Bunny Clark Fishing Update
Written & Edited by Tim Tower
Saturday, November 30, 2024, 5:30 AM EST
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It was another beautiful fall day in southern Maine. The weather does not owe us anything at this point. Of course, I used to say that about the Red Sox but, I'll admit, I'm getting a little antsey. The sky was mostly clear all day with some clouds in the afternoon. Air temperatures were seasonal with a high of 62°F that I saw. The visibility was excellent. The wind blew out of the west southwest for most of the morning. Wind speeds were about fifteen knots. Before noon, the wind backed out of the west northwest and blew up to twenty-five knots or more. This kept up throughout the day and on into the night. Some gusts were up over thirty knots with leaves blowing everywhere. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 65°F (with a low of 45°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 60°F (with a low of 28°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 59°F (with a low of 33°F).
I spent the day working in the home office working on a mixture of things including restaurant stuff and Bunny Clark stuff. Plus, I concentrated on getting a new engine for the Petrel, renovating the deck at Barnacle Billy's and getting a new bait freezer up and running here at the house.
Ian Keniston worked at the Bunny Clark, getting her ready to move over the road and into the barn. He stopped off here at the house to go over a few things before going home.
I was down at the restaurant for a while.
The dredging continues in the channel leading out of Perkins Cove. Below is a shot from the back of the Cove, by Barnacle Billy's, Etc, showing the bridge, the dredging barge and tug and the lack of boats on moorings. This is a strange sight at this time of year. I thought you might appreciate the different view. Of course, there is always the Barnacle Billy's webcam if you want to go to www.barnbilly.com.
It seemed like a typical clear fall day today. The wind was out of the northwest with armies of white caps marching off to the southeast. Wind speeds were strong or about twenty to thirty knots, on average, all day. Leaves blew around the yard in accordance with the wind. The visibility was excellent. I'm sure we could have seen Mt. Washington had we been offshore. The sky was mostly cloudless all morning and mostly sunny in the afternoon. The air temperature got up to 52°F, that I saw. Because of the wind direction, we had no ocean influence on the air temperature. The water is getting colder as we lead into winter. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 52°F (with a low of 40°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 50°F (with a low of 25°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 49°F (with a low of 29°F).
I worked in the office here at home until I had to meet with Jayson Lessard (our carpenter) and Mike Dumas (New England's best welder - custom railing producer) at Barnacle Billy's at 7:30 AM. We have to re-plank the deck at Original. On top of that, I am considering putting up a stainless railing with horizontal tubing so that our customers have a better view of Perkins Cove while eating/drinking. We met for about an hour and went over all the possibilities. We left with measurements and ideas so that we can get together in the near future to make some decisions and start the project. This, of course, needs to be completed before the season starts on April 4, 2025.
I did a little more work trying to decide on the new engine that I want to put in the Petrel.
The rest of the day I worked on the Guestletter. In so doing, I completed the task of figuring out who the Fisherman of the Year for 2024 is. I also figured out how to bring my old computer back to life. As I wrote, it died two days ago. Or, I thought it did. I'm hoping I have extended it's life further into the future. I had given up hope until I had renewed interest today. In the process of bringing the old girl back, I realized that I hadn't copied some of the files that I had needed to continue with the Guestletter. Yikes! I could have gotten by without them but it would have meant more time, much of which I do not have.
The dredging in the channel continued today. At one point the tug and barge came in the Cove to turn around. That was quite a sight. I was hoping they weren't going to take out the restaurant in the process. But it was a well controlled 180° turn. I did take some pictures of the actual channel dredging. One of these appears below.
It was another nice day after a cold start in the morning. The visibility stayed excellent all day. The sky was mostly clear and sunny. The air temperature rose to 56°F and stayed around that air temperature for a couple hours after and around noon. The wind blew out of the southwest in the morning and out of the west in the afternoon. Morning wind speeds were light most of the morning, picking up steam before noon. We had barely ten knots of wind before 11:00 AM. Winds picked up out of the west to almost twenty knots at 2:30 PM. Mostly, wind speeds were about fifteen knots. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 58°F (with a low of 36°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 56°F (with a low of 22°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 55°F (with a low of 24°F).
I hung around the home office all day, pretty much. Most of my time was spent on designing the new Guestletter on a day where vendors weren't calling and very few phones were ringing. I'm actually a little bit further ahead on the Guestletter than I normally am. I would probably be even further ahead if it were not for dealing with this dying computer that I have come to love over the years. Also, this time of year, anything can slow me down in the completion of this yearly project.
I took Gill, our border collie, for a walk on the beach today. I figured it would help us both. A fast walk to the first house in Moody on leash, off leash for a slower walk back and back on the leash to get to the truck. He did okay on the fast walk up. But, afterward, I thought that it wasn't as much fun for Gill. That, maybe, I should go a bit slower and stop here and there so he can smell things. The walk back seemed a bit boring to him. He moped along as I walked ahead and kept gaining on him, coming back periodically to coax him on. When we got home, Gill was content in lying among the oak leaves that seem to be everywhere on our property now.
