Herring Survey 2011 Central Coast!

Thursday, April 12 2011;

“And it begins”

2 days after being picked up in Nanaimo by our 70 foot commercial fishing vessel, the crew and I have just picked up our maps of the area in Bella Bella and are continuing our travels north to start our survey of this year’s Herring spawn.  The travel time up was a nice change of pace, catch up on some sleep ;  ), “unplug” from the wonders of technology in our global village, and enjoy the scenery. 

Herring Roe
Since today marked the 1^st official day of the charter is was a bit of a busier day than our days of leisure that are looking like are right out the window, shame really I was getting used to sitting in the lap of luxury…hockey games, smoked black cod, my 6x2foot bunk, but all good things have to come to an end. With offloading concreted and supplies to friends in family in Bella Bella and getting the skiffs in the water, we have made our way a bit more north to start our search for the illusive herring eggs but for now we are at anchor and are just getting the skiffs sorted out for a day of diving tomorrow! 

            More adventures to come…..maybe some orcas :  D

Saturday, April 16 2011;

“A reminder of where we are”

A few things happened today that were a reminder of how remote we are up here, we had a nice visit by a wolf or two, a curious black bear on the shores of the beach, a few sea lions getting warm on the rock of Powell Anchorage, and to be honest a little incident as the cherry on top….Mum this is where you stop reading and take Dad down to the pub.

 Today I had a regulator failure, but in a good way…if there was one I guess,  20feet under the surface my regs started what’s known as a free flow, when air continuously flows out of the mouth piece so fast that you have to tilt you head to one side and just sip on the air like royalty having a cup of tea.  Upon reaching the surface, after having an interesting ascent and successfully going from 3000psi to 200psi in roughly 30seconds with a frost bite on the side of my mouth sort of a kind reminder of how cold pressurized air can be. I swam over to the boat and got back in,  talking with my tender, Joel, we discussed  the incident and making sure everything was okay he and I decided it would be best to switch for the rest of the morning.  So I had this time to reflect on how remote this area truly is and we haven’t even gone as far north as we are planning!  Yes I was being safe, yes my equipment is fine, and yes I am healthy….I am saying all this because I know there are a few of you reading and asking all those questions at the same time….and yes Mum I learnt my lesson ;  D

intensity juice, 

Sunday, April 17 2011;

“Travel Days”

            Hah oh where has the time gone, took me a while to figure out what day it was, cheers to the days of travel, time to chill out after having a pretty good start to the charter, working the majority of the day, there is no time while out here, there are only tasks, what’s that transect number? depth and time please?  

The tanks need to get filled so on and so forth…oh I should take that back, there is time on the boat….pretty much the only time that matters, Hockey…I’m sure there are some of you that would have seen that one coming.  That, among a few other things, is one of the cool things about our skip, hockey is priority especially with it being the playoffs right now!

April 22, 2011

“Cabin Fever”

             Have you ever watched The Shining? You know the one…”hhhhhheeeerrrrrrssssss JONNY!!!!”

Well…..I’M HERE!  Not going to lie it has been a boring few days with one of our boats having some mechanical issues we were tied up in Shearwater for a few days, at first it was good, time to catch up on some paper work for the survey and look at our own dive gear….but then what was only ment to be a few hours turned into a few more and a few more….we got to watch the hockey game, thanks for that by the way canucks insert choice swear word here, now we are moving on to day 2 of re rigging a different skiff for dive work and slowly making our way to Kitasu bay.  Back to my original rant to keep my mind from here axe happy…. Cabin fever….. it’s not a fun thing to deal with, especially with 7 dudes on one boat…….everything tends to get a bit odd…at first movies are watched then everyone goes for a nap or reads a book…but eventually energy gets built up then all of a sudden you have a boat full of 5year old boys and someone gets yelled at….not naming names ;  ) Long story short, it sucks sometimes, but every once n’ a while a funny story will come out of it and we all hang our head in laughter….anyways back life on the HMCS Shinning!

April 30, 2011;

“Home Stretch”

The countdown is on!!! We are slowly starting our trek south from Higgins Inlet to Nanaimo dropping anchor in a few spots along the way.  First off, and most important, to Shearwater! Hockey and fight night, then to a few other spots as we are on the hunt for those illusive herring eggs!  So far it’s been a good trip lots of fun, great food made by a few of us on the ship..but for now chili and hockey await!!






















May 5, 2011; 

"Home!"

Home!! sometimes that title is sooooo sweet!  it was a long journey down, roughly 30hrs of travel, the majority of the weather was fine but we did have a few bumpy rides along the way, honestly it wouldn't be a good voyage without a few bumps here and there.  You know it is nice to unplug for a little while but it reminds you how important the land of the living really is. Where you can call your family and friends on a whim, not have to worry about the rain messing up the hockey game! O_o! and all the other little creature comforts of home! i.e. my bed!!! so comes a close to this years Herring survey of the central coast, it was a good time, great food and scenery but now to get a pint with my friends and catch up!