Wednesday, November 20, 2013
At 5:00 AM EST the air temperature was 29°F, the wind was blowing out of the northwest over twenty knots, the sky was crystal clear and the visibility was excellent. The wind blew out of the north northwest over thirty knots after sunrise then began to diminish, slowly. By noon, north northwest winds were blowing about fifteen knots. And that's pretty much what the wind did for the rest of the daylight hours. After sunset, the wind died out altogether with only light winds, at times, from the northwest. The sky was clear all day, the air temperature reached the low 40°s and the visibility was excellent. The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 41°F (with a low of 22°F) today. In Boston, Massachusetts the high was 43°F (with a low of 29°F) today. Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 41°F (with a low of 17°F) today.
At 5:03 AM, I picked up Steve Weiner at his house in Ogunquit to make the drive to the New England Fishery Management Council meeting in Newport, Rhode Island. Our main objective was to speak on the herring issue at the meeting. As you might know, we felt that the midwater trawlers should have 100% observer coverage (which they do not have now) and a prohibition on dumping what they catch. The meeting was very well run by the Chair, Terry Stockwell. I'm proud to say that he is our Maine state representative. He did give everyone a chance to speak on this subject. No one was left out. I did not speak. This primarily because I couldn't add anything more or anything unique from the other speakers that would help the Council to see our perspective on the problem. Those who did speak for the much needed midwater restrictions did a very good job. There were also those who spoke for the midwater boats. I didn't think they presented their case very well. Represented in the audience were all the representatives from the mid water fleet. There might have been twenty individuals at the most. Hard to imagine that anyone would favor so few boats against such a large number of vessels, people, businesses, activities and, indeed, a whole New England fishery that are so adversely affected by the manner in which they catch herring. At any rate the NEFMC did not vote to keep the midwater boats tied to the dock until they could comply with these two much needed requirements. What the Council did is best summed up by a memo by the Council's Pat Fiorelli. This memo (in green, below) was put up very shortly after the meeting was completed:
New England Council Initiates Renewed Efforts To Address Atlantic Herring Fishery Issues
Newport, RI Testimony from fishermen both supporting and opposing the issue of
whether the New England Fishery Management Council should request that NOAA
Fisheries take emergency action to effectively close the Atlantic herring midwater trawl
fishery was among the key topics at the Council’s one-day meeting in Newport today.
At issue is the perception as well as the opinion of many groundfish fishermen and
environmental advocates that the midwater trawl fleet catches and discards large amounts
of groundfish, particularly small haddock, in the course of catching Atlantic herring.
Herring fishermen argued that their fishery is not catching large amounts of haddock and
they support additional observer coverage. While existing records that were reviewed at
the meeting indicate that levels of groundfish bycatch have been relatively low, there are
concerns that the current level of observer coverage does not provide adequate information
to document the extent of bycatch in the large volume herring fishery.
Lengthy debate, and a great deal of public participation resulted in the Council’s
conclusion that while there are problems in the Atlantic herring fishery, they do not meet
the strict requirements for an emergency action. Ultimately, its members voted to address
this issue during a meeting to be scheduled as soon as possible, focusing on the most
pressing problems in the fishery, including requirements for observer coverage.
The meeting also would address the development of an action to reconsider measures that
were adopted by the Council in Amendment 5 to the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management
Plan, but disapproved by NOAA Fisheries last month, including net slippage provisions
(dumping of unwanted catches) and dealer weighing requirements.
The NEFMC, one of eight regional organizations established by federal legislation in 1976,
is charged with conserving and managing fishery resources from three to 200 miles off the
coasts of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.
So we didn't get what we wanted but we did get the opportunity to get another meeting heading us in the right direction. If the herring midwater boats are such a clean fishery, let them prove it with increased observer coverage and by bringing everything that comes aboard back to the dock. Then we shall see what they have for bycatch exactly. I don't believe that at a time when the New England groundfishery is in such dire straights that these boats should be allowed to tow small mesh in areas where groundfish could be caught. It's simple. To be continued.
Terry Stockwell allowed every agenda item to be addressed before the meeting adjourned. I believe it was finished by 6:30 PM which put us back in Ogunquit by 10:00 PM, after stopping for dinner.
