My Dreamboat!

I'm living on water again!  After being a land lubber for about two weeks, (once I sold Layla) I bought another boat.  This one is the one I've been dreaming about for years and years, it is a Pogo 40.  I went sailing on this boat (and made videos) twice over the past few years, and I really liked it.  So the first thing that I did is modify it...  I added an arch over the stern to hold the Dinghy up, and so now I have a dinghy that sits just above the water while sailing and is partly balanced on a small swim step on the back of the boat.  It works out quite well, actually.  I was able to deploy the dinghy while sailing at about 3 knots without any trouble, and also to lift it again without slowing down.  Here's a picture of it while heeled over in some wind.

Abe came down and we went on a trip out to Catalina Island and Santa Barbara Island, and we found a Jaeger,

And here's Aquila (the pogo's name) anchored out.  I've added solar panels on top of the dinghy rack.  Also I've got the Staysail, the jib and the code 0 (a spinnaker) set up at the same time.  Its nice having a few options to roll out.

We zipped around Santa Barbara Island and found some young Sea Lions, and they were curious, so came close.  This picture shows the weird eye membrane (is it nictitating?)  that covers their eyes.

Another, and here the eye is very different, but still no easily discernable pupil.

Here's Aquila anchored out again

And some cacti we came across on the island

On these islands there is this kind of small tree that I really like, but I don't know the type, and here they look like they are walking up the hill.

And here is a horned lark

A shot under sail.  Because the dinghy is so easy to deploy, I just popped out on it while sailing (abe was still on the boat) to do some photos and video.  

And a look up, surrounded by sails.

So this is the dream boat of mine.  I'm trying to build it into a fast cruiser, and do lots of big voyages aboard.  I'm still in the testing phase and there are a lot of things I'll be working on and changing, of course, but I've got a start.  Its great to be living on water again.
 

Rocket Launch!

I watched a rocket launch today!  It had been a while since the last one, the Space Shuttle, back in 2008.  This rocket is much smaller, but still really cool.  It launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, on the sort of western middle area between San Francisco and Los Angeles.  The coolest thing about this launch is the rocket bottom part (the booster) comes back and lands!  So it launched in the middle of the morning, and there were tons of people watching.  The actual start is behind a hill, but it popped up over the hill with a bright blazing pillar of fire underneath and everyone started cheering.  I took some shots early, but the exposure was wrong.  So by the time I got the camera set up correctly, it was up a ways, and the first shot (above, its going about 600 mph and about 10,000 ft, I think.

Then it passed through a layer of different air where it began to make a cloud behind it, and this was also around the time of max Q, which is when the air is pushing on it the hardest.  As it goes faster there is more air pushing on it but as it goes higher there is less air.  At some point it has a maximum of air it pushes against, and this is that point.  After this, it becomes easier to push, until it gets into "no air at all" or what you might call... SPACE!  The rocket is still going very vertical, and it was really cool to see the vapor cloud make a shadow through the air. 

This shot is a little later on, when the rocket is much higher.  If you compare this to the first shot, you will see the exhaust doesn't go straight down anymore, but puffs out a ways before going down.  It looks rounded and wider.  This is because the engines try to push the exhaust straight down, but they try to match the sideways pressure, sideways from the exhaust plume direction, and that pressure at sea level is higher, but at this height is much lower.  So the plume can expand now but earlier could not.  This means the engine isn't as efficient now.  Which is one of the reasons to use stages: to stack a rocket on top of another rocket.  The second stage has an engine that works better way high up.

This shot you probably have to click on it to see closely, but the stages have separated, and the booster is doing a return to launch pad burn.  So the booster went up, then comes down, but since it also went sideways a bit (since the satellite wants to orbit the earth, which means going fast sideways), it has to cancel that sideways motion.  I was expecting it to turn exactly 180 degrees and burn straight back.   But it didn't do that!  I was totally stunned, and it took me a while to figure it out.  Here's what happened:  The booster started due west of me, and headed southeast.  When it shut off, it was about due south of me.  The turn around burn pointed north, towards me.  So if you start on the earth and go southeast and then north, do you arrive in the same location?  The answer is yes, if you go up!  Since the earth is turning, and rotating to the east (you are going east right now), if the rocket went straight up, it would end up west of the spot it started.  So this rocket looked like it was going in a triangle, but the actual trajectory is more like a rounded curve (looking from the above view), and as it came down, the landing pad moved over to catch it.  Luckily, the earth was moving fast enough to catch the rocket perfectly.  

