The First 24 Hours...

So... I have officially survived my first day. In some ways, it feels like I’ve been here forever. I’ve already learned how to run the battery systems around the place and we went to a hydrophone today to check the levels there. Within the next 48 hours I will have learned everything needed to function here for a few days alone. Right now I am listening to some calls from 2008 that are downloading from DAT tapes onto a hard drive.

I must mention the events that took place yesterday as it was a perfect beginning to the next two months. We were on our way over to the lab from the cabin when all of a sudden I saw fins milling about around fifty meters from the boat. We turned off the power not a moment too soon as half a dozen pacific whitesided dolphins (PWD's) raced away from the much larger pod to check us out. They spent about fifteen minutes gracefully gliding under and beside the vessel, jumping in the air and surfacing so close that I could feel their breath below me as I stood on the bow. Such curious creatures these dolphins are.

The lab itself is a creation beyond words. You have to see it to appreciate it! Since I am the only intern for a while, I don’t have to camp by myself. That can wait till the other interns get here. Rather, I sleep near the lab, ready hop into it if anything comes over the speakers. In every building there is a setup broadcasting the sound from the hydrophones so that we can hear it wherever we are. In the next few days I am training myself to wake at every dolphin or orca call heard during the night. Once summer starts and we have set watches (when more people arrive) that won’t be necessary, but with so few around now, it is an essential skill.

Last night I slept on the deck out front of the lab and watched the luminescence crash against the shore with each wave. Twister, the humpback (HB), swam by into the sunset along with a few Dall`s porpoises. We were hoping that he would swim by during the night. The dolphins were chatting around 02:30 and the moon beautifully illuminated the bay. Unfortunately today was rainy with little action on the hydrophones. Even Twister didn`t show up. I got acquainted with `the car`, the aptly-named little boat that feels like driving a car on the water when you`re in it. Well... that`s all for now. Hoping for more action tomorrow and a nice day!

Life is uncharted territory. It reveals its story one moment at a time...

The last week on Salt Spring was amazing! Though slightly less adventurous then the rest of the trip, it was a time of focus and course work. Even so, in the midst of the busy schedule there was time for fun. The last Saturday morning a group of us busked at the market before the final exam. That was a great experience, especially since we had an extremely musical group! One of the guys on the trip even managed to make a fiberglass violin. An epic pillow fight took place through the entire house on the last evening. Luckily nothing was broken, and after a bit of pranking everyone enjoyed a peaceful night before the journey home. It was a bitter-sweet end to the trip. The friendships formed and strengthened made it seem painful to say goodbye. It works out nicely that none of us graduated this year, so hopefully we will see each other around campus in the coming semester. Many of us had more adventures to continue on to, some flying to Haiti, others getting ready to join camp staff, and even some returning to Salt Spring after a week of rest.

The past week has flown by as I prepare to head up north. On Monday dawns the sunrise of another grand adventure. It seems that I have little time to finish up a research paper and pack before then, but I know that somehow everything will get done... For those of you who have never ventured past Campbell River, the northern part of the Vancouver Island contains some amazing ocean and wilderness. I just found out that my favorite bay on the Northwest coast is accessible through a trail from a small settlement, which means that it's on the list of things to do next summer (I've been to the beaches several times with the tall ships from SALTS, but never via land). Most of my work in the next two months will be on the inside of Vancouver Island. If anyone plans on taking a kayaking trip from Telegraph Cove, feel free to stop in and visit!

So on to a world of orcas and rain I go, hoping my tent will hold up for two months and that the grizzlies don't chose to swim over to the camp while I'm there. It is such an amazing opportunity to go out and study God's beautiful creation! I'm sure many adventures and stories will come out of the weeks to come, and I am excited to pursue my passion for the ocean and its creatures, and to learn more about them. Prayer over the next few months would be appreciated as I won't have much access to church or a Christian community during my stay at orcalab.

