Just out of the shop...

[fogtender]

Great pics Foggy! Why did the crane set the boat where it did? Will the tide come up to help you launch it?

Love the midnight pic. Always wondered what it would look like from way up there with 24 hour sunshine. More pics as you can please!!!!

They built a new Pad for the company that the boat will be leased to, and another company will be next to it... They put down Orange cones to mark the line so that one doesn't use the other's space! Don't look like much now, but by this time next year, there will be drilling rigs and all sorts of stuff there. The boat is set next to the cones, in a few days, one of the other boats will be setting next to it on the other side of the line...

The tides there are only about a foot or so, there is a lot of current, but not much level change. When the wind blows from the Northeast, it will blow the water away from where we normally dock though and we have to go elsewhere.

The sun is pretty high at midnight, during summer. In winter, it doesn't come above the Horizon for about two months, it gets daylight, but like a dark cloudy day for a few hours then gets dark again. So it isn't totally dark like the movies and such claim, it is just "Legally" dark since the there is no sun to see in the "rise".

Here is a time elapse photo of the sun stages in summer, it was taken as the sun was "Setting" then rising. Pretty popular postcard with the tourist when they go there to see the place.

 

[fogtender]

Well got the boat operational. Had to build a dock for working off of, I designed it a few months ago on paper, then we had to do the assembly work on it with a contractor doing the welding of the spuds and such. The only change was the flexifloats that we used were able to switch into a "U" instead of rectangle shape, so it can hold more boats and such.

Once the boat was in the water, took a quick test run and went out to one of the new drilling islands that is being built for the drilling rigs next winter to operate off of.

When the crews that are doing the dirt compaction on the island first get there, they all have to stay on the boat until one guy sneaks up to where the equipment is at to see if the Polar Bears aren't up there "Lurking", once he gives the OK, they all come up to start running their equipment for the day... I think I would leave a loader down where they first get there for the days work, start it up and cruise around the island in a 30 ton piece of equipment looking for a white bear.... A Polar Bear was seen a few days earlier off of "Spy Island" a few hundred yards away, (part of the "Barrier Islands") a really big white one too.

Will be watching out for those endangered Polar bears that didn't get the message last year either, they show up about one every few days or so. Will post as I shoot them (with the camera).

Water is only open a few months of the year in spite of the Global Warming claims, the Arctic Ocean will be frozen across the whole polar ice cap by late October or early November... The new dock comes out about the first part of October...

 

[pirate_girl]

Wow Foggy!!
Awesome pics hun
I hope you don't mind... I just made this one my desktop background.

 

[fogtender]

I hope you don't mind... I just made this one my desktop background.

That is fine, will post a bunch more in the next few days.

Been out at the barrier Islands here on standby while the smaller boats are running a ten mile straight line in the ocean to measure the noise output from the boat for the "Whale" data. Seems to me that being "Harpooned" by the locals would be a lot more traumatic than some boat noise would be, but go figure...

Anyway, put some sounding buoy's out two days ago that we have to retrieve tomorrow morning to replace the batteries that are good for only three days. Have about 25 boats that have to go though the process for permitting to operate in the Oil Fields.

Haven't seen any polar bears yet, but did find a bunch of fresh tracks on the island where we set up on the beach with the bow, they were about twelve inches across for the front paws and wider for the back feet.

The Catamaran hull really handles like a dream in four to six foot chop, more like floats when a "Normal" V-hull would slam into the oncoming waves.

 

[fogtender]

Here is a few photos of a guy working the angles of getting some good photos of a polar bear in Northern Canada this last winter....

 

[Av8r3400]

Seen these before, but still:

Insert poop into shorts, now.

 

[fogtender]

Last night we were running off the barrier islands and as we came around the point of one, there was a polar bears swimming out in open water. Had to pull out of the way and leave the area, but got one good shot as we went away.

 

[OhioTC18]

That is an awesome picture.

 

[pixie]

Thanks for the great pictures !!!

Nice dock and ramp you got there.... how much does the catamaran draw ?

 

[fogtender]

Thanks for the great pictures !!!

Nice dock and ramp you got there.... how much does the catamaran draw ?

It draws about three feet with the outdrives in the down posistion. About 18 to 20 inches with them up. When it is up on step, it draws about 22 inches or so.

 

[fogtender]

Yesterday, we were anchored out as a backup for some seismic boats doing a run to establish how much noise they make.

There was a barrier island about six miles long we were anchored behind when this bear came down the beach. It had a tracking collar on it, when it heard us, it took off like a bullet.... guess it figured we were going to dart it in the butt, because he remembered the last human encounter...

Getting a lot of Polar bears in the area now, they will continue until the ice comes back in about the first of October or earlier... About three to four months of open water, freezes every year in spite of Global Warming...

 

[fogtender]

Got a few more polar bear shots yesterday, will post them a bit later.

 

[Av8r3400]

Getting a lot of Polar bears in the area now, they will continue until the ice comes back in about the first of October or earlier... About three to four months of open water, freezes every year in spite of Global Warming...

