Painted Sky

Adios

A bit of home when I'm away from home.

Travelling as much as I do, it would be all too easy to lose touch with the goings-on back home. I've come to rely quite heavily on some of the local blogs to help me stay connected. A hearty thank you, and much appreciation to all of the following:

Seminole Heights Blog, best neighborhood blog about the best neighborhood.
Sticks of Fire,The standard-bearer of Tampa blogging.
Tampa Taxi Shots, I love the photos and tales from Tampa's darkside.
Vitamin Sea A regular dose of sunshine and beautiful photos to boot.

And finally,

Tampa Blab, For bringing me all those blogs to which I've not yet become addicted

My sincerest gratitude for all of your efforts, and to all of those whom I didn't specifically name, my thanks to you as well.

Just a taste of Loreto

Loreto is the oldest Spanish town on the Baja California peninsula, settled in 1697 by Jesuit missionaries. Here are just a couple of photos right around the hotel to start things off.

Small part of the waterfront


Another shot of the waterfront


A view of the central historic district and mission from the rooftop deck of the hotel


Sun setting on the Mision Nuestra Senora de Loreto


Hotel pool from the lobby


Hotel courtyard

Sunrise in Baja.

After a few days in southern California we crossed the border yesterday. My first trip to Mexico ever. What an adventure it's going to be. Like many, I had two years of Spanish in high school. I haven't used it since really. That's all changing rapidly. Luckily, several members of our expedition are bilingual, and the people here are so very friendly that communication, while difficult, is quite doable. I plan on picking up the basics in very short order. This place is beautiful, a real undiscovered gem. The weather is warm, but not oppressive. Again, the people are wonderful, very charming and friendly. The food is indescribably delicious. Tacos de pescado, enchiladas de pollo, and quesadillas are what I've sampled so far. Better than any I've had in the States.

I managed to get a picture of a couple of Sperm Whales, but the sun angle was unfavorable and I'm still learning this new camera, so it isn't great.



Here's just a couple of shots to show the landscape of Baja.

Hi Ho. Hi Ho. It's off to Mexico.

Postings might be a bit scarce for the next few weeks I am enroute to Baja California for a sea turtle project and the hotel there only has limited Internet. If I can post I will, but otherwise I'll put the pictures up once I return to the States.

OK, Sherman, set the Wayback Machine

Captain's Log Stardate 2000:
I was going through some old digital photos I took way back when I started this thing they call a career. It was my first true big adventure as an adult. I graduated USF in May, 2000. As a present to myself I bought a Sony Mavica, 1 megapixel digital camera in part to document this grand journey.

I won't bore you with too many details, but to start things off I will give just a tiny bit of background. Around the time I was graduating USF I found what I thought was going to be a dream job(so far it has been.) After it was officialI was off to Lawnguyland New York for training. My first job was going to be a bridge officer on a research ship so what better place for training then the US Merchant Marine Academy, in Kings Point. The following photos were taken around that time and shortly thereafter during my first sea duty.

Blogger was having issues with uploading photos so I tried out the "Hello" program. I don't really care for the way it uploads each photo as a seperate post.

We had a fair bit of on-the-water training on the rivers and harbor around NYC.
Here's Ms. Liberty

Statue of Liberty

This was pre-9/11. I only have a couple of photos of the WTC.

Twin Towers

One thing's for sure. The views out my "office" windows have left me quite spoiled. This was taken on Chesapeake Bay.

Chesapeake Bay Rainbow

Left a good job in the city:
Steaming out of NY harbor on our way to Norfolk, VA.

Manhattan Island From New York Harbor

Another day, another sunset.

Long Island Sound Sunset

Not my usual post

This is a bit out of the ordinary, but I just had to put it out there. Yesterday, we went to see what is one of the best movies I've seen in a long long time. Little Miss Sunshine was truly a breath of fresh air. It was a delightful story with great characters and plenty of laughs to go around. If you get a chance, I wholeheartedly recommend you watch this film.

Gratuitous mountain pictures

I think I've said it before, but the thing that I miss the most living here in Florida is the lack of vertical relief. I do love the mountains.


Below is a rare gem: Ketchikan airport in the sunshine.

Cruising Alaska

One thing that struck me about Alaska and that part of the continent is the sheer number of cruise ships I saw. They were in Anchorage, they were in Prince William Sound when we flew over. We witnessed several in the Inside Passage when the clouds broke enough for us to see the surface.
They were in Juneau:


When we stopped for fuel two passed in the short time we were there:


I used to think I wanted to take an Alaskan cruise, but after seeing how many there are at each of these places, I'm not so sure. I didn't have the camera ready, but at one point we saw four of them in unision heading north only a mile or two apart. Seeing Alaska that way, just doesn't seem right anymore.