I will try to write every once and a while, but be forwarned that internet access I will have is unpredictable at best!

~ Fair Winds

From sunrise to sunset...

So... the last two weeks have been composed of some of the most crazy times ever! The first Saturday of the trip I got to explore the Salt Spring Island market and watch an epic water bottle chase through the harbour. Then, after church the next day we went climbing on Mount Maxwell. It was pretty sweet. I had never been climbing before, but soon discovered that it was an amazing way to spend Sunday afternoon, even though the rocks were pretty cold.



The weekend that followed was truly the definition of craziness. We kicked of Friday night by watching Avatar since the prof had decided that it would make an awesome transition from the marine course to botany. The next morning we went to town, most to the market and a few of us to play Frisbee golf. After lunch, we headed up Mount Maxwell again to climb. We were going to try a 25m rock face near the end of the trip, but it started to rain pretty hard so we headed down into Ganges to have dinner. Sunday was yet another crazy extension of the weekend. After church I picked up my sister and a friend and had a great three hours with them catching up on all I had missed back home. It was really nice to see them again since I had missed them a lot (and still do). The rainy day gave way to milder weather soon after they left and after supper the class made a sauna (or, as the guys would rather call it, the "man sauna/ mauna"). Everything that they deem epic seems to have that prefix attached to it. It is actually rather hilarious.




On Monday we got to explore the Crow's Nest and on the way back the car in which I was in ended up spontaneously swimming in a lake on the side of the road. It started out just testing the water temperature for another day, progressed to the TA daring one of the guys to swim out to the dock, then ended up with the TA and I jumping in before the guys (perhaps to prove a point :P). The water was a little chilly, but it was definitely worth it in the end! We went swimming in the same lake yesterday when it was nice and sunny.



Tuesday involved a hike up a mountain with little gnome homes randomly set along the trail. The view from the top over the Gulf Islands was breath taking, and we walked along several cliff faces before trekking back down the mountain.



I saw the Pacific Swift sail by the house we are staying at, which reminded me again just what an amazing summer is to come. Thursday we went on a field trip to Pacific Rim National Park. Though we were mostly in the rainforest and looking at bogs, we did hike to Long Beach for lunch. I love the sound of the pounding surf on the beach and the weather was perfect. I hadn't been there for a few years so it was nice to once again be able to soak in this part of God's beautiful creation.



The last few nights I have tried slack-lining a few times (which is a very addicting pastime). I think it will take a bit of practice before I can walk all the way across, since this line is about three times as long as the ones I have seen set up at TWU (or perhaps even longer). Now it is Saturday, and I am sitting in a local coffee shop with a multitude of other working on journals and studying. It seems crazy that three weeks have gone by so fast! Monday is midterm day so there is a lot to do before then. Thanks for all the prayers! Hopefully I will be able to get a picture or two up soon.



~ Fair Winds

Bioluminescent Jellyfish and Puget Sound King Crab!

Yes... I am two days into the trip and already I have seen some amazing things. Tonight, some of the class took a journey down to the docks to watch all the crazy bioluminescent creatures in the water! It was crazy :) There were no big fish to disturb large patches of the water and make them glow, but the jellies were out in force and there were hundreds of small shrimp mixed among them. Last night we saw some massive polychaete worms swimming around in the water by the transient docks.

There have been many other great surprises on this trip. Today we met a research team from the University of New Brunswick who were diving to collect seaweed samples and logging the diversity of species found in B.C. waters. They collected some neat organisms for us on their second dive including Puget Sound King Crab, many beautiful subtidal nudibranch, a blood star, and a plethora of other species. These we took back with us to study in the wet lab.



The roads on this island are pretty crazy :) Pictures of species will follow soon, but it is time to catch some sleep before being woken up by the prof running around shouting the random Latin species name of the day to wake us up. I would write more, but unfortunately time will not allow for that at the moment. We have our first paper due tomorrow and are going to try and net some different fish species to study!

Fair Winds