Probably the most interesting part of being in Newport was at lunch when I got a chance to talk to Bill Chaprales, an excellent fisherman from Cape Cod who does most of the great white shark tagging off Chatham, Massachusetts starting in June. I was mesmerized by his stories of great white migrations and their behavioral characteristics in the tagging of them. Very interesting. There were two videos made of his experiences. One was called The Return of Jaws and the other was titled Jaws Comes Home, both of which I plan to see when I get a chance.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
At 5:00 AM EST the air temperature was 24°F, the wind was light out of the north northwest, the sky was clear and the visibility was excellent. There was no wind until noon. After noon and into the night the wind blew out of the southwest at about ten knots. The sky stayed clear and sunny all day. By 6:30 PM, the clouds started to creep in. At that time the air temperature was at the freezing mark. By 9:00 PM, the sky was pretty much overcast, the air temperature had risen to 36°F and wind had freshened from the southwest. The air temperature was mild from 11:00 AM until 4:00 PM. The visibility remained excellent. The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 48°F (with a low of 19°F) today. In Boston, Massachusetts the high was 48°F (with a low of 29°F) today. Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 47°F (with a low of 12°F) today.
I spent some time on the web page this morning before getting into the jobs of the day. The rest of the day was spent doing odd Bunny Clark/Petrel jobs along with getting the generator hooked up and propane tanks installed (I did not do any of the generator stuff - I just made the decisions as to where the gas lines, the tanks, the electrical lines and the generator were to be placed). The afternoon, Deb and I went into Portsmouth to look for fishing materials and pet food. I tried to convince her to take in a movie but that didn't happen.
After closing in the barn with heat shrink plastic, Jared Keniston and Ian Keniston have spent the time rebuilding reels. They could also have been doing a bit of hunting but I haven't heard of any hunting success stories yet.
Friday, November 22, 2013
At 5:00 AM EST the air temperature was 38°F, the wind was light from the southwest, the sky was overcast and the visibility was excellent. A little after 6:30 AM, it started raining lightly. It rained lightly all morning and into the afternoon. By mid afternoon, the rain had stopped. The sky remained overcast long into the evening. The air temperature was on the cool/mild side all day long. There no wind. In fact, the ocean was flat calm all day long. The visibility was excellent. The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 40°F (with a low of 32°F) today. In Boston, Massachusetts the high was 48°F (with a low of 42°F) today. Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 38°F (with a low of 29°F) today.
I spent the day bouncing around between the office, the Barnacle Billy's office, finishing up the generator installation and running errands. It would be boring to write about it all. So I won't.
Ian Keniston and Jared Keniston came to an impasse with the reel repair and rebuilding. They ran out of parts. I had parts in boxes waiting for them at this house (home) but when they got to that point it was also the end of the day as well. So Monday, I suppose. I suspect they are going to try to go hunting tomorrow but it is going to be very windy to be in the woods.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
At 5:00 AM EST the air temperature was 39°F, the wind was blowing out of the west northwest at twenty-five to thirty knots, the sky was clear and the visibility was excellent. The wind blew out of the northwest or west northwest at twenty-five to thirty knots all day. The sky was clear. The air temperature got up into the 40°s; I didn't get a look at the thermometer. The sky remained clear. The visibility was excellent. The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 43°F (with a low of 27°F) today. In Boston, Massachusetts the high was 50°F (with a low of 31°F) today. Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 42°F (with a low of 25°F) today.
I spent the day at the computer and on the Petrel. I had to move the Petrel from her summer mooring to her winter one. I also had some engine work to do on her. And I had to mount the newly updated EPIRB in place on the canopy top. I took the later afternoon off.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
At 5:00 AM EST the air temperature was 24°F, the wind was blowing out of the west northwest at twenty-five to thirty knots, the sky was clear and the visibility was excellent. By 7:00 AM, the air temperature had dropped to 21°F with the air temperature a couple of degrees colder away from the coast. The salient weather features were the wind and the air temperature. This was the coldest day since last winter with a high temperature in Ogunquit only reaching 27°F and wind gusts in the late afternoon up to forty-five knots or about fifty mph. The ocean was feather white with white caps along the short. And most of the day the air temperature remained at 25°F. It was only late in the afternoon the air temperature got up to 27°F. After sunset, the air temperature dropped again. The sky was sunny all day. The visibility was excellent. The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 28°F (with a low of 19°F) today. In Boston, Massachusetts the high was 31°F (with a low of 21°F) today. Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 26°F (with a low of ?°F) today.
