Aerials – Riveted

Quick Trip to the Boat | Day 2 | Orcas Island to Decatur Island

Laura Domela — Sun, 05 Mar 2017 16:30:17 +0000

Sunrise at Double Island anchorage on Orcas yesterday morning (above: Double Island on the left, Alegria Island on the right). This anchorage is pretty great. It was so still overnight (a little too still, in fact!)

Kevin flew his new Mavic Pro drone in the morning and got some gorgeous shots:

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Alegria Island:

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Orcas Island in the background:

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After breakfast and showers, we pulled anchor and thought we might go over and stay at James Island for the night. The wind was supposed to be from the east, so the west side of James would be protected, but the dock isn’t down yet there (it’s up/removed from October through March) and there are no mooring balls on the west side (and the anchorage there is rocky and marginal).

We decided to continue on around and check out a little cove at the south tip of Decatur Island. We’re anchored right about where I put the blue X, and it looks like this on Google maps/satellite view:

It’s a bit narrow, and a little shallow (we anchored in about 20 feet at low tide) — perfect protection from the east winds scheduled to kick up a little, and we’ve got a great view.

Kevin flew the Mavic again from the top deck of Airship soon after we got settled, and got some more cool photos. Here’s a great overhead view of our little cove with the sand spit in the background:

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That little dot is a rowboat heading out of the cove:

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Another overhead of Airship (and Kevin):

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We thought we’d dinghy over to the spit and walk on the beach a bit before it got dark. The beach looked nice and sandy and we both opted to wear our Bogs instead of our Xtratuf boots. Turns out, this was a bad choice. It shallows so slowly as you approach the spit that there was nowhere to beach the dinghy where we would be able to avoid stepping ankle deep to get out. We tried a few places, talked about going back to get our Xtratufs, but it was cold outside and finally Kevin said “I’m wondering if there’s much to do over here, or whether I’d just rather be inside the warm boat with a cocktail.” We tried a few more spots after that but eventually opted to head back to Airship.

We grilled some chicken for tacos (more tacos!) last night and called it an early night. The wind picked up and we had a bit of wave slap but managed to get some sleep regardless.

The weather today is crappy…gray, windy, rainy. Sounds like a good day to head back to port!

More Melanie Cove Shenanigans | BC

Laura Domela — Fri, 23 Sep 2016 02:58:54 +0000

We took the Inspire 1 up this afternoon for some aerial photos. My camera controller was glitching out a little bit, but I managed to take a few nice overhead shots that should give you a good sense of this place:

After doing some more work, we decided to go hike some of the trails here from the head of Melanie Cove. If you’ve read the book The Curve of Time by M. Wylie Blanchet, you’ll know about Phil the Frenchman’s cabin right here in this area.

[About the book, from amazon.com: The Curve of Time is a biography and astonishing adventure story of a woman who, left a widow in 1927, packed her five children onto a 25-foot boat and cruised the coastal waters of British Columbia, summer after summer.Muriel Wylie Blanchet acted single-handedly as skipper, navigator, engineer and, of course, mum, as she saw her crew through encounters with tides, fog, storms, rapids, cougars and bears. She sharpened in her children a special interest in Haida culture and in nature itself. In this book, she left us with a sensitive and compelling account of their journeys.]

Anyway, we kayaked over to the trailhead here in our cove.

Cultural Heritage site? Aboriginal artifacts? Wow! This might be a more interesting hike than we’d originally thought! Just a few steps up the trail and there’s an outhouse and a fork…we took the right fork and headed for Laura Cove. The trail is good, but then in many (MANY) parts of it, there are downed trees that you scramble over or crouch and crawl under. It’s pretty fun for the first mile or so. The trail…straight ahead, under these trees:

This part was like those parts of the obstacle course/boot camp game shows where young buff dudes high-knee over fences:

Cool fungi:

We eventually came to a little stream that babbled out into the head of Laura Cove (where we’d kayaked just this morning). Okay, cool…pretty. No artifacts, no cabin. Maybe the cabin was on the trail that went left at the fork. So we headed back and then took that fork. Well…that fork…goes up up up and then down down down and then up and then down and then up some more and then way down. The whole time you climb over rocks and logs and man are my legs getting tired. We never saw any cabin or artifacts or anything like that at all. But the views were lovely:

We made it back to the kayak after about a 3.5 mile hike. (This is about half a mile less than the hike we normally do at home every morning, but holy moly all that up and down and log climbing and rock scrambling! Legs. Tired.)

