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It's about time I finally got another 360 Panorama processed and uploaded. These photos are really special because they give you an immersive experience from all directions: up, down, and all around at very high resolution. One of these days, probably while we are in New Zealand, I will upload the dozens of other 360 shots taken since the beginning of the trip. Usually I take at least two 360s at most islands we visit (weather and time permitting). The issues holding me back have been the amount of time it takes to process these huge photos (often 2-3 hours), and the quality of Internet connectivity - which makes it very difficult to upload the minimum of 5-8 megabytes of each resulting photo file.

This photo was taken during the bike tour around Bora Bora. We were on the side of the road on a hill at the northernmost corner on a bay across from the most beautiful mountaintop. If you zoom in, you can see the beautiful lagoon waters to the north. You can also see the the nearby trees on the side of the road, our electric bikes, and the road disappearing over the hill and below us. Use the "+" and "-" zoom buttons, or "SHIFT" and "CTRL" keys on your keyboard, to zoom. I highly recommend clicking on the full screen mode to get the maximum effect.

Bora Bora North Side in Bora Bora

To take these panoramas, I take 6 portrait photos at 60 degree intervals on a special tripod mount (made by Nodal Ninja) using a fisheye lens. The photos are taken in RAW mode using a manual setting at a slightly underexposed setting for the conditions. After the initial circle of shots I take a straight up (sky) shot, then a straight down (ground) shot. I use a software tool called SilkyPix to remove chromatic abberation from the fisheye lens and to adjust the exposure. This results in 45 megabyte TIF files. Then I use PTGui Pro to stitch the photos into a seamless (hopefully) 360 spherical projection photo converted into a JPG format. After further compression, I get the file down to about 5-8 megabytes.

The photos are uploaded to 360Cities.net which provides a way to geotag the photo, add information about the photo, hosting of the file, and tools for viewing the photos. They also have a layer in Google Earth which allows people anywhere in the world to see your panorama when they turn on the "360Cities" layer found under the "Gallery" layer folder.

I've managed to process two more panoramas over the last couple of days. The amazing lagoon shot above was taken in Huahine, a beautiful leeward island in French Polynesia. We were doing a tour of the island and they stopped at this fantastic overlook off the main road around the island. The water colors were absolutely stunning! I took a full 360 panorama of this location, but have had difficulties getting it to fully process. Since most of the view was on one side, I processed just the lagoon view side. If you click on the image above, you can view a much larger view. Also, check out the full story about the tour along with many more photos of Huahine.

Next, I've processed a 360 panorama we took in Tikehau (see below). We were at the anchorage close to the pass into the lagoon. The day the photo was taken we had almost no wind. The water was so smooth it was acting like a mirror. In places where there was no land on the horizon, we couldn't tell the different between the water and the sky. Near us, you can see houses on the motus (islands). These people are fishermen who live close to the pass where they have quick access to fish outside the atoll. Beautiful place! (See more photos from Tikehau). Make sure you click on the "Play" button to load the 360 view and use the mouse or arrow keys to move your view around.

Tikehau pass anchorage on a very calm day in French Polynesia

If you look closely, you will see stitching problems with the photo above. It's hard to get a perfect stitching when the several photos are taken from a boat. Even if the water is close to still, the boat still moves a little between the shots.

I have been trying to get a huge backlog of 360 panoramas I've been taking in French Polynesia processed. I finally got one to process smoothly and, even harder, to get it to upload off the horribly slow Internet connections here. The following panorama was taken while Gerard and Patti were visiting with us in Moorea. We went ashore to the park off the Opunohu Bay anchorage. Patti is setting on the sand and under the coconut trees near where our dinghy Coconut was parked on the beach. Tahina was at anchor to the north about 200 meters away. Click on the "Play" button and move the mouse or arrow keys to turn your view in any direction (including up and down):

I take the 360 panoramas using a fish-eye lens and a tripod. I take about 8 photos (6 around, 1 up, and 1 down) to get a full 360 spherical view. Then I use software to process the photos and stitch them together into the spherical projection.

We are still in Tahiti in the final stages of getting things ready to move west towards Bora Bora. We have to clear out of French Polynesia by August 11. Karen will hopefully get back from the US before we leave.

On the last day before we left Manihi, the weather was perfect at last to take aerial photos. I'm taking aerial photos of some of the places we visit and our partner Google is putting them into Google Earth (see this example). I wanted to attempt to photograph the Manihi pass and part of the village. It turned out to be difficult to get the pass due to the wind direction, and the tightly packed streets of the village east of the pass. Instead, we walked up the street on the edge of the village from the pass working our way east of the marina they are building. This gave us a strip of photos from above of the northern edge of the village.

The best part of this photo shoot was the opportunity it gave us to meet people in the village. We started by parking our dinghy near Fernando's house. Fernando is the guy who helps sailors visiting the island have a really unique experience in Manihi. He is also the leader of the Mormon church at the island, and runs his own pearl farm. Fernando is a great guy and genuinely wants all sailors to have a great visit to Manihi. He let us set up our gear on a table outside his house and even made us some snacks and drinks as we described our plan.

