NOAA Tsunami Prediction Image - WOW!
Those of you who check out surf forecasts regularly will appreciate the magnitude of this wave model. It's hard to comprehend just how much wave energy was released; it covers almost half the earth.
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Check Out This Cool Picture of the Sun
This was taken by an amateur photographer with a telescope, a web cam, a high end filter, and some image processing to manage the lighting. It turned out pretty well I'd say:
Some Pics From The 2010 Olympics In Vancouver
Having the 2010 Olympics in my home town (Vancouver) was a great experience. I finally got around to sorting out some of my pictures. Here they are in a clickable slideshow type thing:
Click The Pic
Pictures from Panama - Part 3 of 3
Searching for Surf Breaks
The "Christmas Ham" a few days after Christmas....perhaps the most delicious processed meet I've ever eaten.
Pizza Muffins : what you get when you accidently use twice as much dough as is required. Still tasty though.
We though we had caught a type of Tuna but ended up calling this a "Roast Beef Fish
Robb and the Roastbeef fish.
The Seagull was very interested in our fish
"I want it... I neeeeeed it."
Score!
Just another Sunset.
And another sunset.
My silhouette.
Roast beef fish!!! See, it looks like roast beef right? It was kind of disgusting.
Captain Hugh
Dolphins! They were playing off the bow.
They are such cool animals.
Little girl all tuckered out.
Little Hugh all tuckered out.
Yup, looks like a coconut.
But can you juggle them?
Not really.
Hugh, Myself, Steve, Rob discussing very important things.
Art Shot! (or just an accidental shot?)
Liz on the stern of Khulula
The end of my trip in Santa Catalina... Steve and Liz drove my to Santiago where I got a 5 hour bus back to Panama City.
Driving back to Panama City over the Bridge of Americas; full circle.
This post was part two of three. Click here to view Part 1 or Part 3
Pictures from Panama - Part 2 of 3
The Fist Of God.
Another sunset.
Pelicans! (At this point, I put the stupid date marker on my pictures by accident; it's annoying.)
And another empty white sand beach... a good place for a day of leisure.
Hugh, sporting his spear-fishing yellow speedos (aka banana hammock) putting on a show for the beach goers.
Apparently them speedos work. Parrot fish for dinner.
Parrot fish is actually quite tasty but it's a bitch to clean; the scales are like armor plates.
It's hard to see, but this is a big o'le sting ray. This is what killed Steve Irwin (the Crocodile hunter) when his chest got pierced by the sting ray's long, barbed, tail-spike.
Look me in the eyes.
Art Shot!
Cleaning our kill.
The bay where we'd spend Christmas eve and Christmas day.
Some enterprising locals.
Hey mister, you want to buy an iguana?
No surf nearby so we made our own.
Paradise.
Tammy rockin' it.
Hugh's turn. That's Cameron who I'll talk about in a second.
We met the hired captain of this yacht and his friends; the owner was back in the states so we got to go over a play for Christmas Eve.
Over dinner, Hugh and Cameron, the captain, talked about how they had both sailed in Tahiti and how they had both met Liz Clark. Hugh had long ago sent Tammy this inspirational story that had been posted on Liz Clark's website.
It turns out that the author of the story; the story that had so moved both Hugh and Tammy; was none other than the man sharing Christmas eve dinner with us on the only other boat we had seen for days in some random bay 90 miles off the coast of Panama. Needless to say, it was kind of a moment; Cameron was really stoked that his story had been enjoyed so much. We ended up having a great night with lots of wine involved; it was a Christmas Eve I won't soon forget.
Dear Santa:
Pumping the bilge. Where the water came from is still a mystery.
A hidden village; I wish we had time to check it out.
The yacht that Cameron worked on and Khulula; the only boats in a beautiful spot.
Another shot of the bay.
Khulula.
So that's how palm trees reproduce...the seed's in the coconut.
Leaving to do our overnight passage from the Las Perlas Archipeligo to the North end of the Gulf of Panama. It looks like we're in for calm sailing all night... we were wrong. I'll write another post about that passage (my first open water, overnight sailing experience) soon.
See how innocent that little anvil shaped cloud on the horizon looks...it wasn't.
Essentially we sailed right up against a big, lightning filled, low pressure system. The low pressure was sucking wind from the high pressure over the Gulf of Panama resulting in 25 to 30 knot winds, wind swell, and a much more eventful sail than we had anticipated. I got soaked a couple of times from swell breaking over the boat.
Tammy and Hugh in their life preservers (which get harnessed to the boat so you don't fall overboard). This was probably at about 2am in the middle of howling winds and decent sized wind swell in the open ocean.
This post was part two of three. Click here to view Part 1 or Part 3
Pictures from Panama - Part 1 of 3
Hugh and Tammy picked me up in Panama City. Hugh really wanted to carry my bodyboards.
The view of the Panama city sky-line from our anchorage.
Hugh in his sweet, sweet Comex shirt
Pirates!
Bridge of the Americas - Pacific Entrance to the Panama Canal
Our first anchorage at Las Perlas Archipeligo.... just one of thousands of beautiful, empty, tropical, white sand beaches. One of the Survivor seasons was filmed in the Las Perlas Archipeligo.
We went snorkeling.
Hugh did some research for the Ocean Gybe Expedition
These plastic pellets are what Hugh is collecting. What's crazy is that they are not broken down plastic... they are raw material used to make plastic products. Somehow, they are leaking into the environment and carrying toxins all the way up the food chain. Besides spillage, one theory is that factories are blowing millions of these pellets up their smoke stacks to try and clean them out...brutal!
Hugh collects samples (unfortunately they're found on even the most remote beaches) and sends them to a researcher in Japan who is trying to trace where they are coming from.
More pellet collecting.
Sitka Surfboards, a BC based surf company, helped sponsor the oceangybe expedition by ponying up free surfboards and clothing.
This is a small village on the small Isla Casya.
Hugh and Tammy peruse Main street in the downtown district. Where can I get a Venti, vanilla soy, double shot, no foam, extra hot, half-cafe, latte around here?
Christmas was in the air.
A villager going about her day.
A fine cock.
No really, it's a very nice cock.
Hugh and Tammy about to launch the not so trusty dinghy. I think Hugh was trying to repair this thing every two or three days.
Hugh on our deserted Island.
Deserted Island Contemplation
Contemplation interrupted... stupid broken plastic chair.
Tammy on the reef.
Me on the reef.
Puffer fish (aka: Fugu).
Puffer fish II. Who knew a fish could be so cute?
We ended up calling this a "rubber" fish after I speared and cooked one (it was like eating rubber). The weird thing about spearing fish without a fish guide is that you're not quite sure what it'll taste like and you're just kind of hoping that it's not going to poison you.
Art Shot!
Tammy and Hugh
Tammy and the spear gun. Watch out seagulls!
Back chilling on Khulula after another successful day of leisure. I wish this picture could convey how quiet and peaceful it was... no other boats or people in sight...the only sound was water rippling when the odd fish would jump.
This post was part one of three. Click here to view Part 2 or Part 3
The Animal Theme Continues: More Creatures from Costa Rica
Hermit Crabs
Vultures
Bird on a Wire
Wild Condo Cats
Squirrel
A Few Pics From the First Few Days at Playa Guiones / Nosara
I'm not one to fear any type of flying but this bumpy flight in a very small plane from San Jose, CR put a little sweat on my brow. The girl beside me almost ripped her hand rest out and two of the other passengers almost puked