Back at Airship I googled the dang cabin and it sounds like the remains are at the head of Laura Cove. JUST WHERE WE WERE EARLY TODAY. Twice!! Fine then. Maybe we’ll dinghy back over there in the morning before Kevin’s conference call.

Dinner tonight is Cilantro Thai Grilled Chicken (chicken breasts, chopped garlic, 1/2 c cilantro, 2T fish sauce, 1T sesame oil, marinate all together for half an hour and then grill), roasted baby potatoes and sautéed green beans.

We’re not sure yet where we’ll go tomorrow…maybe Lund? Maybe another anchorage we haven’t been to.

Le Conte Glacier Aerial Shots

Laura Domela — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 01:43:57 +0000

We took the Inspire 1 up two separate times while we were navigating around the floating bits (and, well, building-sized chunks) of ice yesterday. (I pared it down from 100 photos to 10!)

Airship, just left of the building-sized iceberg:

Airship, top, center:

Look how tiny we are!!!

So fun to be able to get this view of things!

Airship to Alaska | Day 11 | More from Ocean Falls

Laura Domela — Wed, 18 May 2016 20:27:24 +0000

Airship Goes to Alaska 2016

The weather finally cleared up a bit earlier this evening so we went out for a walk around "town." (Some history about Ocean Falls here.)

The "bar" is apparently to the left:

Our buddies, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

I spotted one of the policemen returning to the boat with a bike…I suppose he went for a bike ride around this crazy set of a zombie apocalypse movie. (Not to belittle the history or the ruins…but man after all those seasons of The Walking Dead, it does feel a bit creepy walking the "neighborhood" here. We saw not one other person…a few houses had lights on…but no visible life.)

These photos will give you a pretty good feel of the place. Last year when we were here it was all sunny and bright, and the wildflowers were all blooming, so the mostly abandoned town felt kinda of happy…but this year it was gray and dreary. Makes a way better set for a zombie film.

We got back to Airship and decided to take the drone up for an overall shot of the docks and the town. Yep, that's right. RIGHT in front of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. We're risk-takers, you know.

And now, it's time for some tacos!

Airship to Alaska | Day 6 | Shoal Bay to Port Harvey, BC

Laura Domela — Fri, 13 May 2016 21:43:49 +0000

Airship Goes to Alaska 2016

We left Shoal Bay this morning around 8am (after Kevin retrieved our crab traps…which contained two more big male Dungeness) to time getting to Greene Point Rapids and Whirlpool Rapids at favorable times. We were early for Greene Point (oooh, look how scary!)…

…in order to get to Whirlpool Rapids around slack. The drama was non existent. Just how we like it.

Conditions were calm in Johnstone Strait, and bonus! The current was helping us out about a knot and a half's worth.

Sideways totems on the shore:

We're now at Port Harvey hanging out with George. The main building is of course gone (here's the story of what happened), but they're rebuilding, and George will still be making cinnamon buns this summer (starting in about a week). There's a nice 48' x 48' floating dock that will soon have a big tent on it, making it a nice place to hang out with some shade. He's also got a pizza oven coming from Italy that will be installed in the new digs. Can't wait to see how great this place shapes up to be (after a TON of work after the barge sank last November). If you're coming this way, definitely stop and say hi to George and ask him about his pizza oven. The support of the boating community is so important for cool spots like this to thrive, and Port Harvey was, is, and will continue to be such a great spot for boaters.

Here's today's route from Shoal Bay to Port Harvey (43.4 nautical miles, 5 hours 35 minutes):

While we were cooking our crab for dinner (crab enchiladas!) Kevin took the drone up and we got a few cool photos of Port Harvey:

And here's a shot of the repairs and new 48' x 48' floating dock:

Tomorrow morning we'll head over to Pierre's at Echo Bay, and then on Sunday hopefully over to Port McNeil to prep for crossing Cape Caution and provision for the next leg of our trip. (Today the conditions were 1.5 foot waves with a 14 second period….glassy!! Let's hope it stays that way!)

