Greetings everyone, as I write to you while on vacation. Pardon my time between posts, however, after 62 days at sea, I simply shut my brain and my body down for awhile. Part of my time off has been spent in Seward, AK and here is a list of my “must-do’s”:

Go see Woody the stellar sea lion at the Alaska SeaLife Center. The SeaLife Center was funded through the civil and criminal settlements against Exxon, after the Valdez oil spill. It is a fantastic educational opportunity in coldwater/local, marine research.

Check out the Seward Museum. This non-descript building houses a bevy of history in great displays with lots of artifacts and photographs.

Go see Exit Glacier, before it melts. This is a rare opportunity to approach a glacier by car and then foot. As you drive up to the Exit Glacier Nature Center, it is amazing to follow along the two miles of markers that show you how far the glacier used to extend into the land.

Photograph your way around the twelve Seward murals that make up a walking tour of town and makes Seward the “mural capitol of Alaska”!

Climb Mt. Marathon.

Sleep, drink and wash at the Trailhead Lodge and Suds-n-Sip. You can grab comfortable lodging, wash your clothes and get a great latte or smoothie all in one place.

Walk to mile 0 of the original Iditarod Trail for some great scenic shots at the shoreline of Resurrection Bay.

Hang out at the Ranting Raven for great pastries, coffee and fabulous artwork. This is my favorite place to shop as it has the best offerings from local, Alaskan artists. Plus you can grab up Ray Troll merchandise, which is a must.

Drink responsibly. Start out at the Seward Ale House for fine pints served in jelly jars and play a game of pool. Then, head over to the Yukon for live music and shake your Alaskan groovethang.

Eat. My favorite spot is Resurrection Roadhouse which is on the way to Exit Glacier. I will review them in a later post. Also check out the Salmon Bake and for an awesome breakfast or some fine BBQ for lunch hit the Smoke Shop.

Enjoy coffee and more local artwork at Resurrection Cafe and Coffeehouse. A block off of main street, it is good to have options to take a rest during your walkabout and take in the local color.

SHOP. There are a variety of shops both downtown and off of the harbor area. The SeaLife Center has a fine gift shop. I love Urbach’s for hats and shoes and Once Upon a Blue Moose – not just because it has a cool name. Shopping warning – you do have to inspect closely for “made in Alaska” items.

Bonus tip: Take the scenic, full-service train ride from Seward to Anchorage and beyond, as far as Fairbanks. This is a wonderful way to see the interior. You even get a chance to see moose and bear, oh my.

The following is a post from the Bering Sea part of our trip that was not published on August 2nd, as it should have been. I think too highly of David Leech to ignore this oversight!

You may not guess by the snappy dress, but you are looking at a mooring master. Though he would be humble and scoff at the verbiage, David Leech’s vast experience makes “master” simple, proper usage. Dave is responsible for the building, deployment and recovery for all of the moorings used in the Bering Ecosystem Study. These devices rest on the ocean floor and collect data over time. In the case of BEST, the moorings collect data, like that of a CTD, every thirty minutes for an entire year.

To do this job, a mooring technician must employ skills in engineering, physics, chemistry, oceanography, electrical work, weather, computer technology and be a mariner on top of all that. Below is one of Dave’s “babies” which needed a little assistance in recovery. The moorings are controlled by unique, acoustic signatures and sometimes even though they can “talk” to a device, it may not release properly. This poor guy was down for two years, requiring the aid of two divers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks to bring it back home.

The level of teamwork and commitment to fulfill the cruise objectives and successfully recover all data is superb. Key to this expedition was the support of Shawn Harper and Heloise Chenelot, both research diving technicians with the University of Alaska Fairbanks. To achieve the recovery of this mooring, the divers had to go to depths of 80 ft. in water reaching 30-32 degrees F.

Sometimes you need a little help from things operated by Playstation controllers. This little ROV took a swim in the Bering Sea and lived to tell about it.

Dave talked about the enormous pressure he feels during the recovery phase and that he would not want to know his own blood pressure reading during those moments. As he is waiting to recover all of his moorings and the precious data they hold, he thinks about the people who’s jobs are depending on the success of the recovery and the research and the future grant money riding on that critical phase. Hearing that made me think that instead of mooring master, it may be even better to able to just be able to call him a friend.

It is day 60 of my summer sailing extravaganza. When the sun rises tomorrow, I will be on land and I will be smiling.

Both the Aleutian Island dive trip and our part of the Bering Ecosystem Study are over. The summer was a huge success and that had a lot to do with incredible weather and good people to work with. Thank you again to all involved who made this a summer of a lifetime.

I learned quite a bit along the way. Here are my top, personal discoveries, in no particular order of importance:

1 – SeaWorld vs. the Wild. The wild so wins. I was fortunate to see killer whales, otters, humpback whales, puffins (my
favorite bird), foxes, harbor seals, sea lions, porpoise, gulls galore, odd crustaceans, eagles and more eagles, men on
ships for 60 days.

