Heading Home!

0400 07 September 2012
R/V Aquila
55 45.512 N
164 49.411 W

We made it! We are officially done with the last mooring turnaround, and are currently steaming full speed towards Dutch Harbor, Alaska. I believe in the last post I mentioned how nice the weather was and it would be a matter of hours until we were done and headed home. However, it was not to be. Later that day, we started seeing reports of a pair of monster lows racing toward us. As we watched the systems develop, it quickly became clear we would not have time to make it to our last site before the first gale hit. After numorous team meetings and a great many calls to offices in Seattle, we made the decision to divert to St. Paul Island to wait out the worst of it. St. Paul offers the only available protection in that area, but protection is certainly a relative thing. We pulled into the harbor on the 3rd and got secured with our winter lines, monster four inch tie up lines strong enough to lift a whole stack of battle tanks with one line. Normally four lines keeps the boat snug aga
inst the dock, but in preparation for the coming breeze we doubled that to eight lines. All that and the surge still managed to break one of our older lines! Though most would've prefered to be heading home out of Dutch at that point, we all enjoyed our stay on the island. St. Paul is the number one breeding site for northern fur seals, and a major destination for birders across the world. The crew at the Trident Seafoods plant was kind enough to get us a permit to enter the seal rookery, so we were able to head up and snap some pictures of the adorable seal pups. We departed under blue skies and calm winds the evening of the 5th, heading out for the 200 mile run to the mooring site. Upon arrival, we sent the CTD over for the last time, retrieved one short mooring, deployed two, then headed in for dinner. After a delicious pasta dinner it was all hands on deck once again to retrieve the monster surface bouy we had all been waiting for. Everything seems worse in the planning stages and
deck meetings, but once we cut it loose from the anchor it was nothing more than another bouy retrieval and we had it aboard in short order.

0453 2 September 2012
R/V Aquila
61 50.294 N
167 42.368 W

Good morning to all! The local time is way-too-early-30, and I am way-too-happy for how early it is. Not that 0500 is a terrible time to be up, but we only just wrapped up our last CTD station at 0145 this morning. The station couldn't have gone better, it was a balmy 36 degrees, the moon was out, and seas were only four feet. Speaking of that moon, it is occuring to me that this is the first time I've seen the moon at night in a very long time. I wonder if it has been there the whole trip and I haven't noticed it? More likely, this is the first time we have had enough vis to be able to see any moonlight on the water!
Everyone insists they aren't counting down the days until the end of the trip, but with only three days left I think we all have a little clock running down in the back of our heads. The boat has become our Homeward Bound train, and with the reappearance of the moon there just may be light at the end of the tunnel!

0400 31 August 2012
RV Aquila
66 36.576 N
168 18.670 W

Whipped to a frenzy by an arctic gale, the icy black waters of the Chukchi Sea have once again made a point to remind us how small and insignificant our steel bubble really is. The last 24 hours have seen sustained winds at 40kts with gusts over 50 and swells climbing to 22 feet. As dawn breaks over an angry sea, it seems the worst has passed and the winds have slacked off some. By an incredible stroke of luck, the wind came up just as we finished our last mooring station off Barrow and got underway to Nome. Continuing the lucky streak, our course lands the swells straight on the stern, the best possible direction for a smooth ride. While it has been relatively smooth, the ride has been anything but relaxing. As each swell hits the stern, it lifts the stern until the bow is pointing down at what seems like 20 degrees. Far enough down that when one looks straight ahead from the wheelhouse, the swell ahead of us is at or above eye level. Each swell pushes on the stern with the force of
an avalanche, giving us a full two knot increase in speed and forcing the autopilot and rudder to work overtime to keep the sea from pushing the stern to the side and putting us broadside to the next wave. As the swell rolls forward from the stern, it creates an effect much like a teeter-totter with a teeter that constantly rolls from end to end. When the peak of the wave is about 40 feet forward of the stern, the water drops out from beneath the screws leaving our twin 80-inch stainless propellers thrashing at a frothy mix of water and air. This cavitation is probably the most uncomfortable thing about the current sea state because it creates a vibration like an earthquake that is felt and heard throughout the entire vessel. With the screws part of the way out of the water, the engines jump in RPM, coming out of sync and adding more vibrations. Then the stern plunges back into the water and the endless cycle starts anew.


0900 1 September 2012
R/V Aquila
Port of Nome

How quickly things change up here. In the matter of a few hours, the winds can change by 40 or 50 knots and the seas can climb or drop by 15 feet or more. Yesterday morning we were watching swells towering over the bridge, by noon we had rounded Cape Prince of Whales and the swells had dropped to six foot rollers. We got secured to the pier in Nome by 2200 last night, and this morning we awoke tied to the pier, the calmest it has been in two weeks. We are just about to depart for Dutch Harbor and our last few mooring sites. As of right now, we are scheduled to be in Dutch by the 5th.
All have high hopes of finding more whales these last few days, though by now everyone is getting a little worn out. Onward and Upward!!

A quick explanation of the pictures in this update,
We stopped in Nome on the 15th of August to pick up supplies and pick up two additional members of the science crew. Due to an issue with the ILS at the airport, no flights came in but we had plenty of time to explore Nome and catch up on lost sleep. It was in Nome that we took the pictures of the musk
ox and reindeer. Yes, that is a real, live pet reindeer in the back of the truck. Mom and Dad talked to the owner and the reindeer is a complete pet, best buds with the guys dogs, and jumps in the back of the truck when he sees his owner getting ready to go. No kidding. Only in Alaska!!
The other pictures were taken in a large ice flow we found three days ago. Lots of ice, wallies, and even a polar bear!!! A POLAR BEAR! Pretty neat seeing one in the wild, that was a first for nearly half the team on board.