Airship to Alaska | Day 4 | Lund to Squirrel Cove

Laura Domela — Wed, 11 May 2016 19:44:30 +0000

Airship Goes to Alaska 2016

We got up early this morning in Lund and headed up to Nancy's for breakfast (and a couple of blackberry cinnamon rolls to go). Prawn season opened today, so the docks were crowded with prawn traps and buoys being loaded onto fishing boats. We left after breakfast and decided to head up toward Toba Inlet.

I snapped a photo of our neighbor's boat as they headed out this morning. We'll likely meet up with them again (they're on their way to Wrangell) so I can give them this photo, but hey guys! If you see this post, just right click and save it if you want it!

I love turning the corner into Desolation Sound and being greeted by this:

It was gray and drizzly this morning but cleared up nicely for the rest of our day.

We went up to Toba Inlet and cruised in about half way to check out some waterfalls.

Pretty stunning scenery, isn't it? And it's only going to get better (well, more dramatic) from here.

We did a fairly long cruise today just to cruise…we ended up anchoring in Squirrel Cove on Cortes Island, which as you can see on the map, is not that far from Lund (as the crow flies). Today's cruise was 55.4 nautical miles in 7 hours 32 minutes:

We drove around the anchorage area in Squirrel Cove surveying the bottom with our new sonar….great way to pick a spot where there aren't a bunch of logs!

Once successfully anchored, Kevin took the drone up and we took a few photos from the air:

Tomorrow we'll head outta here around 5:45am to get to Dent Rapids by high slack (9:21am) and then we're not sure where we'll stay tomorrow night. We'll let you know tomorrow!

Cypress and Sucia

Laura Domela — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 13:41:14 +0000

Yesterday morning, Cypress Island:

We spent Tuesday night at Cypress Head with Sam. Sam now has a drone too and got a nice shot of our two Nordic Tugs tucked away in the cove:

Here's Sam on his bow, in his robe, bringing in the drone:

We left Cypress and were headed to Griffin Bay on San Juan Island, but Sam heard on the radio that there were some K dubs (killer whales, orcas) out near Sucia Island, so we changed our plans and headed out to Sucia. We never saw any orcas though.

We moored in Shallow Bay on the west side of Sucia Island. Before we headed to shore for some hiking, Sam took the drone up again and got some great shots of us in the bay, with the rest of Sucia Island and Mount Baker in the background. So cool!

Dinghy on shore, Nordic Tugs (and a sailboat) in the background:

Kevin and Sam on a makeshift teeter-totter in Echo Bay:

Dinner on Airship last night was grilled chicken, zucchini and risotto.

This morning is calm and gray. Kevin's working, and I'm making breakfast tacos for us before we head out.

We don't know where our next stop is yet because…that's how we roll.

Ford’s Terror, Endicott Arm

Laura Domela — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 01:57:00 +0000

Airship Goes to Alaska

Ford’s Terror is a very steep and narrow fjord 60 miles southeast of Juneau in Alaska’s Inside Passage. You can only enter or exit the fjord at high slack tide when the rapids (and the 2-3 foot waterfall!) have turned calm and there is enough water covering the shallow area to let you pass.

The Ford’s Terror name comes from a naval crew member (Ford) who, in 1889, rowed a dinghy into the narrow entrance of the fjord at slack tide. The tide began to rise, forcing its way through the narrow entrance, and Ford was trapped by the turbulent current for the next six hours. It is mostly uncharted, but with local knowledge and some careful timing, getting in and out of this fjord is a calm and peaceful experience.

The Ford’s Terror “waiting room”:

We arrived early (for the evening high slack) and parked ourselves over by the tall waterfall and binoc’ed the entrance. Yep, white waters over there. We decided to fish for a bit to kill some time. (Caught nothin’.)

When it was time (about 20 minutes after high slack tide in Juneau), we pointed our stern at the waterfall and headed carefully across, between the two shoals toward the entrance. We watched our depths as we made it around the shallow bend in totally calm water. I took no photos because I was concentrating at the helm, but it was really a non-event. Once inside, it was like going back in time.

