There is a noisome odor at the outer reaches of the island, on the rocky shores, where the density of gulls have encrusted the rocks in guano. The molting elephant seal is no different – its shed skin and hair remains malodorous for years. But in the fall, the sea lions dog piled outside the electric fence outstink them all.
Painted rocks on the western shore.
Noisome is Merriam-Websters word of the day and I threw in a couple more from
“10 Obscure Words for Bad Odors” – Merriam-Webster (read full version)
- Noisome – very unpleasant or disgusting
- Malodorous – having a bad odor
- Outstink – smell worse than
- Nidor – smell of cooking or burning meat or fat
- Mephitic – offensive to the sense of smell
- Stinkaroo – stinker
- Hircine – resembling a goat in smell
- Alliaceous – smell or taste of garlic or onion
- Kakidrosis – secretion of sweat of a disagreeable odor
- Reekingly – with a reek
This very clever display was created by an Ecoguardian years ago. They are two very large pieces of elephant seal hair and skin stitched to a window screen. It would be great to have it in the house but it still stinks, so it hangs in the Tank Shed.
Facility work
- cleaned the solar panels
- I am almost done cleaning and organizing the Tank Shed – just the back of door and one more wall to wipe. Another immensely satisfying job which took many days to complete.
The Tank Shed houses the large diesel Tidy Tank and fuel drums (for the generator and furnaces), the portable water pump which gets rolled to the Jetty to pump up fresh or salt water, electric fence supplies, the unit for measuring seawater temperature and salinity, the computer for the Davis weather station, and tools, paint, grease etc. 
Map with location of the buildings on Great Race Rock. The Tank Shed is beside the top of the boat ramp.
Vessels
- Ecotourism: 5
- Private: 1
Weather
Fog in the morning, clearing by noon and cloudy in the afternoon. Winds moderate to fresh westerlies increasing to near gale force by late afternoon. Daytime temperatures: low 9, high 11.