Bunny Clark Fishing Update
Written & Edited by Tim Tower
Monday, January 12, 2026, 5:30 AM EST
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Note: Note: The new regulations were never implemented for our 2025 fishing season (May 1, 2025 thru April 30, 2026). So, instead, the 2024 fishing regulations remain in place until the new regulations go into force or until May 1, 2026. An 18" haddock minimum size remains. It is unclear at this time what fishing regulations (on cod and haddock) will be in place for the 2026 groundfish season. Below are the 2024 fishing regulations that remain in place until otherwise specified.
Gulf of Maine cod
Gulf of Maine haddock
The sky stayed overcast for the first early part of the daylight morning and, then, cleared. The sky was sunny and clear for the rest of the day on into the night. The wind blew lightly out of the north in the morning, backed out of the west northwest for the last hour of the morning and, then, blew northwest from about 1:00 PM on into the night. Wind speeds were less than ten knots before noon. From 1:00 PM through the rest of the afternoon, wind speeds were fifteen to twenty knots. The visibility was excellent. The air temperature reached a high of 48°F before the northwest wind struck. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 50°F (with a low of 36°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 45°F (with a low of 23°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 47°F (with a low of 25°F).
The early part of the morning was a mixture of answering emails, writing this report and building the work order for winter boat projects. There won't be many boat projects this year as all the major stuff was tackled by David Pease last year, including a new rudder, new propeller and shaft nuts. As far as the engine goes, I had almost all of the engine hoses changed out, a new fuel pump, new raw water pump and a new fresh water (coolant) pump. Besides that I changed all the filters (including the oil and oil filters - five engine hours ago), the coolant and had the engine tuned.
I had to call the FCC in order to find out how to print the new station license that I had renewed. The woman I got on the phone was very nice and helpful; they always are there. Someone must treat them well there or be expert in picking the right people to answer the phone and solve computer problems. I was a bit frustrated as I can never seem to figure out what is asked of me or how to proceed with the FCC website. Is it just me or does everyone have as much trouble as I do? It's probably just me. I completed that and printed out a number of copies.
At 10:30 AM, I had a meeting with the three managers at Barnacle Billy's, Etc. about deciding on what to have for a new carpet in the dining room. We all decided that a specific color and brand of carpet tile was the best choice. The color seemed to go with the decor, the tiles were big enough so that changing one out would work plus the color looked very forgiving as far as stains go. So I was able to sign off on that project today. Now we need to get the tiles in and work on changing the old carpet out. I'm working with Howe's in Wells, Maine. They have always been very good with me.
I had started warming up the engine on the Bunny Clark before the managers meeting. At noon, my son, Micah, and I took the boat to Safe Harbor in Eliot, Maine to prepare for haul-out tomorrow. We left in light northerly wind but, half way there, the wind changed and blew out of the northwest at fifteen to twenty knots. We were close to shore so it wasn't that rough. One to two foot chops, maybe? But it got a lot colder when the wind struck. Micah did all the steering. Deb picked us both up at 2:00 PM. The shot on the left is a digital image I took as we left Perkins Cove for a last view of the bridge from sea in 2025.
At 4:00 PM, Danny DellaMonica and I decided to take on another season with the Bunny Clark. It will be a bit different next season. I'm only going to be running the marathon trips. These are the trips we both like the best. They are certainly more productive and successful. I will be running them every Tuesday and Thursday. This will give me a day more at the restaurant, as compared to last season. Three days away from the restaurants was too much last year. Unfortunately, the time of Captain Ian Keniston has passed. But I will always look back in fondness of all the good times I had with the man. And I will always remember how he enhanced Bunny Clark Deep Sea Fishing. I am looking forward to this coming season.
At 4:30 AM EST the air temperature was 34°F (it was a degree colder an hour earlier), the sky was overcast, the wind was blowing out of the southwest at ten knots and the visibility over the ocean was excellent. Today was an overcast day throughout. I thought it might rain as the weather forecast was predicting. It did not. The wind continued to blow out of the southwest. By noon, southwest winds were fifteen to twenty knots. Seas at the closest weather buoy were three feet every four seconds. The wind never got any stronger than that. In fact, it diminished somewhat with most of the rest of the afternoon showing ten to fifteen knots of wind with a lilt out of the south. After sunset, I noticed that the wind had picked up again but it was directly out of the south. It smelled like rain at the time. It may have rained after 9:00 PM but I was asleep. The visibility was very good to excellent all day, very good in the afternoon with some haze detected. The air temperature rose to at least 50°F. It may have been higher but I was very busy today so I didn't keep track. it felt like 70°F to me! In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 51°F (with a low of 36°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 47°F (with a low of 26°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 50°F (with a low of 30°F).
Today I felt so much more relaxed than I have been for the whole month of November. Making the decision to take the Bunny Clark for another fishing season was the main reason. I was so conflicted all month to the point of not sleeping some nights. As most of you know, if you know me, there is no financial reward for doing this, except for, possibly, paying for my expensive habit (if I don't have engine problems - the big IF!). And I put more into the fishing and spend more time on Bunny Clark stuff than most people are awake during a day. At least I put more effort into it than most who run party boats who I know. At any rate, yesterday was a turning point for me. Now I have to find someone who will rebuild reels for me, since Captain Ian won't be doing them for me. This will be a challenge.
