The final blog...

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Seattle Bound!

The Pacific Islands Restoration team will be flying out of Mangareva today, headed back to our respective home countries. The flight goes through Tahiti so our family will be stopping in Tahiti for a few days on the way home to enjoy some much needed rest. We have been in Mangareva for four days now, the first two were spent preparing the helicopters for the 25 day trip back to Seattle. Everything that could be unbolted easily was taken off, along with a few things that aren't so easy to get off! The skids, tail fins, rotor blades, the main mast that the rotors attach to all had to come off for it to fit in the container. After the helis were all packed up, the focus shifted to the boat, preparing it for a 25 day trip through the hurricane breeding grounds. And finally, we had to get ready to fly out! Six of the boat crew are flying out, and two fly in leaving a crew of five to take the boat back.

We're done!!

Team Aquila, in conjunction with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Helicopters Otago, and Pathfinder Aviation, is proud to announce the completion of arial baiting on Henderson Island. Shortly before eleven this morning, Helicopters 54k and 6PA touched down on the deck of the R/V Aquila and disconnected their bait buckets, marking the end of the 2011 Pacific Islands Restoration Project. This was a project about firsts, being the first time three eradications have been combined into one group effort, sharing the enormous costs of bringing a supply vessel and two helicopters to the south pacific. In Palmyra, the Aquila did everything except load the bait buckets, this was done from shore. On Henderson and Phoenix, the entire operation was self contained aboard the Aquila, including transportation of the bait, loading and fueling the helicopters, and transportation of baiting personnel. In the many years that groups have been eradicating invasive species from offshore islan
ds, nobody has ever completed an operation based entirely from the deck of a ship. Even when a mechanical problem grounded one helicopter in the Phoenix islands, Team Aquila finished the job with one helicopter. When a stray bird damaged a tail rotor, the Heliops team had a replacement tail rotor fitted on the helicopter a few short hours later. Since the job went so smoothly, we are a few days ahead of schedule and will be taking tomorrow to do a beach clean up on Henderson, removing nets and plastic bits that pose a risk to sea and bird life. We will also be hosting the shore team for lunch tomrrow, probably their first shot at fresh food in six weeks. The team on the island has been here for six weeks, capturing the Henderson Rail, a unique species that has evolved only on Henderson. The rail is a flightless bird that has evolved only on Henderson, making it of the utmost importance to protect it from the bait. Although the baiting is finished for this summer, the Aquila is still 4
400 miles from home, a journey that will take her nearly a month at full speed. The helicopters will be disassembled for the trip, packed away in the containers on deck with the blades, mast, and skids removed. But we wont start that until after we get back to Pitcairn or Mangareva. Right now, its time to have some fun and go beach combing!

Pitcairn to Henderson, part two!

