By Gabi, Chloe, Daniel and Paradis —

Wake up at 7:00AM to leave Saddlebag for Pelican Beach. It was a beautiful morning, and we were all excited for what today had to offer us. We didn’t have our cups of coffee to help us start the day, but luckily we had skip-and-dip. We put on our swimming suits, warmed ourselves up, and then ran into the COLD, freezing water. The feeling was amazing. We later had breakfast: yogurt and granola and then began to prepare ourselves to leave the most beautiful island ever.

We got on the boat, stood by our oars, and started our journey for the day’s trip to Pelican Beach, an estimated 7.5 nautical miles from Saddlebag. If that wasn’t already a long enough journey, we didn’t have the wind in our favor. That meant that it would be a long, intense day of rowing for our crew. After rowing for what seemed like an eternity, we finally got to our first check point, which was Clark Point. We, as a group, decided to take a break so we set the anchor and enjoyed a bagel lunch. After our break, we began to row hard to catch the slack tide.

Unfortunately, the ebb was still continuing and impeding our progress. We decided that it would be in our best interest to change course from Pelican Beach to Cypress Head instead, since we could see that Pelican Beach was crowded and all the moors were taken by various sailboats.  The final push against the winds and currents to cross the Bellingham Chanel in order to get to Cypress Island was strenuous to say the least, but we did it by working together and using the power of pop music to sing our way through the struggle.

After dropping the anchor at our new destination, we eagerly unloaded all of our belongings and items we needed for the night.  The dinner crew worked quickly so we could all indulge in the wonderful comfort food of mac-n-cheese after our long day out on the water.  With full stomachs and weary bodies, we set up our sleeping arrangements in order to recharge for another fun filled day in the San Juans.

By: Gabi, Chloe, Paradis, Daniel —

After packing all of our belongings in countless dry bags and learning some basics of our boat: the Townsend, we finally pushed off the dock in the Marina to start our journey to our first destination, Saddlebag Island.  Within the first few strokes with our paddles, we all quickly realized that the old-timey way of transportation of longboats is not an easy task.  Rowing took some serious muscle power, but when we all worked together and got our strokes in sync, we were able to row our way to Saddlebag Island, which was about 2.5 nautical miles away.  With the winds on our side, we were able to raise two of our sails to help push us to our destination, which was a joyous relief for all of us.

Arriving at saddlebag island, we were welcomed by the rocky shores of a small beach. Saddlebag gave our crew a quaint yet great place to stay with two small grass patches just perfect for our two tents. We decided at Saddlebag that the girls and boys would be alternating between the boat and the tents for sleeping—luckily for the girls, land would be their sleeping spot for night one. But not to get to ahead of ourselves, before any talk of going to sleep happened, we all enjoyed a lovely dinner of burrito bowls and a desert of hot cocoa with chocolate squares. We all sat out by the beaches’ edge and talked over our difficult yet fulfilling first day.

Day 1: Setting Off

Off on the 8:05 am sailing from Friday Harbor to Anacortes’ Cap Sante Marina on a gorgeous day. The Salish Sea Sciences team meets up with Captain Sonia and Mate Chrissy in time to pack gear in dry bags, enjoy lunch, and get to know their vessel for the next 5 days, a lovely replica of the tenders used to chart these waters by Captain Vancouver’s crew in the 1790s.

Photos: Timothy Dwyer

Packed up, safety procedures reviewed, and it’s time to learn about navigation, enjoy the sun, don lifejackets, and row!

Day 2:

Day 3: Adventure at Cypress Head

The third day of our longboat voyage awoke at the luxuriously late hour of 8:00.  The day had been set aside with the initial plan to explore the beautiful Cypress Island, a much needed rest day.  Breakfast was similarly extravagant with fried potatoes, scrambled eggs and apple juice.  

We set out from our camp at Cypress Head, a peninsula shaped campground that nearly becomes an island during high tide, on the Cypress Head Trail.  A small group split off to return with Captain Soso to watch over the boat.  The remainder of us continued to the Old Airfield Trail which wandered through a former airstrip that is now part of a forest reclamation project.  From there we continued to the Bradberry Lake Trail and arrive at Bradberry Lake.

