Port Call, N55.34 W131.65

Broke off operations and headed up the Hecate Straits to Ketchikan, Alaska. Mission: Drop off an engineer, pick up a cameraman.

The ride into Ketchikan is lovely, there were whales frolicking at a distance on both the inbound and outbound trips, although too far for a recognizable photo. Modern humpbacks tend to avoid large ships, go figure. Ketchikan seems to be a stop on the Alaska cruise ship route, as there were 3 in port the morning we arrived.

We stopped close enough to the dock to send out a small boat for the shore exchange. This put us right along the landing strip for the local seaplanes, so we spent a fair part of the morning watching the takeoffs and landings (the pic is by request for you, Joe). If I had the time, I would drop the $$ for some flighted tourism, the Alpine lake regions nearby are supposed to be lovely. There's a rumor that we might get some shore leave the next time we stop in Ketchikan...

The addition of the cameraman to the writer/photographer that boarded in Seattle gives us a UMaine Media matched set. Media people, like dolphins and espresso machines, are pretty commonly seen on research trips these days. Ron will be taking high definition video of science at sea for the purpose of cobbling together a recruitment video for the university. Dane is providing photography and is also working on a mysterious independent film as a side project. I will be highly entertained to see their G-rated, Camp Fun version of research cruising when it comes to DVD.

I hope the cameraman has a makeup artist somewhere in his bag, b/c grooming in general can get pretty scary on a research trip. Shaving and bathing became optional and the use of expletives compulsory once we left sight of land. You cannot point a camera at Eric without him flipping a bird or two. We’ll see if they can make it must see TV.