Nightly wind storms

Posted on by

Ecological Notes:

  • The Snow goose apparently left
  • Smaller Sea Otter, and  Northern Fur Seal reported to me by Eco-Tourism vessels
  • Still no Elephant Seals
  • Although not uncommon to see eagles hunting gulls here, One day in particular was quite extraordinary …. up to 7 Eagles in the air at the same time chasing gulls, it was like a fighter plane dogfight!
  • Returning to the reserve after a personal time off, the boat was swarmed by Orca, about 20 feet from the jetty! I believe the sea lion they were chasing must have jetted under the boat as they would not leave. They did eventually get their lunch as proven by the gulls frenzy on the scraps.

Visitors:

  • Shorefront team for various delivers and ongoing maintenance and clean up

Facility Work:

  • Richard from Shorefront team moved fuel from various old tanks to the Student building tank.
  • Prepared one old tank for removal
  • Removed piping from the large(old)diesel tank from the structure by the the Generator building, too it apart and removed it from the island
  • Regular battery maintenance and fuel transfers
  • A couple more desalinator runs (running when the Generator runs during the day, it often runs at night)
  • Changed oil and filters on the Generator
  • Sometimes you have to follow the little beeps too!

  • Replaced the starter cord on the gusher pump (used to fill the cistern)

 

DND events:

  • some blasts spread over time

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • A couple private boats transiting
  • Occasional Eco-Tourism vessels

Weather Events:

  • Monday, December 15:
    • Sky: High overcast occasional rain
    • Wind: N 5-10kts early morning, shifting to W and rising as high as 45kts over the day, tapering to 20kts by midnight
    • Sea:  light chop turning to 3-4ft waves by afternoon
    • Temperature Low 9.3oC, High 10.5oC
  • Tuesday, December 16:
    • Sky: Overcast with a few rain showers
    • Wind: ESE winds 5-10kts during the day rising rapidly late evening to W 48kts
    • Sea:  Light chop all day
    • Temperature Low 8oC, High 10oC
  • Wednesday, December 17:
    • Sky: overcast with sunny patches
    • Wind: W gusting to 60kts over night, dropping to 25-30kts early morning, continuing to drop to 5-10kts by evening
    • Sea:  3-4 ft waves and swells 
    • Temperature Low 12oC, High 20oC

High winds find anything that’s not screwed down

Although it would have been good to get some more fire logs, at least the wind direction didn’t bring a ton of debris to the ramp.

** Any wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Weather – Current:

https://tempestwx.com/station/190757/

 

Weather – Past:

https://tempestwx.com/history/190757