Parker (aka Agatha) hijacking an old abandoned truck we found

Our arduous climb was compensated with a gorgeous view of the inland lake.  After taking water samples and temperature recordings we sat down for a snack.  Many of us were struck by the dryness of the ecosystem surrounding the lake, the soil appeared dry and cracking in places.

The hikers who made it to the lake (minus the cross country superstar, Peter)

Upon returning we were greeted by a lunch of hummus and pita bread. Some of us took the time to swim and explore the tide pools while others settled in for a nap.

skip and dip!

We ended the day with bean and rice burritos, AGAIN, and turned in for an early evening.

Day 4: A Windy Sail to Saddlebag

In the morning of the fourth day, the boys awoke from a long and troubled night of wind and boat rocking.  The flapping boat cover had prevented sleep for all but the most drowsy of them.  Upon removal of the boat cover it was revealed to be a cloudy and windy day.  As the girls arrived from the tent site it was apparent that they had slept much better.  

We all got together on the beach at 6:00.  It was soon apparent that everyone was freezing.  After slowly loading the longboat it was suggested that we get on our bright neon orange exposure suits. We looked like a small army of orange marshmallows.

Preparing the sails beforehand, we lifted the anchor and rowed out into Bellingham Channel where we were greeted by a hair raising site, a giant oil tanker heading in our direction.  Captain Chrissy got on the walkie-talkie and called up Seattle Traffic to tell them to connect us to the tanker’s captain.  We informed him of our location and type of boat, preventing a collision.  

After the tanker passed safely in front of us we raised our sails and steered towards the northern tip of Guemes.  From there we handed out breakfast: bagels with cream cheese, peanut butter, and/or jelly.

While heading for our next destination, Saddlebag Island, we had to circumnavigate around Jack Island.  We then sailed back and forth across Padilla Bay slowly making our way towards Saddlebag.  After a brief encounter with a barge towing tugboat, some of the crew took the time to cozy up in their exposure suits for a nap.  

Finally we arrived at our destination at around 12:45 PM.  We quickly set up camp and took a few hours of free time before dinner.  

Dinner that night was lentil curry soup which we enjoyed with a side of sailor boy crackers.  We then played a friendly round of The Malorie Family Fun game, a combination of charades and a talking guessing game and went to bed for our final night of the voyage.

Day 5:

At the disagreeable hour of 5:30 in the morning, our alarms went off and we reluctantly opened our groggy eyes. The day had finally arrived. It was time to begin our journey back to the marina, where our adventure had begun five days before.

After packing the rest of our supplies, we were on our way for the last time. Before we got going, Captain Sonia and Chrissy gave up a list of challenges to complete before reaching the marina. These challenges included: compiling a comprehensive list of all the marine life we had seen, doing a 360 degree turn in the boat, setting and furling the mizzen sail, singing a sea shanty, doing 20 power strokes, performing a man overboard drill, a moment of silence, and tying a round turn and two half hitches, all with little help from our captains.

The first leg of our journey took us from Saddlebag Island to Southeast Point, right before Guemes Channel. We knew that we would not be able to take any breaks once we were into the channel, so we had some snack breaks to gather our energy and prepare us for the hardest part of the day.

As we continued to Anacortes, the wind and the current pushed against us, but our rowers worked hard to keep us moving steadily towards our destination. Throughout the trip, moral was maintained by singing upbeat sea shanties.

Right before entering the marina, we took a moment to gather our thoughts and appreciate the events of the last four days. When we pulled into the marina dock, we all sat together to reminisce over our favorite memories of the trip and what we wanted to take away from this experience.

Although we had arrived at the dock, our work was not yet finished. We still had to clean up all of our supplies, as well as our beloved boat, the Townshend. Everyone split into three groups to take on our tasks. The boat crew completely emptied the boat and gave her a thorough wash. The “dip and dry” crew rinsed our gear with water and bleach and hung it on a clothesline to dry. The galley crew washed all our dishes with warm water and soap. After completing our individual chores, we all worked together to repack the boat in order to get it ready for the next voyage. Once all of this was done, we could finally rest and eat lunch of all the leftovers from the trip, our “roadkill” as Captain Soso said. Finally, Tim showed up with the van to take us back to the ferry and bring our adventure to an end.

