Earlier this week I fished for salmon from the boundary rock, a flat topped, terraced beach rock that stands at the point our northern boundary meets the next neighbor’s southern line. The fish have been biting there lately, so I went out before the high tide to see if I could catch dinner.
When I found my spot, I laid out my gear on a small shelf of rock behind me: fish knife, small tackle box, and landing net.
The Alaska Marine Highway ferry went by, which meant I had to watch for her wake. It turned out to be a lot bigger than I’d estimated. I leaped for safety to the top of the rock, but my knife and tackle box washed away.
I saw this as a minor catastrophe. The small tackle box contained several brand new lures, as well as weights and survival gear, and some favorite old lures. I had bought the fish knife a few years ago, and had come to rely on its heavier, stiffer butchering blade. I needed my stuff back. Continue reading 'At the Mercy of Time and Tide'»
On Saturday we had more than a 24-foot tide range (between low and high). We also had a flat calm, so Michelle and I crossed the bay just before the 13-foot level to pick up the canoe on the roadside, freight several hundred pounds of seaweed to the homestead garden, and return.
Since we had some time to kill between walking across and launching the canoe, we decided to stay on the creek to observe the rising tide. We still have not figured out why we and many of our neighbors had so much trouble with a too-high tide on Halloween night.
I'm up a creek. The big rock I'm facing (far left in photo) is the one that nearly covers on a 15 foot tide (Photo: Michelle Zeiger).
We went to the place where we’d crossed that night and started marking the tide at specific times, to compare with our tide software when we returned home. We’d already noticed that even though we’d arrived a few minutes late to cross the creek at the13-feet mark, the actual water level was a good 6 inches below where it should have been—adding further to the mystery. We watched as water crept up to near the top of the rock that had just become exposed when I crossed the creek Halloween night, coming within an inch of my hip wader boot tops. Continue reading 'Observations in “Mud Bay Lab” Offer Few Clues to Mystery'»
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