Mom & Dad at grand-nephew Patrick Trautfield's wedding

Patrick Trautfield and Valerie Harmon were married yesterday at Mattei's Tavern, an old stagecoach stop in the Santa Ynez valley.
Patrick is the son of Curt, Mom's brother Walter's son.  Mom and Dad went to the wedding in Solvang with my sisters Nancy and Kathryn.  Amazing to be able to go out for an afternoon at 94 and 92. 

Patrick and Valerie with her parents

Maine puffin chick death: Climate change, hungry chicks, and strange fish (VIDEO).

Maine puffin chick death: Climate change, hungry chicks, and strange fish (VIDEO).: 

by Rowen Jacobsen



"The puffin cam, thanks to a grant from the Annenberg Foundation, offered new opportunities for research and outreach. Puffin parents dote on their single chick, sheltering it in a 2-foot burrow beneath rocky ledges and bringing it piles of small fish each day. Researchers would get to watch live puffin feeding behavior for the first time, and schoolkids around the world would be falling for Petey.

But Kress soon noticed that something was wrong. Puffins dine primarily on hake and herring, two teardrop-shaped fish that have always been abundant in the Gulf of Maine. 

But Petey’s parents brought him mostly butterfish, which are shaped more like saucers. Kress watched Petey repeatedly pick up butterfish and try to swallow them. The video is absurd and tragic, because the butterfish is wider than the little gray fluff ball, who keeps tossing his head back, trying to choke down the fish, only to drop it, shaking with the effort. Petey tries again and again, but he never manages it. For weeks, his parents kept bringing him butterfish, and he kept struggling. Eventually, he began moving less and less. On July 20, Petey expired in front of a live audience. Puffin snuff."



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Sea Women snorkeling the Northwest Passage

Roal Amundsen's Gjoa established
the Northwest Passage 1903 - 1906.

Ten women plan to swim the Northwest Passage.  As sport it makes sense to me.  Why not? Firsts are getting hard to come by.  But dressing it up as a scientific expedition to study the sea ice reminds me of An Empire of Ice.  Scott froze on a glacier taking magnetic measurements while Amundsen made a bee line to the South Pole,and got back without injury to claim the prize and tell the tale.  Amundsen was first to sail the Northwest Passage, establishing the route.  The Norwegians have preserved and restored the Gjoa.  It can be seen at the Fram Museum near Oslo.

Morning Doves among the Hostas

Back River Irish Spring

7:15 AM, opened my eyes

GeorgiaBel ready to launch

Green, gray, low tide

Chased by a Whale //Y 42

Our friend Noam Gans and his wife Dalit skippered a 42 foot Cat from the Caribbean to Portugal, arriving at the end of a 3950 mile ourney just a few days ago.  The story is well told at Hitchhikers Guide to the Atlantic.  This video - chased by a whale - was on the last leg, from the Azores to Portugal.  I particularly enjoyed it because I have just finished Stove by a Whale - Owen Chase and the Essex.  That, of course, ended very badly with resort to cannibalism on the skipper's whale boat. - gwc

U.S. Coast Guard Completes Largest Domestic Icebreaking Operation - gCaptain Maritime & Offshore News

U.S. - Canadian icebreakers escort convoys of ore.  The 3 day trip from northern Minnesota
to Gary, Indiana, took 13 days

U.S. Coast Guard Completes Largest Domestic Icebreaking Operation - gCaptain Maritime & Offshore News:

by gCaptain

"The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) reports today they have concluded Operation Taconite, the nation’s largest domestic ice operation which has enabled commercial shipping traffic to operate on the U.S. Great Lakes through one of the most brutal winters on record.  Besides various liquid and dry cargoes, vast amounts of iron ore from the northern shores of Lake Superior were carried to the steel mills in Lake Erie and Lake Michigan while supported by Coast Guard icebreakers.

The Coast Guard notes that although official statistics have not been released, the 2013-14 winter season likely produced the thickest and most expansive ice cover the Great Lakes has experienced in 35 years."



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