Harbor Porpoise Recovery

Before we went on our extended cruise I had been volunteering with the Whatcom Marine Mammal Stranding Network (WMMSN). I had observed a few seal pups that were thought to possibly need help, retrieved a still-born harbor seal carcass, and helped with the recovery of a dead gray whale. When I got back to Blaine I checked up on the group to see what had happened in my absence. It wasn't long before I got called back into service.

A resident from Birch Bay Village, a community "around the corner" from Blaine, reported what she believed to be a porpoise on the beach. People calling in strandings frequently misidentify the animal. This lady was pretty sure it was a porpoise but it was possible it was another seal. I was asked to check it out ,determine if it was stranded or dead, and ID the species.

An adult seal or porpoise can be large and heavy so I needed to find someone to help me. All of the usual people were unavailable (including my usual last resort person - Greg) so I called the mother of one of our volunteers hoping that I could convince her to help. Fortunately for me, she gladly agreed.

Greg was not so sure about putting a sea creature in the back of the Subaru and he emptied everything out and gave me a tarp to protect the car.

I met Shirley Sell at Birch Bay Village where we were greeted by Barb, the security guard. Barb confirmed that it wasn't a seal and that it was dead. Barb had done exactly what should have been done upon discovering the animal. She secured the body and took pictures. She gave me several 8x10 photos which were extremely useful.

 

What we found was a fresh carcass of a Harbor Porpoise, Phocoena phocoeana. It was a very large specimen. It measured 6'3" and weighed over 200 lbs. It was a good thing I brought a helper - with a truck! This would never have fit in my Subaru. The adult Harbor Porpoise can measure up to 6 1/2 ft but the average is 5'.  This species is relatively common in this area but it's numbers used to be much greater. Like so many other sea creatures, it's population is declining.
I had worried about residents disturbing the animal but that wasn't the case. It was the birds. By the time we got there the birds had been at the body and slashed it, making our examination and retrieval more difficult. Fortunately we had the security photos which confirmed that there hadn't been any wounds when landed on the beach.

We donned our gloves and Shirley rinsed the body with seawater prior to our closer inspection.





The porpoise's teeth were very worn down, supporting our initial belief that this was a very old animal that may have died due to natural causes.

Shirley and I struggled to bag the carcass so Barb and two other guards assisted us. There was no way that the two of us could ever have carried it up the steps to the parking lot.

It's better to remove the bagged specimens because people have called the police and reported a dead (human) body on the beach. I couldn't resist telling these guys that this was an abusive husband in the bag - it was the right size and weight.





We managed to get the beast in the truck and were on our way to our storage facility in Bellingham where a chest freezer was waiting for it's new occupant. Our next problem was - who would help us unload this guy?
While Shirley drove, I called everyone I could think of, but no luck. Shirley's light bulb came on and she called her daughter (the WMMSN volunteer) who was in a college class in Bellingham. In no time we had her daughter and another student. We snagged another guy at the storage facility, and with the help of a heavy-duty wheel barrow, got our bagged body into the freezer. Hopefully no one saw this and reported a possible murder victim.

Now we are awaiting the necropsy  to determine the cause of death. Scientists are not sure why many porpoises are dying but they suspect that high levels of toxins and pollutants impair the immune systems of these and other cetaceans, which makes them more susceptible to life-threatening diseases. Hopefully we will be able  to learn something from this one.

After we finished our assignment, Shirley and I were informed that we should have been wearing masks because there is a potentially fatal bacteria that porpoises can transmit to people thru the air. We would have to be alert to any flu-like symptoms over the next 7-10 days. If they developed we would have to rush to the hospital and state that we had had exposure to a porpoise. With this knowledge they would be able to properly threat us and avert another carcass needing to be bagged.

It's been several days and I'm fine so I think we will be okay.

After all this fun and excitement I am finally heading home where much more pleasant things await me.

Sunset at the Semiahmoo Marina

A Walk Along the Spit in Autumn

The tip of Semiahmoo Spit with the resort to the left, the old water tower center and marina to the right. The Blaine Marina is opposite. Directly above the tower in the distance you can see the Peace Arch at the US Canadian Border.

There is a wonderful path that extends down the length of the Semiahmoo Spit with Drayton Harbor on the inside and the Pacific on the outside. It extends from the deep forest below the Semiahmoo community (where there is an active bald eagle nest), along both sides of the spit through the county park at the land end of the spit on to the tip and around the Semiahmoo Resort.