2 – 4,000 songs on an iPod is not enough for 60 days at sea

3 – As I walked on islands that had WWII wreckage on them, both U.S. and Japanese, I became mindful that a critical piece of American history occurred throughout the Aleutians, but it is a faded scar on our memories as a nation. Stepping on once-”occupied” land is a little humbling.

4 – Scratch cooking is wonderful, but a good frozen pizza, all-beef kosher hot dogs and tasty frozen egg rolls are beautiful things in their own right.

5 – Hollywood is making movies TOO long. Cut the budgets, trim the fat….let me finish a movie in under 120 minutes, please.

6 – On a positive media note, the series Mad Men is truly wonderful. Thank you.

7 – Our planet is one giant food chain. I know, not a huge epiphany, but zooming out my lens this summer was beneficial to me in many ways.

8 – The new Dove Ultimate, visibly smooth, anti-perspirant deodorant that touts itself as a product which “minimizes the
visual appearance of hair over time” and “makes your hair feel soft and fine” REALLY works. For that, I am grateful.

9 – Here is a list within my list of things I hope to never sail without: Chocolate Cheerios, May Ploy Sweet Chili Sauce,
Kinder’s BBQ Sauce, frozen edamame, Country Pasta homemade egg noodles, Carotino red palm and canola oil blend, one-half of a grass-fed cow and Haagen Daaz coffee almond crunch bars.

10 – The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue provides a little, or a lot, of provocative distraction for some, but nothing
beats a really good and steamy vampire novel. Thanks, Laurell K. Hamilton.

Well….thanks for following along. I am stepping off the boat in Seward, AK and going on walkabout for a bit in Alaska heading out to the East coast to say hi to everyone on the right side of the country. I will post a bit as I travel as long as I stop walking long enough to type.

Cheers!

Dr. Tom Weingartner and the BEST project are all about the water. During this trip int the Bering Sea, CTD casts into the hundreds have been conducted.

I thought the best way to share some more insight on the CTD is to hear from an expert. Here is contributing blogger Ben Jokinen, our Senior Marine Tech:

The CTD system is the underwater equivalent of an oceanographic Swiss Army knife…. uhmmm, except it doesn’t fit in your pocket. It does however allow scientists to add and remove sensors depending on what aspects of the water column they are most interested in analyzing. The CTD, which stands for Conductivity, Temperature, and Density or depth, is the bread-and-butter of oceanographic research these days. You will find instrument packages like this on every research ship on the ocean.

A variety of sensors on the CTD allow scientists to view all of the different aspects of the water it is sampling – temperature, salinity, oxygen levels, water clarity, the amount of light that penetrates to different depths, an idea of how productive the water is from a nutrient level, as well as the height above the bottom so the unit doesn’t touch down and get damaged. All of this information is sent up the cable which is about a mile long! The cable is spooled on a winch up on the ship and is basically a really long extension cord. Power is sent down to the CTD and data is sent back up the cable in real-time, allowing scientists to view live feeds of the data as the package is lowered to the depths.

Another interesting aspect of the CTD is its ability to close sampling bottles at different depths, all from the click of a computer mouse. This means that scientists can view the data up on the ship while the CTD is lowered, find an area that interests them in the water column, and then fire a bottle to get a plug of water for further testing and examination in the lab on the ship. It is a really slick system and is used for numerous studies ranging from determining where underwater sound (density) barriers are so that Navy submarines can hide beneath them, to water quality testing which can tell us what causes harmful algae blooms that kill off commercial fishing stocks. Currently, CTD systems are being heavily used in the Gulf of Mexico to determine what harmful and unpredictable affects the oil spill disaster is having on the organisms and fisheries in that region.

Thanks for the great info Ben!

In terms of issues such as climate change and unnatural, man-made disasters and broken food chains, there are no magic bullet answers to be discovered. There is data and lots of it. The hope is that analysis of this data will lead to better decisions about fisheries and resource management and maybe even just turning off a light back home.

I have been saying it is all about the food, but now I think maybe it is all about the water. After all, without water I would have no food to cook.

Thank you to Dr. Tom Weingartner and Mr. Dave Leech and all of the science party that made this last cruise in the Point Sur’s summer sailing season a great success with a lot of fun thrown into the mix.

Meet Ben Jokinen. Ben is our Senior Marine Technician and has the primary responsibility to make sure everything on the boat is working related to science and technology. One of the most important aspects of Ben’s role is to act as a liaison between the science party and the crew to provide the necessary support to ensure a successful cruise. This involves everything from complex scientific instruments to safety equipment to duct tape. (Duct tape is a complex scientific instrument in my estimation.)

