At play in Bamfield

August 31, 2009

Bamfield,

Friends, family, and fish. Our time here has been filled with all of these. I have been writing the course I am teaching at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Station this fall and doing lots of preparation and repairs to IO. Hyo has been taking care of the community, pulling out imbedded fishhooks and driving the hospital boat up and down Bamfield Inlet. We were fortunate enough to have Jim and Steffi come and stay with us and skipper IO for the afternoon. Thanks to Steffi, IO will never be the same, that being shinier than ever. Kenny and Sara brought with them good times and good food, and helped us christen IO officially with its new name. We made our sacrifices to a safe voyage by paying tribute to the deck, haul and father Poseidon. Last but not least, my mother and sister and all her rug rats came to spend my birthday with us. A time to play on the beach, get lost in the forest, and bring general mayhem and laughter to all.

Now we are back to the waiting game, weather watching. Waiting for a window of Nor-westerlies to take us to the land of sun and away from all this fog. For those of you who are keen, I use several weather resources to determine our sail plan. www.passageweather.com is a good one for visualizing what the wind, pressure and waves will be like for any given area. The wind arrows point the direction that the wind will blow. The feathers (or barbs) on the arrows tell how much wind to expect: one barb = 10 knots, 2 bars = 20 kts, etc. The colors of the wind sectors are pretty straightforward. Green is good, red is bad.

Finally, thank you for your comments. They have been really nice to read and have given us encouragement on this journey. Please feel free to email us and tell us how you are doing.

m