It was another warm fall day across Maine today. The wind blew out of the southwest all morning. Wind speeds of thirteen to fifteen knots were the rule. Offshore, I noticed, seas were over three feet in chops for most of the day. After noon, the wind, on land, backed out of the west. The wind blew out of the west at ten to fifteen knots, or so, on into the night. The air temperature climbed into the 60s with the highest that I saw, a value of 66°F. I wouldn't be surprised if it rose a couple of degrees higher. The visibility was very good in some haze. The sky remained mostly clear all day. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 68°F (with a low of 52°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 65°F (with a low of 43°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 67°F (with a low of 47°F).
After completing this missive, I worked on the Guestletter a bit more. By 8:00 AM, I was down at the restaurant to greet the hood cleaners. They were there to get all the grease that has accumulated high of the hood fans over the grill and the lobster cooker tanks. This is imperative to complete after every season. I had made a reservation to have them down there a year in advance. This particular company out of Lewiston is very good at what they do.
I had a meeting, afterward, with my two managers at Barnacle Billy's, Etc. (Micah Tower & Sarah Cannon) about changing opening and closing times at Etc. We do very little business from 8 to 9 PM in the spring and the fall. So we are thinking of making our closing time at 8 PM during those parts of the season. We can always stay open if the business is good enough. But having all that staff on when we aren't taking in new customers is expensive. We are also going to be opening an hour earlier; at 11 AM instead of noon. When we come to some salient decisions, I will put it on the website at barnbilly.com.
At 11:00 AM, I was racing to Safe Harbor to meet Independant Boat Haulers, who were moving the Bunny Clark to her winter resting place. I got there just as they were moving the boat up the hill and out to the open road. IBH has always been very good to me. I have always enjoyed doing business with them. I took my time, got a coffee and landed at the Barn just as the Bunny Clark was being placed inside. Ian Keniston was already there. It took about a half an hour to get everything completed. I took a picture of the Bunny Clark a couple days before as she was setting on stands at Safe Harbor. This digital image appears below.
After I was done for the day I went for a walk/run for a little over six and a half miles. When I got home, I grabbed Gill and took him for a private walk unleashed on the Marginal Way under the half moon. It was a perfect night for a dog walk. It took twenty-five minutes to cover three quarters of a mile. There is a lot of sniffing to do on the Marginal Way.
The salient weather feature today was the wind. By sunrise, the wind had backed out of the northwest and was blowing at fifteen to twenty knots or more. By noon, the northwest wind had increased to twenty-five or more knots with gusts to thirty-five knots. The wind stayed strong all day and long into the night. But after mid afternoon, the wind was mostly out of the north. The sky was mostly clear all day with some clouds. The visibility over the ocean was excellent. The ocean along the shore went from an army of white caps headed offshore to that same army headed back at us from the north. The highest air temperature that I observed was 53°F around noon. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 58°F at 1:05 AM (with a low of 37°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 54°F at 12:14 AM (with a low of 32°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 52°F at 12:32 AM (with a low of 33°F).
I worked at the desk here at home until I had to leave at 9:00 to meet an appointment in Exeter with my dermatologist. I spent the rest of the day working on restaurant stuff in preparation for the following Barnacle Billy's season.
The plan for the restaurants next season is for Barnacle Billy's, Etc. to open on May 2nd (instead of the May 1 date that I now have posted on the Barnacle Billy's website) at 11:00 AM and continue the 11:00 AM opening time for the whole season. In the past, we have had week days during the spring where we opened at 5:00 PM. That will not happen next season. When we are open, we will open at 11:00 AM. In the past, Barnacle Billy's, Etc. stayed open until 9:00 PM. Next season, we will stay open until 9:00 PM only during the months of July and August. The rest of the season, spring and fall, we will close at 8:00 PM. If the business warrants it on busy days, we can always stay open later. But, for us, it has been a waste of time and money to stay open that extra hour for the amount of interest it generates.
Ian Keniston and Danny DellaMonica worked at framing up the outside of the barn where the bow of the Bunny Clark sticks out. This has been a thing for forty-two years. They were not able to compete the job of putting the plastic around the framing as it was much too windy. They will tackle that later.
The wind was the salient feature of the today's weather again. It wasn't horrible but it did blow out of the north at twenty knots or more all morning. By afternoon, it had dropped a bit but it was still blowing out of the north at fifteen to twenty knots. After sunset, it increased again with as easterly lilt to it. At 8:00 PM, the wind was blowing out of the north northeast at almost twenty-five knots. The sky was clear all day with few clouds. The visibility was excellent. The highest air temperature that I saw was 46°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 46°F (with a low of 32°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 46°F (with a low of 21°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 43°F (with a low of 28°F).
After posting this update, I met the two individuals who delivered fuel to the Bunny Clark and fuel and gas to both restaurants. I wanted to go over the game plan for next season and to thank them for all the help they gave me this last season. We leave the dock at such odd hours on the boat during a season and they are always there for me. I can call them at any time of day without having to go through the office at Estes, the company I have dealt with for many years. Mike Estes and his daughter, Kate, own the business. I grew up right across the street from where Mike's wife, Terry, grew up. And Mike has been a good friend for a long time.
I had a dentist appointment at 8:00 AM.