I spent most of the morning completing the work order for Safe Harbor. This is the winter work that will be completed on the Bunny Clark before she is launched again next spring. I had finished the first draft by 10:00 AM.
At 10:30 AM, Danny DellaMonica showed up to ride over with me to Safe Harbor to work on the Bunny Clark as she was going to be hauled after noon today. The Bunny Clark did not get hauled until after 2:00 PM. We had completed all we could complete by noon. The Bunny Clark was on the hard by 3:00 PM, the bottom power washed. I was surprised at how little growth there was on the bottom today. Normally, there is more. I didn't see barnacles. And there were places were there was no growth. I was wondering how we were maintaining such a fast cruising speed at the end of the season when, normally, it's about a knot slower in October. We left the yard shortly after 3:00 PM so Danny could get some things done and I could finish some restaurant things before 5:00.
I went over the work order with the manager of the yard before we left. All the items were doable. Most of these things are cosmetic. But there are a lot of checking of systems as well like making sure the linkage is perfect and entertaining two items the U. S. Coast Guard wanted me to have ready for 2026.
I took a picture of the Bunny Clark being hauled out, or the beginning stages of it. This digital image appears on the right.
At 5:00 AM EST the air temperature was a balmy 48°F, there was a light rain and drizzle, the sky was overcast and had been all morning, the wind was blowing out of the southwest at ten knots and the visibility over the ocean was fair at best in fog, haze and precipitation. By 8:30 AM, there wasn't a hint of rain left to fall. The sky remained overcast for the rest of the day but no rain fell. It was mild all day, definitely the most salient weather feature today. I never did see the air temperature drop below 48°F. The highest air temperature that I did see was 55°F. It was 55°F for quite a while. The visibility was suspect all day with fog offshore hanging around long enough so that I couldn't see Boon Island for many parts of today. The wind was light and variable in direction all morning. The ocean along the shore was calm. An easterly wind direction was established after noon but there certainly wasn't much of it, the ocean along the shore remaining flat calm into the night. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 63°F (with a low of 49°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 52°F (with a low of 42°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 51°F (with a low of 46°F).
After getting everything I needed to get done in the morning, I met Danny DellaMonica at our house at 9:00 AM. We drove, together, over to the Bunny Clark. This to finish cleaning the boat and winterizing the engine. This took until well into the afternoon. I can't remember a milder day when I was outside winterizing the engine of the Bunny Clark. Every other year I would have been doing this after I had warmed up the engine in the water just before hauling out. This way the engine room would have been warm enough to work on the engine without a pile of clothes on. Today there was no need to have many clothes on. And having the engine room that warm would have been too much. It was a delight. And, because of this, it was a very relaxing time.
Danny and I were talking today about booking trips on the Bunny Clark for this coming season. We are going to have a third less trips next year. So it's going to be that much tougher for anglers to book trips. It will be that much harder to get the trip you want. And if we have charters, if the charter is already booked when you go to sign up, there won't be room on the trip. So if there is a trip you would like to go on, I would suggest booking as soon as you can as I have no idea if there will be a lot of space available going forward. I'm thinking out loud here as nothing in this day and age is certain. You can always cancel if you are within the time limit but you won't be able to book a trip if there are no spaces available.
The shot on the left was taken today showing the Bunny Clark on the hard. This is what she looked like when Danny and I were working on her today.
The wind and the falling of our mild air temperatures of the last couple of days were major changes we saw today. The wind blew out of the west at twenty and twenty-five knots sustained with almost thirty knots in gusts at times. The strongest winds, by far, were in the morning. The wind was starting to back off by noon. By 3:00 PM, the westerly wind was twenty knots, more or less. By sunset, it was fifteen to twenty knots with ten to fifteen knots going into the night. The visibility was excellent all day. The sky was very clear all day until the end of the daylight hours, where it was mostly cloudy. The highest air temperature that I saw today was 46°F and it struggled to get there. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 57°F - at 12:16 - (with a low of 39°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 48°F - at 12:32 AM - (with a low of 30°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 47°F - at 1:59 AM - (with a low of 36°F).
We lived through the most lackluster Thanksgiving of my life today. We did nothing Thanksgiving related except wish friends a happy Thanksgiving through texts on our phones.
At 10:00 AM, I was down in Newbury, Massachusetts (Plum Island) at Surfland Bait & Tackle, dropping off a few reels that need to be rebuilt. Martha Moulton was gracious enough to get away from her baking to come down to the store and meet me. Her family has been so good to me over the years. When I first started taking people fishing in 1975, her mother and father (Kay & Ray Moulton) went out of their way to solve any tackle problems I might have and continued to do so until they passed, leaving the business to daughters Martha and Liz, who have treated me just as well. I feel like family when I go down there. There is a trust there that has built up over the many years. Never, on my end, will I break that trust, no matter what I have to do to ensure this. Of course, my fishing guests love Surfland; all of them! Getting reels and parts together and, then, driving down and back took up most of the morning.