Ben is also a kindred spirit of all good things from New Orleans. Living in Louisiana for a couple of years and working on the Gulf gave Ben a true appreciation for the finer things in life like red beans and rice. Most of all, Ben a warmhearted and good-natured guy who does not judge me when I bust out some Nawlin’s funk moves in the galley! Thanks, Ben.

To round out our cast of characters, I think it is not by chance that the last crew member to introduce you to is probably our biggest character of them all……Richard Wittenberg.

Richie has sailed the world round more than all of us combined. Hailing from England, Richie has an extensive background in the world’s busiest ports and on all types of vessels with a long-standing career as a head A/B. His knowledge, skill set and attention to detail keeps the Point Sur looking like the fine lady she is. That commitment to pride in our vessel is a contribution to our crew that sets us apart from others and we thank you, Rich!

Now that you have met this cast of characters you probably figure out some of the reasons why I like it here. Good people.

A glimpse of the sun rising in the morning over the Bering Sea is a rare sight.

Fog is the norm and, of course, water is the constant.

Chief scientist, Dr. Tom Weingartner is all about the water. A physical oceanographer and professor at University of Alaska-Fairbanks, Tom is leading the B.E.S.T….as in Bering Ecosystem Study. For over two years, Tom and his team have been monitoring the Bering Sea by sampling the sea everyday, every 30 minutes, in nine strategic locations.

Tom Weingartner (L) and our Senior Marine Tech, Ben Jokinen, (R) all smiles after a successful CTD(water sample)

The goal?

As stated in Dr. Weingartner’s cruise plan: The purpose of the BEST program is to understand how the Bering Sea shelf ecosystem will respond to an anticipated reduction in sea ice cover as a response to climate change. Toward this end this BEST cruise will recover moorings that will provide an understanding of the temporal variations in circulation, temperature, salinity, and fluorescence and stratification over the inner half of the central Bering Sea shelf.


Image courtesy of Dr. Tom Weingartner

Of course, if you have been following the blog a bit you know by now that I always want to know what that linear science speak means. My water crash course from Tom told me a bit about the bigger picture and how to frame it as a cook. It is all about salt, no salt, cold water and colder water, ice, mixing and, of course,food….as in nutrients.

This area in the Bering is feeding the most productive ocean on the planet, just north of St. Lawrence Island before the Bering Strait. This ocean is also one of the most profitable fisheries in the world and not just because of the t.v. stars known as crabs, but other tasty and useful treats such as pollock. Where would be without fish sticks? Nutrient rich water in the deep Bering basin feeds an ecosystem that generates an enormous aquatic food web from phytoplankton on up. Phytoplankton, through photosynthesis, produces as much oxygen in the earth’s atmosphere as plant life.

The water from melting ice is nutrient poor. Fresh water coming into the sea from river sources is also low in nutrients in the near-shore areas of the ocean. As ice melts at a higher rate and mixes with the fresh water, the combination will begin to effect the balance and the mixing of the nutrient rich water from the deep basin, therefore, potentially upsetting the balance of the food web and the production of oxygen. Chef’s disclaimer – I have to type potentially because this is my synopsis and not the conclusion of said research.

Another character to meet is Dave Leech who is the “BEST” mooring technician responsible for building, deploying and retrieving all these cool toys, errrh, I mean fine-calibrated scientific instruments. More soon……

Dinner the other night was a pineapple-curry glazed ham with brown-butter, parsley egg noodles, salad with a maple cider vinaigrette and a root vegetable bake. The bake was made of layers of roasted red beets and a saute of celery, red onions and garbanzo beans which was topped with toasted pine nuts and goat cheese before baking. The beet dish was the big hit.

Cooking at sea for long stretches of time demands creativity in the vegetable department. You have to be able to mix it up and you have to be able to work with root vegetables in a variety of ways since they hold so well over time. I am a big fan of roasting as it allows me to reduce the number of pots on the stove. Boiling water and rolling seas can be a bad mix. Roasting can easily be done ahead and allow for fast veggie combinations just before meal time. I also believe roasting vegetables gives you the tastiest flavors.

Roasted Red Beet and Goat Cheese Bake

12 medium, fresh red beets
heavy drizzles of EVOO and balsamic vinegar for roasting beets
pinches of kosher salt and black pepper
6 large celery ribs, medium slices on a bias
1 large red onion, large chop
1 can of garbanzo beans
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted with a touch of olive oil, salt and pepper
10 – 12 oz. of goat cheese

Trim beet tops (reserve for a saute in another meal! – they are great mixed in with kale or spinach), clean and place in roasting pan. Drizzle a light amount of olive oil and balsamic vinegar in equal parts. Sprinkle a few pinches of kosher salt and just a bit of black pepper. Cover with foil and bake until tender, usually about 90 minutes, check with a skewer. Allow to cool and peel/trim off skin of beets, then slice into thin half-moon pieces.

