Boats/Visitors
Ecological
Notes
Boats/Visitors
Ecological
Notes
Boats/Visitors
Ecological
Boats/Visitors
Ecological
Notes
Weather
If July 5th,on Wednesday, was calm with a light South West wind and a good visibility It was not the same situation for the following days:on Thursday the wind raised to 31knots from West and on Friday the 7th, it was very windy the whole day to almost 40 knots in the afternoon. The barometric pressure is depending the days around 1019/1020MB. The water temperature is 10 to 11.9 degrees Celsius at the most.On Wednesday for 30mn we couldn’t see around the rocks farther than 100 meters.
Ecological
The babies are born now and the parents are very nasty! Difficult to go across the rock ; if you want to be safe helmet and coat are not optional! 7elephant seals like usual this Summer.I saw a river otter wrapped in kelp to stay on the same spot! they are smart!
Maintenance
The sea water pump has been working a lot this week too, even in night time depending when it’s high enough. I had to repair the handle of the high pressure cleaning tool. and I transfer 150 liters of fuel in the main house tank. Solar panels very dirty
Visitors
Kyle and Jeff came to bring 600 liters of fuel. and we transferred from the big tank on Second nature to 3 barrels .
Weather
Tuesday the 20th was a very windy day with a West wind already at 24knots early in the morning. A gale warning was in effect and for sure it was strong around the rocks and that for the whole day to late in the evening:38knots at 11:00AM,41 at 11:45,42 at 1:50PM,43 at 15:00 . Even around 10:00PM we were still around 35knots .Very tiring day for the light keepers!. The following day was not so bad the wind coming from West like the day before stayed around 25knots for the whole day.The rest of the week was beautiful ,sunny and almost hot on Race Rocks.Winds coming from North or North East but light very light 5knots,6knots at the most
Ecological
We have 8 elephants seals right now :2 big and older one (Chunk one of them ) and 4 beautiful and playful younger males ,a female and a very young one . they spend the whole afternoon in water or in the railway for the pleasure of the ecotourist- boats .so many of them …impossible to count..Really that never stopped even coming from the states!. With the solstice and the very low tides it was very interesting to observe the pools and their inhabitants in the inter tidal zones …beautiful and colorful colonies of Sea urchins ,huge mussels,molluscs and many different species we don’t see so often ,huge and different sea weeds and kelp… Race Rocks is still a rich world.
Vessels
27 boats to 50 fishing boats have been seen in the morning of the week – end,!mainly on East – Sooke Point. We saw a submarine going outside,a few planes above or closed and the usual traffic in the strait. The van Isle International race boats were very beautiful to look at with their spinnakers in a steady 20 knots wind. We noticed some pretty big fishing boats leaving towards the ocean.I already spoke about the high traffic of whale watchers vessels
Maintenance
The desalinator has been on a few times but not the generator . It has not been in use for 20 days :a record! the solar panels need attention because of so many busy gulls around. The door of the desalinator shed has been repaired.and I cleaned the railway with the high pressure water to get the boat easily in the water . It was getting pretty hard lately. The level of the liquid /fuel has been checked and sent
Boats/Visitors
Ecological
Boats/Visitors
Ecological
Weather
At 8:00:10 North East wind ,calm and overcast .Rain in the morning and no wind at all around 10AM .The usual calm weather before a storm and around 6:00PM to 11:00, The wind from West raised steadily from 20 to 40 knots . We noticed that the darkness is coming only after 6H30
Vessel and aeroplans
The morning was really calm so it was easy for me to notice that something was wrong…like a chainsaw running somewhere and looking by the window all around the rock you could see a small grey zodiac, full speed creating a panic all around!!! Finally It headed to Pedder Bay…End of the story. I Coast guard’s helicopter
Census
Eagles :2 but 5 on Sunday
Gulls:320
Steller Sea Lions :22
Californian Sea Lion:60
Elephant Seals:2 juvenile males and 1 pup
Harlequin Duck:21
Cormorants:90
Geese :8 on Saturday and 17 on Sunday!
Pigeons- Guillemots :around 35
Crow:2
Black turnstones:10
Harbour Seals:50
Oystercatchers:8 on Saturday but 18 on Sunday
It is interesting to notice that on Saturday with the coming storm the Island was not as busy as on Sunday where we could see more animals especially birds around.
Weather
On Wednesday: It has been a calm day with a light west wind ,cloudy and some rain in the afternoon and pretty cold around 4 degrees in the morning. On Thursday: North east wind light in the morning but a warning of gale expected for the night. Grey and low sky and rain later in the day at 5pm the wind was already above 20 knots. In the night it raised slowly but at 3 in the morning we had gusts above 30 knots and at 7h00 AM between 38 and 42 knots. on Friday it blowed to 3 PM but it was sunny and that gave a beautiful scenery …The sunrise is now at 6:36 and the sunset at 6:11 Pm so really longer days…the atmospheric pressure was 101.2 KPA on Friday.
Ecological
On Thursday we had a new young male on the rock so that makes 5 Elephants seals around . The pup is very active now and if Chunk doesn’t come back he could survive and now it is really time for the birds : first the geese they are all around and can be spoted in very surprising place . Because of the rain lately we had nice pools and they enjoyed long bathing sessions and feathers cleaning .Delicious to look at… but at the same time they are very dirty and we have to clean again the alleys every day. We count 5 couples and a lonely limping one . The second major group of birds are the gulls and today for the first time we had a Summer feeling : they were getting noisy and were scattered all around at their own precise spot. We even saw some picking herbs and branches and observed the first fights .With the rain and the rising wind we noticed that all the Sea lions were gone . They came back at the end of the day (Friday)
