Monthly Archives: September 2024

Busy day

Posted on by

Friday September 6 – Day 2

Today was another day of Visitors. Early in the morning, Greg dropped off a couple contractors to work on the windows in the Student Housing. We did our first clean of the solar panels. SO MUCH SEAGULL POOP.

Greg came back with all the materials to fortify the fencing that is supposed to keep the Sea Lions away from the Lighthouse infrastructure. I can confidently tell you that this fortification is needed.

At least 6 Humpback Whales feeding all day off the South and South West sides of the island. Greg swears he saw a full breach.. though we didn’t, and there are no photos soooooo……

  • Water Sample
  • Washed Solar Panels
  • Intro to rock drilling

Whale Watching Vessels: 15

Private Vessels: 3

Weather: Hot and Sunny, Calm and Glassy, <5knts

** So sunny we didn’t have to run the Generator all day

September Eco-Guardians are Here

Posted on by

Neha And Scott

Thursday, September 5 – Day 1

Hey! We are Scott and Neha, the next Eco-Guardians for the month of September.

Bit of a whirlwind first day, we got paid a visit by the Canadian Coast Guard who were here to check out the foghorn that has been having some issues. They also sent an engineer to check out the lighthouse and dock crane. Had a nice cup of coffee with a couple of the guys, learning about different ways people work on our amazing coast!

We spent the rest of the day getting accustomed to the house and grounds and we are slowly introducing ourselves to the 800 + Sea Lions we are currently sharing the rock with. We ended the day watching the sunset on the top of the tower, joined by a couple of feeding humpback whales in the strait.

  • Water Sample
  • Ran Generator
  • Chopped Wood

Whale Watching Vessels: 11

Weather: Hot and Sunny, Calm and Glassy, <5knts

James Logs from August 25th to September 3rd

Posted on by

Greetings, I’m James Tuohy. I’m here at the Race Rocks Reserve as a Relief Eco-Guardian for 2 weeks with my 16 year old daughter Annie. We were also here in August 2017 for 10 days. Prior to that, I did 3 or 4 relief tours here in the mid 1990’s. I was here in the mid 1990s. I was here on April 01/97 when the light station become “automated” after 137 years of faithful manning.

Sunday Aug 25th

  • Afternoon fog – No Fog horn during fog event
  • Ran the Generator
  • Cleaned the main building
  • Did animal census late afternoon

Weather: Cloudy with Breeze, Afternoon Fog to 1/8 mile

Monday, August 26th

Foghorn was again not sounding during quite a heavy fog. It did, however; pipe up during the evening. Narrowly missed a gull in flight while walking down to the engine room in the dark.

  • Ran generator
  • Water sample
  • Cleaned solar panels in rain

Weather: Cloudy with light rain and wind. 1km of visibility.

Tuesday, August 27 

Saw a mild Aurora Borealis just after midnight. Beautiful starry night.

  • Water sample
  • Washed windows of house
  • Able to run entirely on solar
  • Big clean up day of house and battery room

Weather:  Partly cloudy, W 25

Wednesday, August 28 

Half way through our short stint! Beautiful day with calm seas. Dealing with a broken refrigerator was the event of the day. Lots of whale activity caused an increase in tourism boats

  • Ran station on solar only
  • Cleaned the lens of the NW camera
  • Cleaned solar panels
  • Water sample

Weather: Partly Cloudy, Wind SE 08, Fine Wx

Thursday, August 29

There was a bull orca in the vicinity of the island today exhibiting lots of behaviour. Breaches, spy hopping, tail slapping etc. Lots of boats the see the action. Lovely sunset over Beechy Head, perfect weather.

  • Engine room maintenance with Coordinator Greg
  • Food management after fridge incident
  • Water sample
  • Cleaned solar panels

Weather: Partly Cloudy, Wind SE 07, Fine Wx

Friday, August 30 

Perfect weather today. Two humpbacks were in the area spouting and showing tail flukes. Unfortunately, also saw a Stellar sealion that had eaten some salmon fishing gear.

  • Water sample
  • Cleaned solar panels

Weather: Partly Cloudy, Wind SE 07, Fine Wx

Saturday, August 31

New fridge arrived today. No sign of sealion that was caught up in fishing gear, hopefully they were able to spit it out.

  • Ran generator
  • Cleaned solar panels in the evening
  • Water sample

Weather: Partly Cloudy, Wind SE 07, Fine Wx

Sunday, September 1

There were three humpback whales displaying lots of activity off the South end of the island. A couple of kayakers did a lap of the reserve. Three Biggs orcas right off the jetty. Bull, cow, and calf heading west. Did some updating of the safety marking around the island. Foghorn sounded for half an hour around 6pm. Weekly census was done today. Sealion population increased by 350!

  • Water sample
  • Cleaned solar panel

Weather: Cloudy, Wind to 20 knots W

Monday, September 2 

3 Humpbacks feeding ½ mile to the south. Started to tidy house and pack for departure. Went over food inventory with upcoming guardian!

Weather: Cloudy, SE 8 AM, Swings to W 18

Tuesday, September 3

Socked in with fog in AM. No Horn, We left at 13:30 … Bye for now!

  • Washed solar panels

Weather: AM Fog, SW o7