The rest of the day was computer work until Deb & I went to visit our good friend in the hospital. That took up the later part of the day.
The wind continued to blow out of the same direction with the same wind speeds for almost four more hours. By 9:00 AM, the wind had backed off a bit. At 10:00 AM the wind was blowing out of the northwest at fifteen to twenty knots. It never really did stop blowing but it backed out of the west and never blew more than twenty knots for the rest of the day. The air temperature never reached the freezing mark. The air temperature did get up to 30°F in Portsmouth. But I never did see it get as high as 28°F. The visibility remained excellent. The sky stayed clear. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 33°F (with a low of 25°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 30°F (with a low of 16°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 27°F (with a low of 18°F).
We got back from vacation at 2:00 AM on Sunday. So I was a basket case most of Sunday just getting through the day with a list of items I needed to get started.
Over vacation, I researched and wrote the Guestletter, something I have never done on vacation before. I usually research all that I wrote over they year and take notes on vacation. But I never actually write it, until this time. I must say, it was the easiest time I have ever had writing it. I have proofed it twice myself. But I always have to have others proof it as well as they catch things I always miss. That hasn't happened yet. But I plan to have it ready after January 1, 2026.
While we were gone, I had several donations come in sponsoring me in this year's Pan-Mass Challenge, a cycling event to raise money for cancer research. Those individuals and their donations included: Sam Theodosopoulos (NH) for $100.00 with the note: "Keep up the good work, Tim!", Don & Rebecca Stedman (TN) with the note: "Thanks, Tim, for your commitment to this great cause!", Deb Laperche (MA) for $75.00 "In memory of Bunny & Billy." and another $100.00 donation from David Bassett (MD). Don & Rebecca, Sam, Deb and David all made their donations in the form of an "eGift" through the PMC site.I also received a very generous $1,500.00 donation from Connie Griffin & Michael Harris! Thank you all so very much for your thoughtfulness and generosity. It means so much to me but more to the researchers working on this and, of course, the people who need the hope for survival. In many cases these people have no idea how they got the disease in the first place. Anyway, very much appreciate by all!
We had no wind for most of the morning. By noon, I noticed the wind was out of the south. There was just a light wind on the water. By mid afternoon, the southerly wind was ten to twelve knots. I don't believe it ever got much higher than fifteen knots, if that. This wind and speed walked us right through the day and into the night. The visibility was excellent all morning but very good after noon. It started snowing at 5:00 PM and dropped the visibility down to fair or poor. It snowed lightly on into the night. The sky was overcast all day. I don't know what the highest air temperature was in Ogunquit. At one point I saw 36°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 38°F (with a low of 30°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 34°F (with a low of 18°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 34°F (with a low of 21°F).
I spent the morning catching up on all the computer stuff. My site was one item of interest. I had donations for the Pan-Mass Challenge I had to account for and donors I had to thank. And I had to start to set up the site for the new year. I also had a lot of emails and other house keeping issues. I was done by 1:00 PM. Christmas stuff took the stage for the rest of the day.
I received another nice $100.00 donation from Kevin & Kate Strong (NC) sponsoring me in this season's Pan-Mass Challenge. I didn't see as much of them as I would have liked to this season. Kate, particularly, is having health issues that, I am sure, she will conquer, I'm hoping, before next season. They are two wonderful people, mostly associated with Barnacle Billy's, where I got to know them. But they have also done very similar winter excursions in the past that I truly enjoyed talking to them about when they were here in the summer. Their donation came in the form of an "eGift" through the PMC site with the note; "Thanks for riding!". Thank you both so very much for your support and generosity. I appreciate it very much!
The sky stayed overcast all day today. The wind picked up out of the north at 7:00 AM or maybe that's just when I noticed it. The wind stayed out of the north at thirty to thirty-five knots until mid morning and, then, settled in at twenty-five knots sustained. The wind started to back off after noon. Wind speeds at sunset were northerly at fifteen knots. The visibility became excellent after noon. We had light snow here and there in the morning. The roads around town were slippery in two wheel drive. I never saw the air temperature rise above 28°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 38°F (with a low of 28°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 32°F - at 1:44 AM - (with a low of 10°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 32°F - at 1:08 AM - (with a low of 18°F).
I spent the morning getting my USCG physical for my USCG captain's license renewal. Apparently, I had missed the appointment. It was over the phone. So I don't know if I messed up or they messed up. Since I'm the older of the two in the appointment conversation, I suspect it was me who got it wrong. At any rate, they ended up having some time for me anyway. I just had to wait. I was truly wound up by the time I had my blood pressure taken. And it showed. They only took it once. Looking back, I should have had them take it again. The process took a while as they check hearing, eyes, etc. By the time I was done, everything was completed and ten pages of documents were filled out. I made it back home by noon. The driving down was a bit problematic. But, by the time it was time to drive home, it was so much better.
I spent the rest of the day with my daughter's family and Deb. Christmas Eve is always fun with young kids. But it has always been fun with family at Christmastime.
