Sunday September 26, 2010
2 trucks, 2 boats, 6 chicks. That’s how we roll.
Me, my technician and intern, and a graduate student from UWF that is working on STS age and growth (And thus, has only ever seen an STS vertebra and never the real thing!). The FSU graduate student and her graduate student friend.
We are geared up and ready to track for 24 hours should we hear Eve or catch a new one.
Two of the 6 are on antibiotics, but assured me they are feeling much better this week than last.
Took the drive slowly – stopping for breakfast in Tally and lunch in Ocala. Halfway, the technician takes over driving and I take a nap. Played a new game, Count the Number of Different Florida License Plates. We drove straight to the apartment, arriving after dark.
Room 106 was still dirty from the last tenants (Buncha dirty fishermen!) so they set us up in 104 for the night. No oven in 104, and I prepped a pan of lasagna for dinner. But, true to the excellent customer service we always receive at The Captain’s Table Lodge, they let us use the oven in 106 and sleep in 104, promising to help move all our stuff into 106 tomorrow after it is cleaned.
I say “they” – the owner is a twin! Totally tripped me out. No wonder it looks like she is always around!
Difference between 104 and 106 other than the lack of oven – bigger TV and better coffee pot. Both rooms have newer furniture. Looks like our government dollars have been used to spiff up the place. Nice.
Monday September 27, 2010
Downloading
The weather was amazing today. Wind out of the east, low humidity. I can feel summer wanting to give up her grip.
Good news. Four receivers had data from Eve. The last time she was picked up with September 5, a week after we tagged her.
Bad news. Seven of sixteen lithium batteries were completely dead. Also, one of the receivers containing data (CB2) is completely fried and will have to be returned to the shop in hopes they can retrieve the data and fix it. Took all freaking morning to get it all finished and we had to bring 5 back because I only had a few backup batteries on the boat. The FSU graduate student is having one of her office mates FedEx more batteries. There is a good chance we missed Eve leaving the area.
By the time we got back to the apartment, they had moved all our stuff and gear to 106, including the better coffee pot. Sweet!
Tuesday September 28, 2010
Shhh … be very, very quiet.
Getting the FSU graduate student’s jon boat unloaded from the truck and in the water with all her gear was a terrible ordeal (and there was a TON of gear – engine, trolling motor, 2 deep cycle batteries, gas tank, bilge pump, hydrophone, food cooler, PFDs, paddle, bucket, slickers, dry bag, etc. etc. etc.). Gnats! Noseeums! Mosquitos, oh my! Once we got the arrows on the gas line pointed in the right direction, the engine fired right up. Kinda.
We split up. Me taking PRISIS and my crew to put the 6 HOBOs back out and the two FSUers staying at the dock to figure out their engine problems. I give them our hand-held EPIRB, compass, and GPS. We were to meet up at Mud Bay later in the morning.
Nets in the water at Mud Bay and fishing the outgoing tide and the FSUers making transects across CB2, listening for Eve, by 10:00. The weather is starting to come in bands from the south moving east. TD16 is supposed to get here late this afternoon and dump all kinds of rain on the area overnight. We’re under a flood warning.
The FSUers come back to us around lunch. Weather in CB2 was getting bad and there’s was no sign of Eve. After the band passes, they are headed back to CB2. We decided to rendezvous at Turner River at 1600. We move the nets to Turner River with the slack tide.
The FSUers pass us, heading to the dock at 1500. The dark clouds are building, they have no protection from weather, and move slow since they’re so weighted down. We fish for a bit more, then pull the nets quickly when the rain starts.
We start heading back in torrential rain. I can’t see shit, slow down, flip on our running lights, and use the GPS to navigate. My crew is sitting on the deck. A bolt of lightening strikes very close. The closest I have ever been to a bolt of lightening. The closest I ever want to be. Honestly, the most scared I have ever been out on the water.
Quick like bunnies we unload and secure PRISITS and our gear at the dock before helping the FSUers with theirs. Thank god they made it! We are soaked. The truck is super-soaked. But, we’ve cheated death once again. “The Everglades, man …” <-- to quote the technician. Dropped everything off at the apartment and then gassed up the truck (Btw, the gas station farther away from the apartment is a much better establishment than the one closer to the apartment.). Stopped by the hardware store for some DampRid (Of course they have DampRid. They have everything!). I’m going to have to have the truck professionally cleaned at the end of the season. It is getting funky. The batteries showed up. No field tomorrow. TD16 is suppose to become Tropical Storm Nicole overnight and we are in her path. She’s supposed to move fast, though, so we should be good to go on Thursday. Spinach and artichoke dip with chicken for dinner. The Office on TBS. And then I passed out.
Wednesday September 29, 2010
Waiting out TD16/Nicole
Everyone else is still asleep. It is just after 8am and I’m sitting on the front porch with my coffee, reading the news on my phone and checking the weather. Wind is blowing a bit, but nothing too terrible. The clouds are black and heavy, but it is not raining right now. Very humid.
I’m going to read some more in The Girl Who Played with Fire.
When the FSU graduate student gets up, we’ll get the batteries and receivers all ready to go.
