It is a beautiful Sunday morning and the van has been in the ferry line since 6 am in anticipation of the trip to Anacortes to meet up with “Sockeye” and the beautifully crafted replica of the longboats used by Captain Vancouver’s crew to chart the Salish Sea during the summers of 1792-1794. Happily the van is stocked with all kinds of food for sleepy program participants to find when their hunger is piqued.

They walk on the ferry at 7:45 am and they’re off for a 6 day / 5 night adventure!

Ready to embark!

Once in Anacortes, they work together to help stock the boat with supplies and pack all the gear in dry bags.

By mid-afternoon they take their first strokes at the oars and head to Saddleback Island where they rest on their first night of camping under stars and in tents. The sea laps lazily at the shore and the sunset is glorious.

By: Tim

Just a quick note because we’re in full-scale preparation for departure on our longboat trip early Sunday.

Laser Leveling at the Cattle Point rocky intertidal zone

The crew got up for our third early morning in a row and headed down to Cattle Point for some biodiversity surveys of the rocky intertidal zone. Intrepid ecologists Orissa Moulton and Hilary Hayford came along to show us how to standardize quadrat elevations above low water (laser levelers are pretty cool) and to help us ID invertebrates and algae. Afterwards, Tom surprised us with a hearty breakfast in the dorm; a welcome change from the on-the-run break (intentional space here) fasts we’d been consuming in order to meet the tide schedule.

This afternoon, we celebrated Eric’s birthday with cupcakes, cookies, ice cream and lemonade. The rest of the afternoon was spent housekeeping and prepping group and personal gear for the longboat trip.

Guest chefs Ken and Susan joined us to relieve personnel from cooking responsibilities while prep continued. Professor Carolyn Friedman and son, Nick, joined us for dinner and a lesson on ocean chemistry and the ocean acidification project we’ll be conducting while out on the longboat this week.

We’re headed out for six days in the wilds of the San Juan Islands and waterways so the posting will be intermittent. But the weather has broken, our dry bags are packed (well, almost) and we are excited to go!