By 9:30 AM, I was involved in meetings with the kitchen staff at Barnacle Billy's, Etc. Managers Micah Tower and Sarah Cannon ran the meeting while I chimed in here and there. That lasted all morning. After lunch, I went back to Barnacle Billy's, Etc where I met with Micah and Sarah again to go over the work order repair list so I can draw up a proper list and start on the projects. The main project for Billy's will be the re-planking of the deck and installing a new stainless steel railing.
I was done with the restaurants at 4:00 PM. After I got home, I started to pack for Recreational Advisory Panel meeting to take place in Providence, RI at 9:00 AM tomorrow morning. Initially, I was going to drive down tonight. But, after thinking about it, I didn't want to get into a mess at night after getting up at 3:00 AM today and fighting through being too tired as I drove down there. It certainly would be along night if I broke down trying to get there. So I decided to go down early tomorrow morning, stay the night tomorrow night and drive home early the next morning.
The sky stayed clear all day, cloudless at some points, I was told. The wind blew out of the north or north northeast all morning. Wind speeds were fifteen to twenty knots. After noon, the wind was directly out of the north at ten to fifteen knots. This wind remained through most of the night. The visibility remained excellent. The air temperature reached a high of 46°F again today, I was told. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 44°F (with a low of 31°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 47°F (with a low of 17°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 45°F (with a low of 24°F).
I left the house at 4:45 AM to drive to Providence for the Recreational Advisory Panel meeting to take place at 9:00 AM. The RAP is a committee that advises the New England Fishery Management Council on recreational fishing issues. Most of the what the RAP suggests the Council accepts, or has in the past. But not always. Our decisions are based on the best science available from other factions in New England including the Northeast Fisheries Center. But we also bring new ideas to the table and we help form the fishing regulations every year. On the regulation front, we rarely stray too far from what our advisors say according to the bio-economic models. This meeting today was held by Council staff. They do such a good job setting all this up. Robin Frede, a fishery analyst for groundfish, took the lead today. She's excellent.
Today the meeting was set around gearing up for the meeting in January where we make suggestions for the upcoming regulations for recreational fishing year 2025, which starts on May 1, 2025 and ends on April 30, 2026. The areas of concern are the Gulf of Maine (GOM) regulations and the Georges Bank (GB) regulatory areas. That's generally the areas we cover. More specifically, we are concerned with the southern New England cod stocks. Most of the groundfish we catch will remain with the same regulations that we have had for the last two years. This includes pollock, cusk, wolffish, red hake, mackerel, shark species, white hake, halibut, whiting, etc. Of major concern, as I just mentioned, are the cod stocks. The haddock stocks are also a big concern but not as concerning as the cod stocks. The cod stocks are in trouble according to the best available science and according to me. Although, most don't agree with me. [I think that a lot of the reason most don't agree with my views on cod is that they haven't been in the fishery as long as I have and their idea of a healthy cod stock is very different from mine. But this is my opinion. My view is that I care more about the fish than most anyone I talk to. I realize that some of these regulations are onerous enough to put people out of business. But, sometimes, you have to make hard choices to get the desired outcome. Basically, if you save the fish you save the fishermen and the fishery. Like I said, my view.]
The long and short is that the cod, or lack thereof, are driving the regulations. Every year a cod quota (in layman terms), called a sub-ACL (Annual Catch Limit) is set for both the GOM and the GB. Last year the GOM's sub-ACL was set at 179 metric tons. This coming season, I learned, the sub-ACL will be set at 99 metric tons. This may still give us some cod to keep in the fall. But it may not. A lot depends on how close we got to this season's sub-ACL after all the landings are tallied up. If we caught more that 100 metric tons this season (and discards are included in this assessment), we will be seeing further restrictions. It will be close. The good thing is that there is very little recreational fishing for cod in December, January, Feburary and March. There is some recreational fishing that catches cod in April. Of course, projections will have to be assumed as we won't have the numbers at our January RAP meeting. There will certainly be some debate.
As far as the GB stocks, southern New England cod stocks, their sub-ACL was 77 metric tons last year. According to the "best available science", the spawning stock biomass - cod of 17" or over - has been caught every year for the last few years. This is hard to imagine since we keep catching it. What is hard for most fishermen to swallow is that why, if we are catching the SSB every year, are there still a good amount of cod to catch every year? It's a good question. But it's also a question that can't be answered, much to the chagrin of fishery managers, fishermen and stakeholders. The powers that be are setting the sub-ACL for southern New England cod at 11 metric tons. Unfortunately, the discarded cod alone will probably get you to that figure. So, assuming they stay with that yearly quota, no angler will be able to keep cod in southern New England during fishing year 2025.
Needless to say, there was much debate about the potential for very restrictive regulations for this coming fishing season in both the GOM and SNE. No decisions were made today, of course. So it wasn't heated in the debate arena. But I can see some potential for that in the future. By the way, this also means that commercial fishermen won't be able to keep cod either in SNE, if this sub-ACL is set in stone. There is very little chance that the course that fishery management is steering will stray from very restrictive regulations.