It was a long journey with many different challenges we had to overcome, and through it all, we learned a lot about ourselves and how well we worked together. On this trip, we shared a lot of memories and experiences that we will remember for many years.

By Ben, Sonja, and Parker-

On the second full day, we arose from our chambers to a brisk summer morning. We then came into the kitchen to have a delicious meal of various cereals, fruits, and other breakfast options.

After finishing breakfast we took a quick walk to the Whale Museum where we were given a lecture about the local orca population.

Walking to the Whale Museum

During this lecture we listened to a conversation between a family of Southern Resident Killer Whales named Oreo, Double Stuff, and Cookie. We could hear the various clicks and other sounds that they used to communicate with each other. Unfortunately, these orcas face many threats to their already endangered population, such as noise pollution caused by humans, decreasing prey populations (specifically Chinook salmon), and the accumulation of toxins in predators on top of the food chain. After the lecture, we moved up to the different exhibits in the museum and were given a scavenger hunt to “dive deeper” into the fascinating lives and behaviors of these amazing marine mammals.

Listening to a lecture on orcas

If you are wondering how you can help support orca populations worldwide, it can start with simple things such as picking up trash and limiting electricity use, along with many other solutions. For more information, please visit the link above to the Whale Museum website.

After leaving the museum, in small groups, we explored Friday Harbor through a photo safari, during which we searched for areas depicted in historical photographs. Attempting to recreate the photo in the modern era, to examine the transformation in the people, landscape, and culture of the island.

Photographer: Peter

After a lunch of sandwiches, we prepared for our longboat voyage starting on Wednesday, June 28th.

We then traveled to the Spring Street International School labs where we received a lecture on algae by Dr. Rebecca Guenther, manager of the Ocean Acidification Environmental Laboratory in Friday Harbor.

We learned the major characteristics of algae and how to identify them with a dichotomous key.

There are thousands of species of algae, but are divided into three main groups: green, brown, and red algae.

Later, we created plant presses of algae specimens which will be dried and completed by the time we return from our longboat voyage.

Dr. Guenther then joined us for a scrumptious pizza dinner with flavorful toppings such as potatoes, artichokes, and different types of cheese.

Now we will finish our preparations for the long-boat journey and prepare ourselves to wake up early and catch our ferry to Anacortes!

By Gabi, Paradis, Chloe, and Daniel-

Wake up early in the morning, anxious of this new world and what it was offering us on our first day. The sun shining, the clouds low; it didn’t look like the San Juan Island. It was a new world and we are happy to be here. Some of us woke up really early to rock and roll, and some of us were ready to sing Bruno Mars’s The Lazy Song. But no matter how much were anxious or tired, we all were excited to be part of this new adventure called The Salish Sea Sciences Program.

Breakfast, the joyful part of everyone’s morning when that first meal is served, and for those of us who aren’t morning people, enjoying a cup of coffee. This morning happened to bring forth eggs, toast and VERY LARGE MUFFINS all of which tasted amazing. After eating and congregating at our first breakfast, it was decided that a tour was in order to set up boundaries and see the little town of Friday Harbor. By “little,” we mean little; this small town is so close together that its almost impossible to get lost. That being said, what was lost in quantity was for sure made up in quality as Friday Harbor was immaculately clean and all so adorable.

After walking the quaint yet charming streets of Friday Harbor, we headed back to the dorms for some lunch.  We dove into all sorts of sandwiches, salads, and more to fuel ourselves for our next outing: a visit to the Friday Harbor Laboratories associated with the University of Washington.  After arriving at the Lab, we boarded the Centennial, UW’s marine research vessel.

We headed out onto Griffin Bay so we could let down a net to trawl along the sea floor to pick up some of the local diverse flora and fauna.

After pulling the net on the ocean floor for about 10 minutes, the captain pulled up the net and released all the catch onto a sorting table for us to look through.

We were all amazed by all of the shrimp, crab, sea slugs, nudibranchs, sea stars, scallops, clams, and much more.

We all felt like true research scientists when we were aboard the Centennial, and it was a great first experience in the field for us.

