odd question: Ocean research from a sailboat

CalebD · Mar 11, 2007

Not so odd. We can all dream and fantacize!

The link for the whale story is:http://www.awhaleofabook.com/drizzle.htmby "The Captain" or such. I read the online book and mostly enjoyed it. The premise of the book is not so far fetched as I read something about scientists being able to decode some of the sounds/signals that the whales produced. I was reminded of this as I was just in Hawai'i on the island of Kauai (Cow-eyee) and did a boat ride with a tour company up the NW coast of the island (NaPali Coast - no roads or buildings - cliffs near an impossible 80 degrees - spinner dolhpins, green sea turtles, a Monk seal or two on the beach and yes, whales). At one point the crew of 3 got a bit agitated as their seemed to be some aggressive whale behaviour going on between 2 males and we were about 2 - 3 hundred yards away. The next thing I knew the over 60' catamaran was reverberating with a high pitched sound emanating from the stays; presumably up the rudder and into the rigging. I had never been that close to any whale and I presumed that the VHF was feeding back or something. The crew knew better. It was a whale call resonating throughout the ship and it sounded both threatening and sad. The amount of sound the whales were putting out was quite amazing.The Hawai'ian Islands are a great place to check out whales when they are birthing and mating and the best platform might just be a wind driven craft that makes little noise. The whales come to Hawai'i in the winter (Dec-Feb) to hang out and enjoy the warm Pacific and then migrate back up north towards Alaska. I have also seen whales off of LI, NY in the fall when they are migrating down the coast to wherever they go for winter (Bahamas, Carribean?) but they are much farther from shore as the coast is much shallower than here in the NE. After we left the islands we heard that a helicopter went down on Kauai that was touring the same area and 4 people died. I am quite happy that we did the boat tour but was still a little concerned that one of those leviathans could have surface beneath us to cause great discomfort.The book was called 'Drizzle' and the link is below, Franklin you bad boy, enjoy! And no, I did not write it. I just had it bookmarked as it took a few days to read.Good luck with your "research".

KorculaChris · Mar 11, 2007

Franklin

A sailboat is the perfect platform, leaving a "clean wake" as it does as long as the power demands of any research and communication equipment could be met. Solar, wind and water generators might have to be substantial.If you and the young lady hit it off, I would think that the hardest (and perhaps most important) part would be to secure funding in the way of grants, stipends, and the like to support such an exercise. You might need to write to all the research universities, and not just in the USA. Her connections from her graduate work might be the best route.Have fun and go with it, you never know where an adventure may take you, both physically and in the sense of personal discovery, and I always jump at anything out the run-of-the-mill!

Tom · Mar 12, 2007

Sperm Whales Axores??

I think that it was anational geographic special but they were studying whales from a sailboat. We actually saw a couple whales off Panama City when Wilma was near Key West. There were large swells and my wie said that she saw something jump and it was big and black. A couple of swells later we were on top and looked down at the whales. They spooked and we didn't see them again. I think that the only reason we saw them at all was because we were sailing. I consideration might be the old book "Survive the Savage Sea" their sailboat was rammed and sank by whales. But the good news about whales is that there is supposed to be a pod that hangs near deep water south of New Orleans. They feed on squid that hang around the drop off. I actually met a couple in Mobile that said that they had seen a couple of whales as they were sailing in from Mexico. The sailboat's advantages would be low expenses,quiet and able to hang around for weeks at a time. It's fun and spooky to be visited by dolphins when sailing along at night. I can't tell if they are being friendly or aggrssive when they are jumping and swimming around the boat. We had one group that followed us for hours. Some are little devils in that they deliberately splashed water on us. I don't know about something as large as whales. A playfull dolphin can't really hurt a 32' sailboat ut a 40-50' whale could do some damage. Even a friendly little snuggle could break off a rudder!!! Leave your depth sounder on all of the time. Supposedly they hear it and know to avoid hitting your boat. If you need crew to hang out there for a few days I'd be willing. It's 1-200 miles south of Mobile so we should be able to get to safety if the weather turned bad.

tom · Mar 12, 2007

46" Hunter Sailboat

I did a Yahoo.com search "sperm whales sailboat" and found out that the government used a 46' hunter sailboat to follow around sperm whales in the GOM the study area was between 91W and 86W longitude along the 800-1200 meter contour. They estimate that about 400 whales live in this area. www.gomr.mms.gov is the website. They chose the sailboat because it was quiet.

Tsehum Pete · Mar 12, 2007

Luna

Luna, the lost whale of British Columbia Canada unfortunately got too close to the prop of a large fishing boat. Franklin, perhaps you and your fellow scientist could travel to Canada and sail the West Coast of Vancouver Island researching why this whale first got lost then later wrecked the rudders etc of so many sailboats. Before meeting his maker.

Honeyman · Mar 12, 2007

The new "hybrid"...

catamarans would be the ticket and hopefully this technology will come to monohulls soon, as well. With electric propulsion that is driven by batteries charged by forward motion while sailing or diesel generator while motoring, these new cats are about as "green" as it's going to get any time soon. Not to mention the stability of a catamaran and it's effect, or lack of, on your sea-sickness. Might be time to sell that 376, Franklin. As said, tough part will be funding, geez life's a bitch.

NYSail · Mar 13, 2007

Research

FranklinI do research on my sailboat every time me and my BB go out. Sailboats are great for research!

2 Hulls Dave · Mar 13, 2007

An example........

I acquired a cat that was formerly used in just such an endeavor.Visit wildlifesail.orgThis is the former owner's site. I cannot speak of its contents nor of what what accomplished. But I can speak of the boat.

DaveS/V Pas de Deux (X-Wildlife)Catana 471-44

Doug13108 · Mar 13, 2007

Maybe not sperm whales

Sounds like fun, but:http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_072180702.html

Fred · Mar 13, 2007

Peter Fromme. Whale Tales and Whale Tales II

He lives in Friday Harbour, Washington. A professional photagropher and interesting fellow.I helped a friend buy a 40 foot ketch from the widow of a fellow who chartered it (with him as captain) to the UBC Oceanography department for research in the Galapagos. They took a big (like 200') steel boat and the ketch. The ketch took scientists all over the islands, and landed them on shore with a dinghy. I think he did two seasons. Sailed back to Vancouver in between. Probably had some motor launch type boats attached to the big boat as well.

tom · Mar 15, 2007

Sorcerer II Craig Venter

In the new issue of "Nature" Venter is not doing anything as interesting as Sperm Whales but he is doing research on a sailboat while sailing around the world. Molecular biological research collecting microbial DNA and looking for new proteins. Technicaly it is easier to sequence DNA and predict novel proteins than it is to look for the actual proteins. Heading for the Sargasso sea. Unfortunately owning a sailboat is pretty far down on the list of requirements for this type of research. There is a website.

Rich · Mar 20, 2007

Sorcerer II expedition

Perhaps the most advanced genetic sampling project in the world is the voyage of the sailboat Sorcerer II. I don't have links to the nice documentary that appeared on tv last year but see the link below for a description:

odd question: Ocean research from a sailboat

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