adambolonsky
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Posts posted by adambolonsky
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Chris Junda is looking for donations to support his ongoing bird capture and banding/census work at Monomoy.
He spends several weeks camped each fall at the south island lighthouse -- a two-hour or so paddle from Stage Harbor or Hardings Beach -- where paddlers can witness the ongoing renovations to the keepers house, oil house and tower.
Here's Chris's website:
Here's some video:
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It is time for the final round of horseshoe crab tagging of the year as a new moon approaches on June 19th. So far we have tagged 643 crabs, so let's keep it up!
This is an initial email looking for volunteer availability on June 19th (Tuesday). We are looking for 6 - 10 who can help us on that date. You must be physically able to get in and out of our boats from the water. Tagging requires a lot of walking, reaching into the water, wading in the water, and of course picking up crabs. YOU will get very wet/dirty. Likewise you will need to be able to bring a lunch, water, sunscreen, bug sprays, sunglasses/hat, etc. Tagging takes 3 - 4 hours and we ask that you arrive at our headquarters an hour and a half before high tide on the day of tagging.
High Tide on the 19th is 12:54pm
Volunteer opportunities are on a first come first serve basis and spots will fill up fast! So please respond at your earliest convenience. Please keep in mind that tagging efforts are weather dependent and I will need the best way to contact you in case we need to cancel due to inclement weather or any changes that may occur. I look forward to hearing from you and working together. Thank you in advance.
Marla E. Hamilton, M.S.
SCEP, Biological Science Technician
Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge
(508) 945-0594 ext. 12 (office)
(978) 460-7342 (cell)
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It is time for round 3 of horseshoe crab tagging as a full moon approaches on June 4th. Our last tagging effort was successful at tagging over 280 HSC, so lets keep it up!
This is an initial email looking for volunteer availability on June 2 or June 3. We are looking for 6 - 10 who can help us on that date. You must be physically able to get in and out of our boats from the water. Tagging requires a lot of walking, reaching into the water, wading in the water, and of course picking up crabs. YOU will get very wet/dirty. Likewise you will need to be able to bring a lunch, water, sunscreen, bug sprays, sunglasses/hat, etc. Tagging takes 3 - 4 hours and we ask that you arrive at our headquarters an hour and a half before high tide on the day of tagging.
High Tide on the 2nd is 10:33am
High Tide on the 3rd is 11:30am
Volunteer opportunities are on a first come first serve basis and spots will fill up fast! So please respond at your earliest convenience. Please keep in mind that tagging efforts are weather dependent and I will need the best way to contact you in case we need to cancel due to inclement weather or any changes that may occur. I look forward to hearing from you and working together. Thank you in advance.
Marla E. Hamilton, M.S.
SCEP, Biological Science Technician
Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge
(508) 945-0594 ext. 12 (office)
(978) 460-7342 (cell)
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For more info, email Marla_Hamilton@fws.gov
Marla writes:
Another season of Horseshoe Crab tagging is upon us and I hope you all look forward to a safe and productive season this year. First let me introduce my self. I am Marla Hamilton and a SCEP student here at Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This year I have been assigned as the lead with coordinating tagging efforts at Monomoy NWR. While previously on the refuge many Horseshoe crabs were seen spawning and therefore a decision was made to start our tagging efforts earlier this year. We have been charged with tagging up to a 1000 Horseshoe crabs this year. So let’s start tagging!
The next full moon is Saturday May 5, 2012. This is an initial email looking for volunteer availability on the 3rd and 4th of May. We are looking for 6-10 people who can help us on the listed dates. You must be physically able to get in and out of our boats from the water. Tagging requires a lot of walking, reaching into the water and picking up crabs, wading in the water and you will get very wet/dirty. Likewise you will need to be able to bring a lunch, water, sunscreen, bug spray, sunglasses /hat, etc. Tagging takes 3 – 4 hours and we ask that you arrive at our headquarters an hour and a half before high tide on the day of tagging.
· High Tide on the 3rd is at 10:00 am
· High Tide on the 4th is at 10:56am
Volunteer opportunities are on a first come first serve basis and spots will fill up fast! So please respond at your earliest convenience. Please keep in mind that tagging efforts are weather dependent and I will need the best way to contact you all in case we need to cancel due to inclement weather or any changes that may occur. I look forward to hearing from you and working together. Thank you in advance.
Marla E. Hamilton, M.S.
SCEP, Biological Science Technician
Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge
(508) 945-0594 ext 12 - Office
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The National Fish and Wildlife Service is looking for volunteers to help with their annual tern census at Monomoy.