Photos alone cannot possibly capture the beauty and the feel of this place. One person said it was a bit like having Yosemite all to yourself. We decided that might be slighting Ford’s Terror a little bit.

We had the place to ourselves and decided to stay two nights in Ford’s Terror. We arrived on Tuesday night around 8pm and didn’t leave until high slack tide on Thursday morning. It was not enough time.

I made crab cakes on Wednesday morning and we did a little Crab Cake Benedict for breakfast:

Then, we saw black bears on the shore:

Kevin had flown the drone earlier while gathering footage for his Ford’s Terror video, so it was all ready to go and he was able to get some footage of the bear (drone in upper left of photo):

Then, three or four Dall’s porpoises came over and swam all around our boat for a while:

Kevin and Tiffani went out in the kayak to see if they’d come close, and they did. They came closer than in these photos and were swimming all around the kayak.

Here’s an additional photo, for scale. White sliver = kayak:

We went for a dinghy ride and saw two eagles…one in a nest and the other keeping watch:

Ford’s Terror was worth every bit of the anxiety about getting in and out of there that I’ve had for the last month. It’s funny when you hear about a place like this. Phrases like “favorite anchorage in SE Alaska” and “favorite anchorage in the world” were by far the two most common, but in so much of the literature about this place, the entrance and exit sound so ominous. It’s poorly charted, and extremely remote, and so the “what ifs” your brain can create about things that could go wrong are plentiful. Luckily, with some careful planning and just general good thinking and common sense, it’s not much of a thing to get in and out.

And as I said, as nice as these photos might be, they cannot possibly capture the scale of this place. Alaska is ALL about scale.

Here is Kevin’s spectacular video of Ford’s Terror, taken with his new DJI Inspire 1, which is proving to be worth every dime spent to get it, and get it to Ketchikan. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Kevin’s Got a Brand New Drone

Laura Domela — Sun, 14 Jun 2015 12:11:20 +0000

After the Incident at Fury Cove, I convinced Kevin that he couldn't go the rest of our trip droneless, and he eventually caved and ordered the new DJI Inspire 1. We took it out for its maiden flight over at Meyers Chuck the other day.

As it takes off and raises into the air, its landing gear raises up and gets out of the way of the camera. Pretty sweet!

Taking off from the sea plane dock:

The camera can shoot 4K video and 12 megapixel stills and it's on a 3-axis gimbal. The camera and gimbal can be controlled by a second person with a separate controller. (Woohoo! That's me!)

We didn't try that fancy second person thing on the first flight.

Here's a little of our test footage:

Looks promising!

Day 9 – Quadcopter Down!

Kevin Morris — Tue, 26 May 2015 01:44:00 +0000

(Posted by Kevin)

The quadcopter (the one built with my own loving hands in August last year) had a very bad day at Fury Cove.

It was flying along like usual, about a quarter-mile from the boat, probably capturing some beautiful video – when it suddenly plummeted to the ground – flipping over and over – and crashed hard on the rocks below.

The crash site was on the other side of the island, so we had to take the kayak to look for it. We grabbed the tiny DVR that records the video feed from the ground and watched the last few seconds of the video. It showed us approximately where to look for the debris field.

Did we mention that the crash site was in a place where other boaters had sighted a grizzly with two cubs that same day? Well, yeah. That.

We knew he crash site was either in the water or on the rocks right by the water. The tide was coming in rapidly, so we knew we had to find it quickly or it would be covered by the incoming tide (if it wasn’t already). We grabbed bear spray, waterproof boots, life jackets, and set out in the kayak. Once ashore we started making plenty of loud noises. We hiked up and over the rocks and pretty quickly found the carnage – lots of small, broken drone bits scattered among the rocks. The ONLY piece that had landed in a tide pool was the GoPro camera (which can’t be flown in its waterproof case, unfortunately). It was a total loss.

Other boaters told us they had seen an eagle flying right in the same area at the time of the crash. There were many eagles around, so that theory made sense. Examining the wreckage, nothing looked wrong with the copter – motors and connections were as they should have been (except crash damage).

It’s hard to get the parts to re-build – especially while we’re exploring in the boat. We are looking at options to replace it so we can capture more video on this trip. We shall see. There are SO many things we still wanted to capture with aerial video…