Look out Pitcairn, the Rat Slayers have returned! Too bad the rat slayers don't seem very badass next to the real life pirates! These guys are pretty cool though. We brought two people back from Henderson, Pawl and Sue, who apparently write childrens cartoons when they aren't busy being pirates! We finished the first round of baiting midday Wednesday, had a play day yesterday, and headed back to Pitcairn last night. Even though we finished flying before noon on wednesday, our day had just begun. For the boat crew, the rest of the day was taken up preparing for the next bait drop a week later. We moved forty some pallet size totes from our below-deck holds to the containers on deck. Each tote holds fifteen small bags, each weighing 25 kilos or about 55 pounds. That nakes each tote an 825 pound wrecking ball if the boat starts rolling too much. All of our empty totes from the first application were then stacked into a below-deck hold, a somewhat awkward process because the holds were b
uilt for fish and water, not totes! No problem a little Yankee Ingenuity can't solve! Where the floor is sloped to let the water drain to one side, spare deckboards were stacked to make it level. While we were swinging thousand pound totes around beneath crane, we put two of the jetskis in the water to get them out of the way and lessen the chance of bruising one on the nose with a swinging load. Now of course it's bad to start them for two minutes and shut them down, so I just had to take them for a circle around the boat before we put them back onboard! Unfortunately I took a bit too long getting back to the boat and we had to pick the second one when it was completely dark. One of the lifting slings decided to be moody so there was a little panic when Dad began to pick the ski out of the water and one strap popped off and rolled the ski on its side with me on it. We made sure it was right the second time and had no further issues. After another long day, I was quick to get dinner a
nd promptly go into a food coma lasting until six the next morning. The day was Thursday, and it was the first play day since leaving Samoa! Jetskis were quickly launched and the beautiful secluded pacific island became a true paradise, complete with jetskis, waterskis, and two helicopters! The whales even stopped by to see what all the commotion was about, though they only stayed long enough to scare me crazy before simming back to the other side of the island. While I was on the RXT, 206PA flew over on a photo flight around the island. They were doing 70 knots so I was outgunned by about ten but I still did my best to keep up with them. We got down to the end of the north beach and I saw the chopper suddenly stop and enter a climbing circle. I saw a little speck of white under them and, figuring it was the white jetski, kept heading that way. When I arrived under the helicopter, I couldnt see any sign of the other ski so I turned around and headed back to the boat. I glanced down at
the speedometer and saw 40, and thats when it got scary. When I glanced down, something HUGE in the water caught my eye. It was big, black, and right underneath me. I was going too fast to tell what it was, but I was afraid it was a rock I was about to hit so I gunned the throttle and got around it in a hurry. A couple seconds later, I saw another one, this one crossed in front of me. Wait a sec, the rock just crossed in front of me? The rock shouldn't be moving! So whats huge and black and can move... Of course! The whales! I wish I had stuck around longer to watch them from up close, but I was pretty hyped up on adrenaline and raced off back to the boat to tell them about our visitors. Mom grabbed a wetsuit, Dad grabbed the camera and we zoomed back to find them again. Chances are, if we had hung out longer the whales would've gotten curious and come over for a look-see. Unfortunately, we were impatient and didn't get close enough for Mom to get in and swim with the whales. But the
re's always next week! Anyone know what kind of music brings the whales up close? Bon Jovi? Brooks and Dunn? Hawaiian music maybe? The Finding Nemo soundtrack? One way to find out! Most everyone got to go to shore and check out the island, I was even able to take the jetski into the beach and walk up to the bird pens. The Henderson Rail is a flightless bird that has evolved only on Henderson, and probably the most at risk of being poisoned by the bait. As such, the team on the island has captured nearly eighty rails so that if the wild population is poisoned by the bait the species won't go extinct. After the island crew helped me push the jetski off the beach, I headed back to the boat and got the waterskiing started. The jetski actually made a surprisingly good towboat, pulling a slalom ski out of the water with power to spare. The ski doesn't throw a very big wake, so it was great for people like me that are a bit wobbly on a slalom ski. I'm learning though! While I was on the slal
om ski, the helicopter was making a shuttle run so they flew over and hovered off to the side while I was skiing. Now that is something you don't normally see when you are waterskiing! Of course, they had the best seat in the house when I crashed. When I went under water, I could feel the beat of the rotor blades all around me! Next thing we gotta try is wakeboarding from the cargo hook of the helicopter! That same lack of wake behind the jetski made it pretty difficult to jump the wake on a wakeboard, although I found plenty of other ways to crash. Once we were all thoroughly worn out from wakeboarding and waterskiing, we took the jetskis over to east beach and backed into the surf line so that we could jump the waves right as they were breaking. One time I was in the surf line checking out a channel through the reef to the beach. It looked a little too tight so I was about to head back out when I noticed a giant wave building off the beach. The waves we were jumping were about three
feet high and rounded, but this one was building to about eight and forming a sharp curl. If I had stayed where I was, the wave would've rolled my ski and stretched me out against the closest razor sharp coral bed. My only hope was to try to get to the backside of the wave before it broke. I firewalled the ski and shot out like a bullet. The wave was just beginning to break when I hit it, and it was forming a tube that made it impossible to jump. I took a sharp right at the base of the wave and rode through the curl and along the wave before shooting off the top of the wave going about thirty. I sat as far back as I could so my face wouldn't become intertwined with the handlebars and held on tight. The landing wasn't too hard, but the nose was pointed so far up I just slid right off the back into the water. I felt my knee pop when I rolled off the ski, but when I climbed back on I could tell it had just popped and was just fine. By that time the sun was close to going down so we hea
ded back to the boat to get everything back onboard before it got dark. After dinner, we pulled anchor and steamed back to Pitcairn under a beautifully clear and starry sky. Arriving here in the morning, they brought the longboat alongside and we transfered over all of empty bait bags from the first application, some gear from Henderson, and our four observers from Pitcairn. A few of our crew went to shore in that first group, though most of us went to the island later on, around noon. The first time we visited, I didn't get a chance to hike up to Christians Cave so that was where Mom and I headed. As the story goes, Christians Cave is where Fletcher Christian and John Adams began reading the Bible. It takes quite a hike to get up to the cave, including some pretty sketchy ledges along the cliff that the cave is set into. They say that back in the day the cave entrance was covered with vegatation, but that the native vegatation can't grow anymore because of invasive weeds. Without a d
ense covering of vegatation, the cave gave us a great of Adamstown and the rest of the island. The hike down is normally worse than the hike up, and the trail to the cave was no exception. Although there was great traction on the lava rock, one step on a loose rock would send you sliding all the way down to the water. After meeting up with the rest of the shore party, we headed down to the dock. While waiting for our skiff to arrive, we saw Ralph and his brothers paddling around in the keyaks we brought down for them. His little brother, who looked to be about ten, had just gotten back from spearfishing. I thought that was just the coolest thing ever cause the spear gun was probably taller then he was! Our skiff wasn't big enough to fit everybody so Dad was going to make two trips but after the first trip left Andrew offered to run us out in one of their small boats. As it turned out, his boat was twice as fast as ours going through the swells so we made it back to the boat before Dad
did. That pretty much wraps up the last few days, will travel overnight tonight and wake up at Henderson!

