Surveying in Southeast Alaska

"Flying" the towfish with a remote for the winch

The Ugle Duckling

Cruise ship dead ahead

Sunny day and flat calm waters

Then TEMA surfacing with lights and a camera

The yacht that we with lived on

Lou and myself working on the MGA

After nearly a month of working on the waters of the inside passage I am back in Seattle.  During the job I was always very busy and had limited internet access so I didn't post to the blog but I have some good photos so I figured I would share.

I very much enjoyed working in Southeast Alaska.  The days were long and the scenery was great.  I ate more fresh and delicious seafood than ever before.  For the first week or so I worked a night shift.  It was actually quite nice; it was only dark for a few hours so we got to enjoy both the lighting at dusk and dawn. The only downside to the night shift was the cruise ships.  The ships often to move from port to port at night so it was sometimes necessary to communicate and coordinate our movements with them.

For being a relatively short duration job it involved almost all of our survey equipment.  "The full suite" as we sometime call it:  Multibeam sonar, side scan sonar, sub-bottom sonar, Marine Gradiometer Array (MGA) and Towed Electromagnetic Array (TEMA).  This meant we spent a relatively large about of time mobilizing and demobilizing systems. Mobilizing is usually the most tiring and stressful part of the job so it was rough to do it three times in three weeks.

I'm really glad I had a chance to spend sometime relaxing in Juneau with Molly after the job.  It gave me a chance to do many of the things I didn't have time for during the survey like hiking, vising friends and  seeing the local museums.

Rich taking a much needed break