Closer to home we stopped in Port Hardy, BC to clear customs and refuel before flying east over the Rockies.

Port Hardy Airport, BC was an interesting sight. A small regional carrier,Pacific Coastal, was operating a rather ecclectic fleet. They had a Shorts(similar to the Sherpa-looking cargo plane I posted about earlier), Beech 1900s, Beavers on floats, and even a couple of Grumman Geese.

The below picture capture a fair portion of their flock at the time.

Their scheduling made for a rather nifty sight as well. Just about the time we landed all of these planes alighted at the same time. They switched passengers and then scattered again, It was sort of like seagulls on pieces of thrown bread.

Is this any place to put an airport?

We left Anchorage and spent the night in Juneau. It's a great town, the capitol of the state and only accessible by boat or plane. I've heard tales ever since I started flying about the challenges of flying IFR in Alaska. Almost conversation has mention of the approaches into Juneau. There is no precision approach into the airport available for anyone but Alaska Airlines. The airport is basically located in a bowl with tall mountains in every direction but one and there are pretty high hills that way. The available approaches don't even line you up with the runway. There's a dog-leg final that takes you through a small cut in the hill before you turn about 30 degrees shortly before touchdown. I attempted to get a panorama of the field but with all the activity it didn't work out so well.

This panorama shows the view from North around to East.


This shot shows the view to the Southeast:



Here's what the South side of the airport looks like:



And here are the hills the final approach crosses:
That little dip right above the Alaskan Airlines jet is where you pass before turning.

We just overnighted in Juneau. It seemed like a really nice small city. I wish we could have spent more time there.

At least I got to see one Grizzly Bear up close!

This wasn't quite what I was hoping for.
In my mind there are a couple of things that I automatically associate with Alaska: Snow, Ice, King Crab, Oil, and of course Bear. We had one close encounter with a brown bear but no pictures to show for it. I learned that no matter what, you never ever ever run from a bear, Except when you're with three other people, and they all run.
I had heard the rules of wildlife interaction. They were even broadcast daily on the motel's information television channel. Repeated often: "Don't run if you encounter a bear, it will most likely spark their instinct to chase. Just respectfully give them a wide berth and move away slowly and deliberately." Also: it's better to make plenty of noise to alert them to your presence so you don't startle them.

All that being said, we had driven up a gravel road and found a small pool that was full of salmon.


While we were checking out the fish we heard a bear on the other side of the stream, a few hundred yards away or so, howling or growling. We didn't see the bear yet, but the sounds were getting closer. So we did the touristy thing of course. We got the cameras ready and walked down the stream hoping to get a glimpse of some true Alaskan wildlife. The brush was rather thick, but we could hear the twigs snapping and knew we were getting fairly close. As we drew nearer, the weeds and trees started parting and swaying, and a dark shape moved towards us quickly. The guy that was closest to the commotion then bolted for the truck. I knew that we weren't supposed to run, but that tiny voice of logic said, "you don't have to be first, but you sure as heck don't want to be last in this race." It's like the old joke, I didn't have to outrun the bear, just the slowest guy. So after the first dude took off, the rest of us sort of simultaneously had the same thought and followed suit. We never did get a good sight of the bear, nor a picture. I think the bear was just bluffing us. Either way, we sat in the truck for a bit, but the bear never made another appearance, so we moved on.

I did see a few bear from the air when we along some of the flatter parts of the coast, but never close enough for a picture.

I had to settle for this up-close encounter with Grizzly Bear.

Maybe next year!

At the same marina, I thought this was kind of funny.

I "Hope" everyone uses the doggy waste bucket.

Landing Airplanes for Dummies

I once heard that humor is the secret to long life, and even if it isn't it certainly makes the time we have a lot better while we're here. Occasionally I like to pull out this book when I fly with a crew for the first time. It's pretty well received though there is often that momentary look of puzzlement while they decide if it's a joke or now. I found the cover generator at a site called www.signgenerator.org which links to www.txt2pic.com. You can change most of the items on the cover and make them your own.

Leaving Anchorage

The day we left Anchorage was a pretty dreary one. The weather was blustery and grey. There were reports of moderate to severe turbulence and we were going to have to climb through it to head back home. They offered us a quick departure on one of the east-west runways, but it would have meant a pretty mean crosswind so we declined and had a forever hold awaiting our IFR release. I never knew just how much air cargo moved through Anchorage, but it seems there was an endless parade of 747's landing. The delay allowed me to get the above shot. Pretty cool I think. I think we were waiting there for about 40 minutes. The plan was to stop in Juneau after a quick touchdown in Yakutat to drop off some parts for one of our other aircraft. Just before they cleared us for departure an Alaskan Airlines 737 landed and the controller asked about the ride in, and he said "It was exciting." Not what you want to hear when you fly something with a fraction of the mass of a 737. Luckily we must have missed all the squirrely air because aside from a few minor bumps the departure and trip to Juneau was rather uneventful.

