Monday was a busy day for vessels: 12 whale watchers and in the Juan de Fuca Strait ships were in a raw in the 2 directions …a lot to see by the windows. We also had 2 visitors from the college Courtney and Bobby (a volunteer). They brought on the Rock 3 propane tanks and 3 barrels of 200 liters each, for the oil transfer (1100 liters has to be transferred to the new tank and to the house tanks)
Category Archives: Facility work
Last Large Oil tank Decommissioned
Thursday 25th
The wind was light, the currents mild, no difference between low and high tide. Maybe it explains why the seawater was so warm compared to a week before 12.4
The visibility too was amazingly good .We could see the American coast so clearly and so far around 20 miles away. We can consider that day as the first real summer day in Race rocks: no wind or so little 4knots a joke, north direction, a mirror as a sea. At 5:30 the forecast was an increase to 20 knots around noon in fact we got it at 5pm in the afternoon.
It was a big day in Race Rocks. I would say an historic one because the big diesel tank has been disconnected (8000l) for a small one (450l). And all this made possible because of the efficient power of the sun .2 plumbers spent the day on the rock. At the end they double-checked to be sure that there were no more air bubbles and put under pressure the pipes…so now the big tank is ready to be hauled ashore …but this is another story…The 2 guys were so happy with their unusual day: splashes on the open boat and a trip at lunch time to the top of the tower. But everything took an end…and alone we were again and it was our turn to climb the 91 stairs and to enjoy this beautiful scenery.
Speaking about boats around the protected area: around 8pm we were surprised to see a zodiac with divers …and they were busy taking back aboard 2 of them? Other sightseeing: a submarine vessel from Esquimalt with a white smoke in the wake.
The water sampling confirmed a pretty high water temperature 11.8 Celsius
May 26
It was another steady, west by southwest day, blowing 15 to 20 knots, from morning to night and clearing out the clouds for a glorious afternoon and evening. There was just enough marine haze on the horizon to make a great sunset. This morning barometer gradually rose to 1016 hPA and then started a slow decline after noon ending up at 1014hPA just before 8:00 PM. The forecast is calling for strong westerlies to continue with a mix of sun and cloud.
Only four whale watching boats were observed in the Ecological Reserve today and everyone was on their best behaviour.
Ecological happenings were subtle today. More sealions are hauling out on Great Race including a few very chunky Stellers bulls. The California Sealions seem to putting the call out for others within hearing range to come and bark in concert. There are more birds mating wherever you look, the Canada Geese goslings are growing incredibly fast and the bull kelp is now forming a broad canopy even on the high tide. The gull bolus contents are shifting to more ‘forage fish’ bone content from the earlier strong bias toward chiton plates and the adults are feeding each other in practice for parenthood?
The Bald Eagles continue to fly in and scare all the gulls, geese and oystercatchers and it looked like they caught something today, but I am not sure what..
Chris and Courtney brought Second Nature out in the afternoon with two visitors from Scotland, (an alumna and her husband), and the two relief eco-guardians Guy and Christine who will be here for the summer. Chris, Courtney and Guy delivered diesel for the generator, using the derrick, barrels, a drum dolly and a fair bit of sweat. It looked scary to me but they pulled it off with aplomb and Chris said it is easier, safer and less risky than the old method, so that is really great.
My chores today were routine. I am going to post this now and update it with photos later in case the Internet goes down again in between. Must run and shut down the generator.
Crankypants Has a Number.
By mid-morning, the light southwesterly winds left over from yesterday’s blow had wandered over to south and they stayed southerly until early evening when they turned back to west. The barometer continued the slow ascent begun early yesterday, throughout the day. Although there was a mix of sun and clouds today, light levels were high and reached over 1000 W/m2 at the peak. Forecasters are calling for strong westerly winds again, with a chance of showers Thursday.
Four Whale Watching vessels were noted in the Ecological Reserve today, visiting on return from the west, heading towards Victoria. No sports fishing vessels were noted in the ER.
