Penguins are my friends. Spanish is much more useful than German. Visiting Teri at her Peace Corps assignment and traveling in Mexico during January and February 2017 happened at the best time, as it gave me the chance to learn the traveler’s Spanish that I’d need in Chile that same October. I used it to travel in Chile and Argentina in March and April 2018, and I just finished up…
Thursday 18 May 2017, week 1: at sea in Unimak Pass, 9:05 (through 20 May 2017 as we enter Dutch Harbor in the evening) Riding a ship down the Aleutian chain is not for those who don’t know how to sit still. This year’s cruise west features only a few stops on random islands compared to last year, so in our first 4 full days at sea we’ve only stopped…
Thursday 1September 2016, week 16: R/V Tiglax, AK time 14:40 Here I am on day 4 at sea, wondering when we’re going to meet some weather. The ship’s not rocking enough; I want to be stumbling around the boat! After spending a couple days between Gareloi and Tanaga watching for orcas with some whale biologists, the ship once again belongs to Buldirians. We stopped in Adak to drop off the…
Sunday, 29 May 2016, morning It’s 6:45 in the morning, and the sky is only a shade above inky dark as I gaze out the galley window of the R/V Tiglax. Surely we can’t be in Alaska, Land of the Midnight Sun. That’s where – in my typical Alaska – the sun starts rising by 3:30, providing full daylight well before this time. Where are we? 52º 19′ 750” N…
I’m on my way to a summer on Buldir, where I’ll only have a satellite phone with e-mail. I’m going to try posting by e-mail once a week, and I won’t know if it worked until the end of summer. Due to my capabilities, I won’t be able to share pictures. Sorry! If it works, I’ll share various things about camp life weekly. If not, there may be a post…
Now that my TB test came back negative and I’m at the end of a whirlwind 3 day stay in Fairbanks, it’s time to share. I’m going on a boat!! I know, I know. Here we go again. However, this time I’ve earned my spot as more than labor. To recap: birds across all of the field sites in Alaska Maritime NWR had a pretty disappointing year. Either they didn’t…
Birding. For anyone familiar with the concept, it probably brings to mind stereotypical images of bespectacled young and old gripping their binoculars, scopes, and cameras for dear life as they search for the elusive bird in the tree, river, or marsh. Birders travel far and wide trying to catch that 5 second glimpse of a bird that enables them to put a check next to a name in their bird…
At this point, I feel a little like this: The main difference is that instead of being worn out from tearing apart my summer home and boating it all to town, I’m exhausted from packing to move to my camp. When packing for an extended stay on St. George, it’s impossible to simply turn on some tunes and start throwing clothing and gear into bags. Only PenAir caters to the…
Well, I’m here. ‘Here’ being where I’ve intended to be ever since 2010 or earlier: staying at the USFWS bunkhouse in Homer, Alaska, before leaving for a full summer working for Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. Granted, I’d been hoping to head off to the Aleutians, but returning to St. George after 5 years away is already shaping up to be rewarding. I’ve been told there’s fresh reindeer meat waiting…
On car trips parents will sometimes threaten their kids with the line, “Don’t make me turn this car around!” How often do they actually need to enforce that warning? Most times the words are just spoken words. Well, I’m proud to say that my health forced the captain to give the order to haul in the nets, turn our boat around, and head to Dutch Harbor early. Maybe proud isn’t…