Weather

• Visibility: 8 miles in the early morning, 15 later on
• Wind: 15-20 knots East, then North, then West
• Sky: foggy and overcast, then sunny, then overcast
• Scattered raindrops throughout the day
• Water: mostly calm, with swells in the afternoon

Ecological

• Maya and Tazi conducted 4 intertidal transects today.
• Studying an intertidal transect involves measuring out a certain distance from a peg, and then documenting the different species found every 0.5 metre.
• In some transects the 0.5 metres are measured by water elevation; in others simply by distance.
• By comparing the species found in every zone of the transect with transect data from previous decades, you can see the change in intertidal ecosystems due to climate change.
• We saw a California Sea Lion with the brand U374 and another with a tracker.
• While most of the gull eggs all look the same, one particular egg is quite different.

Maintenance

• Maya and I ran the fire pump in the morning.
• This added a few inches to the cistern.
• We removed the old Canadian flag and hoisted a fresh one.
• Tazi and I removed some algae.
• Ali whacked away at the thistles.
• We cleaned the solar panels.

Boats

• Over 150 sailboats from Victoria passed by Race Rocks in the late morning on their way towards the Western horizon.
• Some of them started to return as late as 22:30.
• The colours of their sales included: red, blue, white, fluorescent yellow, green, purple, black, orange, and many combinations of all of the above.
• Some standouts included the Miles Davis sail and the Union Jack.
• I couldn’t stop taking photos and ended up with dozens. Below is a selection of the best.
• One coastguard zodiac and a search and rescue boat appeared to be accompanying the sailboats.
• Several eco-tours came by, including one Eagle Wings tour that drove through the South Channel.
• Passing through the South Channel is prohibited as the width is too narrow.