As soon as we set up the kite, people - especially the kids - started walking up to ask what we were doing. Even though we didn't speak their language very well, they soon grasped the concept. The kids all wanted their photo taken, and were particularly excited when I asked them to help pull the string when we were retrieving the kite after our flights. We had to watch out for telephone poles and trees, and I was trying to get some oblique photos of the area in addition to the straight down shots which will be put into Google Earth later. We explained this to some of the locals and they even asked what web page to watch - so I gave them our boat card with the URL for Tahina Expedition. Everyone was smiling and laughing at this crazy way of taking photos.

Here are some photos from the kite aerial shooting - including some of the kids, and pictures showing the village and surrounding area from the kite.

Unfortunately, each new island we have visited in French Polynesia has set a standard for poorest service. Here in Manihi there are actually three competing hotspots. All of them charge very high rates. And, they charge by the hour! In the Marquesas it would take us hours sometimes just to load web pages. I'm not exaggerating!

Yesterday we went to a lot of trouble to pull up anchor and move to the other side of the island where two of the three WIFI spots were available. We couldn't connect at all in the other anchorage - it wasn't near the hotspots. After the move, we logged in and at first it was at least loading a web page or two (still incredibly slow). So, we got up in the middle of the night hoping for better performance. Instead, it doesn't work at all (WIFI connection, but no pages loading - not even the login page).

Needless to say, we have no idea when we'll have a connection good enough to upload photos. Thankfully I can at least use the HF radio to send basic E-mails and can get simple blog posts and tweets out (@GoTahina).

I have a lot of catching up to do with photography from the Marquesas. The lack of speedy Internet is really slowing us down. It took me several hours to get the first 360 panorama processed and uploaded over the terrible Internet connection here in Nuku Hiva. Making that even more painful is the $5 per hour charge for the Internet here (unless you buy in bulk - where it is "only" $2 per hour). We are planning to leave today for the Tuamotus. It will be a 3 day trip (at least) with light winds for 500 nautical miles.

Anyway, for today's post I'm excited to share the first 360 panorama of Hiva Oa. This one shows the main town of Hiva Oa called Atuona. We were walking on the road back to the anchorage and stopped next to a restaurant and curios shop which overlooks the beach park. The views in Atuona are amazing with a huge cloud-enshrouded peak, tropical vegetation in the valley, the beach, and views along the island out to sea and other islands of the Marquesas. They are having a drought at the moment and some of the vegetation is brown around the mountain. Check out all the detail by clicking on the play button (choose "full screen" for a better experience and zoom in to see all the details!):

Near the beach of Atuona, Hiva Oa, French Polynesia in French Polynesia

I use a fish-eye lens and a tripod to take these photos. I have a special tripod mount for the camera from Nodal Ninja which helps me take 6 shots at 60 degree intervals, and I take a shot straight up and straight down to complete the full spherical view of that location. Software from PTGui helps stitch together the images and remove some of the artifacts that don't belong (like the tripod and me in the original photos).

[Warning: this is a long entry, but lots of interesting little stories.] Our earlier posts didn't cover some important highlights while we were still in Taahuku Bay near Atuona in Hiva Oa. And, we have some cool things to share about Hanaiapa as well. So, this post will try to give more details on our stay in Hiva Oa. As soon as I can get a reliable Internet connection, I will upload a photo album which will give you a more colorful perspective on these experiences.

One problem we had during the big passage to the Marquesas was that the new tricolor light I had fixed back in Aruba stopped working. We suspected the bulb may have shaken loose, because the anchor light was still working. So, on Tuesday (May 11) Jason took me up the mast and I brought it down. The LED bulb is large and heavy and the bulb recepticle had a flimsy base which had broken off from one of the two screws, then one of the two wires broke off. I managed to re-seat the recepticle with a file so it fit more tightly and then screwed the unit in with washers to improve the fit. But, I'm not 100% confident it will last a long time. The recepticle is just too flimsy. We re-installed it the next morning, and it all worked.

The title to this post is probably not what you think. We do use the Internet to plan our routes. I have been using Google Earth for years to view the places we want to go, and collect information about the unique sights available. And, we use information from other sailor's blogs about their routes. But, I woke up yesterday with another form of Internet Routing on my mind.

When we first arrived to Hiva Oa, we confirmed that they now have WIFI internet access in the anchorage at Taahuku Bay. There are actually two Internet providers who have WIFI in several islands throughout French Polynesia. We aren't entirely happy about this though because they are charging very high prices based on an hourly rate. Nearly $6 per hour unless you buy in bulk. If you buy 100 hours they "only" charge $2 per hour (i.e. $200). The real pain is that the connection, in Hiva Oa at least, was very slow - so it takes you 5-10 times longer to do anything. So, that really increases the rate (and wastes our valuable time). They should just charge a monthly rate instead - unless they get a faster connection going.

We had been planning our route to Tahiti and on Wednesday night we had decided we would just go to Ua Pou - a very secluded beautiful island west of Hiva Oa. Then we would make the several day passage to the Tuoamotu atolls. We intended to go to several of the more remote atolls for the next three weeks. The plan was to get up early to make the all day passage to Ua Pou.

