Category Archives: weather notes

Calm and beautiful week-end

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Weather

Saturday at 5H30
Wind: East wind,4 knots to 0.4 later
Sky :clear
Visibility:+10 miles
Sea like a mirror

Ecological

The same 3 geese on the main lawn.
The old or sick elephant seal finally went to the water. at 10:00 .It took her a long time but she managed…

Gulls are getting more aggressive ; Proof:one tried to poop on me ! The whole day was hot and the elephants spent the day in the water…The old /sick one came back to her favorite spot.In the evening we had 13elephant seals on Great Race Rocks.

Vessels

No eco – tour boats to 1:00PM because of the tide I guess…3 cruising ships in a row   going out slowly from Victoria in the sunset…That means that around 5000 people could have looked at The Rocks at the same time…scary!

Maintenance 

Guy took out the boat for a checking . We did a short trip to the college . Everything OK but the spark plugs need to be changed so a kit has been ordered.
Sunday
Weather
At 5:30: Wind :North 6 knots,Sky :clear ,Visibility:over 10 miles,Sea like a mirror. Around 7PM the wind got stronger to 30 knots at 9:30 PM.It was expected.The direction changed to Southwest/West.

Boats
Many  recreational fishing boats at the entrance of Pedder Bay and between East Sooke and the First Nations territories.Again cruising boats closed to the american coast leaving.

Other
Small plane above at 9:45 AM.

 

IT Visitors

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Weather
Sea:calm
Wind :8 knots
Sky:Cloudy to clear
Later very hot day with a mirror sea

Ecological
Seawater is getting warmer
Long bathing time for the 2 big males and 2  young elephant seals at the jetty.
The tide was very low and I found 2 huge mussels as big as my hand ! Impressed!
One elephant seal never moved for 2 days . She looks old or sick ,maybe both?
Found a gull and a harbour seal dead (not recent).

Maintenance

Max changed the routers in the houses
Max and James installed a camera on a oystercatcher nest with 2 eggs in it. The nest is closest to the boat shed at the top of the rocks, actually just under the camera 5. The new 24/24 camera will be on youtube pretty soon .
Aziz ,a 2nd year student, working at the college this Summer, took pictures and came with me to the top of the lighthouse.
Kyle and Guy pulled the diesel hoses through the island and empty them (around 10 litres) and put them back in their shed
Seawater house: heavy cleaning ,floor and bank inside and outside (old shingles from the roof)
Solar panels and alleys swept.

Vessels

Busy day . More than 30 eco tours vessels and around 4:30 ,8 at the same time …

Other 

Summer is here Quiet and beautiful evening on the rock especially
White everywhere ..More gulls. Can’t wait for the census next week!

 

1st full day on the rocks

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Weather

Wind : NW wind ,26 knots at 5:30 ,up to 30  at 7:30 and back to 3 :00 in the afternoon

Sky: Rainy first and cloudy later.

Visibility: 5 miles at 5:30 getting better later

Sea: Wavelets,white caps to calm later in the day.

Ecological

All the elephant seals went fishing this night,came back one after the other this morning.

13 geese pay a visit in the evening and left one hour later.

In the evening an eagle flew over 2 times and post itself on the crane ! the gulls got mad.

Sea water :Temperature 11.1 and salinity:32.1

We found a dry tailbone

Boats

Huge traffic the whole day . All kinds of boats: around 10 Whale Watchers,a few fishing boats,a Canadian sailboat,2 cruising boats,a logging boat with its tugboats,tankers and containers ,an American ship,The Port – Angeles ferryboat,Later I made a quick research on one big square gray one : it was a vehicules carrier coming from Bahamas going to San Diego,Draught:9.1 meter,Speed:20 knots,Gross tonnage :58.767 tonnes . Her name Genius Highway (From Marine Traffic Website).

DND Activity

A few blasts at 9:40,9:44,10:42 ,10:44,and 5:30 in the evening.

Maintenance

Student house tank filled up

Student main house tank filled up

Run the generator for 2 hours and half

Main house :Inside tidying up.

DSC_6630

 

Chunk vs. Chuckles

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15+ miles
  • Wind: 0 knots most of the day, until the evening when it hit 40 knots West
  • Sky: clear and sunny
  • Water: calm

Ecological

  • 14 elephant seals on Great Race; 2 on Middle Rock.
  • Chunk and Chuckles engaged in friendly water battles for over an hour.
  • The tagged female elephant seal from California is still around.
  • The single odd looking seagull egg from May 29th has turned into 2 normal gull eggs.

Maintenance

  • Topped up the tidy tank with diesel.
  • Cleaned the solar panels.
  • General cleaning up.
  • Wrote the month end report.
  • Sent off the May seawater data.

Boats

  • At 12:30 there were 5 large eco-tours in the reserve at once. This might be too many at once?
  • What is quite probably the largest eco-tour I have ever seen came through Middle Channel today.

Other

  • At least 7 DND blasts today.
  • They came at 9:46, 9:47, 9:48, 10:29, 10:29, 10:30, and at 11:03.
  • The first 6 were medium blasts; the last one was huge.
  • Usually we are notified ahead of time of blasting, but the most recent email only indicated blasting from June 1-3.
  • Today is the last full day of my shift. Guy and Christine will be taking over tomorrow.

