Surviving the storm

The storm hit last night, taking out our phone lines and subsequently internet. We kept power, however the VHF marine radio was filled with static for most of the day, and our sat phone had a few issues due to the insane conditions. We survived though! It wasn't quite as bad as forecast, but still flooded the area surrounding the house and waves were breaking over large landmarks around the island. Thankfully the house was fairly sheltered from the wind, although it made it hard to stand in some places around the island. Due to the heavy rain, I didn't manage to get too many photos of the worst of it, although if you imagine worse than these waves, you may get within range of the full-blown situation.

Looking towards west-end

The raised crane platform at east landing where boats are hauled out of the water

In front of the crane, around the corner from where we take sea surface temperature readings (old-school style with a bucket and rope from the cliff)

Thankfully it doesn't seem like there has been any major damage to the island, although we are expecting a wet few days still. At least it means that we have plenty of water to last us through the season. This doesn't mean that we get to shower any more often however. We shower every four days as we rely on filtered rain water for all purposes, although despite the most rainfall in years within California, it has to last the island researchers throughout the whole year, assuming that the "drought" continues.

After a day of wandering the island in the rain smothered in many layers of waterproof gear and sheltering whilst inputting data, we should be continuing to collect biological data tomorrow. Here is a quick timelapse taken from the living room window, followed by a non-storm related photo of a burrowing owl (sadly I didn't have my telephoto lens at the time!!)