Thursday September 30, 2010
Faka Union Bay
The better coffee pot died this morning. That should have been a sign. Had to stop at the gas station for our fix. Saw, but did not buy, a bag of Spree.
More drama this morning with the FSUer’s boat. It had a hole in it. A significant hole. We towed their jon boat behind PRISTIS and didn’t realize how significant the hole was until we got all the way down the canal to our fishing spot. The FSUers immediately hooked up the bilge pump and headed back to the dock for a fix. We stayed to fish.
“Sawfish! Sawfish! Sawfish!” There was a juvenile STS swimming along the mangrove across the mud flat on the west side of the spoil island when we first pulled up (0900). We spooked it, but figured it would be back. Everyone except the UWF graduate student saw it, poor kid. The tide was outgoing all afternoon.
Got a call from the FSUers around noon saying that their bilge pump stopped working halfway up the canal and they had to bail with a boot. Yes, a boot. They made it back to the dock and were now back at the apartment. They picked up some quick weld at the hardware store and was going to use a Coke can to patch the hole. How pissed was the FSU graduate student that we saw an STS immediately and she was having to deal with an old, leaking boat? At least a 9. The game plan changed – we were to fish all day and attempt to catch the one we saw. If we caught it, we were to slap a tag on it. Then, at sunset, the FSUers would come back out and track it for 24 hours.
We set all four nets and checked them periodically all day, catching only catfish, mullet, and YOY bull sharks. The tide began to come back in around 1600. We continued to fish until 1830, then hauled all gear. No nothing nowhere. Jaded and solemn, we headed back up the canal toward the dock.
The sunset was beautiful.
The FSUers had dinner ready for us when we got back to the apartment (Tabouleh). I made us all grilled cheeses, too. We ate and commiserated on the shitty day. Come to find out, the Pelican Case that the FSU graduate student kept her laptop in was not 100% watertight and it got wet during the bailout. That, or the humidity got to it. Anyway, the screen is very dark and very hard to read. She was able to get her thesis and all the data off it so at least there’s that.
Whoever coined, “That which does not kill you makes you stronger,” probably was running a field program in the Everglades.
Exhausted.
FML today.
Friday October 1, 2010
Last Day – Multi-tasking in ENP
Stopped at the gas station again for coffee this morning. Bought the bag of Spree. Today will be better.
A leak in the FSUer’s boat this morning, but this one is much smaller. They were able to use liquid electrical tape and press on. They’ll be running transects all day, listening for Eve.
We put back the Turner River Mouth, Turner River, and Hurd2 receivers first thing. Then fished all 4 nets in Mud Bay with the remaining incoming tide. Took benthic samples.
The weather is beautiful today. First cold front of autumn. Low humidity. Makes me feel like I can breathe again.
Pulled the nets at slack tide and moved to CB2. Put back the CB2 receiver, then fished the mud flat along the south corner of the bay. Took benthic samples. Saw the FSUers running transects. Stayed there for about an hour and half. Ate lunch. Pulled the nets and moved to Lopez River Mouth. Set the nets across the mud flat at the creek mouth along the south end, attempting to catch anything coming out the creek with the outgoing tide. Saw some sort of elasmobranch shadow swimming near the gear, but couldn’t tell what it was. Pulled the gear when the water started to rush out. Caught a YOY bull shark and some mullet. Moved closer to the Lopez River Mouth receiver and set the nets again.
Around 1600 the FSUers showed up on their way back to the dock. No sign of Eve, they reported. Low tide was slacking up. We pulled the gear and lead the way back through the gauntlet. That’s the first time I have ever navigated the Lopez River Mouth Lemans-like S-Curve at low tide. Comin’ in hot!
We told the FSUers we’d see them back at the dock and split up to go put the Hurd1 receiver back in. There was a juvenile alligator (~120 cm STL) sunning on the exposed mud flat at Turner River as we passed. White Ibis were feeding all around it.
The Captain’s Table Lodge is rockin’ when we get home. Boats and trucks and older men in Columbia shirts everywhere. Classic rock and country music playing from the back of someone’s SUV. Several grills going. We pack up the truck and boat, minimizing what we’ll have to pack in the morning. I checked out at the front desk and met a few of the guys. Seems they’re all here for a once-a-year friendly fishing trip. They give me a beer and we chat. Nice people. Said that the guides call us The Sawfish Girls. They say we "run the everglades." It feels nice to be complimented.
Back in our apartment, it’s Nacho Friday!
Stayed up entirely too late watching A Few Good Men (Some of the crew had never seen it!).
Saturday October 2, 2010
The Drive Home
In the truck at 0600. Stop at Cracker Barrel in Ocala for breakfast, then we split up. The FSUers are driving a diesel truck that can make it all the way back to Tally without stopping.
We stop in Ocala for gas, switching drivers. We stop again in Gainesville to pick up a Diva Cup for one of the crew. Ladies, if you don’t know what a Dive Cup is, look it up. Buy one and use it. It will change your life.
We played the Florida License Plate game again. I think we got up to 60 different tags, round-trip. Ridiculous.
Back at the lab by 1800 and unloaded by sunset. The UWF graduate student is headed back to P’cola tonight. She’ll txt me when she gets there.
September Over.
No comments:
Post a Comment