ALASKA

ALASKA TRIP

10/10/04 - More Pictures from the Rock. Click Here to go to the nextpage

9/18/04 - Whale Slide Show EAS slide show download and then click on the file to view

8/22/04

10/29/2009 - Belgium - rollout movie

Hi -

Back from the Alaska trip - all went well - good things accomplished. Here's a few pics;

Baby blue Fox Agattu Island Island [old jade mine] Barge

Daville hooks a big one - over 5ft long, 3ft wide [Halibut - estimated at over 120#'s]

Some days - you can actually see the sky!! "Ralph" heading out to open seas

Ralph on the beach

5/3/04

Well I'm back in Alaska working on a VERY cool project - helping to defend the world against Ballistic Missiles - but the best part was meeting Ralph the Whale - who found himself beached behind a line of rocks along the western beach.

A bunch of us jumped in to the frigid waters of the Bering Sea and helped Ralph off the beach - last seen heading out to the open sea. We spent about 45 minutes in the water with him, calming him down and slowly reorienting him.

I'm the one in the bandana & black overalls on the end- the water was about 40F - winds around 20 knots.

Huge Thanks to the members of the Canadian Air Force for helping us get it done!!

After holding his head up out of the surf so he could catch his breath, we were able to turn him around and get him floating - after some very deep breaths - he was off and running. It was not without adventure however, he whacked me with his flukes and knocked me over [for a little guy he was pretty strong] the wounds you see on his belly are from the rocks and not serious, although a number seem to be in a rather even pattern - the local expert thinks those are Orca teeth marks. His flukes were pretty badly cut up from the rocks [try getting whale blood outa your clothes!! ]

One of the most exciting times of my life.

8/29 - 9/9/03

I was fortunate(??) enough to get shipped out to Alaska for a week.

To a Tiny Island waaaayy out there. I was closer to Russia than the mainland.

Fog was so thick that 3 flights were cancelled and I got a free weekend on Island.

3 days of wind and fog [The wind blew at 20+ knots and the fog didn't move]