Turning

Certainly feels like things are turning...Ocean is cooling and the recent rains are distincly late summer. But, we have had a pretty strong El Nino this year, and if my interpretation of the North Pacific weather map is right the high pressure is building again and a long stretch of sun and warmth might be in the offing. For me, early signs of fall are the call of crickets and the way low cloud builds into the Sound, with a layer of it hanging at about 1000 feet against the wall of the Britannia Range. That signals cool and wetter air. We often get a spell like that in summer before it a last blast of heat returns to ripen the blackberries and shine on Bowfest (fingers crossed!). First week of September is rainy, then usually a nice stretch of cool nights and warm days for September before the Salmon Calling season begins, and the streams fill with rain.

Another season at the ball yard draws to a close

Spent the weekend down at the ball field in the Cove watching the 24th annual Bowen Island Men's Fastpitch Tournament. All six teams play three games each and the top four go through to a knock out round.

There weren't too many exciting games in the round robin, but the first game between the Diggers and the Celtics was fantastic. The lead kept switching back and forth and the Celtics won 8-7 holding on to secure the victory over the Diggers. The Diggers are a great young team, coming into their own with excellent defence. During the regular season they won their last nine games in a row to finish well. They are definitely the team to watch.

All of that youthful vigour however comes at a price, and in the semi-final they drew the Twins, a long standing and very experienced team. The Diggers were one out away from victory when an errant throw from third led to two runs scoring. Needing to bat again, the Diggers had the tying run on third with two out when the runner was called out for leading off, which is of course illegal in softball. The umps had no choice - he was at least two paces down the third base line, nut it was a heartbreaking way to finish their season.

The Firemen beat the tired Celtics in the other semi-final and a rematch of last year's final was set. The Twins put on a clinic, with their years of experience showing as they couldn't let the Firemen get started. Despite a late rally, the Twins won the Championship again this year making it two in a row and moving to an all-time record of 12 wins out of the 24 tournaments dating back to 1986.

So fastpitch on the dry field in the Cove wraps up for another season, and the first signs of the end of summer are upon us. Bowfeast next weekend, followed by BowFest two weeks after that. As if to foreshadow the change, a low pressure system has moved in today and it is cool and raining, heavily at times, and the southeast wind occasionally shakes the trees.

Bowen Island songs now online

I have finally put my Bowen Island songs back up on the web. There will be a new one added to this list after Bofest when I unleash the newest Bowen song in the songwriting contest.

Click through to listen, sing and enjoy.

Grey

The cloud is moving in...a couple of cold fronts and some low pressure zones have found their way through the high ridge and are builing in to the coast. This will bring welcome relief to those fighting fires up higher in our airshed, which extends up towards Lillooet, but only if it rains. The weekend looks to be completely wet which will be good news.

This has been the worst fire season in BC history with hundreds of forest fires bursting out all over the place. The big ones near Lilooet are send smoke down our way so there is a fine veil of haze in the Georgia Basin hanging under the high cloud.

The sky feels pregnant, like it wants badly to rain, but so far, nothing.

The return

The heat has broken, the clouds are moving in and the sky is lowering. Much needed rain is on the way.

Into the blue

Lovely day in Howe Sound was friends Chris and Nairn Robertson. Chris has a sweet boat, a Farrel hull cruiser, that we sometimes ride around in. He lives over in Gibsons and comes to meet us in Galbraith Bay and then we usually head over to Keats Island and swim and carry on. Today we ended up at Pebble Beach on Keats, jumping from the boat into the water which has reached 26 degrees now, and is positively tropical.

More photos of our day are here.

At the beach

Everyday, at the beach, swimming two or three times a day both to keep the heat off and to enjoy the incredibly warm water. Yesterday I was snorkeling at Tunstall Bay and when I dove down 10 or more feet there was no thermocline, the line at which warm surface water separates from the colder, deeper water. The water has been incredibly warm - the water temperature tonight at Halibut Bank is 21 degrees, and that's in the open. It's more like 23 or higher close to shore, especially at the surface.

Lots of seaweed coming up now. I've been out collecting for the garden. Also lots of wasps around suddenly this week at the beach and elsewhere.

The high we are living under right now is unusual in that it extends high into the atmosphere and it's very difficult for anything to make a dent in it. Not complaining mind. The high dry air has trapped smoke from the forest fires near Lillooet giving us beautiful sunsets and mercury coloured water. I haven't seen a plane contrail in weeks.

Summer lingers on.