Glorious

Just another day at the office.

The day that changed everything.

9/11 was one of those events where most people know in great detail where they were and what they were doing when the news broke. I was doing charting work in Long Island Sound just outside of New Haven, CT, That morning, we were towing one of our survey boats into the Coast Guard station to trailer it for repairs. The day earlier we had lost the lower unit of the outboard motor. A call came from the ship that an airplane had hit the Twin Towers. Having flown in and out of La Guardia a few times, right over the city, my first thought was an accident.
We continued on and tied up at the pier, and in the time from the first radio call until we arrived at the station our nation went to war. I felt as though I had stepped into the Twilight Zone. The station was in lockdown. Every "Coastie" was wearing a sidearm, there was a machine gun emplacement atop the building, and Jersey barriers were in place across the gate. As we were loading the boat one seaman came running by and yelled they just hit the Pentagon, we're at Defcon...whatever. It was completely surreal.

That evening the dust cloud was quite visible on the horizon. The lack of jet noise overhead(a veritable constant sound anywhere near NYC) was also a reminder that things were different now.

From that moment that we realized how quickly things can change. How fleeting our way of life might be. In the days that followed, I was scheduled to travel to Tampa to meet a ship for a two week project in the Gulf. No air travel meant I had to drive from NY to FL. Coming over the Verazzano Bridge Thursday morning, the reality was further cemented. Warships and Coast Guard cutters patrolled the harbor. Freighters and tankers of every flag sat idly at anchor. I stopped in Norfolk to pick up another shipmate for this trip. Chesapeake bay was full of silent, still merchant ships, while cruisers and destroyers prowled about. We were at war.

The response of the American people, and the world was awe-inspiring. There was a comraderie that just wasn't there before. We realized just how short life might be, just how tenuous our sense of security was. Now, five years later, what has happened? Where has this cohesiveness gone. We say we remember and honor those that perished, but do we really or are we just paying lip service? How did your life changed on 9/11, and are you still living those changes?

Did you feel the earthquake?

www.usgs.gov
OK, I've lived in Florida most of my life and even having spent some time on the west coast of the US and having felt two earthquakes, I still didn't think that what I felt a few minutes ago was a quake. My first thought, sonic boom, but the shuttle isnt landing, and no noise, second thought was ok so my house is haunted, even hmm, a 9/11 followup a day early. Well we used to say yeah, we have hurricanes, but you can run from those, but I guess we get earthquakes too. Where were you when the earth moved?

Fjord Flying

A lot of the flying we did this trip involved investigating a glacier's terminus for seal haulouts. This meant a lot of flying in fjords, and it was some of the most exhilarating flying I've done so far. The hills on either side shot up a couple of thousand feet in many places, and we were flying down low under the overcast deck. It made for some beautiful contrasts. The weather over the glaciers themselves was often clear and sunny while the approaches through the fjords were cloudy and foggy.

The sun beaming on the ice made them glow like a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. It was stunning.

Most of the time I was in Alaska however, the days were pretty grey. From what I've been told the best time to visit is May/June. The rainy season starts in late July through August.
Here's a view of what we saw much of the time when we flew out to see if the weather was suitable for survey.

Sup From the Cup That Keeps You Up

I truly love coffee and think I have found my ambrosia, and Alaska might become my Mecca. While I was in Cordova, AK I ventured into the grocery store to seek some coffee to make in my room. The stuff in the lobby was good, but unpredictably available. The shelves had various brands that were familiar, but new place means I have to try something out of the ordinary. I bought a 14oz bag of Resurrection Blend by Raven's Brew. It was one of the best I've ever tasted, strong but smooth. I've since ordered a couple more blends. One that wasn't on the shelf, was the Three-peckered Billy Goat. With a name like that, I just had to try it. I also have a bag of Deadman's Reach. I'll let you know how they are.

Pizza Wars Redux

I hate to use just a single experience to make a determination regarding a restaurant as, good or bad, it might have been a fluke. Well I have had Cappy's again and while it wasn't as good as the first time(the crust was a bit overcooked) this time we also had the breadsticks. The breadsticks were awesome, the pizza still very good, if not as good as before. This time around we went a bit later and the place was almost full. Service was still exceptional. Last night we had Stephanno's to enjoy at home with a movie(RV, with Robin Williams) and they have made improvements to the crust, but still not as good as Cappy's, and it's a bit pricier. Final judgement remains the same, Cappy's for Eat-in, Stephanno's for Take-out. I wonder what's going to happen to Ybor Pizza and Sub's. We gave them a try a while back, and the pizza just wasn't nearly as good as it was when they were in Ybor, and compared to Stephanno's and now Cappy's it tasted like cardboard.