Henderson Arrival

The Aquila and her jolly crew of rat slayers arrived at Henderson Island this morning, the last rodent stronghold of this summer's 7,500 mile journey across the Pacific. Next year a team of scientists will visit each of the islands we treated this summer, hopefully to declare them free of the invasive rats that have wreaked such havac on the native ecosystem. On Henderson island alone, it is estimated the rats kill eighty-five thousand baby bird chicks and eggs each year. The birds aren't the only victim. Hundreds of other native species, some unique to each island, are put at extreme risk by the very presence of a rat. Tomorrow morning, we plan to begin the application of bait, again using arial application via helicopter. Although we enjoyed a beautiful ride from Samoa to Mangareva, we paid for it on our crossing from Pitcairn to Henderson. Thirty knot winds, twelve foot seas, and solid water splashing the wheelhouse windows made for a very fitful nights sleep. The best anchorage i
s actually on the other side of the island but this last storm brought the swells in from the north, rendering the north anchorage virtually useless. Forced out of the water by a bulge in the earths crust, the island is actually a coral reef that was lifted out of the water. One can still see ancient coral heads sticking out of the dirt! The top is about forty feet above sea level, and very flat. As it was a coral reef, I'm guessing the cliffs around the outside are mostly limestone. The relentless sea has carved an incredible series of caves and caverns into the cliffs, as well as quite a few blowholes. Each wave that comes in smashes into the caves and compresses the air inside making an incredible amount of noise each time. It reminds me of the Pavlof volcano in Alaska, shooting out chunks of lava rock all night long. Or like a giant air cannon. Well, dinner came and I had to run. It's now Tuesday evening at Henderson Island. We started baiting early Monday (yesterday) morning, but
after only a couple hours of sowing, the wind picked up and brought some nasty rain with it. When the rain arrived, the wind came around the opposite direction and began pushing us onto the beach, forcing us to haul anchor and head to the other side of the island. We made it around to the north beach about an hour before sunset and were able to get in about six more loads per machine before the lack of light shut us down for the night. Again the winds tried to push us onto the beach, and again we hauled anchor. This time we headed about five miles offshore and just slowly drifted around until morning. Fast forward to this morning, the sun rose over a wonderfully calm sea and a beautiful blue sky. very eager to make use of such a great day for flying, we set the anchor at the eastern beach and quickly launched both helicopters. Peter was first one off the deck in 54K and both machines were loaded and headed out by 7:30 in the morning. Every person on and above the boat worked straight
until 6 this evening when we shut down because of low light. Between both helicopters, we have sprayed about 135 loads of bait, about 100 of which was done today. Each load is seven hundred pounds, making our total so far somewhere in the neighborhood of ninety-five THOUSAND pounds of bait applied to the island. Tomorrow will be another 6AM start, hopefully finishing the entire island before lunch. If all goes well we may get to play a bit tomorrow! Dad can't wait to go for a dive as the bottom visibility looks to be about two hundred feet. And did I mention, there's whales and turtles and sharks all around! David got a picture of a massive turtle while he was flying, hopefully he will share that picture so I can post it on the blog! As much as I would love to stay up and keep writing, my bunk is calling and I need to be clear headed for our 6AM start tomorrow.
Tune in tomorrow night for loads of pictures and another update! Good night!
Tanner - Travel Department, Henderson Tribune.