I received another wonderful $100.00 donation today sponsoring me in this year's Pan-Mass Challenge. Today it was from Jon & Karyn Tesnakis (NY). They have sponsored me every year since 2007, the first year I became involved. Thank you both so very much for your support and thoughtfulness. It means a great deal to me and I truly appreciate it. It's a good time of year to give to those less fortunate than ourselves.
At 5:00 AM EST the air temperature was 26°F, the sky was overcast, we might have received three inches of snow in the last couple of days, the wind was blowing out of the southwest at fifteen to twenty knots and the visibility over the ocean was excellent.
The sky stayed cloudy for most of the morning, the sky clearing completely after noon. The sky stayed clear for the rest of the day. The wind blew out of the west at fifteen to twenty knots all morning and into the afternoon. Right around 2:00 PM, or on the high tide, the wind backed out of the northwest and came on with a vengeance. Wind speeds started at twenty to thirty knots but soon became higher with sustained winds around thirty knots with some gusts to forty knots. It certainly seemed much colder than it was. Before the wind, I did see an air temperature above 30°F but I never did see the air temperature get above the freezing mark. Since I wasn't outside as much today, I didn't observe the air temperature as much. I did notice that the Portsmouth, New Hampshire high air temperature today reached 35°F. That must have been for a very short period of time. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 40°F (with a low of 19°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 34°F (with a low of 12°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 34°F (with a low of 13°F).
I didn't get out much today. There was really nowhere to go. I had some work at the restaurant that wasn't critical to do, that I didn't do. Our daughter's family was here for breakfast before leaving at around 10:00 AM to go back to their home in New Jersey. They were all sick, to some degree, while they were here with us over Christmas. So I played with the kids a bit but, also, stayed away from them as well. Santa had shown up overnight, descending down the pellet stove chimney and eating the cookies and milk that were left out for him.
I took my time posting this report, did a lot of reading today and I watched a movie that I couldn't finish because I thought the ending would be too much of a tear jerker. I ended the day with a walk in the wind with our border collie, Gill, on the Marginal Way. The air temperature was 26°F, which isn't too cold, but, with the wind, I needed gloves on for the two miles that we were gone. It was a hard couple of days for Gill. With the kids here, there wasn't enough time to take him for a walk. When I had to go anywhere in the truck during the last three days, I took him with me. But it's not as much fun for him as a walk is. Sometimes I will stop at Aroma Joe's for a coffee where they will always ask if "your dog can have dog biscuit?" Rarely, I will get him a cheeseburger from MacDonald's. I will go once a year only to realize, once again, why I don't visit MacDonald's. That didn't happen during these last three days.
The sky was sunny or partly cloudy during the day. The early night was clear with a waxing moon that was nearly half full. The sky became overcast after 9:00 PM. The visibility was excellent all day. The wind blew out of the north at about twenty knots sustained for most of the morning, backing off a bit before noon. There were some gusts to twenty-five knots ashore. The early afternoon saw north northwest winds of ten to fifteen knots and a fairly calm ocean along the shore. The rest of the afternoon, the wind was out of the north at about ten knots. There was very little wind, if any, after sunset. I didn't pay attention for the rest of the night but it was very quiet. The highest air temperature that I saw today was 21°F. I did pay attention to the air temperature more than I did yesterday. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 22°F (with a low of 12°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 18°F (with a low of 4°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 18°F (with a low of 7°F).
I spent most of the morning working on this website. Most of it was housekeeping. But I changed the index page a bit, changed this page around a bit and put up digital images that I hadn't used that were taken during the season. I thought the one of Dave Miller, that I put on the index page, was a particularly good one.
From noon through the afternoon I played go-for and worked off an item list that took me around the town of York, Kittery, Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Haverhill, Massachusetts. I was back at 3:00 PM.
From 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM, I took Gill for a walk on the roads and Marginal Way. There were some slippery spots but nothing that was treacherous. It stayed around 19°F or 20°F for the whole walk. I walk with him off leash this time of year as there is never anyone on the Marginal Way and few people or cars on the road. As such, Gill makes a lot stops for sniffing and other things. But, we recorded a record Gill mile time of 21:34. That's pretty quick for a dog that has been inside all day.
At 5:00 AM EST the air temperature was 14°F, the sky was overcast, there was a little more than an inch of snow on the ground that had fallen last night and covered up the ice patches, the wind was blowing out of the north at twenty knots (more or less) and the visibility over the ocean was excellent. It stayed cold again all day today. I don't think I ever saw the air temperature any higher than 22°F. In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the high air temperature got to 24°F. That was at 3:00 PM. I had planned to look at the air temperature at that time but didn't. The wind blew out of the north all day. For the early part of the morning, wind speeds twenty plus knots. Wind speeds had dropped to ten and fifteen knots by noon. Wind speeds were about ten knots for the rest of my waking day. The wind was certainly light when I walked with Gill either side of 6:00 PM. The air temperature was also 18°F at that time. The sky was cloudy all day until the later afternoon. Going into the night, the sky was clear with a half moon lighting up the walk in the snow. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 26°F (with a low of 16°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 27°F (with a low of 5°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 20°F (with a low of 4°F).
