R/V Aquila, summer of 2011!: Just a Sh*tty day!

My Story!

Hello all! Welcome to my travel blog for the summer of 2011. My name is Tanner Garcia, and I work with my family aboard our boat, the 165 foot Research Vessel Aquila. This summer we are traveling the Pacific as part of the Pacific Islands Restoration Project, a multinational effort to rid a number of islands of invasive rat species. This summer we will also be the worlds smallest aircraft carrier (ha!) with a full air wing consisting of two Bell Jetranger helicopters and four remote-control models our chief engineer brought along! For those that aren't familiar with the process, the main method we are using for the eradication is arial broadcast of poisoned bait pellets. Where needed, the helicopters will also be supported by hand broadcast teams on the ground. So that's what is goin' down, but where?? The baiting islands are Palmyra Atoll, the Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, and Henderson Island. The Aquila and our family are based out of Seattle, Washington. All of the major prep of the boat happened in Seattle, but the major resupply ports for us are: Honolulu Hawaii, Apia Samoa, and Mangareva in French Polynesia. This is the condensed version of our summer, for all the juicy details, keep reading!! Adios!

-Tanner

Friday, June 17, 2011

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!!