DSC_6505

The Grand Sailboat Regatta

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Weather

  • Visibility: 8 miles in the early morning, 15 later on
  • Wind: 15-20 knots East, then North, then West
  • Sky: foggy and overcast, then sunny, then overcast
  • Scattered raindrops throughout the day
  • Water: mostly calm, with swells in the afternoon

DSC_6437

Ecological

  • Maya and Tazi conducted 4 intertidal transects today.
  • Studying an intertidal transect involves measuring out a certain distance from a peg, and then documenting the different species found every 0.5 metre.
  • In some transects the 0.5 metres are measured by water elevation; in others simply by distance.
  • By comparing the species found in every zone of the transect with transect data from previous decades, you can see the change in intertidal ecosystems due to climate change.
  • We saw a California Sea Lion with the brand U374 and another with a tracker.
  • While most of the gull eggs all look the same, one particular egg is quite different.

Maintenance

  • Maya and I ran the fire pump in the morning.
  • This added a few inches to the cistern.
  • We removed the old Canadian flag and hoisted a fresh one.
  • Tazi and I removed some algae.
  • Ali whacked away at the thistles.
  • We cleaned the solar panels.

Boats

  • Over 150 sailboats from Victoria passed by Race Rocks in the late morning on their way towards the Western horizon.
  • Some of them started to return as late as 22:30.
  • The colours of their sales included: red, blue, white, fluorescent yellow, green, purple, black, orange, and many combinations of all of the above.
  • Some standouts included the Miles Davis sail and the Union Jack.
  • I couldn’t stop taking photos and ended up with dozens. Below is a selection of the best.
  • One coastguard zodiac and a search and rescue boat appeared to be accompanying the sailboats.
  • Several eco-tours came by, including one Eagle Wings tour that drove through the South Channel.
  • Passing through the South Channel is prohibited as the width is too narrow.

More Wind, More Seal

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 20-25 knots West, later 35-40!
  • Sky: mix of sun and cloud
  • Water: 2′ chop
  • Gale warning for tonight.
  • Should be less windy tomorrow.

Ecological

  • 17 elephant seals on Great Race. One more than yesterday.
  • I spied a few interesting chiton remains on the island today.
  • It looks like the birds were eating some gumboot and leather chitons.

E-seal with pink scrapes

Boats

  • Only one eco-tour today.

 

More of the Same

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: a relentless 20-30 knots West
  • Sky: overcast
  • Water: 1′ chop
  • Looks like more of the same weather for the start of the week

Ecological

  • There are now 18 elephant seals on Great Race!
  • Only saw 3 on Middle Rock, although it was hard to be sure.

Maintenance

  • Didn’t do any chores apart from the daily essentials, as I felt a little under the weather.

Boats

  • No boats that I know of in the reserve today.
  • The odd fishing boat or sail boat out farther.

A Boat

Windy Grey Day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles, later on 10
  • Wind: a relentless 30-40 knots West
  • Sky: overcast, occasional showers
  • Water: 3′ chop

Ecological

  • 17 elephant seals on Great Race
  • Most of them spent the day huddled in a big pile; warmth is good!
Flowers saved from the weed eater

Marigolds saved from the weed eater

Maintenance

  • Did some weed whacking.
  • Too windy to paint.

Boats

  • 3 eco-tours came by today.

Eco-tour in choppy water

Thick Foggy Day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 miles at 5:30, down to 1/4 mile from 8:00-early afternoon. Back up to 10 in the evening.
  • Wind: 10-15 knots West in the morning, up to 25 in the evening.
  • Sky: fog everywhere! Fog horn went off continuously from 5:30-2:30.
  • Water: rippled, 2′ chop in the evening.

Ecological

  • 17 elephant seals on Great Race today!
  • I think the 2 new ones are from Middle Rock, where only 2 remain.
  • Counted 88 harbour seals on Turbine Rock.
  • A rather subdued day for all the animals today. I suspect the fog had an impact.

Maintenance

  • Re-attached the gasket on the door of the wood stove. It had been partially pulled off by an errant log last time I made a fire.
  • Weed whacked more thistles and stuff.

Boats

  • Zero boats because fog.

All West Wind

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 25-30 knots West
  • As I write this at 20:00 the wind has picked up to 35 knots
  • Sky: cloudy, now raining
  • Water: 4′ chop and whitecaps
  • Gale warning in effect until tomorrow.

Early morning Mt. BakerEarly morning Mt. Baker 2

Ecological

  • 15 elephant seals on Great Race today.

Seal FestPeaking over the Rocks

Maintenance

  • Some goose work this morning.

Boats

  • Saw the HMCS Winnipeg out in the straight.

HMCS Winnipeg

Other

  • Got a phone call today from Pearson College indicating that CBC All Points West was interested in interviewing me about my experience following Leicester’s Premier League win at a lighthouse on an island.
  • They found out about me from a comment I had on The Guardian’s live blog.
  • Anticipating a possible phone call from CBC Radio, I spent all afternoon near the phone, but nothing happened.