After we returned from the Friday Harbor Laboratories we enjoyed an amazing dinner which consisted of pasta salad and grilled chicken accompanied by various vegetables. After we finished our delicious dinner we headed off to the Community Theater for a lecture by Dr. Lauren Mullineaux, a senior researcher and biology professor at Woods Hole, MA, which was about deep sea hydrothermal vent communities.

And now, we’re enjoying some relaxation time as we conclude our day!

By: Sara, Jaimie, Arielle, Jake—

This morning, we woke up at 7:30 and ate our breakfast before returning to False Bay to collect more earwigs for our final projects that we will present on Thursday.

Once we returned to the dorm, we had time to work on our projects. Some of us were working on graphs and background information, while others were running some trials with the earwigs we collected earlier. After working on our projects for about 1 ½ hours, we had lunch.

After lunch, we departed for the Friday Harbor Labs where we learned about sea urchin and sand dollar fertilization.  Dr. Colette Feehan is an expert on larvae feeding habits and their effect on ocean ecology. Today, Colette and Friday Harbor Laboratories ‘Young Investigator Prize’ winner Beatrice Grauman-Boss were embarking on a new study to learn more about larval predation.

We induced the sea urchins to spawn.

The urchins were not cooperating, it is past their season, so instead, sand dollars were used in their place.

We then placed some eggs and sperm on slides and looked at them under a microscope.

After we all got a chance to look at the microscopes, we walked over to where we had been keeping our invertebrates that we had collected while trawling.

They spent the last several weeks in a wet lab where we could use them to draw or study them. It was time to send them home. We collected our invertebrates and went on a 20 minute hike to a beach near the FH Labs where we released them.

Upon releasing the invertebrates, we kept hiking for another 15 minutes and took time to watch the orca whales passing by the beach.

Soon it was time for the shark necropsy! Last Monday, an 8-foot 6 gill shark washed up on the beach, and Adam Summers’ class will be studying the shark’s morphology.We were lucky to be invited to observe the necropsy too. A few of us were even able to feel the liver of the shark!

Photos by Seth Grant

At 5 PM, we returned to campus and started preparing for dinner with our guests, Drs. Rebecca Guenther and Colette Feehan. For dinner we had quinoa salad, caprese, and roasted chicken.

After we ate, Rebecca, talked to us about ocean acidification, climate change, and her work with coralline algae.

After Rebecca and Colette left, we had more time to work on our projects. When we decided that we were done for the day, we went to bed.

By Jack, Lynn, and Peder —

Today we barely opened our eyes around 6 o’clock. Lazily, we congregated for breakfast and then headed out to Andrew’s Bay North beach at Sharon’s house.

Sharon joined us for our survey. Here is a picture of Sharon with Tim.

We spent the morning investigating the differences between Andrew’s Bay North and the last intertidal zone, Andrew’s Bay South; we surveyed and compared what we saw.

The one major difference between Andrew’s Bay North and South is that the north end gets more sun. Together, we were looking to see what difference that would make in the intertidal zone.

We were very excited when we got a cool picture of an anemone and the rest of our data.

After all the festivities, we headed to an actual festival; the Pelindaba Lavender Farm Festival.

Photo by Lana Sachs

Our goal was to avoid killing or getting stung by any bees. It was a great sight for some group photos.

Later that day we went to the docks and enjoyed the sights and breeze. It was such a sunny day that we felt it would be a crime to stay indoors. However, our day was mostly spent so we decided to bicycle tomorrow.

Finally, we settled down to a lovely dinner of pasta and homemade red sauce with our two guests Katie Dobkowski and Darby Flanagan.

Photos by Seth Grant

Katie talked to us about the things she does as a field ecologist and her experiments with bull kelp. Darby then talked about how she has been extending upon Katie’s work by applying it to predation by kelp crabs as well.

Katie showed us what exactly we would be doing tomorrow and the methods she has used to mark kelp in the past.

Overall, we had a blast and felt prepared to help Katie get accurate data the next day.

