Devils Day 18

Monday, July 25^th, 2005

Very busy day. Major fly hatch this morning. Radio operator error (me, I left the radio on channel 3) resulted in 20 minute late morning report. At 8:30, we notice Fabian (423) fixing a leak out by the propane tank covered with flies. Calm 70 degree, SW breeze presumably brought the flies. Fabian fixed the leak, had a blueberry brownie but then could not get his boat started. In the meantime, two husky young guys from NOAA (National Weather Service) came to work on their equipment atop the lighthouse. They asked to use our cart. We misunderstood them and took them with the cart down to the east landing. It turned out they needed to get to the S. landing. They were just too polite to ask if we knew what we were doing. They were Mississippi boys, so everything was “yes sir” and “yes ma’am”. I asked if there was anything else they needed and the immediate reply was “Bug spray!” Anyway we had a steady stream of visitors in and out of the tower while the NOAA guys replaced all the sensors at the top of the tower. When they were finished, the one that had intermittently failed was completely dead. They had to haul their gear to the S. landing to meet the coast guard boat and then walk back and replace another switch in the panel. They claimed that after 3 trips, 6 hours and 5 million flies, that everything was working. Still, the NOAA weather channel (162.525 MHz) was reporting all night that the readings from Devil’s Island were “not available”. In the meantime, back at the east landing, Fabian tried to troubleshoot the ignition system on his boat without any luck. Brian (421) came out to pick up water samples because they had to be in the mail by noon but Fabian (Gilligan) had to stay with the boat. Someone came later and towed him in. After all this we kayaked the sea caves and walked to the S. landing to get our cart. We watched the sunset from the S. landing. At 10 pm huge waves were hitting the sea caves. 19 visitors.