Northeast winds predominated from early morning until late afternoon when they switched around to west-southwest. There were only sprinkles of rain, until the switch and once the wind turned, you could see laden clouds scudding across the foothills and pouring in through the Strait. It started raining in earnest, early evening and is blowing 25 knots from the WSW as I write this blog. The barometer bottomed out today at just over 1000 hPa and is now steadily vacillating in that trough.

There were still hardy whale watchers out in spite of the weather and five whale watching boats were noted in the Ecological Reserve during the day. There was a surprising amount of sports fishing activity in the vicinity. Everyone was well behaved in the Reserve.

Steller Sea Lion numbers seem to be on the rise with over 110 individuals hauled out on Middle Rocks with the Elephant Seals and several hundred more on Great Race. Two more of the smaller (two year old) Elephant Seals and a bigger sub-adult scooted up the ramp, under the fence and off to their favourite Great Race haunts. It is surprising how fast they can move doing the wave. Later I watched two of them sparring, in practice for a fighting adulthood.

It is a treat to have the Harlequin Ducks back from their rushing mountain summer streams. They are such thoroughly white-water birds and seem to seek out exciting places to forage.

Other than the regular duties, I spent some time cleaning up the boat today after a wild landing in the northeast waves. There are a couple of improvements that would improve landing safety including auxillary bunks on the trailer. These could act as a tunnel and help centre the boat so that as a wave comes in and lifts the stern, the boat is not pushed off track. More weight would also be good and so would a bailer that is lashed on. Yes it was a good work-out.