The wind blew from the north between 13-15 knots, until 10:00 this morning. Then the wind shifted towards to northeast and calmed down to between 2-9 knots. The sea was very calm, with no swells or whitecaps. The barometer rose from 1020 hPa to 1024 hPa. The temperature increased slowly throughout the day from 1-4oC.
There were no boats seen in the reserve today.
If solar panels could be happy, they would have been happy today. The sun shone brightly, juicing up the photovoltaic cells. It wasn’t enough to melt all of the snow and ice, which remains in patches around the islands. Some of the plants have begun to wilt from the prolonged cold weather.
I made a trip into Pedder Bay this afternoon. Having been solo for the past two weeks at Race Rocks, it was great to catch up with some students and staff at Pearson. I also dropped off garbage and picked up gas. The northern half of Pedder Bay was frozen over with ice that was 2-3cm thick. It made boat travel tricky. Luckily there was a lane of broken ice just wide enough for the Boston Whaler to travel from the Pearson dock to the Pedder Bay Marina, where the gas was filled. Unlike driving a car on ice, a boat stops when you hit ice, so it’s much easier to handle. On the return trip to Race Rocks, I saw a large group of surf scoters between the mouth of the Pedder Bay and Race Rocks.
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- This large steller sea lion was the boss of the rock, barking at anything that came near it.
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- The head of a harbour seal is lit up by the glow of the sunset.
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- A group of sea lions is soaking up the last of the day’s sunlight, as a cormorant flies by in the foreground.
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- The once bushy calendula, which line the paths around Great Race, has wilted from the cold weather. Calendula is a plant that was introduced to the island many years ago in a lighthouse keeper’s garden.
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- The reflection of sunset can be seen in a few of the glass buildings on the Victoria skyline.