Birding seems to be the number one activity along the path but there are joggers, cyclists and families with kids on trikes and elderly people strolling along taking in the sun and sights.

Students observing birds on Drayton Harbor.

Greg and I regularly hike the Semiahmoo Spit trail and this entry in our blog covers just one day.

Most days I wimp out and just walk to the county park and come back to the marina, a two mile walk. The best walk is the entire loop - a four mile hike with a good climb up the hill along a beautiful creek.

We are temporarily on A Dock and I leave the docks through the bicycle compound. Below the ramp on the rip rap is a young harbor seal. This plump little guy apparently likes solitude and chooses to sleep here every day, coming in with the high tide. Most of the other pups hang out on the marina breakwater.



The marina's breakwater is the local wildlife hangout. Segregation is part of nature. I rarely see birds in big mixed congregations; they usually stay with their own kind. On the breakwater the seals look like a Salvador Dali painting -their bodies draping (almost dripping) over the docks. Next are the cormorants standing straight as sticks (one woman asked me what all the sticks were out on the breakwater and had a hard time accepting that they were birds). To the right of the cormorants are the Canadian (US) geese and an occasional great blue heron or two.



Seals to the left, cormorants to the right.



The pups, once they leave mom's side, hang out on the log booms at the end of the breakwater practicing their banana poses (that's a real technical term, really).



Great blue herons (GBH) are not "supposed" to be common around here but there have been large numbers of them fishing in Drayton Harbor. There is a rookery nearby and during nesting season they fly back and forth over the road from the bay to their nests creating a regular heron parade.



 

It's amazing that there are still so many wildflowers in bloom on the spit. There is an abundance of blackberry and wild roses which provide food and cover for a wide variety of song birds, mostly sparrows now.

Blanket Flower

Wild roses full of hips. Mt Baker in the distance.

Crows are abundant and fight with the bald eagles for roosting spots. Unfortunately there is also a large population of starlings.



We have a variety of gulls. These delicate little gulls are mew gulls.

Everywhere I go I find a belted kingfisher at work.

A pair of kill deers are walking along the edge of the harbor. They are a skittish little bird.

The surf scotters are regulars in Drayton harbor.

The mallards have just arrived, probably on their way south. They rest comfortably on the dried ell grass until someone wants to get a closer look at them. Harlequin ducks are here today as well. As you walk along the trail its "butts up" every where you look. For some reason the mallards decided to join the geese parade.

Not much action on the Pacific side of the spit. The wind is good for sailing though (one sailboat out near Pt. Roberts).

I didn't see any bald eagles today but I know they are here and tending to housekeeping. A few days ago I saw one on my way back from town and it was trailing something. I worried that it had gotten fouled in something. As I got closer I saw that it was carrying a branch, longer than his body, back to the nest.

It's time to head back. Looks like someone has been waiting for me.



GBH patrols the dock by Comocean.



There and Back Again - the Wrap Up

We left Neah Bay, WA on September  7, 2010 at 11 am beginning our adventure to Baja. We returned to Neah Bay on July 27, 2011 at 11 pm having travelled over 11,000 nautical miles. On the way south we stayed from 50 to 90 miles off shore.



Our Route from La Paz to Hawai'i and on to WA



Our route from the tip of Baja to Hawai'i followed the Trade Winds. Once past the Hawai'ian Islands we sailed around the Pacific High. The first passage to Hawai'i took 16 days and the second back to WA took 22.

I wondered if I would have an opportunity to witness the great "garbage patch" in the north Pacific gyre first hand. We successfully avoided entering the high (unlike some of the other boats we were following) and didn't see it but others who were sitting becalmed in the center of the high didn't see it either. In a way I am glad, because it would have been a very depressing sight. At our rendezvous in Poulsbo, WA last week I discussed the problem of plastics in the ocean and the garbage patch and I was surprised to find several sailors who had no idea it existed and wanted to know who put it there.

Of the 11,000+ miles we covered, we sailed about 8,000, based on fuel consumption of 498 gal. of diesel. Using a  rough estimate of  four dollars per gallon, we spent $1992 on fuel. Our food costs were less than they would have been in Washington since the food in Mexico is much less expensive. We ate at restaurants very in frequently and when we did it was usually lunch. Our "entertainment" costs were less than $200 and included renting a car on Hawai'i (which was more for provisioning) the fees for the La Paz museum, various small donations and the Bishop Museum in Honolulu. We're a frugal couple.