Speaking of this, has anyone seen the STUPID, MORONIC TV commercials for the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) begging for money to help save the poor, dieing, drowning, defenseless, fuzzy, little, cute, polar bears?

I was so pissed I could have vomited!


Ecco-Nazis!!!

 

[fogtender]

Speaking of this, has anyone seen the STUPID, MORONIC TV commercials for the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) begging for money to help save the poor, dieing, drowning, defenseless, fuzzy, little, cute, polar bears?

I was so pissed I could have vomited!


Ecco-Nazis!!!

They used the "Endangered Polar Bear" part to get oil drilling stopped in the Arctic, but when it was approved they had a caveat saying they were listed as far as it didn't impede the oil exploration, drove the tree huggers nuts!

The population of Polar Bears has gone from about 5,000 twenty years ago to closer to 30,000. That doesn't include the Canada versions and into the rest of the Arctic Rim.

 

[fogtender]

We have been at Gale Force winds for the last few days, the dock we built a few weeks ago is now "Toast" as a dock. The beach photo where you see the gangway being offloaded is now cut back about 15 to 20 feet. All the boats are up on the beach on the East Side of the Point, somewhat out of the weather.

In spite of all the bad weather, had a sow Polar Bear with two cubs show up and one boar that walked though the boat area.

Sometime in a few days when the weather lays back down, we will re assemble the dock and start over. Then get back to the oil searching stuff!

 

[XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq]

In spite of all the bad weather, had a sow Polar Bear with two cubs show up and one boar that walked though the boat area.

I hope you gave them some warm blankets and perhaps offered them some enviro-nazis to chew on!

Nice pics and I can honestly say: I am glad I am not there with you!

 

[DaveNay]

In spite of all the bad weather, had a sow Polar Bear with two cubs show up and one boar that walked though the boat area.

Stuffed, right? 'Cause everyone knows those things are endangered and pretty rare to see.

 

[RedRocker]

Mother nature can be a mean bitch!!
Lucky you got to see the last three polar bears,
those things are just about gone.

 

[fogtender]

Mother nature can be a mean bitch!!
Lucky you got to see the last three polar bears,
those things are just about gone.

Well we bait for them by having a bunch of guys wearing "Mustang" suits walk on the beaches... They are bright orange work float suits, and down in the Gulf of Alaska, we call them "Orca" Lurer Suits, which the new guys don't think is very funny... Up here we replace "Orca" (killer whale) with "Polar Bear"....

 

[fogtender]

Mother nature can be a mean bitch!!
Lucky you got to see the last three polar bears,
those things are just about gone.

I offered to take a couple of them out and have them stuffed so they wouldn't die of starvation and sink where nobody could see what they looked like, all they would have to do is stop by my house and "Ta-Da", there is one...

 

[fogtender]

Well getting to the end of the season running the Discovery in Prudhoe Bay area. Here are some more "endangered" polar bear photos and a clip of the Discovery making a run by the camera for me to take he shot.

The first polar bear was about a quarter of a mile from where we operated out of, and then the second photo is when it go to close to some biologist and caught a dart on the butt... All in the name of science of course...

The one laying on the beach was watching us as we cruised by, he was a pretty big guy too, way to fat from the swimming in from the Ice pack... must have ate a few boaters on the way in.

The boat will be out of the water in a few weeks if the "Global Warming" doesn't kick in, last year we had to pull the boats out two weeks earlier than the year before and the cold this year is coming even earlier than last year...

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3XbthE2qdA"]YouTube - American Discovery at 30 knots[/ame]

 

[pirate_girl]

Thanks for sharing that Mark.
You know how I like the polar bears

 

[fogtender]

Thanks for sharing that Mark.
You know how I like the polar bears

It was a fun boat to work on, fast and a really good ride! Tomorrow I am getting ready to splash a thirty foot jet boat with twin 454 engines. Should be a pretty fast boat. We have had it for over a year and never had it wet until this last Thursday when I put the stern in the water to test run the engines.

 

[RedRocker]

I love that boat. Lucky you got a shot of that bear before it drowned!!

 

[fogtender]

I love that boat. Lucky you got a shot of that bear before it drowned!!

Yeah, I guess that is why Polar Bears are called "Marine Mammals", just like seals, they swim....

 

[RedRocker]

Yeah, I guess that is why Polar Bears are called "Marine Mammals", just like seals, they swim....

I guess you didn't hear, the ice melts and they all drown!!
The folks in DC that have never been to AK said so and we
know how sharp those dudes are.

 

[fogtender]

I guess you didn't hear, the ice melts and they all drown!!
The folks in DC that have never been to AK said so and we
know how sharp those dudes are.

What is funny is the the "Shelf Ice" off shore is reforming earlier than Normal because the Arctic Ocean is colder than what it has been. They are estimating that we will be shutting down the boat operation on/about the 27 of Sept. this year. That is some 10 days earlier than last year, which was already two weeks earlier than the year before last. That is almost a month earlier freezeup than three years ago.

Wonder where the Church of Global Warming is hiding on that issue... The ""

 

[RedRocker]

That must be "climate change" rather than "global warming", there is a difference I'm sure, and they both require government funding to study.