Ecological Notes:

• I am catching occasional glimpses of a humpback blows to the southeast and southwest of the island, although a bit too far away to see much detail.
• I am still trying to live harmoniously with the gulls by avoiding the chicks as much as possible, while still keeping things running on the island. I have not been pooped on in at least a week, so either the adult gull’s aim is off or they do not see me as threat.
• See the photo gallery below for more ecological happenings from the past two days.

Weather:

• Yesterday (July 23):
  • Sky: Cloudy, then clearing mid-morning
  • Wind: W 11-31 kts
  • Sea: rippled, then up to 1′ chop in afternoon
  • Temperature Low 12 ^oC, High 14 ^oC
• Today (July 24):
  • Sky: Fog overnight until late morning, then partly cloudy for remainder of day
  • Wind: W 3-23 kts
  • Sea: rippled
  • Temperature Low 11 ^oC, High 15 ^oC

Visitors:

• No visitors

Facility Work:

• Scrubbed and squeegeed solar panels, routine tidying and checking infrastructure around the island.
• I ran the generator yesterday for its monthly equalization charge, which charges the batteries at a higher voltage to keep them healthy in the long run by balancing the voltage in each battery. The 24 batteries, each the size of four cinder blocks stacked up, are essential to maintaining constant power for the human life support systems on the island even when the solar array and generator are not supplying power.

 Vessel Traffic:

• Many Canadian and American ecotour boats have been nearby and heading through the waters of the ecological reserve.

Here are photo highlights from the past two days. Click on the photos for larger views and captions.