iNaturalist

 iNaturalist is an app for identifying and keeping track of the living things you have encountered. Viking evidently has decided this is the app they will promote on all of its expedition trips. This is one of the apps I have explored because I thought apps of this type have potential value for students and classroom assignments (e.g., identify and capture images of the trees in your neighborhood). 

We attended a session preparing any interested passengers in the use of the app. Imagine a group of older, novice iPhone users and you can possibly imagine what it must be like to try to explain any unfamiliar app. Mixed in were a few of us interested in citizen science and how the AI in this specific app recognized specimens. I try not to be obnoxious, but I had not spent a lot of time with iNaturalist and I was interested in how it compared with other similar apps (e.g., PlantSnap). There is a specific feature that differentiates a first try at identification (the AI first does the best it can) from considering a sighting verified and I was interested how the verification process works. Did an expert go through and mark the images as verified that seemed highly probable? It turns out that the process is probably best described as crowd-sourced with different individuals entering opinions of the identity of public images and the app then making a decision when the overall inputs reach some criterion.

Someone in the group asked about use of the data and wondered if the observations could be filtered in different ways. For example, observation dates could be useful in tracking migration patterns. I know this is how Journey North works. Because the presenter was emphasizing bird identification, I was going to ask if she was familiar with Bird Buddy because it was a citizen science project that relied on photos and identifications collected from bird feeders, but I decided that would get the group off topic.

The presenter went on to describe the group feature of the app which allows participants in a group to submit images. Viking cruises has a group account collecting images from anyone on a Vikings cruise. Some images were from areas around the Great Lakes where we have camped. Anyway, the presenter wanted to demonstrate how you add a photo to this group collection and for some reason, possibly my good looks, she took a photo of me and submitted to the world wide group as an example of a human. I wish she would have given me more warning and I found have stopped slouching in my chair. Anyway, I now appear to be the only example of a human submitted by any member of the Viking group. I am still there today, but I have yet to be verified.

Toy Room

 We are still on the open sea heading South and we have kept busy by attending various educational programs and looking at the equipment to be made available later in our trip. Today we visited the Toy Room to see the equipment available for excursions. Very impressive devices.

Zodiacs

Most folks are probably familiar with the Zodiac from military special forces movies. We will use them as well to get from the ship to shore. Maybe some whale watching. The only issue I can see is getting in and out. 

Special Operations Boats

Special Operations Boats are another type of boat used by the military, but useful in other operations as well. The boats can be modified easily by removing seats to free up space for other equipment or for hauling whatever. These craft are larger and faster for moving small groups of people around more quickly.

Submarine

There are two submarines that can be launched from the ship. Each carries 5 people and a captain. Cindy is on the list if other people chicken out. I hope she gets a chance. Not me. The quarters are cramped and getting and in and out would be a challenge. Plus, I am not much of a thrill seeker. They did say they carry four days supply of food, water, and air in case they get stuck on the bottom. No bathroom.  

Subtender and kayaks

The tender takes people to and from the sub. Each dive is 45 minutes.

One hand for the ship

 

There are always interesting things you pick up when functioning in a new environment. A quick review of what I learned for the morning.

1. One hand for the ship

The wave action is very subdued to this point, but walking with the floor moving beneath you is always a bit of a challenge. The expression used anytime on a boat is "One hand for yourself and one hand for the ship". Personalization is always important for retention so I have translated this advice as "One hand for the latte and one hand for the ship". No walking about with a latte and a croissant. 

2. Diesel and electric for any motors stored aboard

We toured the "toy room" this morning. It contains all of the boats used for excursions. I will generate a post with some photos at a later point. The motors are huge, but not with as much horsepower you would expect for the size. The motors are all diesel because of the dangers of having gasoline within a closed space.

3. Sailor's grip

Getting in and out of boats onto other boats can be a bit tricky when everything is bouncing about. For security sake, we were taught to use a sailors' grip. The point as I understand it is that if one hand slips, the other hand still has something to hold onto. We will have to see how it goes for me trying to hop from boat to boat.

The sixth continent (Antartica is close, but I don't need to visit them all))

 We are on another adventure. This time to explore the very south of South America. Most people would recognize Patagonia if for no other reason than the clothing brand and Patagonia is considered part of this trip.

I hate long plane flights and it is a long way from Minneapolis to Santiago, Chile. I just cannot sleep on planes and that makes these long flights (8+hours from Atlanta to Santiago) challenging. This has always been the case, but I made it again and now need a day or so to recoup. We are traveling on a smaller expedition ship that follows the coast and after a couple of days at sea they will start sending us ashore for excursions.

WIFI could be a challenge because the boat must rely on a satellite link and we must share. I like to include photos in my posts so we will have to see when I attempt to upload this first post.

Coming into Santiago. 

Once through customs we got on a bus and drove to the seaport of Valparaiso. We are on a Viking ship and they are very nice. I will have to get a photo of the ship when we take one of the side trips and I can get the entire ship in a photo without obstructions.

We have been waiting for the other people to make their way to the ship and will; leave at about 9 this evening. I will be sleeping by them. 

Coffee Shops

 We made a daily trip to a coffee shop. Often this was the only access we had to wifi so it was the way I uploaded my blog posts. One was outside, but there were benches and great wifi so I posted from there. Food often was ordered in addition to coffee and we took advantage of local specialties. All visits were in Michigan.

Hancock

Calumet

Houghton

Copper Harbor

Wakefield

These are pasties. Like smoked fish, we also make sure we have them at least once.