Category Archives: Energy

Update: past week

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On Friday Erik brought out a new wood stove and two guys to install it in the main house. The diesel furnace has turned been off since then and we are plenty warm.  This is a great addition to the island and another positive step Pearson College has taken to reduce its dependance on fossil fuels, reduce the risks of diesel contamination in this sensitive environment and improve financial sustainability of operations.

A group of Pearson College students arrived on Saturday afternoon with Erik on Second Nature to spend their project week at Race Rocks.  They will be helping out with daily tasks, doing some maintenance projects and working on their own creative projects.

On Sunday I picked up Garry and brought him to the island to get a closer look at the pup and to give the students a short marine bio and history tour.

DND blasting occured on March 4th, 5th, and 6th (945, 1030, 1310 big blast, 1350)

Eco tour vessels visited the reserve Feb 27 (x2), 28th, March 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 9th (x2)
Private vessels entered the reserve March 7th, 8th and 9th

Past Week projects and maintenance:

-harvested, cut firewood
-clean and prep for students arrival
-coordinating for project week
-cleaned out oil traps in propane lines of main house
-worked on boat console
-recycling offload to campus
-picked up peat moss and maintenance supplies
-completed month end report and data entry
-2 full propane tanks to island
-assist with wood stove supplies and install

Views from Race Rocks

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On  March   Barry Herring, spent a day with us out on Race Rocks recording some of the views.  Included here is some of his work. Barry is a photographer from Victoria, BC.

barryspanno

Click on this image for a panorama view of the south side of great Race Rocks island. On the left are the solar panels and foghorn operated by the Canadian Coast Guard for the lighthouse. On the left is the energy centre operated by Lester Pearson College . Note solar panels on the roof. This is the centre for the integrated Energy Project which provides energy for the other buildings and the camera servers on Race Rocks

 

barrypanowest

A panorama of the southwest coast.

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The remote-control camera 5 and a view to the west.

We happened to be there on a very calm evening with a great sunset:

barryshousesunset

The former Assistant lightkeeprers residence of the Lightstation is now the science house at Race Rocks. The building can house visiting students and researchers who arrive at Race Rocks.

 

 

Inverter back online

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For most of last week we had steady westerly winds reaching upwards of 40 NMPH. We got a break in the weather on Friday and Saturday some flurries began and the wind shifted back to North East and cold. It has been upwards of 20 NMPH NE today and the past two days. Today it is sunny for a change.

On Tuesday February 18 there were three heavy blasts that appeared to come from behind Christopher Point, not the usual blasting location.

On Friday Feb 21st Erik brought a group out to Race Rocks that include Ric the electrician and his apprentice. The inverter which had been repaired in Vancouver had shipped overnight and arrived on campus just in time to make it out here. We were able to re-install and test run the inverter, replace a broken solar pane- using adapter cables-on the roof of the engine room  and repair a failed light circuit in the assist house. Jonathan also came out and replaced the switch in the assist house and did some troubleshooting of the internet system. He also brought out a replacement conduit access box for Camera 5.  Five other guests from the college also came to visit for a total of 9 visitors including Erik. Erik returned in the afternoon with a group of student divers from the college; they dove near the jetty and brought the electrician and company back to campus. I picked up 3 guests form Pedder Bay and brought them for an overnight visit.

On Saturday, in the morning I counted over 200 Pigeon Guillemots along the shore of race rocks.  I have seen and heard them a few times this year but this was by far the most i have seen. There were at least 3 eco tour vessels in the reserve, there have not been many lately.  I went off island for a few hours in the afternoon.

-fixing running light wiring in boat
-finished building and painting box for GPS console on boat
-coordinating with DFO for tagging elephant seal
-measurements for adapter cables for replacement solar panel
-coordinating with electrician, assisting with gear, installation, etc
-communications about wood stove
-moving back into main house/clean up
-cleaning up jetty more frequently due to NE wind

week in review

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I have missed a few days of logs; I was off the island Jan 22-26th. The day after I returned a inverter quit and we lost power to the main house, the internet connection was also interrupted a few days… we are now mostly moved in to the other house and are running ok with only 2 inverters on the island. Planning on having the bad inverter removed on Monday and shipped to Vancouver for servicing. We can still get power there by flipping transfer switch load 1 to “generator” while the generator is running

The weather has been very nice the last two days, sunny and relatively light wind. This house has more south facing exposure and is a bit smaller, it really warms up on a sunny day. We had quite a bit of rain earlier in the week and several days of patchy fog last weekend and early this week. Wind only got up to around 30 knots one evening mid-week.

The pup has really put on weight and is quite the squawker, often right outside the bedroom window… in the middle of the night. Chunk and Bertha are mating. He is quite persistent and she seems quite resistant but she wont leave her pup alone yet. This morning there was blood around her bad eye and it was swollen.

There has been ongoing blasting at Rocky Point this week, every day up to the weekend. One time several blasts were in short succession, sometimes there were flares too. The photo below was taken after one very heavy blast, the sealions all had their heads up right after and seemed alarmed.

heads up sealions-7339
Traffic in reserve:
Sunday Jan 26: I returned in the afternoon on the station whaler.
Monday Jan 27: 1 private, 1 ecotour, helicopter overhead, several navy ships doing exercises nearby in the straight.
Saturday Feb 1: 1 diveboat, 3 ecotour.

