Ecological

• Wind NE 10-20 knots all day and all night and forecast to continue…barometer is trending upwards.  Clear sky most of the day. Temperature has been getting down to zero at night and sea water temp is at its lowest as of recently, 8.5 C.

Vessels

• 3 eco tour boats in the reserve.  One of them passed through the channel between the inner South Island and Great Race while sealions were on the south island and southern shore of Great Race. The passage itself is less than 100 meters wide so it is impossible to go through there while sealions present without being less than 100 meters from them.  Additionally there was a second tour boat from the same company on the other side of the South island so the sealions were surrounded, this can increase likelihood of a disturbance.  A few sealions did exit into the water as the boats passed by.  UPDATE Jan 2: We received an email on Dec 31 from the captain of the boat involved in this incident.  He apologized for his mistake going through this passage and creating a sealion disturbance.  The other tour operator radioed him to tell him that passage in this channel is not allowed.   He had not been aware of it.  He said he would not do it again and would help spread the word.  We appreciate him getting in touch with us and are thankful for his accountability and commitment to preventing this kind of incident from occurring again.   

Maintenance

• Tracked cable from offline charge controller to identify which row of panels it is connected to, second row from South side of roof.
• fixed saw horses which were wobbly
• scrapped and touch-up-painted diesel barrel with anti-rust paint
• Cleared wood from ramp, ran derrick to haul in 2 decent logs.
• Microwave connection went offline in the evening (internet and phone), will deal with it in the morning.