Here's their press release. Contact Kate at Kate_Iaquinto@fws.gov if you're interested:
It's time to start signing up for the tern census. Please let me know as soon as possible if you are able and willing to help out on June 15th, 16th, or 17th.
Since it falls on a weekend this year we will likely have more volunteers than we can take, so the sooner you sign up the better. Please contact me if you would like to volunteer or if you know someone who is interested. Spaces will fill up quickly, let me know as soon as possible if you or a staff member of yours would like to help. Limited space is available for overnight guests and spaces will be given on a first come first serve basis. Feel free to call or e-mail me if you have any questions. Please feel free to share this invite with others who I may have accidentally left off this list.
Need ~10-15 volunteers to assist each day; census involves an intense survey to count all of the tern and laughing gull nests on the north tip of South Monomoy; the census usually takes 2-3 days to complete, but we allow a longer window to account for weather dependent conditions, the amount of volunteers we have available, and how many nests the terns lay. Most of the survey work will take place in the beginning of this window.
Notes - requires a good amount of walking; bring water, lunch, sunscreen and dress for field conditions (long pants, hat, sunglasses, comfortable sturdy footwear), which will include walking through tall grass and areas of poison ivy and ticks; also bring hip waders (if you have them) or water shoes for getting on and off the boat. Wear old clothing that you don't mind getting messy!
Please contact me if you have any questions!
Kate E. Iaquinto, Wildlife Biologist
U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge
(508) 945-0594 Ext. 13 - Office Phone
(978) 580-0616 - Cell Phone
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From Twitter:
BoatUS Foundation's subsidized PFD program: $5 per pfd for non-profits that serve teens. 3/31 deadline: http://tinyurl.com/7kwpoyl
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Picked this up today via twitter. Lots of right whales off P-Town.
Alex Otto and Bob Budd had great views of whales surfacing and feeding there not long ago.
Twitter link:
@CetaceanSociety: Provincetown, MA: Unexpectedly high number of North Atlantic right whales: fb.me/RMCaMCrd
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I've got a story in the pipeline for a late winter story in On the Water Magazine on kayak camping/fishing and need some camping photos to complement the ones I already have.
Anybody have high-res photos (at least 1 mb.) I could use?
You'll get a photo byline in the magazine. I'd pay for the pics, but the rate I'm getting paid, though competitive with other regional fishing mags, is pretty low.
email me at adambolonsky@yahoo.com
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The latest edition of NOAA Chart 1, the guide to navigation chart symbols, is available for free as a high-res PDF download at
http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/chartno1.htm
If you ever wondered what the numbers, symbols and abbreviations on a nav chart mean ("gc" vs. "rn", for example), this index truly helps.
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Camping out on the island for much of the fall, a volunteer team coordinates the assessment, weighing, banding and releasing of birds they catch with long nets strung along the east of the lighthouse.
Meanwhile the lighthouse and related structures continue to undergo their extensive historical renovations.
Video:
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Video: Launching in fog off the northeast shore of Thachers Island in the cove at the foot of the north lighthouse.
Thachers Island Association: Contact them to camp overnight at Thachers for $5.00 per night.
Shot with a Kodak zi8 HD waterproof video camera and Kayalu camera mount.
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There's usually only one partner in a couple willing to sleep out overnight from a sea kayak. Here are three well-reviewed 3-season tents solo available for cheap from Amazon. They're all made by Eureka, are well-reviewed, and ship free.
Eureka Solitaire: $65
Eureka Spitfire: $89
Eureka Backcountry: $129
One handy way to kayak camp is to pack a large base-camp tent to set up on a homebase island. Keep the the solo tent stashed in a hatch. Set out one morning for another island further away, and if like the place so much you want to spend the night there, you have a second tent.
Or say you land on island large enough that a hike to an inland campsites is attractive and feasible. No problem. Solo tents are small enough to stash in a daypack: a feasible tactic on large backcountry camping islands where long hikes are very much worth the effort.
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Thanks for the heads up Adam, I just ordered one. Now if you can find me a great deal on a one person tent!
Hi Gene;
here are three well-reviewed solo tents available through Amazon. All are 2010 closeouts:
Eureka Solitaire: $65
Eureka Backcountry: $129
Eureka Spitfire: $89
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Kodak's Zi3 waterproof HD videocamera shoots good quality hd footage, including 60fps for super slo-mo.
Amazon sells them new for $149; refurbished for $79.