Toast pine nuts in saute pan and reserve. Prepare the celery, onion and garbanzo bean saute in the same pan with a touch of olive oil and salt and pepper. Saute until veggies just begin to become tender, keep them a bit crisp as they will be re-baked.

Prepare another roasting pan with a touch of pan coat and place half of the sliced beets in a layer on the bottom. Add the celery saute mix and then the next layer with the rest of the beets. Top with pine nuts and goat cheese and bake at 350 degrees until the dish is warm all the way through and the goat cheese just starts to brown on some edges. Bubbly goat cheese, yum!

After the Aleutian Island diving trip and being at sea for twenty-four days straight, a break in Dutch Harbor was welcomed. Dutch Harbor is actually a small island connected to Unalaska by bridge. When I think of Dutch Harbor I think of eagles. They are everywhere. Bald eagles are gorgeous and majestic creatures and they are also creatures of opportunity in scavenging. That was my polite way of not just calling them dirty birds. Here is a shot of them gathering to pick off debris from a fishing net stretched out for repair. Neither traffic or me approaching with a camera phased them.

This shot was taken in the parking lot of the Grand Aleutian, which is “the” hotel in Dutch. Upstairs in the hotel is a restaurant that serves the best food in town with a nice wine list and you should be dressed in your finest fishing gear. My favorite spot for a meal and cold beverage is the bar and restaurant in the airport. Here you can have a great bowl of Vietnamese Pho’. Of course, anything that anyone else is cooking tastes great to me!

Most of my time is spent provisioning when we are in port. In Dutch Harbor there are two must-stops to hit, Alaska Ship Supply and Safeway. Between the two, any ship can get anything that they need from lettuce to foul weather gear. Alaska Ship Supply now has two locations, a large grocery store by the spit dock(the original location) and a brand new facility next to the Grand Aleutian and Safeway, which has all of their logo gear, great clothes and shoes, books for your nautical library and more.

These stores are located just down the road from the Museum of the Aleutians which is a must-do-stop. The museum is state of the art and well-maintained with all of the rich history of the Aleut people. Make sure you spend time and money at the gift shop! Here is a shot of me and the record holding halibut, all 459 lbs of her. Most amazing is that the fish laid and estimated 5 million eggs per year.

Well, we are now in the Bering Sea and I will send out some information on our current cruise and slip in some more foodie fun when I can. Bare with me as we are struggling a bit with bandwidth and internet connectivity. Right now the weather is amazing for the Bering with some sun and calm seas, hooray! You wouldn’t catch me out here in the winter with the Deadliest Catch boys….no way.

Last year I carried a “Hi Mom” sign around in my travels and the pictures were seen by my dad who commented, “What about your dad!” If I was on my toes I would have written a dad message on the other side and flipped the sign for photo ops all over the world.

Well, dad, I will make this year the year of the “Dad sign”. I hope you like this shot which I took by myself on walkabout on Amchitka Island.

And, here is wishing you a very, very happy birthday!

I love you.

Tara

The Aleutian Island diving-orca-otter-urchin-kelp-carbon dioxide-arthropod-fish count-cooking and eating extravaganza is officially over. I hope everyone enjoyed following along and learning a bit about what goes on, on the R/V Point Sur and the work of this cruise which was, overall, to study how the habitat in the Aleutian chain effects what lives here.

Here is a top ten list of facts your should know about our adventure, compiled by two of the most creative guys in the bunch, Renato Borras and Martin Schuster:

Numbers are approximated

Number 10: Total of dives performed: 360 (average of 45 per diver)
Number 9: Total of Islands visited: 17
Number 8: Total of Birds seen: 10,000
Number 7: Total of Urchins: 4,000,000,000
Number 6: Total of Killer whales: 2
Number 5: Total of Algae weighted (in grams): 38,000
Number 4: Number of Sodas used from the fridge: 850
Number 3: Number of Tanks diving: 200
Number 2: Number of times that we really wanted to punch Jason: 3,222
Number 1!!!!! tarataratarataratarataratatara ( the drums are saying your name haha), NUMBER OF HAIR THAT WE CUT OFF IN OUR NON-SENSE CONTEST!! the human being has about 1,000,000 hairs on the body. We estimated over 100,000 on the head. Since Jason and Cory where also with no hair but they remove the beard they count between both a total of 100,000, Martin, Nathan and Renato count for 250,000: 300,000 and 110,000, Terri was 80,000 and Brenda 20,000. and we must include the 90,000 of Barret, hehe. Total = 950,000.

We will miss you, cheers!!
Renato
Note from Tara: after cleaning the cabins again and continuing to find little hairs everywhere, we feel you underestimated!

Can you believe they all wanted to-go-plates before they departed??? My final thought: It really is all about the food.

Thank you to everyone involved in this cruise, science and crew, for making it a trip of a lifetime!