Wildlife notes

The elephant seal made many trips to the water today.  I photographed the oily secretions from her eyes and the white pulmonary surfactant, both adaptions she needs for life in the sea.  She will dive to such great depths that the immense pressure will cause her lungs to collapse. The pulmonary surfactant will stop her lung tissues from sticking together and allow her lungs to reinflate when she comes back to the surface.

The oily secretions from her eyes (she doesn’t have tear ducts) and the white pulmonary surfactant coming from one of her nostrils. It is normal for an elephant seal to close one nostril tight and use only the other for deep breathing.

Facility notes

The generator and the desalinator ran this morning.  About 360 L of fresh water were produced but I used 300 of it doing two loads of laundry most of which was bedding.  I stripped both single beds as they looked slept in and washed sheets, mattress pad and cover, a blanket and other things from the linen closet that looked dirty. Also did a major sort of bedding and discarded ripped, heavily stained or worn sheets and fitted sheets with worn out elastic. You can find things in the closet now and we have some new sheets! We are also starting to replacing the decades old duvets and covers. I took advantage of the excess electricity and vacuumed the tank shed.

• Laundered bedding, sorting and cleaning
• vacuum tank shed floors and surfaces

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 12
• Private: 2

Weather

Partly cloudy. Winds variable, predominantly from the SW or NW,  10 to 24 knots. Daytime temperatures 12 to 15 degrees.