After lunch, there was a recreational fishery roundtable discussion about how data is being collected to regulate the saltwater angling fishery, new approaches to management and future ideas for gathering information and for changing the way we regulate ourselves. This was hosted by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials including our Regional Administer in Gloucester, Michael Pentony. There was a question and information gathering period for over an hour afterward.
I would say that the hot button topic of the last part of the day was the idea of having "recreational sector separation". In other words, making regulations that better fit certain user groups. Generally, this could mean different regulations for party/charter vessels as opposed to private boat anglers. This idea has the RAP divided and has divided the RAP in previous meetings over the years. Also, most fishermen in the room were not happy with current regulations due to a large gap between what the government is seeing for landings and what the fishermen see first hand. I'm not going to go into this here.
I had a quick dinner and went to bed in a room provided for me by the Council at the Hilton, where the meeting was held.
At 6:00 AM EST the air temperature was 29°F, the sky was cloudless, the wind was blowing out of the northwest at ten knots and the visibility over the ocean was excellent.
It seemed to take a long time before the air temperature rose out of the 30s this morning. In fact, after noon, I had assumed it was still cold when I went outside but was pleasantly surprised that air temperature was over 50°F. The highest air temperature that I saw was a wopping 58°F after not even reaching 40°F by 9:00 AM. On the flip side, the air temperature stayed above 50°F until at least 6:30 PM, making it a good evening to walk Gill, our border collie. The wind blew out of the northwest all day. But it wasn't strong. I know that some of the offshore readings were over fifteen knots at times. But it was never that strong ashore. Eleven knots, maybe? The visibility remained excellent all day. The sky was clear most of the day with some higher thin clouds around noon. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 60°F (with a low of 34°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 56°F (with a low of 16°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 57°F (with a low of 22°F).
After getting home, I went right to writing up about the last two days and posting this as soon as I could. For the rest of the day I was running around working on ideas for the railing at Billy's, talking about re-powering the Petrel, arranging a family meeting, registering two vehicles, etc., etc. After walking the dog from 6:30 PM to 7:00 PM, Deb & I ate dinner and I planned to watch the Mike Tyson/Jake Paul fight on Netflix. That didn't happen. I'm a fan of Katie Taylor from Ireland, which was supposed on before the main event, at 8:00 PM. But that wasn't available. By 8:45 PM, after playing around watching other things to take up time, I decided it all wasn't worth it and that I just wouldn't make it, being just too tired. I heard, later, that the Tyson/Paul fight was unremarkable anyway.
I was in Portsmouth Hospital in the diagnostic cardio section getting my two week appraisal of the heart ablation that I had on November 1. I was hooked up to an EKG, had my blood pressure taken, asked quite a few questions and looked over physically. They were pleased with the way I had progressed and gave me clearance to work out in any manner I chose until they see me again in February. With that news, I fast walked/ran (all the ascents & Ogunquit beach) 6.5 miles starting at 5:10 PM and ending with the walk on the Marginal Way with Gill. My heart performed better than it has for years. I've always had an arrhythmic heart, since before high school. And that's a long long time ago!
As a side note, I heard two days ago that the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, through genetic profiling, is taking the lead in Melanoma skin cancer in these United States. As most know, this is more than simple skin cancer and is one of the deadliest cancers known, some forms of it, that is. There are three genes responsible for it. And that makes it tricky because the gene interaction is one that has been hard to figure out. It was only a couple years ago that they found the genes responsible. It was thought that it was genetic - and I'm not sure how many melanomas have their origins in the genes - for years. The research group I support has stopped genetically originated cancers, three of them, thus bypassing chemo and radiation therapy. They are involved in melanoma but I'm not sure what part they play. But solving a gene interaction problem would be huge. I am still taking donations, if solving these types of issues is important to you. I had a good friend in St. Thomas, USVI, when I was running sailboats down there, who was admitted to the hospital with melanoma, in 1975, who never made it out and passed ten days later. I'll never forget the horror of that. Things like this drive me to fund anyone who is helping to solve the cancer riddle. I know that many things are important to work on. Cancer just seems to be my thing.
It was a relatively mild weatherless impact day today. Winds blew lightly out of the northwest all morning, started blowing out of the east at eight knots around noon, petered out to nothing by mid-afternoon and then came up out of the northwest at about ten knots, tops, from sunset into the night. The sky went from clear to cloudy around noon and then back to clear again. The visibility was excellent. The air temperature got boosted up into the "warmer than mild" category, warm for this time of year. The highest air temperature that I saw was 57°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 62°F (with a low of 45°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 57°F (with a low of 39°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 54°F (with a low of 35°F).
I didn't do very much today. The focus of the morning was a very enjoyable family meeting at our parents house or Tower Central, North. Other than that, I did not very much except a bit of reading, trying to finish up a novel I have had the luxury of spending time with.
The wind had no teeth today. And, on top of that, it was another mild day with plenty of sunshine. We will probably end up paying for this great weather. Most probably want payback to be a lot of rain; we haven't had much lately.