In this shot you can see the rocket is coming down at an angle.  This is a way of steering, and making it so it doesn't have to burn as much fuel to still make it back to the landing pad.  I think that's cool.  Also its doing a re-entry burn, which is to slow it down just as it is coming back into the thicker atmosphere.  Because it was falling, it got going really fast, and would burn up if it didn't slow down now.  Sort of like jumping out of an airplane, falling really fast, but then popping a parachute so you don't hit the ground so fast.  Except the rocket is still going really fast after this burn, so it did another burn at the end.

The landing burn!  I didn't get to see the legs deploy, because it was behind the hill, but they come out next and it lands.  Do you see the difference in color of the sky here vs the ones above?  Its the same exposure, but there's just more air!  Also, you can see the exhaust plume is very thin again, indicating lots of pressure around the rocket.

Then I went for a walk on the beach (that had been closed before for safety) and I saw the booster on the landing pad with a crane about to get it stowed away.  Its amazing how big these things are.

On that same beach there were some Snowy Plovers!  This one was very cute.

And I really like the succulent plants on the beaches here.  These reminded me of a rocket launch with the fiery burning colors, like pillars of flame!
 

Layla is sold, southbound!

I sold my Layla!  She treated me well, and I took her 4,000 miles this summer and had great adventures aboard her.  The guy I sold her to is going to take her up the inside passage to Alaska next summer, so I hope he has a great time.  I'm going to be driving south, and just how far south, I don't know yet.  I'd like to go and surf in Mexico, but I'm not sure about the border.  And I'd like to go south to buy the Pogo 40 that is in LA, but we have to figure out the details.  Hopefully I won't be without a boat for too long.  So I can be living the Life on Water again soon.  

 

The summer on Layla

Here's a video of the summer on Layla.  

Back in Bellingham

I made it back to Bellingham!  My trip through Alaska was actually more difficult than the trip through Canada.  The wind was blowing from the south the whole way through Alaska so it was slow going.  I also didn't have an autopilot for the entire trip, since it broke on my way up to Juneau, so I was chained to the wheel the whole time.  It wasn't the end of the world, but in the future for a long trip I would rather have some way of not having to steer the whole time.  So I left Ketchikan and after crossing Dixon Entrance, I made my way into Prince Rupert to check in with customs, and they were quite reasonable and nice, so I continued on my way.  Upon entering Greenville Channel, I stopped in a place called Lowe Inlet and there was a waterfall with Coho Salmon jumping up it!  It was great, I paddled over and tried to get some video and pictures.  The salmon are pretty reckless, and they can't really see where they are going, so I ended up getting hit a few times by them as they jumped and I was right next to the falls.  I was surprised not to see bears there catching fish in mid air.  Maybe they don't know how to do it here.  After Lowe Inlet, I caught lots of great current, where in the morning it would be high tide, and I would be in the middle of a long passageway, so the current would help me go "out" and then it would be noon, and I would catch the current "in" the next passageway.  I did this for a few days and it worked great.  I also started catching winds from the north, (and some sun!) which really helped too.  I could fly the spinnaker, and a few times I was holding speeds of over 8 knots.   In one of these places, I passed the quintessential Canadian navigation marker: 

Eh?   And here is a picture of the spinnaker that earned me so many miles:

When I got across Queen Charlotte Entrance (the north end of Vancouver Island), the winds lightened and the wildlife suddenly came out!  I saw some Orca,

An Elephant Seal,

And Dall's Porpoises and Pacific Whitesided Dolphins.  I also found a bunch of Humpback Whales just north of the San Juan Islands, in the middle of the Strait of Georgia.  I hadn't seen them much down here, so that was a nice sight.  Upon getting close to the border, however, it began to get gloomy.  The smoke from all the fires soured the sky and I met up with my friend Danny in the San Juans and he took this picture of Layla in the smoke.  

Pretty nasty, huh?  So I made it through Canada in 10 days, and Ketchikan to Bellingham in 12.  Thats pretty quick.  Now I'm trying to get settled into Fairhaven and get the boat in better order again for the winter.
 

