Strong Westerlies. Sideways rain.
2 hours of foghorn this morning around 0400
Woke up to be reminded that it is always a good idea to have everything battened down out here. It was calm went I went to bed and blowing ~40kts when I woke up.

David Hawley and his advisory group left yesterday. For their service activity I had them scrub the tank and shed and most of the boat shed; They were troopers. It was a fun visit, with an evening of multi-lingual Taboo and plenty of yelling. They did a great job of their clean-up too. I also got to test out the instructions in the SOP. I found a few things that needed to be expanded but, as far as I can tell, the instructions are written clearly enough that a teenager who has never seen a generator can get it started, so that’s a good sign. I also got to talk with Leisa and David about their visits to Race Rocks over the past 8? years, and how things have changed out here. And I learned from Leisa that every night the cormorants leave Race Rocks and spend the night perched up in the trees in Pedder Bay.

When Chris picked the students up he brought Jecelyn Hardie out for a short visit. She is working on the designation of Race Rocks under the Heritage Lighthouse Act. Chris also answered some of my questions about the energy system and how to install the replacement solar panel.

Yesterday there was a dive boat that stayed for two dives. One dive off the end of the jetty, and the second dive on the North side of Middle rock.

This foul weather seems to have pushed a lot of the Sea lions out of the reserve. There are only a few stragglers on the North-East corner of Great Race and South Rocks. I’m curious to see this week’s animal census. I wonder if they’ll come back when the weather calms or if they’re moving to a different haul-out

-Tidied keeper’s house
-Worked on SOPs
-Re-wrote logs (gen, desal, visitor)
-Prepped month end report. Waiting for the rain/wind to stop to take a sounding on the diesel tank.