The wind started off light out of the northwest. Wind speeds were, at most, eight knots. There was no wind around noon. The ocean was flat and glassy along the shore. I looked at the buoy reports for wind at sunset. They showed light winds from the south. But there was no wind evident on the surface of the ocean close to shore. The wind came up out of the northwest after sunset. Wind speeds were about five to eight knots, at most. The sky was mostly clear all day. The visibility was excellent. I went for a walk around mid morning with a starting temperature of 50°F. At the end of the walk, I noticed that the air temperature was 57°F in the shade at the back of the house. While driving around town, in the truck, I noticed that the air temperature went up as high as 63°F. In Portsmouth, New Hampster, the high air temperature for the day was 62°F. It was certainly a nice day. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 64°F (with a low of 46°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 59°F (with a low of 34°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 59°F (with a low of 31°F).
Today was spent working on house cleaning; getting set up for the work week starting tomorrow. I finished a lot of stuff up at the desk in the office. In between time, I also got some exercise in. I spent the afternoon in Portland, Maine, working on getting a new mobile phone at the Apple store.
I was able to take Gill for a two mile walk on the beach at, almost, high tide. We spent our first mile up the beach slow-walking and sniffing, taking our time. On the way back it was all business. I was walking but, sometimes, has to jog to keep up with Gill. Even the various dogs we met on the way back didn't slow him down for long. Gill has been like that for years; tough to get him up the beach, a breeze to get him to walk/run back. There was no need for a leash today.
At sunrise, we still had a canopy of clouds overhead and to the southwest. But, to the east, we had a clear sky. An hour later, it was raining. That didn't last long. In fact, it was the only rain we got today. The sky cleared later in the morning and became sunny. We had sunny skies for the rest of the day. The visibility remained excellent. There wasn't enough wind to write about all morning and most of the afternoon. Indeed, the ocean was flat calm along the shore with a very small sea breaking on the beach. The wind started to blow out of the northwest before sunset. Wind speeds of ten knots were attained at 5:30 PM, when I took Gill for a walk along the Marginal Way. At 8:00 PM, the northwest wind was a bit stronger at fifteen knots. The air temperature today was, again, mild. The highest air temperature that I saw was 60°F. It's been a very mild fall. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 61°F (with a low of 43°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 59°F (with a low of 35°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 59°F (with a low of 34°F).
My day was spent mostly on the phone. The first day of the work week is like this for me at this time of year. I have a lot of projects going on, not the least of which is getting Barnacle Billy's, Inc. up and running with all the winter projects and future staffing issues. Along with this was a manager's meeting I called for 11:00 AM today. I didn't have a preliminary meeting like this last year. I wanted one this year while the season was still fresh in everyone's mind so we could go over staffing problems and equipment we needed to replace, some of which we have wanted to address for a couple years now. The meeting lasted almost two hours. It was a good start and set the tone for some of the other meetings to follow.
I was on the phone for the rest of the day chasing down leads concerning our earlier discussion and other things related to the Bunny Clark and the re-powering of the Petrel. I gave up at 5:00 PM.
In the meantime, Ian Keniston was working on rebuilding the reels we used and getting a parts list together for me to order.
At sunrise, the sky was cloudless. The air temperature had dropped to 39°F as well. The visibility remained excellent for the day. The wind blew out of the northwest a bit over ten knots ashore. I did see it blew a bit harder offshore. But sometimes I wonder how accurate those buoy readings are. It didn't blow that hard here. And the ocean along the shore had calm streaks. Or was I seeing things? The sky was clear all day, cloudless for most of it. It was another mild day today with the air temperature getting up to 56°F, that I saw. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 57°F (with a low of 45°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 53°F (with a low of 44°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 55°F (with a low of 38°F).
It was a busy day today. I got up at 1:00 AM, as I couldn't sleep anyway. I went to bed at 8:00 PM; so I had enough sleep. That allowed me to get an hour of core work (work-out) in, my social media post up and a 4 mile run, concentrating on hills.
At 8:00 AM, my son, Micah, and I headed to Portland in the Bunny Clark truck to look at Cummins engines for re-powering of the Petrel. We spent and hour with a very informative Dave Kline, who couldn't have been nicer. I learned a lot in a short time. For the rest of the day, at intervals, I followed up on the change by doing a bit of research and going over to the Petrel to look at propeller sizes and looking to see where the engine would set. I want to move the engine back some so she sets on her lines better and will be better balanced with a tower and tuna stand in the future.
Once I got home, I had a meeting with our managers at Barnacle Billy's. I'm trying to get a list of repairs together but I needed to hash out some details. This led to a meeting with Sarah Cannon (our top manager who works with Micah at Barnacle Billy's, Etc.) to go over a few things with her. Then I met with Tom Dickerson, my flooring guy. I need to make a few changes here and there. That took me through lunch.
After meeting with my cardiologist, Deb and I drove to Portsmouth to pick up my other truck that had been services at Coast GMC. After this is when I went to visit the Petrel to scope things out.
The rest of the day was spent working on the "repair list" for Barnacle Billy's and working on the same for the Bunny Clark. I was done by 6:30 PM.
I received a generous $120.00 donation sponsoring me in the Pan-Mass Challenge from Merv & Brian Murphy (NH). Marian & Brian have helped me in this cancer project since I got involved in 2007. I so enjoy having them on the Bunny Clark. The donation was made in the form of an "eGift" through the PMC site. They also left me a message that said; "Much love and respect to you for all that you continue to do to help find a cure for cancer." Thank you very much, Merv & Brian. I so appreciate your thinking of me and this project. Means a lot.
