Farewell Shumagin Islands....

THE SHUMAGINS
We have finished surveying the Shumagin Islands for the season and are now back in the Kodiak area. Due to weather and time constraints we had to limit working on four of the nine sheets assigned. The Rainier will come back next season to finish the remaining sheets. Here is an image of our work completed.

The Shumagin Islands survey project - Finished

We were able to complete the sheet I was assigned to. All the required bottom samples and multibeam data was collected. Now the sheet manager and I will complete the Descriptive Report (DR) for our assignment. This is a very detailed process that covers all areas of the survey. We will also comb through all the data to make sure it is presentable before finishing the DR.

Here is an image of my completed survey area.

H12473 Survey area - Finished

 

Looking back, it is great to see all the work we have accomplished. Here is an image of the completed project at Chirikof Island.

Chirikof Island survey project - Fhinished

Now we are moving on to our next assignement before heading home for the winter. Our next project is in North Kodiak. We have already begun work in this area by setting up two tide gauges and a base station. Having this work done is great because the moment we get there, survey operations can commence.

BASE STATION
I was on the Horcon team again for the North Kodiak project. This was the third base station I helped install. We chose to set up the station on an islet off of Whale Island in North Kodiak.

The location of Whale Island where we installed our base station

A closer look at Whale Island

Islet chosen for the base station

Exploring Whale Island near the base station

Some sort of man made contraption we found in the forest near the base station 

Getting the HORCON gear off the skiff

The benchmark we installed for the base station

Part of the base station. View of the antenna and solar panels.

On our way back to the ship....there were so many otters out and about

We will survey North Kodiak until October 11th. Then we go back to the Coast Guard Base in Kodiak for our last inport. After the inport, we will spend a bit more time finishing up the North Kodiak project before starting our transit home.

NEWPORT, OR
The homeport for the Rainier S 221 is located in Newport, OR. This is roughly a ten day transit from the Kodiak area. The plan is to depart Kodiak on October 23rd and arrive back in Newport on November 2nd.
Once we are back at our homeport, I will stay as long as I am needed to complete the project that was assigned and make sure the DR is ready to be sent off. From there, my 2012 internship with NOAA will be come to a close and I will head back to Denver before the Spring Semester begins.

The sunsets, sunrises, and night time have been stunning as usual. Here are a few more photos.

Sunset in the Shumagin Islands

 

 

 

Midnight at anchor in tn Sandy Cove

 

Night time while transiting

Moonset at 0530 near the Shumagins

The sunrise following

A few weeks ago, I went out on the fantail late at night to catch a glimpse of the stars. We were underway and rolling a lot. I found a good spot on the fantail to stargaze while still being able to balance between the rolls. It was a crystal clear night and all the stars were out. Then, out of the darkness, I heard crashing noise. A huge wave came up over the bulwark. When I looked down, I could see that the wave had left bioluminescence all over the deck.

It is getting colder here. We even saw our fisrt snow a few days ago in the Shumagins. The weather has been cooperating for the most part, but we can't always count on that. Hopefully the North Kodiak project will be sucessful, especially since there are great places to hide from the fall Alaskan weather.

SHIPLIFE
I have been working on a video for a blog post about shiplife. Once it is finished I will write about the ship and what it is like to live here. Until then, greetings from North Kodiak!