Marine Life

Pacific White Sided Dolphin

7/10
An amazing day for seeing marine life! The Maui left Seattle around 4:00 am. and was exiting the Straits of Juan de Fuca when I came on watch, just before noon. Probably within the first 90 minutes, 2nd Mate Mark Cooper and I saw what must have totaled over a hundred Pacific White Sided dolphin. We also spotted Dall's porpoise, seals, sharks cruising at or just below the surface, and even a baleen whale that tried to hide its presence by exhaling underwater. Overall an awesome afternoon on the bridge.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]

Weird Stuff Found on Ship part 1

Red-tailed Tropicbird

Here are a couple of pictures of some odd or unusual things I've encountered aboard ship.

The first is a Red-Tailed Tropicbird. I actually encountered it while aboard my last ship, the Matson containership S.S. Kauai. However, since my current ship, the S.S. Maui, is the sister ship to the Kauai and replaced her on the same run, it seemed fair game.

This bird was found stranded and seasick. Seasick? Yes. The ship's motion is too foreign to seabirds and leaves them too incapacitated to fly off. This one received a hand from me and held over the railing to fly back to the water.

Mobile Blogging from here.

[geo_mashup_save_location lat="47.7511" lng="-122.3543"]

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]

Before Arrival @ The Dock

The Stern Gang Hanging Out Before Docking

Here's Lou Hollings, Nick Hoogendam, and 3rd Mate Mary Grimshaw. We're waiting for the tug to show up. They're a great bunch of people to work with. Together, we make it look easy.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]

S.S. Maui in Honolulu

View from the bridge

This is a view from the Maui bridge wing, looking towards Downtown Honolulu and Diamond Head in the distance.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]

Beautiful San Francisco

San Francisco

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]

Sailing Into SF Bay

Golden Gate Bridge Astern

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]

Back To Sea

Aboard the S.S. Maui

I reported aboard the Maui on Saturday morning, sailed Sunday morning around midnight, and am ashore in Oakland, CA. Not much left to do by the time the ship was fast alongside the dock and the molasses barge tied up and hose connected.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]