I worked on the computer for most of the morning. At 9:00 AM, I met my son, Micah, and our carpenter at Barnacle Billy's, Etc. where we went over the details of the winter repair work. We keyed in on the dining room floor where the carpet has been removed and revealed some of the spongy spots in the floor. There aren't that many. But, before we put the new carpet tiles down, I want to make sure that the sub-floor is sound and level before we put on the finishing touches. That floor work will be started after January 1st.
The rest of the morning was spent finishing up my go-foring. I took the afternoon off watching English Premier League football, specifically the Chelsea/Aston Villa game. That was a great game. I've never been to Stamford Bridge in Chelsea. I had my opportunities when Roman Abramovich owned the club. But I never took advantage of it as I could have cared less for soccer before 2015. It wasn't until 2016 that I started getting into it thanks to a good cycling friend, from Leicester, England, who took me by the hand and exposed me to the game. Now, that's all I watch. Thanks to him, I've been to Villa Park (Aston Villa's stadium) twice and many other stadiums across the UK, including Anfield in Liverpool. It's become a wonderful hobby for me. It certainly is, in my mind, "the beautiful game".
The routine continued this evening as Gill and I completed a three mile walk in an hour and eight minutes. Pretty good for an unleashed border collie of almost thirteen years of age who is sniffing and marking the whole way. He is getting lame in the hind legs, of which Deb has special treats that are supposed combat that to a certain degree. Three times I noticed he was missing from my side or from behind me. Three times I went back to find him laying in the snow, just looking at me. Three times I managed to get him moving again. An hour after we got back, it was hard to get him off the floor. He had been out like a light for over a half hour. So I think we will go back to a two mile walk for a while; see if we can move back up to more miles later. He does seem to like the walk and is always eager to go when I ask him. Of course, I'm always eager to run ten miles until I realize the body doesn't work like it used to. It's amazing to think that fifty years ago running ten miles at a 5:00 minute pace was so easy. Or maybe I think it easy now, looking back! The digital image on the left is a shot of Gill eating snow on the Barnacle Billy's dock while I took pictures of the Christmas lights on the Perkins Cove footbridge. This was part of our walking route tonight.
The visibility stayed excellent all day. The sky was nearly cloudless all day. I never did see a cloud. Around sunset through about 6:30 PM, the sky was hazy clear with a bright half moon hanging directly overhead. Clouds must have moved in later in the night. There was no wind to write about all day until late in the afternoon when a southwest wind flow was established. But I never saw the wind blow over ten knots from 6:00 PM until 8:30 PM. The air temperature made the slow climb upward all day, finally broaching the freezing mark for the first time in three day periods. The highest air temperature that I saw was 33°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 38°F (with a low of 20°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 35°F (with a low of 0°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 37°F (with a low of 3°F).
All my work today was completed in the morning. I worked on this site, worked on tomorrow's schedule and proofed the Guestletter yet again.
I took the day off afterward and watched the Aston Villa/Chelsea game, the Patriots game and ended the day eating dinner along with the Bill's pathetic, full of mistakes, game. If the Patriots don't go to the Super Bowl, I would love to see the Bills go. They have the weapons, I don't think they know how to organize them. Go Pats!
It rained all morning and most of the afternoon, stopping around 3:30 PM or 4 PM. The sky was overcast all day and into the night. The visibility decreased as the air temperature got warmer. Most of the afternoon was foggy along the coast with poor visibility from the shore over the ocean. The wind blew out of the south for most of the day. The teeth went out of the wind by mid morning leaving us with about five knots of wind along the shore until after sunset. Probably around 6:00 PM, the wind backed out of the west. It blew at speeds up to twenty knots before I went to bed. The air temperature rose to a value of 44°F or, at least, that's the highest air temperature that I saw. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 48°F (with a low of 33°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 36°F (with a low of 28°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 42°F (with a low of 27°F).
It was a work in the office day all day today. I organized a few meetings, worked on the computer and renewed the documentation on both boats. The U.S. Coast Guard doesn't send out a notice of documentation renewal anymore. I wait for these every year and don't think of the renewals until the notice shows up in the mail. This has been the process for every year over the last fifty years that I have needed it. Going through the renewals of licensing today it jogged my memory to check my documentation. The expiration date had already passed with the Bunny Clark. This required an extra fee. The Petrel's documentation was good for a few more days. Of course, never having done this online, the application was problematic. It took me a couple of calls but I, finally, got through it.
The later part of the day, I drove to pick up the Bunny Clark truck and leave the other truck to be serviced. The Bunny Clark truck needed a new battery along with an oil change, etc. The other truck needs the annual service completed.
I was going to take Gill for a walk but it was too icy for me to go. Earlier in the day, when I was visiting the town office, I slipped and landed right on my back. I didn't want to do that again.