I over provisioned, no surprise to Greg, and returned with much of what I took - BUT we didn't want for food! Almost everything you could want is available. In Baja, where refrigeration is rare in the villages, the vegetables can be a little limp and in Hawai'i they are EXPENSIVE but they are there. Wine and some forms of spirits are hard to fine in Baja outside of the major cities.

Everyone seems to want to know about sailing on the open ocean. It was less dramatic than I had anticipated. Greg's use of the grib files (wind speed  & direction, wave height and barometric pressure), weather faxes and the net forecasts keep us out of nasty situations. We were careful and didn't take any shortcuts. We only encountered overcast skies and a few squalls. Our most exciting weather experience was in Baja when we sailed through a lightning storm and had a sudden down draft of over 70 knots. For the most part we sailed between 5 and 7 knots per hour. We only had one day where we were close to becoming becalmed and it only lasted a few hours. Our friends on Cadence were becalmed twice - for five days each time. Since you have to be careful to allocate your fuel, you can't just motor your way out of it.

Pacific squall

Night sailing in a moonless sky was stressful the first two nights but it became routine as I realized that there weren't any ships around and I couldn't do anything about the small stuff. My idea of using forward-facing sonar to see cargo containers and sleeping whales didn't pan out. They are too close to the surface and are lost in background "noise". The AIS on the other hand was worth every penny we paid for it and took the tension out of "meeting big ships". It told us exactly where ships were and what the closest point of approach would be.

The best part of passage making, as far as I am concerned, is the 360 degree sunrises and sunsets. You just can't experience this anywhere else (except maybe on Mt Everest).

Comocean, a Catalina 42' sloop with wing keel,  turned out to be a very capable and fast "blue water cruiser" even though it wasn't designed to be. We had very few problems which I attribute to the great care and thought that Greg puts into her upgrades and maintenance. The fresh water pump was our first problem. When it failed we just switched to our redundant pump (it still needs to be replaced). We had a voltage regulator fail and had one flown into Mulege (we should have been carrying a spare). We had some sail problems: Our 19-year-old main sail tore but Greg was able to pull it through the center window and repair it with his Sailrite sewing machine (a new one is on order this year). Our Yager spinnaker, which did a phenomenal job, came undone once at the top and once at the bottom due to parts that weren't up to the task (we know the problem and are fixing them) and Sonia promises not to fly her kite in 20 knot winds.

Two issues were actually related to sailing offshore: the autopilot and the rudder thrust bearing . The pounding we took at sea and a bad stop had caused the autopilot to overextend. This allowed some retainer pins to drop out of place consequently allowing the magnet portion of the clutch to turn. This caused two little wires to twist until they broke. Fortunately for us they broke far enough out to allow Greg to splice them. Even tough Raymarine



Autopilot repair


Did we enjoy our travels? Yes, most definitely. We proved that it isn't really possible to do the round trip every year like we had originally planned but after a year or so to rest up we will be heading back south again. The boredom of the passages is still a problem for me but I will continue to try to find a way to solve it.

The cast of Characters:



Cinnamon in a rare "awake" moment



Cinnamon in his usual state



Greg and Mahi Mahi



Sonia



I have  been convinced to continue this blog by friends who have enjoyed it. I will post new blogs each time we do something new or especially noteworthy.

What We Didn't Tell/Show You of Hawai'i

After leaving Maui we sailed along the northern shore of Moloka'i. We wanted to see the incredible waterfalls falling through the steep canyons. 2011 is a drought year for Hawai'i, and its summer, so there weren't a lot of waterfalls but what we saw was great. 

Kalaupapa - the site of Hawai'is Leper Colony

In the center of the north shore of Moloka'i is a peninsula which creates a protected anchorage and a very isolated place to live. In 1848 the state of Hawai'i purchased this area and in 1866 began exiling victims of Hansen's Disease (Lepers) to the area. Although a treatment was available in 1930 some afflicted people chose to stay in the colony. Today approximately 60 people still live there.

Northwest end of Moloka'i

Papohaku Roadstead

Moloka'i may be the most Hawai'ian of the islands - it has the largest percentage of native Hawai'ians. Of its 7,400 permanent residents, almost half are at least 50% Hawai'ian blood. Moloka'i has been virtually ignored by developers and only one small resort has been built at the Papohaku Roadstead. We anchored here one night and watched a few people stroll along the lovely beach and climb over the rocks. This was a nice alternative to the "Club-Med" type resorts on the other islands.

