Good morning from Drakes Bay, it’s the long holiday weekend away from the lab, and the weather pattern we’ve been having in San Frnacisco (hot, dry, sunny) is forecast to continue through today – so yesterday Kristen and I popped up north from Alameda to bring the crab pot and check in on the elephant seal (e-seal for those familiar with SEFI biologists) colony is doing; there are lots of them up on the beach and the point reyes group is monitoring them.
We got a way from the dock a couple of of hours later than planned, so missed the ebb; the flood wasn’t particularly much and we tooled on up the coast in flattish water and 1-7 knots of wind from the east, nowhere, and the west. the breeze was mostly from the east, which made it a downhill motor and between the sun and the non-existent apparent wind it was quite warm (fun for mid-January!).
Drakes Bay was declared part of a marine sanctuary a couple of years back, so no more fishing from the boat at anchor, nor can you drop a crab pot west of a specific line (approximately chimney rock to the estero). Once at the line we found loads of other crab pots (looks like two or three commercial boats are making Drakes Bay there base), rigged up ours and set it in an area somewhat clear of the commercial pots. Then on into the anchorage.
Lots of e-seals on the beach busy gargling and honking and blurping at each other. I played with the 816T microphone connected to the 702 recorder and got a fine 10 minute recording of them from a half mile off (sound carries well over the water). It was fun to play them back downbelow through Beetle’s stereo.
Last night there were two fish boats in the anchorage with us, and this morning we’re the only boat here. Not surprising, reajlly, as it’s forecast to get quite cold tonight (plus wind), with the wind backing off tomorrow. Later on this morning we’re going to run over to pull the pot and see how we did, reset pot for retrieval Monday morning, and elsewise have a pleasant day on the bay. It’s a bit cold to want to assemble the dinghy, so likely give that a miss and just hang out here.
And I’ve been experimenting with using the camera on the tripod set on the foredeck, and that’s worked ok – cuts down a lot on the bounciness of the camera and makes the image a bit more usable.
Upshot – looks to be cold, somewhat gray morning, and getting colder and windier tonight. But it sure is more fun than being back in Alameda!
Beetle, out.