August 24th 2012

After hanging on for several days of ping pong ball fog, mist, rain, wind, sloppy seas and generally miserable and uninspiring weather, we finally got a break today. If you've been to Seattle or places like it,you understand how people can get a little freaky when a weather break comes. Everyone stops whatever they are doing and jumps on the opportunity to cut loose! First we broke out the rower and the treadmill from their captive lines and covers, cranked the music and turned over the mile meters. Next, several fun loving crazies on the crew took advantage of the glassy water to stamp 'CHUKCHI SEA' in their water sport passports. A discussion took place on the bridge about whether or not the following activities would be safe and after coming to the conclusion that there are no guarantees, the Aquila zip line was open for business...ran by the captain himself! Crane swing, crane boarding, swimming and paddleboarding were all on todays 'fun' menu. All manner of safety gear was donned, from pro surfing drysuits to orange gumby survival suits, and one by one they launched. First over the side with her paddleboard was chef Katie. Our surf board demonstration came from Tanner, the most familiar with boarding by crane. Several orange gumbies flew threw the air like flying squirrels from the upper deck splashing down in the Chuckchi with a perfect, once in a lifetime, IMAX widescreen sunset happening in the background.

One of our favorite quotes-by Donald Miller "Once you live a good story, you get a taste for a kind of meaning in life, and you can't go back to being normal; you can't go back to meaningless scenes stitched together by the forgettable thread of wasted time." Many of Aquila's crew will go home with a good story from today...but one question, does this count as an overboard drill?

1920 12 August 2012
R/V Aquila
Bering Sea, Alaska

Evening of August 12th! It feels like at least a week has passed since we left Dutch Harbor, though it has only been four long days. The timing of our mooring turnarounds has left most of our crew on a somewhat erratic sleep schedule, only compounding the feeling that time has slowed to a crawl. We have changed out eight moorings now, four relatively short and easy, four anything but simple. Though we have the process nailed by now, each set poses its own set of complications and challenges. An acoustic mooring is about ten meters in length when it goes over the rail, making it the shortest, lightest, and most manageable mooring. The "long" oceanographic moorings are intended to sample the entire water coloumn, from sea floor to surface. Because of winter ice keels, the top of the mooring must end 18 meters below the surface, but that still leaves a good forty meters of delicate equipment that must be gingerly deployed over the side. The long moorings are deployed using multiple picks on the crane, sometimes as many as seven or eight. The first pick is the bottom of the strand, with a 2500 pound steel anchor at the bottom. This first pick is the most dangerous because of the nearly uncontrollable anchor at the bottom. Normally when we lift a heavy object at sea, the crane cable is kept as short as possible to minimize the swing. On a mooring however, each piece is ten meters long so we don't have much choice other than to time the launch with the roll of the boat and try to get the anchor in the water ASAP. With the anchor under water the swing slows considerably and we are able to bring the set back over to the rail and secure it with a chain and shackle. With the first strand secured to the rail, the crane hook is removed and we can get set up for the next piece. Once again a strand is held in the air above the rail while PMEL chief rigger Bill joins the two strands. Once joined, the set is lowered until the top is even with the rail and can be secured again. Finally the last strand is hung over the rail with a release hook. Last minute checks completed, the ok is given and the release is tripped, sending the entire set on an express freight ride to the muddy sea floor.
After a few close calls with heavy things starting to swing on the crane, it became apparent we needed to do something about our space situation on deck. While deploying moorings, there was room to work but nowhere to go if things went south like they often do when the weather picks up. Since our original pile of 45 anchors had shrunk quite a bit, we spent two hours carefully restacking the anchors and moving the whole pile aft by two feet. By then it was pushing 2300 and the sun was about to set so we decided to knock off and get an early start. Rising early at 0700, we shoveled down some breakfast and geared up to spend the next four hours on deck. Everything within 30 feet of our launch area was moved and reorganized, giving us close to 200 square feet of extra work space. While the boat is still stuffed to the brim, we were able to alleviate the immediate trip hazards and move the most expensive and sensitive equipment to safer spots on deck where it would be much harder for an out of control crane load to wreck them.
By 1100 we had the deck mostly squared away so we parked the crane and went to work securing things until the lunch bell was ringing in everyones bellies. After a delicious lunch of Havarti and Swiss grilled cheese sandos (on organic artesian sourdough bread) with a side of chicken and vegetable soup, we headed out for a quick mooring changeout. When we finished, CB gave us the news that it would be two days until our next deployment. Originally I had planned to spend some time working on our jetskis, but with the return of the rain I decided to focus on more practical and urgent matters, drying our wet boots. We had the material for the big pieces but no fittings to pretty it up so out came the duct tape. Half an hour later, with a large pile of PVC shavings on the deck and a shrunken roll of duct tape in hand, three sets of boots were well on their way to being dry by morning.
My last project for the evening is a set of adjustable pot racks for the stove so pots and pans can be left on the stove in rough weather with no fear of them jumping to the floor. Although I cut out all the pieces yesterday, it will take some time to get them fitted in and attached to the stove so i had to wait until all the cooking was done for the day. Now that I have the galley to myself, I had better get to it. Pictures will be forthcoming!