We ran into our share of squalls.

Our last anchorage in Hawai'i was the Kane'ohe Bay Yacht Club on O'ahu.


Chinaman's Hat Island in Kaneohe Bay on O'ahu





The incredible land forms of Kane'ohe Bay

 


Kane'ohe Bay Yacht Club



Kane'ohe Bay Yacht Club was our favorite with its beautiful lawns, pool, palm trees and friendly people.

Sonia's beautifully executed med moor put us next to our new friends on Cadence.

Sonia was facinated with some striking red-headed birds that perched near the boat. They turned out to be a red-crested Cardinals also known as the Brazilian Cardinal.

Bishop Museum located in Honolulu.

We spent an entire day at the Bishop Museum. This is the building housing Hawi'ian artifacts and models of marine animals. In the center is an example of the double canoe, totems and a typical "precontact" Hawai'ian house.

There were some really unusual items which I thought would be interesting to share.

These Hawai'ian capes are bright red and yellow. They are made from the feathers of the red iiwi bird (Vestiaria coccinea) and the yellow feathers of the oo bird (Moho spp.) . At first I was very disturbed at the idea of killing so many birds to make these but then I read that the birds weren't killed. The Hawai'ians developed a way to catch the birds and pull out some feathers and then let them go.

 These head pieces are also made from bird feathers.

 



"This ahuula belonged to Queen Emma and was worn when a child at the Royal School. It is made up of red iiwi (Vestiaria coccinea) feathers and black and yellow oo (Moho spp.) feathers. It has a background of red iiwi feathers. Two pairs of yellow oo crescents, one pair running close to the neckline. Two pairs of yellow oo half crescents are on both the left and right front edges. A band of yellow oo runs along its lower border. A thin band of alternating black and yellow oo sections run along the neckline. Its net backing is made of olona (Touchardia latifolia) fiber."

from the Bishop Museum website: http://bishopmuseum.org/

This prized symbol of chiefly rank in old Hawai‘i is made of a carved whale tooth, also known as whale ivory, strung on thick strands of finely braided human hair.

I found it odd that there were so many of these on display and we typically think of Hawai'ians having long hair. All the pictures in the museum of women showed them with short hair.

The Hawaiians were fierce warriors. They didn't have metal so their weapons were made from wood and animal parts.

"Some of the most fearsome weapons in the arsenal of a Hawaiian koa (warrior) were ones studded with the niho niuhi, the teeth of the man-eating shark. The handles were typically of hard wood, such as kauila, and slots were scored into them to imbed the teeth. The teeth were fastened to the handle by lashings pulled through small drilled holes."

from the Bishop Museum website



This sperm whale model hangs from the ceiling. 



The back side of the sperm whale model showing it's mouth.






We were told that the whale that surfaced next to our boat was probably a sperm whale. The sperm whale reaching up to 69' and 58 tons is a toothed whale. They feed at great depths ( up to 10,000 feet) where they consume bottom-dwelling sharks, squid, octopus, large fish and other sharks.

Adjacent to the Hawai'ian Hall is the Castle Memorial Building that houses special displays. We were fortunate to catch a really interesting one.

Dinosaurs Unearthed - Feathered Discoveries

"In the last decade, the discovery of feathered dinosaurs in Liaoning Province, China has shifted popular thought and caused paleontologists to re-evaluate the appearance of theropod dinosaurs around the world.
The fossils discovered in Liaoning were exceptionally well preserved, which has allowed scientists to draw significant conclusions about feathers, color, and environmental influences.

The discovery has drawn the fascinating connection between ancient dinosaurs and modern birds. Scientists have found that feathers first evolved as a means of warmth and display and later became specialized to the extent that flight was possible."

from: http://bishopmuseum.org/exhibits/onexhibit.html

 Life-size animated models demonstrated the new concepts of what scientists think dinosaurs looked like.

We thoroughly enjoyed our day at the Bishop Museum and agree that it is a must see if you visit O'ahu.

Now we are safely back in Blaine and preparing to head north to Telegraph Harbor on Tethis Island in Canada for the All Catalina Rendezvous.

I will be making one more blog entry - a wrap up of our route, our milage, what worked and didn't and what broke! Don't miss it.