Metlakatla's AMHS M/V Lituya Accident

Not even sure where to start, but... My husband is the captain of the A.M.H.S. M/V Lituya that was aground on an island off Metlakatla. What a freak incident! Our winds were so strong that the vessel broke free of its mooring soon after midnight Friday morning (Jan 30th). The Lituya docks overnight daily in Metlakatla and was secured as usual, but the winds were too powerful.

We were awoke by a police officer banging on our front door and I received a text from my brother saying "The ferry is loose in the bay" (12:40 a.m.). As my husband threw on clothing to run out the door with the officer, I let him know I could see the Lituya spinning in the bay from our upstairs window as it was moving swiftly toward the direction of a couple of small islands we call the "Twin Sisters".

As he and others headed out in boats, I noticed it had stopped spinning and knew it found either an island or rocks that are abundant in our bay. The lights went out on the Lituya (batteries exhausted). The weather was nasty for water crafts, but our brave people didn't hesitate to get out there in pairs. One man even tried going out in a small skiff and its engine died causing a slight distraction for what was going on, but he was brought back safely into our breakwater.

My husband went out on one of our police officer's, Roger McKeehan's boat with Royce Hayward's seine boat as back-up to see what it looked like for trying to get onto the ferry. The Lituya was, at that time, brushing up against the rocks of Scrub Island, and the boats came back in for Steven to get on another boat (our Mayor Karl Cook's bow picker with Rich Hudson's gill netter as back up) to attempt to get onto the ferry(2:15 a.m.). The waves were 7 ft+ and as hard as he tried, it was just too rough. Our Mayor reported to me that Steven had actually grabbed onto the deck a couple of times but it was way too dangerous to continue. They came in again to wait for the weather to improve. however, the tide was changing and going out. It had been high tide and chances of getting it safely away were getting slimmer.

The weather improved slightly by 4 a.m. and they went back out in the same two vessels last tried (Mayor's and Hudson's). By what I could see from the window (and binoculars), I could tell Steven was successful at getting aboard the ferry this time, because the Lituya's lights came back on. Daniel Marsden's seine boat headed out as the Lituya's lights came on. From the chromium light of Daniel's seine boat, I could see that the stern of the ferry was definitely on the rocks and the ferry was listing horridly to starboard. I could see the area that they load cars on the starboard side rocking close to the water. The Lituya's lights went out again and the boats came back in. It was pitch black out there so we wouldn't be able to watch how the ferry was doing until daylight. There were other boats, but I wasn't sure whose they were, but thankful for all the people who didn't hesitate to help. The ferry was definitely going aground and the Coast Guard and tugs were called in.

7 a.m. and we could finally see that the ferry was aground and still mostly upright. Steven met the incoming tug at the state dock and they headed out to investigate the vessel to start planning how to get it off the rocks safely. I sat on the state dock to wait and watch and be there if Steven needed anything. They came back in to get my camera (the picture he took of the Lituya above). the town's people kept our ball field (closest open area to view the incident) constantly packed. The schoolchildren came in groups. Thank goodness the weather cooperated.

2 p.m. and a half hour shy of high tide, the two tugs pulled the Lituya from the rocks of Scrub Island. Then divers investigated the Lituya's hull before towing it to Ketchikan. It was in amazingly better condition than it could have been for what it went through.

The policeman who first noticed it missing upon their security check had thought the Lituya broke its bow line, but after looking at the computerized equipment aboard the Lituya, Steven noticed it had broke free from the stern breaking all four cables. A man who worked in a huge warehouse above where the Lituya docks said the roof to their building had torn off in the wind and how wicked the wind gets in that area and very unpredictable.

There really was not much of anything that could have been done to prevent what happened and although it was a horrible accident, I thank God that the Lituya is still afloat and able to be fixed. I have been told that this is not the first time this has happened and definitely not the biggest vessel this has happened to here in Metlakatla. There have been log ships that have broken free from their mooring (from a very near location to the Lituya's dock) and drifted into the same islands or those nearby. My father told me his 92-foot boat did the same thing many years ago, but it had survived then.