On Thursday morning I got up very early to rush and get several Internet tasks done. I got to thinking about how difficult it is to catch up on blogging, uploading photos, and communicating with friends when we go long periods without Internet. We were facing possibly several weeks without Internet. Then I thought about the map of WIFI locations the providers cover in French Polynesia. Suddenly it occurred to me that although some of these islands have more population and are less secluded, they are still really beautiful destinations in their own right. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to visit Nuku Hiva (the main administrative island of the Marquesas), and at the same time be able to have access to (expensive) Internet! And, we could go to a couple of the really secluded atolls in the Tuamotus, but also visit one or two of the ones which have Internet there!

It's kind of funny thinking about making your travel route in the remote Pacific islands based on the availability of Internet access. But, the Internet is a very important means of communication.

So, we decided to go to a remote anchorage on the other side of Hiva Oa - called Hanaiapa Bay - and then go to Nuku Hiva the next day. If we have time, we can still visit Ua Pou on our way south (it's kind of on the way) towards the Tuamotus.

A funny thing happened because of our change in plans. We motored around Hiva Oa to Hanaiapa Bay on Thursday, and we arrived to find our friends on the boat "A Small Nest" in the anchorage! We had no idea they would be here. Unfortunatley, they were just getting ready to depart, and were only able to visit with us for a couple of hours. They're going to Nuku Hiva next though, so we'll see them there.

Back in March we were visiting the beautiful San Blas islands off the coast of Panama. The San Blas are an archipelago of several hundred small islands which are managed by the Kuna Indians who live there. They are also a delightful place to visit by sailboat. You can read many blog posts about our visit there starting here.

While we were visiting these beautiful tropical islands, I was determined to take kite aerial photos of at least one island. I chose a popular island with the sailors called BBQ Island - because on Mondays they have a BBQ or pot-luck get together in the evenings. Our friend David Tryse came with me to help me with the kite. I have a special rig that hangs from the kite string below the kite to hold the camera. There is also a remote control that lets me control the orientation of the camera.

My primary objective is to take straight-down photos just like you see in Google Earth. For several years, I've run the Google Earth Blog - so I have a lot of experience with the program. Before we left on our sailing adventures, I made arrangements to provide Google with aerial photography using the kite so they could put the imagery in Google Earth. So, after taking the photos, they are processed and made part of the base imagery you see in Google Earth.

You can see how the kite aerial imagery for BBQ island was taken in this slideshow of photos. As you can see, it was not a simple prospect because we had to keep the string from getting tangled in the palm trees. I had to get way out in the water to get the kite over the island. We even used the dinghy to take the end of the string out further to get the whole island.

It turns out Google had no high-resolution imagery for the San Blas. So, when you look at most of the islands all you see is a blurry area with no details. But, now (Google just released the imagery in Google Earth last week) when you zoom into the location of BBQ Island (lat/lon: 9.591, -78.67), you see this little dot of high resolution imagery. As you zoom in close you can suddenly see ultra-high resolution detail including palm trees, our little dinghy, and even coconuts on the ground! Check it out right here:

In addition to the help from David, I'd like to thank Stewart Long who did a lot of work to stitch together and process the photos before they were delivered to Google. Stewart is now involved with Grass Roots Mapping, which is documenting the big oil spill with balloon and kite photography. You can see another example of kite aerial photos taken by the Tahina Expedition of Petite Tabac.

Lastly, and most importantly, I would like to thank Google for supporting our efforts to bring interesting high resolution aerial imagery into Google Earth and sharing it with the world!

We managed to grab some Internet at a hotel in Santa Cruz an I'm quickly publishing a few 360 panoramas I've taken here in the Galapagos.

First we have a shot from an observation deck in the mountains on San Cristobal showing the northern rugged coastline of the island, and you can see the famous Leon Dormido (or Kickers Rocks) which is popular as a dive site where you can see hammerhead sharks. I like how you can see the old suspension frame for the deck canopy when you look up. Check it out by clicking on the "play" arrow and moving the view with your mouse:

Observation Deck San Cristobal in the Galapagos in Galapagos Islands

Next we have a shot at the edge of the second largest volcano crater in the world called Sierra Negra on Isla Isabela. The volcano crater edge is covered in green vegetation now, but you see evidence of the huge output of this volcano everywhere on Isla Isabela. The town of Puerto Villamil is built on top of lava flows. If you turn around in this 360 panorama you can see a hiker going by on the path smiling. The views along this walk were spectacular!

Sierra Negra Crater on Isla Isabela in the Galapagos in Galapagos Islands

And finally we have this awesome shot from the NE side of the volcano mountain of Sierra Negra. We were in this area of red lava rock that some of us thought looked like Mars. Here we saw our first view of part of the northern coastline of Isla Isabela and the view was really fantastic on this partly cloudy day. Make sure you zoom in so you can see more details like the hikers further down the trail.

Rocky view from side of Sierra Negra volcano in the Galapagos in Galapagos Islands