To Tracy Arm again!

I tried to replicate the trip I had done with my sister a month ago again, but this time with my brother, Abe, and his wife, Katrina.  We started off with the Midway Islands, and there were lots of birds there, but no oystercatcher nests, instead, we had lots of oystercatchers!  Also a few Surfbirds, like the one above.  Is it a Longbird or a shortbird?  I wonder if they start out as boogie-birds?  

There were also some sleepy seals.

This one was very tired.  This next one was less tired, but very cute.

And we found some Black Turnstones.  They were not turning over any stones, but looking sternly at some mussels, and flexing them (with their bills).  I saw one open one up and gobble up the insides.

From there we went up Tracy Arm and saw the South Sawyer Glacier.  It was a bit more icy and less windy than with my sister, so there wasn't much of a pathway to get to the face, but we got fairly close.  Here you can see some seals in front for perspective.

And another view, but no perspective.  

We went to North Sawyer and anchored but didn't go for a walk since the tide wasn't low enough, but I flew the kite to get a picture.

Then we found some whales at the entrance, and had a few nice sightings, It was rainy.

We explored up into Ford's Terror, but it was rainy and I didn't take many pictures.  But then we went to Port Snettisham again and found a stream full of salmon, and loads of bears eating them!  The bears were accustomed to people and so we were able to get quite close, so I have a lot of bear photos.

There was a mother with three cubs, but on the second day we saw her again and she only had two.  I think one must have been lost.

Here's mama bear chasing after a salmon

And the cubs dutifully following her.

One of the cubs got curious.  Look at the size of those paws!  Bears have big paws for their size.  Why did the bear cub fall down the stairs?  ....     .......     ........   ?     ......   ........  ....?  ?  

?   ?............

...Awkward paws.

Here's a bear that got pretty close to us while we were in the canoe

And then it was trying to pretend that we weren't there.

This bear was trying to maneuver around us and watching our reaction.  There was a lot of push and retreat going on here as the bears were all trying to get to the best fishing spots and steal fish from each other, and we just posted up on the hill and watched it all.  A few bears tried to move us in a dominance move, but I wouldn't let them, and they eventually just walked past and went on to the fishing or eating grass spots that they wanted to go to in the first place.  

 It was a great trip, aside from the copious amounts of rain we had, but on the plus side we got lots of rainwater to drink and wash dishes with.  This summer is the rainiest I've ever seen.  I think its a record.  I'm going to start working my way south in a week or two and try to get back to Bellingham before the end of September.

Juneau and Glacier Bay again

I spent about a week in Juneau, and I did a few hikes that like; climbing Mt Juneau!  There are lots of Marmots on the top.

There are lots of Mountian Goats on the top too.

And here's the view of the valley.  Looking west you can see the fairweather mountains.

Then I took my friend Tyler and we headed out to Glacier Bay.  We set off for the East Arm and passed by South Marble Island, and saw the sea lions there.

Also we got some close puffins.  This one's a Tufted Puffin

And here's a Horned Puffin

Then we found a family of bears on the beach.  These little ones must be this year, and right next to them there was another family of four as well.  An 8 bear beach!  

The other family of four were bigger.  Here's mama with one cub practicing rolling over rocks together.

There were lots of bears on the beach, this one let us get real close, she's got some barnacles on her muzzle.

Then we went in to McBride Inlet.  It used to be this terrifying inlet to go into, with huge currents (they still exist) and giant blocks of ice grounded in the middle of the current (no more) and smaller (but still big) growlers bouncing off them as they flowed with the current.  Sadly there was almost no ice in the flow as we paddled in, but we had lots of current, something like 8-10 kts and so we went fast.  Then we paddled a long ways to get to the face of the glacier.  It looks like most tidewater glaciers.

Here's Tyler in front of McBride

We got out and climbed up for a better view.

And got a picture of ourselves in front

On our way out we had lots of rain and there was a great rainbow

And lots of wind too.  Going up Lynn Canal it was big waves and lots of wind and here's tyler steering the boat.  Layla held up great to the trip and despite all the rain and the big seas we had to crash through, I haven't found anything broken.  Its really rainy for the next two days and then Abe shows up and we'll go for another trip.