R/V Aquila, summer of 2011!: Half Way!

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

Saturday, June 4, 2011

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?