I am even more thankful that my husband was safe in all his attempts to board the vessel and for his safety after successfully getting aboard and shutting down things and closing watertight doors. The Lituya safely awaits in Ketchikan for the dry dock.

Thoughts on Chapter One and more

Okay, so I thought the answers were going to pop up all too easy as the answer to question 1 appeared immediately, but... Not so. There were a couple of questions I actually used other internet resources to verify if I was actually understanding it. The book was a little vague to what one question was asking, but having used the internet, it made what was written in the book more clear.
The most interesting part of Chapter One to me would be the the Sagmeister poster "Sagmeister Inc.. on a binge" and not at all because the art was of interest, but that a designer would go to the extreme of gaining 25 pounds for a piece of his work. Wow... Us women would not risk that.
I could also understand the basic definitions of the principles and elements easily as I've done so much art and music growing up. However, understanding is different from remembering and reciting.
It has been a while since I've taken college classes, so it has been interesting getting back in the swing of things.

I was hoping for more color manipulation on this blog site. I typically use black, as a good amount of my wardrobe resembles that of someone in mourning. I will wear black until they invent a darker color. However, I have been vigorously trying to incorporate other colors. Black being the main class blog color led me to use pink. Pink is my favorite color, but I don't believe I wear it well and definitely do not like pink on the walls of my home. I was hoping for more color variation in this blog site. As much as I love pink, the combination I chose to use took a little deliberation as it was a little gaudy and bright, but then I thought... a little fun at that and different. Add a little brown-tone in sepia and title gave it an antique look. Absolutely none of which I would have chose given more options, but I liked the end result.

I also realized that the town I live in is the only place in Alaska that does not change time come daylight savings time. When the time switches this Spring, we shall be back on the same time as Alaska. As for now, we are an hour ahead of all of you. I do not agree with the reasons our community does this and there are so many reasons it should stay with Alaska, but until intelligence strikes someone who can change that, I'll have to remember to coordinate the time for meetings...

Image Resizing and a little more

This is one of my favorite pictures. I took this of my husband, Steven, while we were out trout fishing at a lake on our island. He called it his favorite spot.

So, I chose this one to resize. I used the information on our class blog site to make sure I was doing it right. I went into the "How to resize an image" in the image editing resources area and used the first You Tube tutorial by teachertube.com.

My Photoshop is an older version (Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0), but worked just fine. I was pretty sure, but had to check that Pixels/inch and dpi meant the same thing before applying the 72 pixels/inch. Yahoo! Answers had this comment, "The common display resolution is 72 pixels per inch, or dots per inch." in reply to someone's question about resizing an image. I had used this resize feature before, but to get the exact inches of a picture to fit a frame or scrapbooking, etc...

Getting set up for school for the first time was very crazy and time consuming. I didn't realize there were so many sites and areas for the University of Alaska. After getting into my email, I could see where communication with the Class Instructor was essential. My account was not set to have access to the blackboard, but the Help Desk worked quickly to correct this. Over the course of a few days, I was finally set. What a headache, but glad to be ready. I saved the Class Syllabus and Task and Assignment Timeline to my computer after reading them.

I can say that the delay in starting the class was a small blessing for me, because I must have been one of the last to enter the class and had ordered my book at that time and it arrived the day our instructor announced that "Class Officially Begins" being the same day I was able to access the blackboard.

Whew...

CIOS108 KD1 Orientation Quiz

Orientation Quiz

A. What is something that is going well in your life?
My Marriage. Steven and I have been married for little over a year (June), but together for almost five years now. We've had our ups and downs, but going beautifully. He's my best friend.

B. What are your specific goals for this class?
I had begun working on a degree in Drafting/Graphic Design years ago at another college, but my classes were mostly general ed and the start of drafting. I had wanted to pursue Graphic Arts for a few years. I had always had the knack for art in general and love playing around with the computer and photo apps. I would just like to learn more about Graphic Design.