Work:
-troubleshooting inverter
-troubleshooting internet
-moving supplies over to other house, switching fridges, etc
-communicating with inverter repair person in vancovuer
-communicating with electrician for inverter removal
-removed 25 ft of 2″ clogged drain pipe from main house, cleaned pipes with rain water
-got crate for 2′ long inverter
-started month end inventory/report
-cut, chopped, stacked fire wood
-cleaned panels as needed
-picked up pipe and hardware for replacing sink drain pipe
-topping up batteries
-picked up parts for repairs on station whaler

Westerly

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Over the past 5 days we have had strong westerly winds reaching over 40 NMPH most days (in the evening) and over 50
NMPH on Saturday evening. There have been heavy swells as a result. Because of bad weather/low light I am having to run the generator longer most days, around 3 hours to charge batteries, than usual.

Chunk has mostly remained on main island with Bertha who continues to resist his advances. We are approaching the date when she gave birth two years ago. I have not been able to see the pup on middle rock for several days. The weather has made it harder to get a view over there.

On Thursday the 9th, 12 bald eagles were observed in the reserve. Still havent been able to get banding info on black oyster catchers.

Wednesday, Jan 8th: 1 charter fishing boat toured through reserve, 1 CG helicopter flew over.
Monday, Jan 13th: 1 CG helicopter flew over.

-securing things from wind
-following up on woodstove
-following up on furnace servicing
-cleaning solar panels
-fire wood cutting when weather permits

Change of Guardian, Snow

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I got a ride out to Race Rocks today with Erik to start my winter shift.  Pedder Bay was covered in ice up to around the college’s main docks.  Courtney updated me on operating procedures and returned with Erik. There was supposed to be a chimney cleaner coming too but it has been snowing since this morning and it was too slippery.

Chunk was in the water by the jetty when we arrived and came up the ramp. He is so big that i thought it was the alpha male, Misery, at first. The scars, from getting chewed up by Misery, are visible on his back.

The snow stopped before sunset so I cleaned off the solar panels. The tilted panels were partly clear whereas the horizontal panels had accumulated about an inch of snow.

DND testing

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Sunny and calm all day. Wind picked up to 25 kts this evening. Small swell still running.
Sunny enough that I didn’t need to run the generator  to top up the battery bank.

Tour boats: 4

DND testing:
0935 2 blasts; sea lions were startled and cleared out off the North-East flats
1120 1 blast
1125 1 blast
1350 1 big loud bang

12 elephant seals. They were all playing in the surge on the boat ramp in the morning. They came back ashore in the afternoon and piled up behind the boat shed.

-fixed sea lion fence in the morning
-cleaned solar panels
-found missing hardware and hung boat shed doors
-finished cleaning the rainwater tank

September 8/13

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Morning Weather: winds West 6kts,  seas Rppl,  Fog all around
Chris off station between 1100-1730hrs

marine traffic: eco-tour boats: 3

marina mammal count: west rock: 4 sealions , 3 seals, middle rocks: 142 sealions, 52 seals, north rock: 42 seals, Great Race Rocks (including east islets): 350 sealions, 65 seals

solar panels cleaned.

Shit Happens…

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Glaucous-winged-gull

Injured Glaucous-winged-gull near the jetty

Yesterday evening as I went out to collect the water sample I interrupted a couple of harbour seals feeding on a glaucous-winged-gull. Harbour seals feed on fish more commonly although they do sometimes feed on gulls. The seals, upon seeing me, fled leaving the injured gull in the water. It clumsily exited onto shore but was tripping over its dragging wing. I shooed it back to the water in hopes the seals would return. When they did not and I went out a second time to find the gull wandering aimlessly in the rocky intertidal zone. Meanwhile, the seals had returned to the jetty area and were feasting on a fish. In situations like these we have to make a judgement call and the gull seemed to be needlessly suffering. The chance of it being eaten by the seals was very unlikely since they had found other food and an eagle coming to finish the deed was also unlikely because it was late in the evening and their visits are generally midday. It didn’t seem right to let it suffer through the night so I put it out of its misery.

The solar panels within less than 24h of cleaning

The solar panels within less than 24h of cleaning

In other gull news, an ongoing project we’ve been working on is tilting the solar panels. Angling the panels allows more direct sunlight but more substantially, discourages the gulls from using them as resting spots. Gull droppings can have a large effect on energy intake of the solar panels. Sounds unreasonable? Here’s a picture of the panels after just one day since being cleaned.

On another note, more stellar sea lions have accumulated on the southern rocks. The count has reached over 30.

Stellars on south Race Rocks

Stellars on south Race Rocks

Human Presence on the Reserve

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Diesel fill up with e-seal_

This past week, we delivered over 4000L of diesel to the island. Even though Race Rocks tries to source its energy from more sustainable practices like our solar panels, often they’re not sufficient to completely power the island. During the dark cloudy days we see so often in winter we rely on our diesel powered generator. Erik Shauff collects thousands of litres of diesel per load in a large metal container from Pedder Bay Marina and delivers it to the reserve by boat. Then we use an electric pump and hose system to transfer the diesel across the island into its holding tank. Pictured above is Misery supervising the process. Erik surveys the yellow diesel tank in the background.

Pod heading east

We also had a whale sighting in the past week. A pod of orcas (with at least one calf) passed through the south side of the reserve on Friday. As always, orcas attract alot of boat traffic. I noticed a cluster of whale watching vessels before the orcas. When the pod moved towards the reserve the whale watchers didn’t follow but instead kept their distance and motored ahead to the next point they calculated the pod to be.

Orcas and boaters on the south side of Great Race Rocks

Orcas and boaters on the south side of the island

 

One private boat-owner, however, chased the whales right through the reserve.

 

 

 

Caught on Underwater Camera 2 by Adam Harding

Caught on Underwater Camera 2 by Adam Harding

 

On one of the trips for diesel, Erik also brought his dive gear to clean the Underwater Camera 2.