More Helicopters than Dragonflies

By on July 16th, 2008 in Archive

Today was turnover day and as I sat in my office doing paperwork, I happened to look out the window and just about fell over in astonishment. I’ve never seen so many helicopters flying at one time – not even at the height of a forest fire in my previous life as a water bomber pilot. It seemed like there were helicopters everywhere with one group of 7 flying in a line towards Mendenhall and at least 6 more flying back the other way. They looked just like dragonflies to my eye and it was a sight that I won’t soon forget.

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Nautilus Jeopardy (The Game)

By on July 15th, 2008 in Archive

It is always a pleasure and a good time having Captain Phil Sammet, his lovely wife, beautiful daughter and all his friends onboard the Nautilus Explorer. Through his many scuba diving charters on the Nautilus, Phil has steadfastly stuck to 2 traditions (a) he will paint the toenails of any anybody that he is able to sneak up on if they are having a nap on a couch in the main salon (b) every trip must conclude with a game of Nautilus Jeopardy with questions based on the many (interesting?) facts presented during my various dive and natural history briefings throughout the trip.

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A Fabulous New Dive Site at Inian Island

By on July 14th, 2008 in Archive

I am always up for trying 2 or 3 exploratory new dives on a trip if our guests are “up” for it. The folks on this trip are terrific sports and up for exploratory diving. We lucked out today with the discovery of a beautiful, albeit current-sensitive, pinnacle loaded with invertebrate life including corals, sponges and anemones as well as a giant pacific octopus and wolf eels.

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See-through Great White Shark Cage for Diving Guadalupe Island?!

By on July 12th, 2008 in Archive

The idea is that the floor will be completely clear and see-through (hence the see-through great white shark cage) and the divers will feel like there is nothing between their feet and the ocean bottom 250 feet below. Nothing that is, except for 17 foot long great white sharks swimming around below the cages.

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10 Wolf Eels on One Dive

By on July 11th, 2008 in Archive

We tested my theory yesterday on a scuba diving site I named Vancouver Rock (in honour of the legendary explorer of this coast – Captain George Vancouver – I’m a fan of his) and sure enough, found 3 mated pairs of wolf eels sitting in the back-eddy on the ebb tide. Whoooeeee. We went back to Vancouver Rock today for more exploration and one of our guests – James Negris from Seattle – spotted a total of 10 WOLF EELS on one dive!

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Achingly Beautiful Inlet in Alaska

By on July 10th, 2008 in Archive

Just imagine calm glassy water with the vivid green of tall spruce, hemlock and fir trees towering along the shoreline and then steep granite cliffs that transition into snow covered mountains rising over 3000 feet right above us. Top it off with a roaring waterfall and the odd grizzly bear wandering around the estuary and it becomes hard to imagine anything more beautiful.

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Humpback Whale Gets Attacked by a Pod of Orcas

By on July 9th, 2008 in Archive

I made a fast 180° turn in the Nautilus to keep them in sight and was taken aback when I realized that they were swarming a large adult humpback whale. It was hard to see exactly what was going on because of all the splashing. I assumed that the orcas were actually attacking a humpback whale calf and that the mom was defending her offspring from the orcas. Despite all the excited splashing and fin slapping and all the other stuff going on, we weren’t able to see a calf and can only assume that the orcas took a run at the adult humpback. I’ve never heard of such a thing before!

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