C. What was your first experience with design, computers and
imaging technology like?
Pretty amateur, but fun. Time consuming, but became an obsession. My experience was mostly with photos. My family is always investigating my digital images, because I've been known to "photo chop" heads of one person to another photo if they were not smiling or the whole person.

D. Do you usually work on a Mac or a PC and why?
PC. I haven't had too much experience on a Mac. My husband buys PCs and that's all I've had in work environments.

E. What is your experience level with any of the other image editing
or vector programs available?
Like I said, pretty amateur, but leave me alone with it long enough and I'll figure it out and accomplish what I'm trying to get out of it.

F. What is something you liked about your day today?
Waking up, looking out the window while it is still dark out, and seeing a seine boat brightly lit going by. Text messaging my friend who is diving onboard that boat to say hi.

G. How do you plan to use what you learn in this class?
I have a book I published pretty amateurly as well. I'd love to apply what I learn to being able to do something like this more professionally.

H. What would make this class go very well for you?
Well, seeing as this is my first distance class of this type, I guess by my emails so far... definitely communication. It has been interesting trying to learn the ins and outs of the UAS systems online.

I. How do you plan to make this class go very well for you?
I hope to stay up on assignments and make the most out of understanding what is being taught. Again... communication.

J. What do you do for creativity on an on‐going basis?
I am always drawing with my kids, decorative painting, photography, scrapbooking, playing with photos on the computer to share with family or to put on internet sites such as Myspace.

K. Who is Milton Glaser? Paul Bass?
Milton Glaser is a graphic designer, best known for the "I love New York" logo, his "Bob Dylan" poster, the "DC bullet" logo used by DC Comics from 1977 to 2005, and the "Brooklyn Brewery" logo. He also founded New York Magazine with Clay Felker in 1968. Wikipedia
I noticed you had a Saul Bass in your blog sample template and a Paul Bass in this question. When I google Paul Bass, I am not getting much results in the search. This little exerpt mentioned both names:
Saul Bass graphic designerAfter apprenticships with Manhatten design films bass worked as a free lance grahpic designer or commercial artist as they were called chafing at the contrast imposed on him in new york he moved to L A in 1946 freelancing for four years and he opened his own studio in 1950 he was mostly working in advertising till Preminger invited him to design a poster for his 1954 movie Carmon Jones he designed commission for two 1955 movies the man with the golden arm established him as as god of film title design the next ten years made his way by creating animated mini movies assisted by his second wife Elaine Bass created brilliant titles for other directors from alley cat to walk on the wild side in 1961 Bass retired from commercial graphic design in 1974 devising successful corperate identities for united airlines minolta bell telephone system and warner communications paul bass was a cinema legend he won three oscars 1958 forged a new collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock by designing a title for" vertigo " works with buff straub and hensman on design of his home

L. Do you own or have access to a color image scanner?
yes I do. HP Photosmart All-in-one

M. What software application will you be using for the course?
I have a few different software for photos and use different ones for different features: HP photosmart premier, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0, and Corel Photo Album 6. I will most likely use the Photoshop.

Seeing Alathka

After a year or so of being on Myspace, I've finally given into the blogging section. My sister-in-law is wonderful about blogging in her's and gave me a little inspiration to start utilizing my own. This endeavor started within this last week. There is not a lot of exciting drama contained within the blog, but for a small Alaskan town... that's a good thing!

My name is Bonna (sounds just like Donna). I live on an island in Southeast Alaska with my husband, Steven, who is a captain for the Alaska Marine Highway, and our children. We own a fishing boat called the "Rylie Alexandra". It is a trolling vessel that is rigged for gill-netting as well. Although this type of fishing is a main source of income for a lot of our locals, for us it is not. My husband is still very serious about fishing, though.

I recently published a book using a few of my many photos (like the one shown here). I love photography! This book started off as something simple and nice for my husband and our youngest boy, Jace Z, but it turned out to be a big hit for our area. Hopefully this book will find a good publishing home to bring it's cost down.