Cheese Cake and Stalkers

Another slow day for whale sightings, at least during my shifts. We had to pods come through totalling 8 whales in 5 hours. It wasn’t so bad though, the weather despite being chillier than usual was pleasant, a slight breeze out of the southeast with sunshine. I managed to get a closeout surf session in before my first shift, before the holiday crowd arrived at the beach (apparently it’s the Queen’s birthday). I counted 40 surfers at Frenchman’s while up on Mt. Olympus. Some of the other volunteers made some Tim Tam, peanut butter, and white chocolate cheese cake for dessert, so I’ll be feeling the pain tonight. Can’t wait to have some more for breakfast.

One of the other Mikes (aka Zeus) went out to the pub tonight to watch the rugby match between Australia and England I think. I opted out because I found out my stalker was going to be there tonight. It’s a long story, but I now have my first stalker in Australia. I met her walking up the stairs from Frenchman’s Beach after the surf, and she’s been popping up everywhere I go on the island since. Apparently she’s from Brisbane, and she is quite crazy. She found out when my shift was and sat below out scaffolding for over an hour waiting for us (me) to come down. This morning after my surf I ran into her again as I was walking back to the house, luckily she still hasn’t discovered where we live, I took a different route so she wouldn’t see. Everyone is finding the situation super hilarious, especially since my nick name has been changed to Bret (since there will be 4 Mikes for the study soon and I look a lot like Bret from Flight of the Concords), and Bret has a groupie named Mil in the TV show.

Since I missed the rugby game, I plan on getting up early tomorrow morning to watch the world cup with my house mates, England vs. the US (there a 3 English in the group and 3 Americans). The coverage here will be 4 in the morning on Sunday, which will make for a long day tomorrow. It should be loud in the house, so I’m sure the Italian will be forced to get up and watch as well. I don’t usually watch games, but I feel it appropriate to support my country (especially when I’m surrounded by all of these Brits).

I also plan to email the project manager of HARC (an acoustic study of humpbacks and their response to vessel noise) and sign up as a volunteer for the project in mid September. It will be for another 6 weeks north of Brisbane near Peregian and Noosa Head (a famous surf break). Since they accept anyone who’s willing to come back from this study, it’s an opportunity that I just can’t pass up. I would be doing a lot of the same stuff, sitting on a hill spotting whales and plotting them with a theodolite. The main difference will be a chance to go out with the tagging boats and tag humpbacks as they migrate south from the Great Barrier Reef. I’ll also get a chance to work with hydrophones that will be deployed off the coast to record the song and social sounds of humpback whales in real time. It will definitely be worth the effort to get back out here.

My plan is to work as much as possible in August, and keep my apartment in Monterey. I still would like to go to grad school at MLML, but that may change depending on the connections I make during the HARC project. I like California and would be happy to study there, but if something comes up in Aussie Land it may be hard to pass up. It’s all up in the air, yet it’s exciting not knowing what will happen next. Right now I’m just focusing on avoiding those damn Drop Bears. I posted a photo of the first batch of volunteers at Brown Lake, 10 more will be arriving next Saturday. From left to right: Emma (English), Me (outer space), Zeus (English), Amy (American), Jane (English), Jessie (American), Lou (Australian), Sabrina (Italian), Kylie (Australian).

By the way, you should watch the Video “beached whale” on Youtube. It’s a cartoon about a beached New Zealander whale, not a flick on an actual beached whale. Very funny.