Stitch, Bear Jam, Moonset, and Cantori

Even with satellite TV, one can't sit in front of the Weather Channel watching the coverage of a hurricane heading towards one's house all day.

A drive through Grand Teton National Park is a good way to change your mindset. To the west is that gorgeous expanse that is the Teton Range...


Oh, it's not all "a walk in the park"... sometimes you have to deal with traffic and parking problems. This is what we call a "bear jam"...


These occur whenever an animal wanders within eyesight of the road... not just a bear, any animal. Moose, elk, bison, bear... they're all called "bear jams". The image above is a two lane road. Some people pull to the shoulder when they see an animal, some stop right on the roadway... with all 4 doors open, no one in the car, and the engine still running. You have to allow extra time to travel on these roads.

Here's an image from yesterday morning on my way to work: Moon Over Mt. Moran...


That's the moon about to set about 6:30 in the morning. Easy to see why I call my morning commute breath-taking.

And back to Hurricane Alex coverage. We know the conditions are getting worse: the rain bands are buffeting the area, the wind speeds are increasing, and Jim Cantori is standing in the rain and wind on our beach... microphone in hand and windbreaker flapping. He is the rock star of weather weasels - no one is happy to see him come to their area.

A note from home...

I just got an e-mail from our neighbor... he is on the board of directors for our community and is staying on the island. The wind and rain are picking up. About 50 people have decided to stay on the island; the bridge is locked open right now, so no way off the island until after the storm. Power outages are expected, but the storm surge will hit at low tide. Fifteen hours out now from the predicted landfall, the computer models are all showing the center of the hurricane to be 80 to 100 miles south of our island. Alex is a big storm, so the rain, flooding and surge will likely affect most of the Texas coast. Brownsville and South Padre Island are in the cone that may see structural damage from the winds and driving rain. No damage to the off shore oil platforms is expected.

Storms...

Well, Tropical Storm Alex is now a hurricane. That was in the back of my mind as I drove the cruiseboat today. Well, until mid-afternoon, when I had some local storms to deal with. I was able to time things so we skirted two cells (the thunderstorms come through the mountains pretty quick), then timed things so I was able to get back into the marina between two other cells. It all moved through the area in time for a pleasant sunset cruise. My first mate (who faces back towards the passengers) said, "Did you see all that lightning?"

"Yep."

A couple days off, in time to stay tuned to the Weather Channel, Weather Underground, and Crown Weather. Alex, now just over 24 hours out from making landfall, looks like it may go south of us... putting us on the "dirty" side, but better than coming right over the top of us.

Still too early to call.

Alex update...

It used to be Jim Cantori... yeah, the guy from the Weather Channel. If he showed up in your area, you knew you were in for a bad time. He stood on our beach just before Hurricane Dolly hit, and it was ugly. Just ask people all along the Gulf Coat - if Cantori shows up, you are likely heading out.

Well, this morning, it was Stephanie Abrams (another Weather Channel anchor person)... and she was standing almost in our back yard! Tropical Storm Alex is expected to ramp up to a Category 2 hurricane before making landfall. Four of the six computer models show it right over the top of us in the next 36 hours.

The house is battened down; the hurricane shutters are down and locked; everything that could be a "missile" was put away when we left. Hopefully, all our neighbors have done the same... because it isn't just the wind, it's what gets carried in the wind that can cause damage.

We'll be watching from afar.

Bear Spray...

We carry a canister of bear spray on both cruise boats. It's mostly for demonstration purposes, but we do the meal cruises on Elk Island and there is the possibility of bear activity there. We call it "Bear MACE" so people know it is a completely different thing from "bug spray." Still, every year someone will spray it on their children, thinking it is bear repellent. It is not. You use it for self defense if you have a close encounter with a bear.

The active ingredient in the bear mace is about 10 times more potent than the mace used on human attackers. It is nasty stuff.

Today, my young first mate picked up the bear mace that we keep on the boat, got a shocked look on his face, then stuck his hand towards my face and said, "I think this stuff is leaking!"

It took about a nano-second before I got the first whiff... by eyes and throat started burning - I could see that my first mate was in pain. I told him to pull the plastic bag out of the garbage and quick double wrap the container. I sent him to the aft deck on the boat to flush his eyes out with water... of course, he had touched his hand to his face. I explained the passengers that we had a "situation" and asked them to open all the windows and for those close by where my first mate had been to move towards the back of the boat.

None of the passengers even got a hint of that stuff since we got it double bagged ASAP. As soon as we got back to the dock, I had one of the dock hands do the first mate's job of assisting the passengers down the steps and sent my first mate inside to flush out his eyes and get his hands washed and something on them to take out the sting. With the passengers off the boat, I went in to flush eyes and scrub up good... and I hadn't touched the stuff.

Neither of us is the worse for wear, but he will have an interesting story to tell, being able to speak personally about how nasty that stuff is.

Other than that, it was an absolutely beautiful day here in the Tetons... brisk in the morning for the breakfast cruise, but with the clear blue sky and abundant sunshine, it warmed up nicely. Mid-70s... short sleeves. Being maced not included, it was a lovely day. ;-)

Insulation...

After the breakfast cruise, it was my day to play mechanic. I replaced a fire extinguisher and bracket, a rudder post locking pin, then went to work on the ugly stuff: removing insulation in the engine compartment on one of the cruise boats. It was a long, tedious job; but, it is done. I got off early enough to take little Izzy for a nice long walk, then sat outside with her for a while. She nearly caught a chipmonk! She stalked, it stood its ground... I reigned in her leash at the last moment. Not sure what she would have done if she caught it... but bites from chipmonks and other small critters are one of the most frequent reasons for visitor visits to the clinic. Of course, Izzy wasn't trying to feed them a potato chip. ;-)

We had thunderstorms to start the day. There were some long faces from the guests when we walked out to the cruise boats in the rain. Radar showed that the worst of it had passed and we could see breaks to the west. Sure enough, by the time we got to the island, the rain had quit. There were a few sprinkles just before we brought everyone back to the boats, but it turned out to be a decent breakfast experience.

As the day went on, the sky cleared... this evening (after I was off) was beautiful.

My day as "first" tomorrow, and another early one.

Tropical Storm Alex...

It's still June, and there's already a storm with a name. I don't like storms with a name. This one is a few days out and approaching the Yucatan in Mexico. Computer models are showing it heading towards our area. Soooooo... we'll be keeping an eye towards the weather in the Gulf. Tropical storms are no fun, but it's better than a full-blown whirley-girl.