Were (almost) Famous!

Birdwatch UK has put out a wonderful article detailing the project! check it out :)
http://www.birdwatch.co.uk/channel/newsitem.asp?c=11&cate=__10926

Notice of Eviction.

At the request of the USDA and US Fish and Wildlife Service, I have removed all photos of the operation on Palmyra Atoll. Because preservation through eradication is a highly controversial subject, the major sponsors of this project have asked that I hold off on posting information about the project. This only concerns Palmyra Atoll, and hopefully we will get the all clear in a couple weeks. Thanks!

A Change in Time, A Change in Place

Greetings! (We come in peace!) I've made some changes to the blog layout to make things fit a little better and added a bit of an overview so people aren't left scratching their heads toooooo much. Let me know in the comments what y'all think!

Heli practice!

Well today we got to bring the heli out for a trial run! Peter brought 54K out with a bucket so we could start looking at how things are going to fit together for the next two projects. Hopefully in the next couple days we can bring one out again and do a couple dry runs with the bags so we can make sure everything will fit.

Father's day cruise, with a twist!

Dad on his Father's Day cruise!

                                 Hey there Sharky!!

                                  "Sniff sniff"

Just oneee biteeee!!!! (Nemo anybody?) :)

Just a Sh*tty day!

Well hello again! Back in the lagoon tonight, today we had to take the Aquila outside of the refuge to take care of some glorious matters... emptying the sewage tank! Just a shitty day :D haha it was actually a fun day though. We had to go twelve miles offshore to dump the tank (National Wildlife Refuge and all that) while we were outside we did a bit of fishing. What made the day so special though was we finally got the Porpoise Escort we have been waiting for!!! I figure the video is worth at least a couple hundred words :) Tomorrow has the potential to be very very busy. They finished the first application of bait today, so tomorrow we may have to load up all the empty bait containers and offload the new bait for the second application. That may or may not happen tomorrow though because they have a certain waiting period between bait applications so they may want to wait for the offload.



Quote of that day: It's just a shitty day!
Weather Forcast: Clouds, flat on the bottom, fluffy on top. Light wind out of left center field.
Picture of the day: Antenna six o'clock! Break right!!

Windy!

Well, heli ops were suspended yesterday because of wind and today is no better. On the up side, we are getting lots of projects done. Our main focus right now is to finish the upper heli deck and go through the job shack and one of our storage containers. Our Quote of the day comes from the whiteboard weather forecast. No weather on the planet today. God is in a meeting. LOVED that one!!

Things that float...

So this was a longer story and I didn't really have time to write about it when it happened. But now that we have some more time, it belongs in the blog! So one of the first things we did when we got to Palmyra was build a floating dock to make it easier for people to get on and off the boat from smaller boats when we are at anchor. So one night the dock was tied to the side of the boat. All three jetskis were tied off of the dock, and the two tinny boats were pulled up on top of the dock. So my morning started at about 545 when Gromyko came into my room and asked if I had moved the dock last night cause it wasn't tied up anymore. Uh oh... We checked all over for the dock thinking someone had moved it to the stern or something. No luck there. Looking over the rail, we saw the twisted and frayed remnants of the line that was holding the dock. Sometime during the night, the lines had parted and let the dock, three jetskis, and two tinny boats drift out the channel. We launched the skiff right away to go look for everything, and luckily found the flotilla about an hour later. The dock had stopped on a ten foot wide sandbar on the back side of the last island out. Had the dock floated even twenty feet to the side it would've been carried out the channel and into the breakers. Needless to say, we were very very lucky. The jetskis being trashed in the surf wouldve been a very very bad start to the morning and the project. But we got everything back so it's all good! After the dock got stuck, the tide dropped so when we got there it was all high and dry so we ended up taking all the bouys off of the skiff and using them as rollers to move the skis to deep water. By that time we were finally able to move the dock to deeper water and tow the flotilla back to the stern. A couple days ago we got the second dock in too so now we have a beautiful 30 by 8 dock on the back of the boat. Anyway, looks like it's time to go to work. Adios!

YeeeeeeeHawwwwww!!!

Today.... Today was a great day. As we were building the second dock, we decided to cool off a bit. But why just jump in and swim?? naaaaa... lets get the Crane Swing going!! yeeaaaaaa buddy! 40 foot boom crane, stretched out with about 80 feet of cable... thats a good time! After a few jumps though we got kinda bored... So out comes the wakeboard! I swam the board to the back of the boat with the crane hook in the other hand then when I was ready we spooled the winch up at full speed and I just went ripping across the water!! It was pretty incredible! I'm not sure if we got anything of me on the board, but theres some great pictures to come of me on the swing! stay tuned!

Palmyra

 This place is more beautiful than can be described. Even better than I remembered. If the internet is in a good mood tonight I will send quite a few pictures :) going to wrap things up with a quote of the day and some pictures. Good night all! Oh yeah and I can text! Its with a wifi texting app on my phone so i might not reply right away but the number is (724) 716-1985.

After all of the planning meetings, our quote of the day came to us courtesy of Dave.
Palmyra. A great place to meet.
Palmyra. Meetings capital of the pacific
Meet you in Palmyra!

 Above taken arriving in Palmyra on the sixth

Palmyra in the morning!

Well guys that pretty much says it all, after one long day and three better days we're 40 miles out!!! We would get in about midnight but the refuge managers dont want us coming through the channel in the dark so we gotta wait until morning. Today was a very productive day and even though I'm dead tired it feels good. Gromyko and Chris did an acid wash on the whole boat, it's amazing how much rust that stuff can take off. The decks around the wheelhouse are almost white now! Most of my day was spent sweating and swearing in the engine room, but right before dinner I finally got the new jet fuel pump all wired in and tested. Tomorrow will be another long day for sure but it should be tons of fun. Coming in the channel there will be at least four GoPros on duty so plenty of pics and video. I can't wait to see how the Atoll has changed the last seven years, hopefully the caretakers have been good to her, but we'll see in the morning. As soon as we get in and tied up i think the plan to is start unloading all the TNC and Fish and Wildlife gear and supplies, then the fun stuff... Building a couple helicopters!! For the ride down we had to take the rotor blades, mast, and skids off so they would fit in a standard 40ft shipping container. Can't wait to see it all go back together though! Thats all the time I have for tonight, I'm actually on watch for the next two hours so I better get going. Stay tuned, the best is yet to come!!

Half Way!

Well looks like we're just past halfway to Palmyra. Hopefully we will be getting in around this time Sunday night. So far its been a great ride, although we haven't had a porpise escort yet :( sea conditions have been pretty good, the first night out of Hono was a pretty rough ride but we're down to 6-8 ft swells on the port side now. We had an awesome dinner under another beautiful sunset over the water, definitely can't beat the water view :) some exciting news, back in Hono we picked up a couple kites and kiteboards so we hope to be able to try that sometime during the trip. Chris has been hard at work upgrading the sound system onboard, the wheelhouse now has full surround sound with a sub. I will take watch any time now :D my eyes are tired of staring at the computer screen so im going to go ahead and wrap things up for the night. Adios me amigos!

Qoute of the day: Blogging. It's like being able to email an imaginary friend!

Picture of the day: Sunset cruise anybody?

Headed out

After a little snag with customs and the coast guard were finally on our way out to Palmyra.