The sky was cloudless again this morning to start. There were, actually, very few clouds today until late in the afternoon. A canopy of clouds was headed our way before sunset. An hour after sunset, the sky was overcast. It remained overcast on into the night. The wind, light from the north to start, backed out of the east by afternoon. Wind speeds to start were about eight knots across the parking lot. The wind wasn't much more than that throughout the afternoon. I noticed that the wind had gone up to thirteen knots in gusts at 8:00 PM. The visibility was excellent throughout the day. The highest air temperature that I saw was 52°F before the wind started blowing out of the east. Although it never dropped much lower that 50°F until almost sunset. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 52°F (with a low of 41°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 57°F (with a low of 26°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 54°F (with a low of 32°F).
Aside from a half hour phone meeting with our accountants, I spent the whole day running around, working on restaurant improvements, re-powering the Petrel and making arrangements for a number of things (mostly restaurant stuff). So I was mostly in some building somewhere.
Late in the afternoon, I drove over to pick up a pallet of pellets for the pellet stove, and put them away in the garage. That and taking Gill for a mile or more walk on the Marginal Way at 6:00 PM was the only exercise I got today, except for the core work I do every day.
The weather seemed the same during all the daylight hours today. It never really rained. It misted all day. If it did rain, it rained after dark when I wasn't paying attention. The wind blew out of the northeast at twenty to twenty-five knots during that same time period. After sunset, the wind had a bit of an easterly lilt to it. By 8:00 PM, we had gusts over thirty knots. The visibility did deteriorate to fair and good, depending. The sky was overcast all day with no breaks in the cloud cover. The air temperature remained stable at 47°F, more or less, all day. The constant wind off the water does this to Perkins Cove. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 48°F (with a low of 45°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 44°F (with a low of 42°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 47°F (with a low of 41°F).
Except for a meeting with our painter at Barnacle Billy's, Etc. at 8:00 AM, the whole day was spent at a virtual meeting with the New England Fishery Management Council's Planning and Development Team, the Recreational Advisory Panel, where I hold a seat, and the (commercial) Groundfish Advisory Panel. After the meeting at 2:30 PM, I had lunch and then went to pick up another pallet of pellets at a place that, I found, wasn't open for business when I got there. The day was stressful in a lot of ways. So when I got home, I went up for a nap that ended with dinner and began again after dinner. I was a bit frustrated with fishery management, a thing that I have chosen to be involved in and, as a member, am not really good at.
As a rule, the GAP and the RAP do not but heads. Nor should they. The plight of the commercial fisherman is as real and onerous as the plight of the recreational angler and both are condemned to a fishing platform that isn't getting any better. I am amazed at how many people believe that climate change is responsible. There is no doubt that climate change is happening. The why of it is a mystery to me. The idea has also become political. It's also being used as a political tool in fishery management as well. But, the bottom line, the fishery is not poor due to climate change. I don't believe, at this time in my life, this day in my life, that it's a factor. We have no fish because we have taken too many fish, because of the technology available which no management scheme seems to be able to cope with and because of the system by which we govern ourselves with committees that are made up of fishery share holders. We have no fish. It's getting worse. We just keep taking.
Now we find ourselves in a position where the best available science tells us that no one will be able to keep cod in southern New England for the 2025 fishing year and beyond. And yet, we land the same tonnage of the spawning stock biomass every season. This can't be true; that we take the whole spawning stock biomass every year. If we did, we wouldn't have any fish the next season. And yet we do. So the science is off. The cod stocks are definitely in the toilet. There is no question. And this is all of New England. And I'm not advocating that we should keep every cod we catch. But something has to be done to bring our fishery back to a healthy situation. The problem is, what is a healthy situation? I believe the whole fishery should be shut down until it's healthy again. But even if we did, those who govern would bring it back too early and we would start right in again. I know that this is "glass half empty" thinking. But the management thing has beaten me down a bit. I still love to fish. And I am really looking forward to the new season with anglers on the Bunny Clark. But I do not have the confidence in the system of management as it stands now. The commercial catch share system employed, literally, sucks. We don't seem to be doing anything tangible enough to give me hope on the recreational side of things either.
Today's meeting resulted in, basically, saying that we will not be able to keep cod in southern New England, as I stated above. The western Gulf of Maine, where we fish, is deemed healthier but not much healthier. We may be able to take cod at some time this coming season. But that is something that will have to be discussed in our January meeting. Off the coast of Maine, we have less anglers fishing for groundfish than any other part of New England, by a long shot. So our chances of catching fish is better. Or it seems that way. So we shall see. Today's meeting was just a stage setter for regulation proposals that will take place in January. We shall see what the bio-economic models show us then.
At 5:00 AM EST the air temperature was 47°F, the sky was overcast, it was raining, the wind was blowing out of the east southeast at twenty-five knots (more or less) and the visibility over the ocean was fair to poor in mist, precipitation and, what seemed like, fog. Looking at the buoy reports, seas were up to twelve feet every eight seconds at the eight mile mark offshore.