I spent the morning riding with the Maine Coast Cycling Club. There were only four of us brave enough to ride in the cold. We started the ride at 19°F and ended it thirty-two miles later at 24°F. It was a tough ride for me because I was on my cyclocross bike with 32 mm tires while the other three were on fast road bikes with 23 mm tires. And the riders were all faster riders than I am anyway. It was a struggle to keep up and, indeed, I got dropped a couple of times. But, in the struggle, I didn't think about the cold. I was plenty warm just trying to maintain my position in the ride.
The afternoon was spent shopping with Deb for house things.
Monday, November 25, 2013
At 5:00 AM EST the air temperature was 17°F, the wind was blowing out of the west at twenty-five knots or more, the sky was clear and the visibility was excellent. The sky stayed clear all day. The air temperature was cold and under 20°F for the first half of the daylight morning. By noon, the air temperature started to feel comfortable with the sun. The wind blew out of the west northwest hard in the morning with one gust I noticed to thirty-five knots. By noon, however, the wind had pretty much blown itself out. This not by summer standards, the wind was still blowing ten to fifteen knots out of the west. But, by winter standards there wasn't much wind. By sunset, the wind had hauled out of the southwest and was picking up steam (starting to air on). The visibility remained excellent. The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 31°F (with a low of 17°F) today. In Boston, Massachusetts the high was 34°F (with a low of 18°F) today. Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 30°F (with a low of ?°F) today. [What, is someone falling asleep at the switch in Concord? Two days in row with missing low temperature readings. Now I could understand Sunday night because of the Patriot's game. But tonight?]
After getting up fairly early, I spent most of the morning working in the office. And most of the things I had to do here involved phone calls to businesses that opened starting at 8:00 AM. So it wasn't until 11:30 AM that I got a chance to leave the house. The first stop was to the post office. The second stop was to Perkins Cove where I had to sink three morning lines and run a storm line underwater (sink line) to a mooring further aft of the Petrel. Once completed, I winterized the Petrel's engine, cleaned the removed mooring buoys and the skiff. Lunch came at about 2:00 PM. From there I spent the rest of the day moving a generator around and getting items ready for Thanksgiving.
Ian Keniston and Jared Keniston showed up at the house to pick up reel parts I had gathered throughout last week (from different distributors). I was busy enough that I didn't hear them. If I had I would have included a parts list with the parts. Needless to say, I got a call from Ian wondering where the parts list was. So I made PDF files for the various lists I had and attached them to an email. I'm not sure if they got any hunting in but I do know that most of their day was consumed with reel repairs.
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
At 5:00 AM EST the air temperature was 32°F, the wind was blowing out of the southwest at twenty knots (more or less), the sky was overcast, there was a patina of snow on the roads and the visibility was just shy of excellent. At 6:00 AM, it started to snow again, the visibility reduced to good. It snowed until at least 8:00 AM. We had a bit of light rain at 9:30 AM. By 10:00 AM, the rain/snow were gone. The sky stayed overcast for the rest of the day. The wind continued to blow out of the southwest or west southwest until around noon or before noon when it petered out to not much wind at all. From noon on, the wind was very light out of some southerly derivative (S, SE & SW). The ocean was calm along the shore. The air temperature seemed cold all day but I never did see a thermometer. The visibility was excellent without the precipitation. The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 34°F (with a low of 27°F) today. In Boston, Massachusetts the high was 44°F (with a low of 32°F) today. Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 35°F (with a low of 26°F) today.
Most of the morning was spent in the office at Barnacle Billy's and at home. In fact, my whole day was spent on orders, vendors and repairs. Nothing really interesting to report, actually. I did talk to Ian Keniston a couple of times in reference to getting the barn furnaces going in preparation for Steve Eberle/Canvasworks to start working on the Bunny Clark on Monday for the initial phase of making new side curtains. The furnaces haven't been started since last year. Ian got back to me to say that they had to bleed one fuel line to start one of the two that are there. But, other than that, all looked good.