The Canadian Coast Guard Helicopter (Fisheries and Oceans) dropped by today to service the light, which went dark the night before last. Dave (pilot) and Derek (technician) were a welcome sight in their lovely little Messerschmidt, which was carefully put down at the base of the light tower stairs.
Dave and Derek preparing for take off.
Ten Whimbrels stopped for a rest and a feed today. These amazing migrators are on their way to the arctic tundra from South America and it was a treat to see them here.
Whimbrels stopped for a rest and a feed in the inter-tidal today.
I kept an eye on the Bald Eagles today and yes, they are fishing.
It was a right “hand” catch, transferred to both feet and then tucked up under the tail to hide it from sight.
Ten of the elephant seals managed to go through the measuring device today while I was sitting, waiting for them with the camera. I also spotted tags on the young female Northern Elephant Seal with serious skin issues. I may have mentioned her in a previous blog, I called her psoriasis sister last fall and Courtney named her crankypants in spring 2014. She is very vocal and easily disturbed by the other seals. She is usually off by herself but today she was caught in a traffic jam for daily ablutions, which really seemed to upset her. I have observed her many times last fall and this spring but never noticed the tags before. She moves as if in pain, complains loudly and leaves a trail of blood. She has many open wounds that look like holes and cracks. The right tag is number A114 and although it is difficult to read the left side, it is perhaps A476. She has all four tags still.
Crankypants has right tag number A114.
A branded Steller’s Sealion # 411R was noted today. She looks big for a female but that is what the record says, branded as a pup in July, 2005 at Rogue Reef, which is in the very southern end of Oregon. I will check with Pat Gearin on this identification.
There were no visitors other than the Coast Guard crew and maintenance chores were all routine.
March 17
Sunny, light rain in the late afternoon
Wind: 3-9 knots NE in the morning, 1-6 knots SE in the afternoon, calm at 18:00, 9-15 W in the evening
Air Temperature: Low 7.6°C, High 10.7°C
Ocean Temperature: 8.9°C
The morning was filled with chores: collecting garbage, tidying, cleaning the solar panels and mistaking a swimming seal for a sea otter (three times). The sea otter, which visited the ecological reserve during the winter hasn’t been seen within the past few weeks.
I was off the reserve for a few hours in the afternoon to drop off garbage and pick up gas, groceries, deionized water for the batteries and cleaning supplies. It happened to coincide with Elizabeth May giving a talk at the college.
The sea lions were very active and vocal leading up to the sunset at 19:21.
There were no boats seen in the reserve today.
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- Check out the size difference amongst this intergenerational group of steller and california sea lions.
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- Synchronized sea lion swimming
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- Rainbow, sunset clouds and sea lions on South Islands
Feb 26, derrick, Yellow tag 5086
Wind E 10 increasing to 20 N. Cloudy, rain in evening. DND blasting continued.
Courtney came out in the morning and brought Kim. We worked most of the day on setting up the rest of the scaffolding, fixing the derrick cable, and taking down the scaffolding. Had the new wire rope installed and working by afternoon. Worked on fire wood and replaced (new) leaky pvc valve in desal with a brass one.
I was finally able to get a clear view of the female elephant seals yellow flipper tag, # 5086. Yellow tags indicate that this elephant seal comes from San Miguel Island or Santa Rosa Island. We have had several previous sightings of an eseal with a 5086 tag, including this sighting by Julie https://www.racerocks.ca/2012/07/07/new-and-old-faces/ but they were always green tags and this one is clearly yellow. At some point the pup’s body got flipped over and it is now possible to determine that it is male.
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- Yellow 5086
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- Male
Feb 16-18
Feb 16: sunny, wind 10-20 NE. Blasting on Bentinck Island. Today was the first day in several weeks that I there are not female elephant seals visible on West rock. While it coincides with the blasting, they haven’t previously appeared bothered by it. 2 whale watching boats in the reserve. Worked on removing old utility box on camera 5 for replacement and repairs. Composting toilet chamber is evaporated so I have unplugged the unit to conserve energy.