The refurbs are a good deal. Plus you get Amazon's terrific refund/return policy (I returned my first refurb Zi3 because the white balance was off.)
Sample footage: Cape Cod's Monomoy Island.
Sample footage: St. Peter's Fiesta greasy pole contest, Gloucester, Massachusetts.
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For the sea kayaker and kayak fisherman who wants to sleep outdoors: a well-reviewed sleeping bag for $28 at Sea Kayaking Dot Net's online Amazon store:
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Everything the outdoors waterborne adventurer might want (and online). From tents to campstoves to waterfilters to books.
Visit the new Sea Kayaking Dot Net gear and equipment store at Amazon.
Here's a good buy: Featherlite +20 sleeping bag for $49.99
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Electric bilge pumps: I remember when NSPN first started that several members experimented with electric bilge pumps. David Lewis brought one to Mystic Lake to test. No one really knew what to make of the idea. But then again, none of us really knew what we were doing, and everything was an experiment.
Hand bilge pumps always struck me as dicey on a solo trip. Capsize in rough conditions when you're solo and the drill is, if you can't roll, wet-exit, get the kayak upright and re-enter. Allright, done. But then you're still in the conditions that capsized you, and now you have to use two hands to run the hand pump.
Meanwhile, you can't use your paddle to brace in the swell or chop or wind or breaking waves that dumped you. Both hands are fully occupied. Always a scenario that has unnerved me to think about. Moreover, your skirt is either fully open or partially so. So even while you're bailing, you're getting swamped.
Rule bilge pumps, by the way, are made in Gloucester up on Kondelin Road in West Gloucester. Boat bilge pums use a float switch. Once water rises in the bilge, the float switch activates the pump.
That's why at docks you see often see unmanned boats at abruptly burping water from their blige ports above the water line.
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What was that like, having the CG show up? I was surprised to see in the photo that they placed you between the rescue boat and your kayak.
Did they haul your kayak aboard and take you ashore?
I'd love to hear what the rest of the rescue was like: the details of what happened once the CG picked you up and you were in their boat.
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I wrote an article last year for the Yahoo Contributor Network on Monomoy, off Chatham at the southernmost elbow of the Cape.
There's been a third island, for three years now, on the western edge of the northwest flats. The Fish and Wildlife Service named the island Minimoy. You can't land on Minimoy: it's refuge land. Minimoy's been steadily gaining in size, bulk, and height over the time I've padddled past it.
Here's a link to the story. It doesn't feature Minimoy so much as describe the whole area. Lots of typos though:
Monomoy and Minimoy Islands, Chatham
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Here's a picture that tells a whole story: exhausted paddler, sleeping pad attached to aft deck, paddle float deployed, paddler too tired and weak to get back into the boat.
The Coast Guard shows up to help.
This one's from Gulfport, Mississippi. The guy was okay,used his vhf to call for help.
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Info from our friends at Kayalu, right here in Cambridge, Ma.: crummy night paddling lights sold to kayakers. Most of the lights are flimsy; many of them, flat-out illegal.
Link:
Also, don't turn on your strobe at night unless you're in distress.
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The same area, this time at the Brewster Harbor channel. The channel shifts monthly -- the local harbormaster sticks trees into the flats to mark it.
A dull paddling area but very productive if you're kayak fishing for stripers or bluefish in the fall.
Photo © 2011. Write for permissions.
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Dee Hall at Cape Cod's Brewster Flats on a hot August afternoon just before a huge thunderstorm broke loose.
photo © 2011 Adam Bolonsky. Write for permissions.
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UMIB's (urgent marine information broadcasts) get sent over ch. 16 all the time as securite ("say-cure-ee-tay") calls. Both warn of safety hazards.
Often they have to do with weather. We hear them locally all the time here in summer, usually as warnings of fast-moving thunderstorms spilling into Massachusetts and Ipswich Bays and Salem Sound when dry northwesterlies hit the humid shorelines to the west and southwest. We hear the warnings on the radio before we see the ugly sky.
Here's an impressive UMIB securite call. Listen all the way to the end and you'll hear a boater call the CG plane on 16 to ask for permission to use a waterway to duck in out of the weather:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/audio/24333/us_east_coast_hurricanes_coast_guard.html?cat=16
Keeping the VHF tuned to 16 during the summer in Massachusetts, especially the North and South Shores, is a good idea. You'll hear thunderstorm warnings all the time.
blackburn
in General Message Board
Posted
Good Morning Gloucester has posted time-lapse and video coverage of the race:
2012 Blackburn Challenge timelapse video/coverage at bit.ly/7yGKTS