At 3:00 PM I took my daughter, Halley, (or she took me) to see Captain Phillips. I loved that movie. I've taken a sailboat delivery through the Malacca Strait off the coast of Sumatra, another heavily pirated area, and never had a good night's sleep going through there. They prey on the ships coming out of Singapore in that area. The South China Sea was another bad area in those days. I thought the movie was very well done and well worth seeing. And Tom Hanks did another great job.
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
At 5:00 AM EST the air temperature was 50°F, the wind was blowing out of the southeast at twenty-five to thirty knots, it was raining fairly hard under thick overcast skies and the visibility on the ocean was not good. The rain started at 1:30 AM. By 5:00 AM, the seas were big enough to be able to hear them pounding on the shore. The size of the seas increased all morning as did the wind. But the wind was backing off by noon. The wind had moments when it blew up to forty knots. It rained all morning but was much lighter in the afternoon. The rain had stopped around mid afternoon. The wind dropped to just about nothing after sunset. The air temperature reached 60°F in Ogunquit. The visibility ranged from fair to good during the mid morning to poor in fog by sunset. The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 58°F (with a low of 33°F) today. In Boston, Massachusetts the high was 62°F (with a low of 39°F) today. Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 53°F (with a low of 32°F) today.
This day was spent running around to vendors in Portland and getting things ready for Thanksgiving.
Thursday, Thanksgiving, November 28, 2013
At 5:00 AM EST the air temperature was 35°F, the wind was blowing out of the west northwest at twenty-five to thirty knots, the sky was clear and the visibility was excellent. The wind blew hard all day out of the west northwest with gusts approaching forty knots in the morning. The wind backed off a touch in the afternoon but some gusts were still reaching thirty knots during the early part. After sunset, the wind hauled out of the west with wind speeds up to twenty-five knots. The sky was clear all day. The air temperature was cold. The visibility was excellent. The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 40°F (with a low of 18°F) today. In Boston, Massachusetts the high was 39°F (with a low of 27°F) today. Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 35°F (with a low of 15°F) today.
A big family day today.
Friday, November 29, 2013
At 5:00 AM EST the air temperature was 23°F, the wind was blowing out of the west at fifteen to twenty knots, the sky was clear with a crescent moon hanging over the southeastern horizon and the visibility was excellent. The wind blew out of the northwest all day, harder in the morning (fifteen knots or so) and lighter in the afternoon (ten knots max). The sky stayed sunny all day. The air temperature hovered around the 30°F mark. The visibility was excellent. The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 30°F (with a low of 14°F) today. In Boston, Massachusetts the high was 35°F (with a low of 23°F) today. Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 29°F (with a low of 8°F) today.
I worked on two projects only today (except for taking advantage of last day before the weekend with businesses still open). One the projects was starting to gather information for the Guestletter. The other project was learning a new Apple computer. I've always used PCs. But I felt I had to get an Apple to keep up with the iPhone and my kids, who have used Apple's forever. That took up my whole day.
I received another donation supporting my fund raising efforts for a cancer cure with the Pan-Mass. Challenge today. This one, a generous $200.00 check from Bob & Donna Nixon (NH), puts me into the second best year for a cancer fund raising total in the seven years that I have been involved. All you generous people out there really pulled me through on this one. It was a year where I had much less time to promote to getting donations but one that made what I do with this organization much more meaningful. I certainly appreciate all your help at a time when it seemed I had none. Thank you Bob & Donna so very much. And thank you all for making this a special season for me. I so appreciate the support!
Saturday, November 30, 2013
At 5:00 AM EST the air temperature was 19°F, the wind was light out of the north on the shore but blowing over ten knots at the nearest weather buoy, the sky was clear with a crescent moon hanging closer to eastern horizon and the visibility was excellent. The wind blew out of the north to northeast at fifteen knots (more or less) in the morning and very light out of the east in the afternoon. The ocean was calm along the shore in the afternoon. After sunset, the wind hauled out of the southwest and was blowing up to fifteen knots by 7:30 PM. The highest air temperature I observed in Ogunquit was 33°F. The was clear all day. The visibility was excellent. The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 29°F (with a low of 12°F) today. In Boston, Massachusetts the high was 35°F (with a low of 20°F) today. Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 30°F (with a low of 3°F) today.
Another Guestletter day.
Sunday, December 1, 2013
At 2:00 AM EST the air temperature was 32°F, the wind was blowing out of the south at twenty knots, the sky was overcast and the visibility was very good at least. More later.
