Antarctica mind map packing list, originally uploaded by echeng.

I spent hours yesterday packing up for my upcoming trip to Antarctica, and have managed to cram just about everything into two 50lb bags (the new international standard for us North Americans), plus a heavy camera backpack (the Gura Gear Kiboko bag) and a ThinkTank Urban Disguise 60 as carry-ons. I used a mind-map to plan for the trip, and then converted it to an OPML outline document, which I printed out for reference during packing.

Because I will be going directly to Indonesia after Antarctica, creating a packing list proved to be a little tricky. Instead of trying to lug a third 50lb bag with me to the Southern Ocean before ending up in Indo, I sent my underwater camera to Hawaii (with a friend) to be delivered to another friend, who will meet me in Manado with the bag in a few months.

I’m also testing out journal posting via Flickr e-mail, which will allow me to post a single image plus commentary when I am on the road. I’m sending this from my satellite phone email system (although I’m connected through traditional internet at the moment). The real (and ridiculously slow) test will have to happen tomorrow…

For years now, I’ve had a tough decision to make each night I sleep on boats: do I put earplugs in and risk not waking up in the morning, or do I forgo them and risk a sleepless night? I’m totally fine sleeping to the sound of a generator running, but the occasional lapping of a wave against the hull combined with the rumbling symphony of middle-aged men snoring? That is just a nightmare.

Tonight, I discovered that vibrating watches exist. Surprisingly, I couldn’t find any exhaustive vibrating watch guides out there, but I did some research and settled on Casio Pathfinder hunting and fishing watches. They are cheap (around $30 street), and people seem to really like them. They don’t look bad, either — pretty much the sort of watch I’d wear out on expedition. Might as well give one a try…

Backlit taro leaf, Yap, Micronesia

While walking on a stone path today, I spotted this backlit taro leaf in a field of swamp taro. It’s probably the best photo I took today (at least, topside).

A large female manta ray in Goofnuw Channel, Yap

I had a beautiful encounter with this 14′ female manta ray this morning. She stalled in front of me for 20 seconds or so before gliding over her cleaning station, literally inches from my face. I lowered my camera and savored the moment.

The Manta Ray Bay hotel pool and the Mnuw

I snapped a few HDR shots on the way out to dinner last night. The clouds in Yap are incredible, and I’ve wanted to take this shot for some time, along with a mostly-clear sky and stars twinkling. But by the time the sky is dark enough for this sort of shot, exposures become quite long (the brightest exposures of the HDR series can be 8-10 seconds or more). And because the Mnuw is a boat, it rocks back and forth slightly, and wind pushes the tarp and other elements around.

I plan on doing some time-lapse photography of clouds moving sometime in the next day or two.

I had this conversation with a couple of tourists the other day:

Them: Hi — you were sleeping?
Me: (umm.. was that a question?) No.
Them: Yes, you were sleeping.
Me: Uh… no, I wasn’t.
Them: Yes, you were.
Me: You’re free to believe whatever you want to believe.

And people wonder why I stay in my room so much.

I don’t like to argue about anything factual — I typically end arguments by telling people to look it up on Google. Either they are wrong, or I am wrong, but no amount of arguing is going to change the outcome. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t know (yet) whether I was sleeping, and in any case, the (lack of) internet speed here is a big barrier to casual Google use.

Me, with the kids

More photos from yesterday’s Yap village visit. The village dresses up for tourist shows, but I’m told that traditional garb is still very much the norm in outer island villages. (read more »)

The “cultural tour” to a local Yapese village today was a lot of fun. I chewed my first betel nut! Man, is that red spit gross. I did, however, feel a bit dizzy after chewing it.

It was neat to see some of the same kids from two years ago performing in the stick-fighting dance. When I have time, I’m going to dig up the old photos and see how the kids have grown.

Yapese stick-fighting dance celebrates hardships of WWII

Yapese stick-fighting dance celebrates hardships of WWII

I wish I could post more photos from here, but the internet is a bit slow to be image greedy. :)

a manta ray in goofnuw channel, yap

Hello! I’m in Yap.

Manta action has been fair over the past few days. We’ve had pretty rough weather so far, and because wind blows water over the barrier reef, the tide has been eternally outgoing (and outgoing tide = green, mucky water).

Still, we’ve had multiple mantas every day on the cleaning station at Goofnuw Channel. They’re wonderful to watch — so graceful…

male mandarinfish, yap

I did a dusk dive today with the mandarinfish, but none of us saw them mating. MATE, you stupid fishies!

Luckily, mandarinfish are pretty regardless of whether they are in the process of mating, and I managed to shoot a couple good portraits.

A sixgill shark in Seattle

First, a bit of history: Marty Snyderman introduced me to Travis Swanson at DEMA last year and told me that Travis was the “Jim Abernethy of the Pacific Northwest.” Howard Hall and Marty had been out with Hydrus earlier come back with fantastic images and video footage of sixgill sharks (Hexanchus griseus) in relatively shallow water. Sixgill sharks are a deep-water shark species rarely seen by recreational SCUBA divers, and I was really intrigued by the possibility of seeing one. Marty’s introduction prompted me to immediately book an exploratory trip with Travis and [Team Hydrus][teamhydrus]. I invited Douglas Seifert (contributing editor, Dive Magazine) and Simon Rogerson (editor, Dive Magazine) along for the trip; I travel with Douglas frequently, but it had been years since I had seen Simon. (read more »)

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In early December of 2007, Paul Brown of Legends Memorabilia invited me to be a guest at Gatecon 2008, a sci-fi convention for Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis fans.

