, we would rather have extra jet fuel than risk being short on gas.
    We now skip forward to the 6th, I am leaving for Dutch Harbor in a few short hours. The last three days have been a blur, rounding up many odds and ends for the boat, the small details that were missed in the war zone of a shipyard. Extra paperwork, cleaning supplies for the espresso maker, an aircraft band VHF, power strips for each room, all will be brought up on my flight. With that, it is time for me to upload some pictures and sign off! Twelve hours from now I will be in Dutch!

Yellow balls for all!!

Full house?

We WILL find the Red October!!

While in Virginia, I rented a Diamond DA-20 and flew down Virginia Beach

My copilot Katrina says no more pictures!

Virginia Beach!

Okay fine one more picture...

Katrina's base, USCG MILFORD HAVEN

Washington DC!

Massive storm we flew past in Montana. T-Cells all the way up to 35,000 feet!

Valley fog on an early morning Seattle flight

Glacier Rodeo!

Best parents in the world, Captain Kale Garcia and Captain Angela Keeling. It used to be captain and first mate, but now mom holds a 1600 ton master license, same as dad!