Sunday at Henderson

The Aquila and her jolly crew of rat slayers arrived at Henderson Island this morning, the last rodent stronghold of this summer's 7,500 mile journey across the Pacific. Next year a team of scientists will visit each of the islands we treated this summer, hopefully to declare them free of the invasive rats that have wreaked such havac on the native ecosystem. On Henderson island alone, it is estimated the rats kill eighty-five thousand baby bird chicks and eggs each year. The birds aren't the only victim. Hundreds of other native species, some unique to each island, are put at extreme risk by the very presence of a rat. Tomorrow morning, we plan to begin the application of bait, again using arial application via helicopter. Although we enjoyed a beautiful ride from Samoa to Mangareva, we paid for it on our crossing from Pitcairn to Henderson. Thirty knot winds, twelve foot seas, and solid water splashing the wheelhouse windows made for a very fitful nights sleep. The best anchorage i
s actually on the other side of the island but this last storm brought the swells in from the north, rendering the north anchorage virtually useless. Formed by a bulge in the earths crust, the island is actually a coral reef that was lifted out of the water. The top is about forty feet above sea level, and very flat. With coral heads sticking out of the dirt! As it was a coral reef, I'm guessing the cliffs around the outside are mostly limestone. The relentless sea has carved an incredible series of caves and caverns into the cliffs, as well as quite a few blowholes. Each wave that comes in smashes into the caves and compresses the air inside making an incredible amount of noise each time. It reminds me of the Pavlof volcano in Alaska, shooting out chunks of lava rock all night long. Or like a giant air cannon. Well, dinner came and I had to run. It's now Tuesday evening at Henderson Island. We started baiting early Monday (yesterday) morning, but after only a couple hours of sowing,
the wind picked up and brought some nasty rain with it. When the rain arrived, the wind came around the opposite direction and began pushing us onto the beach, forcing us to haul anchor and head to the other side of the island. We made it around to the north beach about an hour before sunset and were able to get in about six more loads per machine before the lack of light shut us down for the night. Again the winds tried to push us onto the beach, and again we hauled anchor. This time we headed about five miles offshore and just slowly drifted around until morning. Fast forward to this morning, the sun rose over a wonderfully calm sea and a beautiful blue sky. very eager to make use of such a great day for flying, we set the anchor at the eastern beach and quickly launched both helicopters. Peter was first one off the deck in 54K and both machines were loaded and headed out by 7:30 in the morning. Every person on and above the boat worked straight until 6 this evening when we shut dow
n because of low light. Between both helicopters, we have sprayed about 135 loads of bait, about 100 of which was done today. Each load is seven hundred pounds, making our total so far somewhere in the neighborhood of ninety-five THOUSAND pounds of bait applied to the island. Tomorrow will be another 6AM start, hopefully finishing the entire island before lunch. If all goes well we may get to play a bit tomorrow! Dad can't wait to go for a dive as the bottom visibility looks to be about two hundred feet. And did I mention, there's whales and turtles and sharks all around! David got a picture of a massive turtle while he was flying, hopefully he will share that picture so I can post it on the blog! As much as I would love to stay up and keep writing, my bunk is calling and I need to be clear headed for our 6AM start tomorrow.
Tune in tomorrow night for loads of pictures and another update! Good night!
Tanner - Travel Department, Henderson Tribune.