Sunday, September 22, 2013

Oscar Elton Sette

The NOAA ship Oscar Elton Sette came in for a day this week.  They were picking up the monk seal monitoring camps throughout the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.  They usually don't have crews out on the islands during the winter months because the weather is normally stormier during that time, and emergency evacuations would be more difficult.  A couple of the people from Tern Island were dropped off to fly back to Honolulu from here.  I was hoping to have some time to catch up with what was going on back on Tern, but didn't get a chance to chat with the guys.  

We also had a big influx of people this week.  A crew came in this weekend to do some work on our taxiway at the airport. Most of the people working on the lead based paint abatement are still here too, so they'll have to make a lot more food up at the Clipper House. 

The Oscar Elton Sette pulls up to the cargo pier.

A Brown noddy is trying to climb out of its egg on an old ironwood stump on Eastern Island.

There were 4 Hawaiian monk seals playing at the pier on Eastern Island as I was trying to leave the island.  I didn't get a photo of all 4 at once.  I had some time to take a couple of photos since I had to wait for them to get away from the boat before I started it.

The Hawaiian spinner dolphins are around fairly frequently these days.

Here was a mom and youngster (cow and calf if you want to be technically correct) jumping nearby.

 For every decent dolphin photo I get I honestly have dozens of photos like this, either blurry, nothing but splashes, or just water and sky.

This is the maintenance shop at the old fuel farm.  I like the "Dramatic" setting on my little Olympus camera to make some of these shots a bit more interesting.

4 comments:

Pete Prellwitz said...

Hey, Pete

More cool photos!

There's been a significant dolphin die off just off the New Jersey coast out here. It's nice to see healthy dolphins in your photos.

How many can the Clipper House kitchen & kitchen staff accommodate? I think we've only ever seen one photo of the kitchen.

I'd imagine most meals are taken at the Clipper House, but how much do people prepare their own meals in their homes/apartments?

Pete
PS: Sorry about the "it's" comment last week. I meant to say "it's" is only ever used as a contraction, with "it is" as an example.

Sheri said...

Just to say: love love love your blog!! Thanks so much for all your efforts on Midway, and especially for the gorgeous photos!

Cleas said...
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Pete Leary said...

Thanks Pete & Sheri!

The Clipper House still looks the same, which is the main reason I haven't shown more photos. There are very rarely over 100 people on island, so there haven't been any problems. I don't know how many they can accommodate though. We don't have a grocery store on island, so most people don't cook much, but people usually have a few frozen foods or easy to prepare foods, in case they miss a meal. The store carries a couple of things like frozen pizzas, bread, and rice, like a not very well stocked 7-11. It's got the basics though.