The wind howled all day. The ocean along the shore was feather white with white caps, seemingly, overrunning each other. It was like that chops were so anxious to get where they were going, they couldn't hold themselves back. Wind speeds blew out of the west all day at thirty knots sustained with some gusts over forty knots. This was even at sunset and on into the night. During the late spring and summer, a westerly wind always dies out late in the afternoon. That wasn't the case today. Later in the evening, 8:00 PM to be exact, the westerly wind had dropped to twenty-five to thirty-five knots. It wasn't much but it was something. The sky was mostly clear all day with some clouds at times. The visibility over the ocean was excellent. The highest air temperature that I saw during the day was 24°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 33°F - at 12:15 AM - (with a low of 24°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 28°F - at 12:39 AM - (with a low of 17°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 33°F - at 12:04 AM - (with a low of 16°F).
It was a good day to stay inside today. I worked in the office almost the whole day, taking a two hour break in the afternoon to watch an English Primier League game.
One of the things I spent the most time on was the 2026 Guestletter. I'm hoping to post that on Thursday morning.
I didn't take Gill for a walk today as it looked too icy. I already fell down yesterday. I wasn't ready for another fall today.
The wind blew out of the west at twenty to thirty knots ashore until noon. After noon, the wind backed off a bit but still blew almost twenty-five knots at times in gusts, although closer to twenty knots sustained. It has been a windy cold winter so far. The sky was clear all day with some clouds here and there. After sunset, it was hazy clear with a, nearly, full moon hanging overhead at 8:00 PM. The highest air temperature that I saw was 30°F. Portsmouth had a reading of 32°F. And, in the truck, coming back from Portsmouth, I saw a reading of 33°F today. The truck thermometer always reads a little high. The visibility remained excellent all day. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 34°F (with a low of 24°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 29°F (with a low of 9°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 29°F (with a low of 11°F).
I worked all morning on the computer again. After noon, I had to pick up the other truck from the dealership. They had finished the year end stuff on that truck as well. Deb brought me over. Before that, we decided to stop at the ATT store to get Deb a new phone. They had the iPhone 17 for free with a phone trade in. So we figured we would take advantage of it. They had a skeleton crew in the store at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Somehow in the process, the guy who was working on her phone, could not get her phone out of fraud mode, after he put the phone in that way. How he got it that way, I don't know. So he spent the next two or more hours calling everyone, talking to his manager and on the phone with ATT. Nothing would help. So we ended up leaving with her phone in "sos" mode, only able to use WhatsApp as long as she had WiFi! And no new phone! For forty-eight hours. "Yes, sir. Can I have another!" So we will have to go back there Friday afternoon and start all over again.
A glum Deb dropped me off to get the truck. She had barely enough time to get all her other stuff done. I had to forgo all the stuff I had planned.
I ended up doing a short walk with Gill after dinner. We completed a slow three quarters of a mile, mostly on the Marginal Way under the moon. The moon lit up everything. I never bring a light anyway. But you didn't need a light tonight. Even the icy patches were easily avoided. There was a lot of sniffing to do tonight. Who knew?
As is her MO, Leslie "Lenne" Goulet (NH) made the last donation of the year, as she always does, sponsoring me in the Pan-Mass Challenge, a cycling event to raise money for cancer research. With her every year donation, there is always a twist. This year she wanted to make up the difference between my last donation total to bring the new total up to an even $35,000.00 for the season. She did that! Wonderful! I so appreciate all you all do for me and the PMC every year. Regular donors, like Lenne, are so much appreciated. She made her donation in memory of her late husband, Michael Ciancetta, who himself had an untimely passing from the disease. Thank you so so much, for the donation and for closing out the funraising year, Lenne. You are special.
The sky remained overcast for the morning and the early part of the afternoon. It never did snow again during the daylight hours, at least that was the case in southern Maine. Downeast, they got a half a foot of snow to our inch. The wind was again the dominant feature of our weather today. By sunrise, the wind had backed out of the west again. We have had a lot of westerly wind this winter. It blew out of the west until the middle of the morning when I noticed there was a little bit of a northerly lilt to the wind. With that slight wind change, we got an increase in the wind velocity yet again. By noon, the wind was blowing at twenty-five to thirty-five knots. After, it increased again from the west northwest at thirty to thirty-five knots. This kept up for the rest of the daylight hours and on into the night. I never did see in back off while I was awake. The visibility remained excellent all day. The 27°F value that I saw in the morning was the highest air temperature that I saw all day. Mostly, the air temperature during the day was 24 to 22°F. When I walked Gill at 7:00 PM, the air temperature had dropped to 16°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 33°F (with a low of 17°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 24°F (with a low of 7°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 28°F (with a low of 6°F).
During the morning, I spent all my extra time working on the Guestletter. I had lunch at 11:00 AM. By noon, I was in the truck headed to Massachusetts to see a friend in rehab. He was presently in the critical care wing of the facility. He has recovered enough to be moving to the rehab part of the facility tomorrow. There he will be physically rehabbed seven days a week with exercises, walking, swallowing drills, speech therapy (although he can talk pretty well), etc. That ate up the rest of my day.
