From Port Protection to Petersburg!

   We awoke this morning to a terribly foggy day in Port Protection, though judging by the moss on the trees, the fog is pretty much standard issue here. Heading out the [NARROW] channel, we once again began our survey. The primary objective of this cruise is to study the declining populations of harbor porpises and try to determine the reason for the decline. That being said, in the words of an unnamed scientist, this is a killer whale cruise disguised as a porpise cruise! We are here to get our work done and study the small stuff, but the whales sure are more exciting!! After helping raise the anchor, I had to repair the lock on the emergency escape door of the Manning Unit, then go around and grease the "dogs" on the rest of the watertight doors. A dog on a watertight door is the handle(s) used to latch the door for closed, and they are notorious for sticking when not used often. Once finished with my maintenance duties, I began welding up a drive-on, floating cradle for our jetski. Last summer the skis took a huge beating from the lifting eyes and the rough water so we are hoping this cradle will solve those issues. The cradle took most of my day, soon it was dinner time and time to watch our arrival into Petersburg. Our arrival went quite smoothly until I started the crane to set the gangway on the dock. Not knowing that the Aft crane was already running, I pushed the button to start the Forward crane. Normally having both cranes running is not an issue at all, except we were running on our smallest generator. When the forward crane started, the lack of power fused the contactor together, disabling the crane until replacement parts can be acquired. With any luck, they will be flown to Juneau on thursday, installed that afternoon, up and running on the forward crane by nightfall. We can do naught but try!
Ending today's installment of the Aquila Daily, SHRIMP. When we got secured to the dock a fisherman from a shrimp boat came down with a dock cart full of shrimp caught earlier today. At his price of $15 dollars for a five gallon bucket, we took the whole cart! Having been caught just hours ago and needing to go into the freezer ASAP, four of Team Aquila and NOAA Crew Chief Marilyn volunteered to prep the shrimp. An hour later, well over 1000 shrimp had been deheaded, washed, and packed onto freezer trays. 
What a day!!! 

Day two!

A beautiful end to our first day of surveying!! We anchored up for the night in a beautiful spot called Union Bay.

Angle boards used to give a precise angle of a sighting

The Ski is mostly protected from the weather, up top behind the Bridge,

 

As I write this we are going past the town of Wrangell, surveying around Woronkofski Island. Projects of the day include looking at whales, watching for bowriders...


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And in todays breaking news, a sailboat driver with a death wish decided to cut in front of us. oh joy!! He crossed about 100 feet in front of the only boat in ten miles!

Today's REAL projects included replacing the heater in the lower head and fabricating a lifting cradle for our jetski.

Outbound out the Ballard Locks!!

First Post!

#Yay!

Summer of 2012 has arrived and once again the R/V Aquila and her crew are headed north to adventure. We left Seattle the evening of July 3rd, and arrived here in Ketchikan Alaska yesterday evening, July 6th. This morning, we are officially on contract with NOAA and are departing Ketchikan at 0900 this morning. More info to come but for right now we will get started with some pictures of the trip north!