NE wind and tankers

Posted on Thursday,December 8, 2016 by Alex Fletcher

Weather:

wind NE 25-30 knots, 3 ft chop
temperature remaining near or below freezing

Ecological: several tankers passed by the reserve today, a couple are photographed below. As shown in the screen shot from MarineTraffic.com there were 5 tankers (red) across the straight, in Port Angeles, in the morning.

: Chembulk New Orleans, Oil/Chemical Tanker

: Chembulk New Orleans

: Polar Discovery, Oil Products Tanker, destination Port Angeles

Maintenance: continue to monitor water lines, running some heat tape overnight

Other: transcribed and sent off seawater data for the month of November

Freezing

Posted on Wednesday,December 7, 2016 by Alex Fletcher

Weather:

25-30 knot NE wind, clear sky.
temperature fell below freezing overnight, ground frozen in the morning.

Boats: 3 ecotour vessels in the afternoon, they all appeared to get within the DFO’s 100 m marine mammal setback guideline.

Maintenance:

checked on water lines and hooked up extension cables to heat tape on the fresh water tank and the main house fresh water inlet. Dumped water from rain tank to avoid freezing valve. Drained cistern pump in derrick shed.
measured generator diesel levels, filled day tank.
started generator in the morning, ran for 3 hours before overspeed fault. Ran again in the evening without overspeed.
chopped wood, cleared out firewood cutting jig

Freeze up coming

Posted on Tuesday,December 6, 2016 by Alex Fletcher

A group of visitors from the college was planned to arrive around noon but the trip was canceled due to poor weather conditions.

Weather:

Fog horn started up at 1 am, light fog, didn’t last very long.
Wind NE 15-25 knots most most of the day.
The forecast is calling for temperatures to fall below freezing in the coming days.
Fresh snow visible along the coast in Metchosin

Maintenance:

Checked on exposed water lines, started up assistant house furnace to keep above freezing.
Did some clean up of blown off roof shingles, broken gutters, pipe, etc.
Ran derrick engine
Cleared boat ramp
Generator automatically shut down due to overspeed fault.
Requested new log peavey to replace old broken one.

Boats:

Photos below of The Argent Daisy, a chemical tanker, passing by Race Rocks.

November seawater data

Posted on Thursday,December 1, 2016 by Alex Fletcher

		YSI	YSI
		Temp	Sal
Day	Time	ºC	ppt
1	13:50	31.7	10.4
2	13:50	31.8	10.3
3	13:50	31.7	10.4
4	13:50	31.6	10.3
5	12:08	31.3	10.6
6	10:10	31.6	10.6
7	10:03	31.3	11
8	10:00	31.5	10.7
9	10:03	31.4	10.7
10	10:25	31.3	10.9
11	10:45	31.5	10.7
12	11:15	31.4	10.7
13	11:48	31.5	10.5
14	12:06	31.5	10.7
15	16:00	31.4	10.3
16	15:00	31.2	10.2
17	13:00	31.2	10.2
18	x	x	x
19	14:00	31.2	10.2
20	13:00	31.4	10.2
21	x	x	x
22	12:00	31.6	10.2
23	11:00	31.4	10.3
24	12:00	31.3	10.4
25	13:00	31.6	10.2
26	12:00	31.4	10.3
27	12:00	31.5	10.1
28	13:00	31.4	10.1
29	14:00	31.5	10.3
30	12:00	31.4	10.2

Gale Force Winds and Peregrine Falcon

Posted on Saturday,November 12, 2016 by Riley Strother

Weather

Visibility: 10 miles
Wind: 0-5 knots NW in the morning
By 11:10 up to 25 knots West
By 11:25 33 knots, 11:55 40 knots West
Post 12:00 steady at 30-35 knots West
Late afternoon into darkness 15-20 knots West
Sky: mix of sun and cloud
Water: 2′ chop

Ecological

4 elephant seals on Great Race.
They were very playful today.
Pam Birley spotted a Peregrine falcon with the webcam!
She took these 4 photos for us!

Maintenance

Back flushed the desalinator.
Ran the desalinator.
Uploaded June Seawater data to the website.

Boats

Did not see any boats in the reserve.

Foggy Day

Posted on Wednesday,November 9, 2016 by Riley Strother

Weather

Visibility: 0-5 miles
Wind: 10-15 knots W, then around to NE
Sky: fog!
Water: calm
The foghorn was beeping off and on much of the morning and afternoon.

Ecological

3 elephant seals on Great Race.

Maintenance

Ran the desalinator.

Boats

No boats that I’m aware of.

Re-engaged

Posted on Wednesday,November 2, 2016 by Riley Strother

After Monday’s difficulties with the log, yesterday was even worse as I was unable to log on to the website. The problem seems to have been only temporary though, because I am now able to log on using both my computer and the main house computer.

Here is a summary of yesterday and today, along with photos from Monday.

Monday 31 October 2016-Photos

Tuesday 1 November 2016-Report & Chore Day

Weather
Visibility: 15 miles
Wind: 0-5 knots E
Sky: rain
Water: calm
5 elephant seals on Great Race today.
Had to push the dead sea lion out past the jetty where it finally floated away.
An inquisitive seagull floated up to the corpse and gave it a peck.
Spotty the harbour seal was back on his rock near the jetty.
Couldn’t log on to the Race Rocks website.
Finished gathering data for the month end report.
Completed October month end report for Kyle.
Entered and sent off October seawater report.
Ran the desalinator.

Wednesday 2 November 2015

Weather
Visibility: 5 miles
Wind: 15-20 knots NE
Sky: overcast with showers
Water: 2′ chop
Fierce waves crashing against the jetty today.
Expected to be windy overnight, with things calming down by noon tomorrow.
Lots of Canada Geese on the island today.

Sea Lion Corpse Removal

Posted on Monday,October 31, 2016 by Riley Strother

Well well well, the tool bar on this blog post creator has disappeared. No more bullet points or photos. Maybe it’s just a Hallowe’en prank?

The weather this morning was overcast, with calm seas, a gentle breeze of 5-10 knots East, and a visibility of more than 15 miles. Later on the day was marked with periodic showers and winds gusting up to 30 knots West.

The sea lions continue to do their thing, clambering all over the rocky edges of the island, and generally making a nuisance of themselves around the jetty. They keep ramming into the finicky sliding door to the boathouse. There were five elephant seals on Great Race today.

Kyle and Guy came out in the afternoon to drop off some food supplies and help with the removal of the dead California sea lion. What an appropriate task for Hallowe’en. We hooked him up to a rope on the end of the derrick, and hauled him out to sea. Maybe I should have kept the skull for decoration tonight.

Only a couple of eco-tours today.

Well it’s fully dark outside now. I expect I’ll have my first trick or treaters any moment now. I hope they don’t mind bird poop instead of candy; it’s all I have in abundance out here!