I did take the dog, Gill, for a walk under an, almost, full moon. It was beautiful out. With the light snow cover, I almost bought the farm twice. I was more cavalier walking tonight than I should have been. We only walked a mile as Gill is starting to develop problems with his hips. It's hard for him to get up off the floor as it is. But, if I walk him too far, either Deb or I have to help him off the floor. And that is not good. So I have been backing off on the distance as of late. Almost half a week or so ago we walked for three miles. That turned out to be well over the limit for Gill. He won't tell me if it's too much lately because we haven't been able to get out as much. He would walk for ever if I kept going. And Deb is afraid of the ice and snow. Plus, she has been sick. So she has been unable to take him when I can't. So I will be making the walking decisions on distance for a while.
After saying I was going to post the Guestletter today I found that I just didn't have time. I'm almost there and would have been there had it not been for the disruption of time at the ATT store two days ago and a surprise visit I had to make to a friend in a rehab center in Massachusetts today. It's amazing how much better I can write when I have time to leave the piece alone for an extended period of time and then revisit it after a week or so. It should be the best one that I have written so far. But I will leave you all to judge that. It should be up late morning tomorrow.
I received two new donations for the upcoming 2026 Pan-Mass Challenge cancer fundraiser. This will be my twentieth year of involvement. The donations were from my wonderful sister, Meg, for a wopping $2,000.00. And one of $100.00 from Peter Bradley (CA), a good friend, former triathlete and a guy I worked with at the restaurant growing up. Meg always likes to be the first to donate every year. When I put my new PMC site up, I will show both Meg's and Peter's contributions there. In the meantime, thank you both very much for your continued support, generosity and your thoughtfulness. It is very very much appreciated by so very many, including me!
The sky cleared up during the morning and, pretty much, stayed that way for the rest of the day. The visibility remained excellent. The wind blew out of the west all morning and part of the afternoon. Wind speeds ranged from twenty to twenty-five knots. The westerly wind dropped a bit after noon but gained a northerly lilt and picked up again before sunset. I don't believe I saw any change in the wind direction later. Wind speeds seemed to be over twenty knots every time I looked after dark. The air temperature was cool all day. It wasn't until mid morning that I saw the air temperature above 20°F. The highest air temperature I saw was 26°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 29°F (with a low of 16°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 25°F (with a low of 0°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 22°F (with a low of 7°F).
I spent all morning working on doing the final edit on the Guestletter. I was done and had it posted just before noon. I did have to edit it one more time when Fred Kunz (NH) texted me to tell me that he started fishing with me in 1990, not 1991, as I had originally thought. You know, it's funny, I did that all by memory, which really isn't like me. I could have gone back and checked for sure. However, I didn't. Of course I didn't have to because I have Fred! That guy has a head for figures. I've learned never to debate the man when it comes to numbers. I always lose!
Deb and I left the house at noon to go to the ATT store to get her phone back on line. One of the attendants working there had to call in a favor to take her phone off the fraud list held by ATT. This after she talked to the fraud department from a phone at the ATT store. Regardless of all she could prove, they still wouldn't take the phone off the list for her. Luckily the guy who was working with us today had been there for twenty years and had connections. She still has to wait for something else to clear before she can get a phone (Maybe Tuesday?). But, in the meantime, her old phone is back working again.
We got back at 3:00 PM, when I started to work on setting up the 2026 Pan-Mass Challenge site.
I received a very generous $500.00 donation from Dennis Pietro (NH) sponsoring me is this year's Pan-Mass Challenge today. Dennis has been a long time fisherman on the Bunny Clark and is responsible for hooking the largest fish we have ever brought to gaff on the Bunny Clark, a 26' basking shark. We fought that fish for three hours and it took us seven miles before we were able to get the fish up beside the boat. It was fought with a Bunny Clark jig stick and sixty pound test line to the limit of both the rod's and the line's breaking strength. It was a typical Dave Miller (MA) charter where something amazing always happens. Thank you so very much for your thoughtfulness and generosity, Dennis. I very much appreciate your support. It means a great deal to me!
I was seriously mentally drained by 5:00 PM so I never did take Gill for a walk. Nor did I jump on the trainer for a spin. I normally ride at least sixty minutes after working in the winter. Not this day.
The sky stayed clear all day with occasional random clouds. The wind didn't blow as hard today - for once. Winds were predominantly from the west at fifteen to twenty knots in the morning and early afternoon, less in the later afternoon and evening. When I walked Gill at 6:00 PM, there seemed no wind at all along the shore while the closest offshore buoy showed westerly winds still blowing fifteen to twenty knots. The sky at that time was clear overhead with clouds preventing us from seeing the moon above the eastern horizon. The visibility was excellent all day. The highest air temperature that I saw was 30°F around 1:00 PM. Portsmouth, New Hampshire also showed 30°F at 2:00 PM. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 32°F (with a low of 18°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 29°F (with a low of 1°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 27°F (with a low of 13°F).
Except for watching one futbol game while on the trainer, I worked at the computer all day. I spent the majority of my time making up the 2026 Pan-Mass Challenge site. I did complete the project by 5:30 PM. I will edit it once more tomorrow and then put it up.