By Sara, Jaimie, Arielle, and Jake —

This morning, we woke up at 7:30 and had breakfast. After breakfast, we headed to the science room and began to analyze our data on algal species and animal species in the intertidal zone of Andrew’s Bay at the SJI County Park. After a couple hours, we had a break that most of us used to visit some pokestops. After our break, we returned to the lab to continue analyzing data and also brainstorm hypotheses for data we will be taking tomorrow at a different intertidal zone location. Soon it was lunch time so we headed back to the dorm and prepared lunch.

Following lunch, we went back to the lab and did more data analysis. We then came back to the dorm and reviewed the vocabulary quiz we took yesterday and addressed our concerns. After our talk, most of us went into town and played PokemonGo for exploration time.

Around came dinner time and since we didn’t have a guest, Caroline picked up some pizza up for us. After dinner, we watching footage of a ROV (remotely operated vehicle) off the coast of California in an unmapped cave. After watching the ROV we then watched Teen Beach Movie and ate ice cream.

This morning we woke up at 7:30 and had time to wake up, get ready, and eat before heading to the UW Friday Harbor Labs.

We met up with Adam Summers again and got to explore his comparative biomechanics lab and talk to him about his science equipment and experiments.  

Photos by Tom Grauman

He talked to us about his CT scanner and we got to see scans of beetles, piranhas, and a rare deep sea hagfish.

We were also shown his 3D scanner and he showed us a bright yellow yoda head which was a highlight of the trip.

Also, I think the very most exciting moment was when we got to see the 6 gilled shark that had washed up the day before. It stank very badly, but it was also super exciting. Adam and his students are going to dissect and study it next week.

In the late morning, we finally put all of our data together on a spreadsheet so we could all look at our data together. This took us around three hours including some breaks with music and Pokemon. We then hurried back to the dorm in order to surprise Quinn for his birthday.

Quinn is officially 16! Happy birthday dad!! We created a giant card for him and had cupcakes, cookies, brownies, and fresh Skagit Valley blueberries and raspberries.

Photo by Seth Grant

Quinn was pleasantly surprised. Of course, later we had to get back to work, so we headed back to the Spring Street science lab to input more data.

For our free time before dinner, we explored town collecting Pokemon and going to pokestops. Currently, 8 out of the 10 of us have PokemonGo, and it’s becoming quite the addiction. Of course, we are never more interested in Pokemon than science, but it’s good to pass the time and relax.

For dinner, we had chicken kabobs, yellow rice, and cuc salad. Because of a resceduled guest presentation, Seth and Tim drove us to Roche Harbor to get ice cream and watch their nightly routine called Colors. They had a VERY small and VERY loud cannon that scared us all. We checked out all the nice boats and watched the sunset.

It was a very long day—goodnight!

By Jack, Lynn, and Peder —

Today we woke up at 8 am and sluggishly ate breakfast. Then, we hopped into the van and drove to UW Friday Harbor Laboratories. We hustled to the docks, where we met Joe Gaydos.

Joe is a wildlife veterinarian, professor at UC Davis, Director of the SeaDoc Society and co-author of our “textbook:” Salish Sea: Jewel of the Northwest. We received the book as a welcome to the Salish Sea Sciences program.

Cover photo from Whale Museum website; remaining blog page photos by Seth Grant

Joe kindly signed our books with individual messages in his office, then we went back down to the docks to look at the harbor seals that were going to be examined.

Our hearts burst when we saw the baby seals and how thin they were, but we felt better when we found out that their death was not in vain.

They were stranded and so a necropsy was performed to find the cause of death. We learned so many things while watching the necropsy.

One thing we learned was that they have 7 vertebrae like all mammals including giraffes. Another thing we learned was that harbor seals have some of the biggest eyes of the entire mammal population when compared to body size . Harbor seals are the biggest population of seals in the entire San Juan area.

We then came back to the dorms and collected all our data from previous surveys and compiled them into one spreadsheet to be used for further projects.

Later that day we were excited for our guest that evening, Adam Summers—an expert in biomechanics—because he had a major role for the design of the fish in Finding Dory and Finding Nemo. 

We were also happy to meet his two adorable children Elly and Abel ages 9 and 4 respectively.

We had a blast eating mediterranean food, playing badminton, and jinzi.

Here are a few pictures from Caroline:

Finally, after we settled down, we watched an episode of The X-files and went to bed.