Great Blue Heron on NE side of main island, Feb 18
Feb 17: Sunny, wind NE 10-20 knots. Cut, chopped and stacked wood. Finished removing old utility box and preparing for new install.
Feb 18: Sunny in the morning, wind under 10 knots. 2 whale watching boats and a group of around 20 kayakers in the reserve. The kayakers stayed together and didnt get too close to the sealions. Continued work on cam 5 utility box. A heron was in the reserve in the morning, I think this is the first time I have seen one here.
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- kayakers entering reserve
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- kodiak CO2242BC
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- Jin Jing
Feb 11-12, derrick and toilet
Feb 11: Cloudy, NE 10 knot wind. In the morning Courtney came out on Second Nature with Tristan (Pearson volunteer) and scaffolding. We had already put up two sections (5′ tall each) of scaffold with what we have on station so we added two more sections of rented scaffold to build a tower around 22′ tall below the derrick. We secured all four sides with lines tied to various anchor points on the ground. Standing on the top of the tower, the top of the derrick was just above my head height. I greased the pulley and pried the cable out from its lodging on the side of the pulley to get it back in its track. We led the derrick cable down through the centre of the scaffolding and Tristan and Courtney re-attached the weighted hook which keeps tension on the line. We took down the scaffolding and sent the rented parts back to the college. Derrick is finally back in action after months of being out of service and we now have a better and safer method for fixing and servicing the unit. Thanks Courtney, Tristan and Chris.
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- second nature from the tower of scaffold
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- Courtney on the derrick controls
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- Tristan on the deck
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- cable and pulley
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- weighted hook back on cable cable
On another topic, my dislike for the new composting toilet is increasing proportionately with the rising smell of stagnant septic in the basement of the assistant house…
Feb 12: Cloudy, wind light, periods of rain. 1 Pedder Bay Marina rental boat in the reserve that left the reserve going over the speed limit. I called the marina and they were to follow up with the operator.
After venting the guest house basement as much as possible, it still stank in there. I took apart the vent pipe and re-installed it with a bypass drain for rain water and excess moisture. The pipe size on the toilet is non conventional (it says its 2″ PVC but of course it is not and it does not union with standard size pipe) so I installed a rubber union with clamps in order to transition to the ABS vent pipe already installed through the roof. I installed a transparent pipe on the bypass so that it will be visible when there is liquid accumulation. With the new vent pipe installed I plugged in the toilet to start heating up the septic soup again so that it will hopefully actually evaporate this time.
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- new vent pipe
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- bypass drain
Jan 27-29
Jan 27: NE wind 5-15 knots switching to west in the afternoon, 20 to 30 knots. Courtney brought Max out in the morning to check on connections for camera 5 and the underwater camera. I went off island in the afternoon to pick up Jeff and bring him out for a visit.
Jan 28: Cloudy in morning, cleared up in the afternoon. Wind East 10 to 15 knots. Brought Jeff back to college in the morning. On the way we went by West rock to look for the elephant seal pup but couldn’t see or hear it. Picked up deionized water, a UPS for the underwater camera, laser measurer for measuring crane height. Cleared a large piece of red cedar out of the jetty bay and roped a long piece of hemlock. Cut and chopped firewood in the sun. Latter that afternoon I could hear and see the pup again.
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- elephant seals on West Rock, from the boat.
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- female elephant seals on West Rock from, pup and mother on far right.
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- Chunk going after a female
Jan 29: mostly clear sky, wind NE 10 to 15 knots. Two pleasure craft in reserve. Worked on guest house toilet renovation: shortening platform, adding insulation, fitting, fastening and sealing poop chute.
Jan 5-7
Jan 5: Cloudy, rain, 10 knots E. Had a lot of rain water in a short time, there was a lot of standing water. Some water leaked under the doors into the engine building, down the roof vent in the battery room and the drain on the roof got plugged up. I worked on the roof drainage and mopped up in the engine building. Finalized month end report. Foghorn was going off throughout the night. One sports fishing/recreation vessel.
Chunk was on the island in the morning but left mid day.
Jan 6, in the centre a ring necked sealion is visible, hauled out on South Islands.