Wind: yesterday N-NE 25-53 knots, today NE-S 9-45 knots
Sea State: both days rough with waves up to 2 m
Visibility: both days 10-15 NM
Sky: both days clear
Temperature: yesterday 0-3 °C, today 1-6 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.33 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)
The wind was strong all day yesterday until mid afternoon today, when it began to die down. The cool temperatures and winds blasted some of the plants that were exposed on the north side. The high pressure and clear skies were great for the solar power. For the first time this winter, the batteries recharged themselves today, reaching full charge just after 4:00 this afternoon. Normally, I top the batteries up with the generator for a few hours each evening. Hopefully the voltage of the batteries will remain at a good level until the sun rises at 7:24 and begins to feed the solar panels soon after.
For the past two and a half months, I have been combing the shoreline, picking up all the trash that washes ashore. I picked up a lot of pieces of plastic, rope, foam, fishing gear, buckets and other things that floated their way here. There are only three small beaches on the island that collect garbage: the boat ramp, east bay and the tombolo, which at low tide connects the south side of the island with the south seal rocks. There must be a massive amount of trash that floats by Race Rocks and doesn’t get captured by the shoreline. On the south side of the island, I found a lot of metal and pieces of ceramic that were mostly from the days when the old things and buildings on the island were disposed of by pushing them into the water. A few of the items I found are going to be reused: dog toys, floats and rope. The rest will be either recycled or sent to the landfill.
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- Shoreline debris: rope, plastic bottles, foam, buckets, dog toys, straps, beach toy, packaging, fishing bait containers. Near the top centre, a 2 L ice cream container has many pieces of small plastics that are shown in another photo. Not pictured are several floats that were already sent back to shore to be reused. The various pieces of metal and ceramic in the top right might have been disposed of years ago on Race Rocks, as opposed to being washed up. Some of the glass might have washed ashore.
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- Three washed up large plastic flasher lures
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- All the little pieces of found plastic that I stored in the 2 L container: styrofoam, shotgun shells/wads, straws, pen parts, pieces of toys, plastic cutlery, bags, cable ties, tampon applicator, ribbon, single serve butter package and many other unidentifiable pieces.
There were two tour boats in the ecological reserve this weekend, both today.
Other photos from around the island over the past two days:
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- A california sea lion napping on the end of the jetty with nearby rough seas.
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- The youngest elephant seal pup appears to take shelter from the strong northeast wind.
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- Red sky at night, sailors delight
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- Visible stars on a very clear night yesterday, before the moonrise
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- Grape hyacinth wilted from the weekend’s cold wind
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- Daffodils wilted from the weekend’s cold wind