By 7:00 AM, it had stopped raining and the sky was clearing. The sky stayed clear for most of the day with the very occasional rain cloud depositing a very light rain here and there. Ninety percent of the day gave us clear skies and zero rain. The mostly clear skies extended into the night. The visibility improved to excellent. The wind blew out of the south from about fifteen to twenty knots all morning. After noon, the wind veered out of the east southeast and then east by sunset. We had fifteen to twenty knots of easterly wind from sunset on into the night. There was a time, right around noon, when we had less than ten knots of wind. This was the wind transition time. The air temperature got up as high as 53°F as observed from the truck while driving around town. Usually, the truck thermometer registers a degree higher. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 53°F (with a low of 43°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 49°F (with a low of 41°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 52°F (with a low of 43°F).
I spent the day running around working, mostly, on restaurant projects. I decided to replace the carpet in the lounge at Barnacle Billy's, Etc. So some of my time was spent on that. I was at the lawyer's for a while. I also finalized what I needed for a complete engine for the Petrel including the marine gear and the reduction for that gear. Two hours of the day was spent driving to Portland with a bank check to get the ball rolling on this. But, as I said, most of the day was spent running back and forth to and from the restaurant.
I received a generous $100.00 donation sponsoring me in the Pan-Mass Challenge from Peter Allaire (MA). Peter has been a good customer, friend and support of my many causes over the years. The donation was made in the form of an "eGift" through the PMC site. He also left me a message that said; "Good luck in 2025, riding and fishing!" Thanks so much, Peter. I very much appreciate your support - in everything!
The wind blew out of the north or north northwest at twenty to twenty-five knots all day. The wind didn't die down a bit and was very consistent at that velocity. The sky remained overcast for most of the day. It rained and drizzled all morning, stopping sometime after noon. The visibility improved to very good by early afternoon. The highest air temperature that I saw was 47°F after noon. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 47°F (with a low of 42°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 45°F (with a low of 41°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 46°F (with a low of 37°F).
The whole morning was taken up by the repair work and improvements at both Barnacle Billy's and Barnacle Billy's, Etc. restaurants. At 8:00 AM, I met with our carpenter, Jayson Lessard, and our welder, Mike Dumas, to go over the new stainless steel railing we having built for the deck of Barnacle Billy's. This took about two hours. After that, Jayson and I went over the other repair work that needed to be completed before we open in April. I finished up at 1:00 PM.
My daughter, Halley's, family were at home when I got home. The rest of the day was spent with them.
It was a cool windy day with bright sunshine for most of it but very cloudy in the later afternoon. The visibility was excellent all day. The wind blew out of the west at twenty-five to thirty knots with some higher gusts all day. The ocean was feather white with chops marching offshore. The highest gusts I saw were around 6:00 PM when I saw thirty-five knots. The air temperature stayed in the 40s all day, dropping lower after dark. The highest air temperature that I saw was 48°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 50°F (with a low of 41°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 47°F (with a low of 34°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 46°F (with a low of 33°F).
The only thing I did, business related, was to draw up the work order for Barnacle Billy's, both restaurants. We had the meeting yesterday. But much of what was discussed was scribbled on a note pad.
I started to go for a run on Ogunquit Beach. I got ten strides into it and pulled a hamstring. I stopped immediately, knowing, from experience, that going any further would make it harder to recover. So I went home and limped around all day. Oddly enough, I have found that jumping on the trainer (stationary bike - an old road racing bike hooked up to a fluid trainer) allows me to get the aerobic exercise I need without bothering a hamstring or a calf injury. So that's what I did after I got home. Then, I limped around all day! I hate sitting on ice.
It was a beautiful sunny day, all day, with few clouds and a lot of blue sky. The visibility was excellent all day. The wind was out of the west for most of the morning, backing out of the northwest before noon. Wind speeds were twenty to twenty-five knots for most of the morning. By noon, wind speeds weren't even hitting the twenty knots mark. By mid afternoon, we had northwest wind blowing about ten knots. The ocean looked peaceful. After sunset, the northwest wind picked up a bit but had no real teeth. There was no wind at 8:00 PM. The highest air temperature that I saw was just shy of 50°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 52°F (with a low of 37°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 48°F (with a low of 27°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 47°F (with a low of 28°F).
Today was a very busy day running around working on Barnacle Billy's stuff, getting materials for the Bunny Clark, dropping my truck off in Exeter, New Hampshire to get a back window fixed and trying to get some future jobs finalized. I met with my flooring guy, to go over some vinyl flooring I needed to have done at Barnacle Billy's, Etc, which I had forgotten to mention to him at the initial meeting.
All in all it was a good day with a lot of progress.
I did take Gill for a walk on the Marginal Way. With our daughter's family here, Deb hadn't had a chance to take him out for any exercise. So, by the time I got to him, he was full of energy. He started by running down the driveway at full tilt, barking all the way and then stopped at the end and looked back at me, almost looking like he was trying to gain my approval. I don't believe there was anything there to bark at. But I did praise him for his perceived effort! The rest of the half mile walk was much the same, almost as if he thought that this was going to be the last walk he would ever take. He really did make the most of it, almost running at one point but, certainly, seriously checking out his territory the whole way. For the rest of the evening, he never let me out of his sight, following me from room to room. I believe he thought that we might do it again.