Sea Shepherd with Richard Dean Anderson
Can you spot the poseur? Hint: it’s me.

I was introduced to Paul by Kim McCoy, International Executive Director of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Gatecon 2008 was to be very special this year because Richard Dean Anderson (RDA) would be in attendance for the first time in Stargate convention history. “Rick” (as he likes to be called) is on Sea Shepherd’s board of directors, and through RDA and Legends, Gatecon 2008 was set up as a benefit event for Sea Shepherd.

Stargate SG-1 is my father’s favorite show, and he has been talking about it for over a decade. But even though I had heard about the TV show for years, I had never actually seen an episode of SG-1 nor Atlantis prior to my involvement in Gatecon. In the last 8 months, I made it a mission to watch as many episodes as possible to prepare for Gatecon. I loaded up on DVDs before each trip abroad and spent evenings on boats winding down by watching an episode or two. I’m proud to say that I made it through 8.5 seasons of SG-1 (about 175 episodes) in 8 months! I’m now thoroughly invested in the characters, and am sure to finish up the 10 seasons of SG-1 before starting to make my way through Atlantis and the SG-1 movies. (read more »)

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Wetpixel Quarterly, Eric Cheng Photography, Shark Angels

We arrived in Vancouver today and set up our booths at Gatecon. I’m hoping that the tenuous connection between me and Stargate fans¹ will be enough for them to be interested in my work. :)

UPDATE: Gatecon full report posted

the sixgill shark cage

I love diving in unusual environments.

The sunset here is really pretty. Everything stopped today when the sun hit the mountains, and we hustled out onto the back deck to snap some photos.

Yesterday’s sunset was reported to be even more spectacular, but Matt and I were underwater at the time. We surfaced to an absolutely flat ocean below a fiery red sky, which was quite an experience.

I’m in the Puget Sound off of Seattle diving with sixgill sharks (Hexanchus griseus). We just finished our first evening in the water, and had fantastic luck (we started at around 9pm). Matt Segal and I dropped in and had four female sixgills come in on the bait almost immediately. I felt tremendous privilege being in the water with them because they are such elusive animals; our habitats simply don’t normally have any overlap.

a sixgill shark in Seattle (Hexanchus griseus)

During Simon’s rotation, he saw a large sixgill (12 ft long, estimated) eating crabs. We’re told that this behavior has never been seen before, and hope to be able to capture it on video tomorrow night.

I always thought ratfish (Chimaeras) were rare (I photographed some in Alaska, but there were literally hundreds down at the bottom today, along with about a billion dungeness crabs. If you want to photograph ratfish, there is no need to fly off to some exotic place and descend down into the depths. Fly to Seattle, chuck some bait off of the side of your boat, and shoot as many photos as you need!

On the way up from the dive, we ascended through an algae bloom. I looked over at Matt while we were hanging at our safety stop, and the slight oscillation of the ascent line caused his body to throw off literally thousands of sparkling lights…

six-gill shark — count ‘em. there are six of them. :)

Continue reading for video updates from the field. I’ll be uploading video as time allows for the next three days. (read more »)

At the talk I gave last week, there was a guy there who seemed to exist in a different plane of existence, and he managed to thoroughly confuse (and annoy) pretty much everyone he encountered.

My experience with him wan’t so bad: all he did to me was monopolize my time and ask me to get him a spot on the Sea Shepherd boat (uhh, ok).The only damage I suffered was collateral — a missed opportunity to talk to other people.

Adam had a funny story: (read more »)

scott, me, cor, and julie @ sanzaka

Cor and Julie — thank you so much for your hospitality. I had a great (and productive!) time. (updated with photos) (read more »)

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This is going to be interesting. Let’s say my flight starts on day 1. I fly from Yap (in the Federated States of Micronesia) to Guam and arrive a full day after I leave (on day 2, 25.5 hours later in calendar time). I spend the night in Guam, and wake up on day 3. Then, I fly from Guam to Honolulu and lose 2 calendar days, arriving back in time on day 1. After a short layover, I get on a plane to New York from Honolulu, and arrive the next morning, on day 2.

Entering this itinerary into my travel calendar was not easy.

I just booked a ticket to Amsterdam with travel during high season. The ticket was $940 plus taxes. $529 in taxes (!). Total rapeage.

$940 + $529 = $1445

Tax breakdown: $290 security surcharge $117 fuel surcharge $122 other taxes

$290 in security surcharges plus $117 fuel surcharge? Man. Someone is making lots of money on the war, and it isn’t us.

Let the updates begin!

I’ve been fighting with the ultra-slow data pipe from here to server land, but it seems to be OK at night, once everyone is sleeping…