I just saw the trees move. For about two weeks we’ve been in smoke from wildfires up north, but the breeze is forecast to come up today. Personally, I’ve had trouble with burning eyes.
I went into the hospital for the installation of a few stents in my iliac arteries, the ones that feed the legs. All went fine, but I’m sore and somewhat bruised; I planned on keeping my feet up for several days.
Unfortunately I was prescribed Plavix to keep the metal work from getting gummed up. This stuff makes platelets slippery so they don’t stick together, just the opposite of what they are supposed to do. So I’m at risk in case of a bleeding event. I’ve already got enough bruises from taking aspirin, and I know from experience this will make it worse. Whether it’s worth it or not I’ll know in a week or two.
Listening to Vessel Traffic on the radio is sometimes entertaining around here. The Coast Guard is always helpful, informative, and very skilled at keeping the ships apart provided captains talk to them and follow their advice. It is an extremely serious offense not to accept their helpful friendly advice. A ship is northbound from Seattle and calls in to take a left-hand turn across the shipping lanes into Port Townsend. VT asked him his visibility, since the Strait was completely fogged in:
“About a 1/4 mile”
“The Navy vessel 52 is astern of you northbound doing 15 knots, The tug Timberwolf is southbound with a barge astern. Is it your intention to cross the lanes into Port Townsend?”
[answer not heard]
“The LARGE Navy vessel 52 is northbound behind you, the southbound tug with one barge in tow is approaching Pt Wilson, and the cruise ship xxxx is southbound behind the tug. Is it still your intention to go to Port Townsend?”
I didn’t hear anything else, but was laughing. The friendly dispatcher didn’t say no right away, but he did make a strong case that was heard by every ship for 30 miles that the proposed maneuver was stupid in the fog. Radar works in the fog, but making a dangerous choice that relies on it to be working is foolish.
Yesterday one of our ferry boats lost it’s rudder and ran aground on the Whidbey side. It was discovered the props and rudder were fouled with crab pots and lines and needs to be drydocked for a few days to untangle the mess. There are thousands of pots in the bay, and every 30 minutes the ferries plough through them, mostly with no trouble, but they do tend to accumulate over the summer.
I can see white clouds now, something we haven’t seen in 2 weeks….