By sunrise, the sky was being filled with clouds. The first drops of rain were seen coming from an, almost, completely overcast sky at 9:30 AM. At that time, there was still a clear band way to the east. This clear piece was gone a half hour later. It rained all day, hard at times. I assumed that it stopped after sunset. But I could not tell you when it did. It wasn't the warmest day either. The air temperature stayed in the high 30s for most of the daylight hours. I saw a high of 41°F by mid afternoon. The visibility dropped to good by 11:00 AM. The wind blew out of the southeast all day showing speeds up to fifteen knots. After sunset, the wind backed out of the northwest with a velocity about the same as it had been all day. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 48°F (with a low of 34°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 36°F (with a low of 24°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 41°F (with a low of 23°F).
My day was spent working in the office at the restaurant, attending a meeting with one of our vendors and getting home for lunch around noon.
My sister, Cathy, was gracious enough to take me to Exeter to pick up my truck. From there I completed a bunch of errands, making it home around 3:00 PM, where I worked in the office at home for the rest of the day. It seemed like I was on the phone the whole day - which I, essentially, was. There is much to do to get ready for next season, both with the boat and the restaurants. Tomorrow will be much the same.
This was another beautiful fall day. Winds blew from the west all day at about fifteen to twenty knots. Less after noon. At sunset, we had westerly winds at ten knots. The visibility was excellent all day. The sky was mostly sunny all day. The highest air temperature that I saw was 47°F. But it wasn't until after 9:00 AM that the air temperature broached the 40 degree mark. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 50°F (with a low of 38°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 46°F (with a low of 25°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 45°F (with a low of 29°F).
After I posted this missive, worked for most of the day on Barnacle Billy's stuff, both restaurants. I had plenty of "outside book keeping" to do, little projects to complete, the "Billy's" site to edit and a Journal entry I had to start, hoping to complete tomorrow before Thanksgiving dinner. At 4:30 PM, I had a meeting with Danny DellaMonica, to round out the season end. That happened at the Tower, III abode. He is looking forward to being our number one deck hand this coming season as well. Throughout the day, I had Bunny Clark and Petrel (engine) questions to answer. It was amazing how fast the day fell away.
At the same time, we have my daughter, Halley, and her family up from New Jersey for the week. It's been fun having them with us. Her daughter, Adelaide, was born July 7th this year. She looks so much like Halley, it's incredible. I know that I have a strong bias but, looking at Del, I have very similar feelings that I had when Halley was a baby growing up. Halley was our first born.
I took our border collie, Gill, for a walk at 6:00 AM. It was just starting to rain at that time. The roads were just starting to get wet. The rain was very light. It stayed that way for at least another three hours. Right around 10:00 AM, the wind picked up out of the southeast and it started to rain fairly hard. The wind blew out of the southeast at twenty knots or so through noon with a pouring rain. By 2:00 PM, the wind was right out of the east. But it kept working around until the wind was out of the northeast. That was around sunset. Wind speeds had picked up considerably. And it was still raining hard. The wind blew at thirty to thirty-five knots out of the northeast on into the night. By 8:00 PM, the wind was out of the north at twenty-five to thirty knots. The rain had, pretty much, stopped by then. The visibility was fair all day. The sky stayed overcast throughout the day. The air temperature reached a high of 45°F, no doubt influenced by the wind off the water, which is still around 49°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 48°F (with a low of 38°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 39°F (with a low of 29°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 43°F (with a low of 30°F).
The only work I did today was on the Guestletter, research. It was an incredible haddock year with quite a few Bunny Clark records broken.
My son's, Micah's, family and my daughter's, Halley's, family, Deb and I met at Paul (Hez) & Johanna Haseltine's house for Thanksgiving dinner. My sister's, Meg's, family was also there with her and Hez's daughter's family (Bryant & Abby Mitchell). It was a fun afternoon/night. And the food was fantastic. Hez & Jo might as well be professional chef's. We are so fortunate to have them as friends.
The wind was probably the most salient feature of today's weather. It was never really that strong but it never let up. Wind speeds were fifteen to twenty knots out of the west. This wind kept up on into the night. The sky was mostly clear, although we did have a cloudy period where I thought it might rain. It didn't. The visibility was excellent. The highest air temperature that I saw was 44°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 46°F (with a low of 36°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 43°F (with a low of 24°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 44°F (with a low of 32°F).
I spent the early part of the morning on fact finding as it pertains to the Guestletter. Haddock. It was our third best year for numbers of haddock and for numbers of trophy haddock. It was fun going through all the records, even though it did take some time.
I met Tom Dickerson from Howe's Highway Floor Store at Barnacle Billy's, Etc. later in the morning. I made choice decisions for new carpet in two places. We also delineated the exact areas that I wanted to cover, start and end.
I put up a Journal entry on the Barnacle Billy's website. I won't post this until later tomorrow.
The rest of the day was spent on the Guestletter, my labor of love.
At some point today I also found someone to take the Volvo 63L diesel engine that was in our lobster boat, the Petrel. The new engine will be delivered next week.
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