After I was done working, I took Gill for a 2.2 mile walk, half on Shore Road and half on the Marginal Way. There were places on the Marginal Way that were treacherous with ice. One spot in particular had a double fall line river of ice where I slid ever closer to the edge to a fifteen foot sheer drop off the path. Gill was right beside me looking up at me as if to say; "What's wrong with you?" It was, actually, quite funny, if not for the fact that I thought for a moment I was in serious trouble. We always walk at night so I didn't have a good visual of the area from distance. Otherwise I would have taken a different path. I almost fell about five times. But when I saw the first tricky part, I kept my knees bent every time I came to, what looked like, a potential icy area. The northern part of the Marginal Way was much icier than the southern part. This resulted in a total of one hour of walking, which was slower than we normally go but perfect for Gill with his sore hips. He was a very happy dog. Or was he just laughing at me? He didn't seem sore or tired from the walk.
By daylight, there was a patina of snow on the roads, making them completely white with zero depth to it. It seemed that once the roads were covered, the weather gods were satisfied and no more snow was released from the sky. Later in the morning the sky cleared and remained clear for the rest of the day. The visibility was excellent by 8:00 AM. The wind was light for the morning. The buoy reports gave the wind direction from the north or northwest. By noon, the ocean along the shore was calm. The wind was out of the northwest at fifteen to twenty or more knots ashore by mid to late afternoon. After sunset we saw twenty-five knots of cold wind out of the northwest. This wind direction and velocity was prevalent through the part of the night where I was awake. The highest air temperature that I saw was 29°F. Portsmouth, New Hampshire showed 28°F at 1:00 PM. This was the same exact time that I also looked at the thermometer, although I didn't realize it at the time. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 31°F (with a low of 23°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 26°F (with a low of 16°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 24°F (with a low of 13°F).
I spent the morning writing and posting this report and editing my Pan-Mass Challenge for the last time and posting that as well. Cancer never sleeps and so the fundraising shouldn't stop. The rest of the day I got all the chores I needed to complete before starting the first work week after the holidays. At 1:00 PM, Deb and I drove to a rehab hospital to visit a good friend of ours who will probably be there for a couple more weeks. We are hoping for less time. On the way back we did some grocery shopping.
I took Gill for another walk after watching a bit of the Patriots game. I like to go after dark as there is usually no person on the Marginal Way. Actually, we only walked the southern, less slippery, portion of the Marginal, spending most of our 2.2 mile walk on the road or on the land between summer houses. We did walk through the Cove and over the Perkins Cove footbridge to continue walking over at the other side of the Cove and down shore road. There were no cars so it was a good night to walk there. Normally, it isn't. I never walk there with the dog in the summer, even with a leash. I took a picture of Gill on the footbridge. The Christmas lights are all still there. This digital image is below.
The sky was clear all morning. A haziness started to creep into the sky after noon. We had a hazy sun by 2:00 PM. Overcast skies reigned before sunset. It started to snow at 6:00 PM. It was a light continuous snow that had the ground covered in about a half hour. We had a northwest wind that started tapering off as the morning progressed. By 9:30 AM, there was no wind at all. The ocean along the shore was flat calm. The wind stayed light and the ocean calm for the rest of the daylight hours. When I took a walk with Gill at 6:00 PM, the wind was light out of the southwest, maybe seven knots? It was about ten knots at 8:00 PM. The visibility was excellent all day until the snow started to fall. The highest air temperature that I saw was 23°F at around 1:00 PM. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 27°F (with a low of 16°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 20°F (with a low of 3°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 19°F (with a low of 4°F).
It was a cold day all day. The house was freezing until I finally relented and turned up the thermostat.
Today was manic Monday on steroids. This is always a crazy day, the first Monday after January 1. I worked all morning and part of the afternoon and, then, gave up. I was on the phone a lot, working to set up meetings and going off a long list of items that have to be completed. It always seems too much, looking ahead, on this day.
I did walk Gill for a mile, a little after it started to snow at 6:00 PM. The snow had covered everything by 6:30 PM. I was prepared to fall and I did. Ice under the snow. I didn't get hurt as I was ready for it. But I did crawl around on the ice until I found the edge of the ice patch. It was a slow walk, favoring Gill. If I walk too fast, Gill stops doing his dog routine and just follows me at a pace. If I slow down, he does his own thing. So a slow mile was perfect for him.
The sky was mostly overcast for the first hour or two of daylight. The sky was mostly clear in the morning with clouding in the afternoon. The sky was overcast and misty at 6:00 PM with an air temperature of 28°F. In fact, that was the highest air temperature that I saw today. The air temperature in Portsmouth, New Hampshire got up to 29°F for a high. The wind started out at ten knots out of the north but diminished as the day progressed. There was no wind at noon. The ocean along the shore at that time and all through the afternoon was calm. The wind was light out of the northeast after sunset. But there wasn't enough wind to blow out a candle while I was still awake. The visibility was excellent during all but the last hour of daylight. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 36°F (with a low of 25°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 30°F (with a low of 17°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 30°F (with a low of 16°F).
I spent most of the morning and part of the afternoon on licensing. I concentrated on Maine state licensing mostly. There is always some glitch that I run into every year on all licensing online every year. Maine licensing is no different. This year was no exception. The state has decided to make a separate license for charter boats. And any vessel that takes passengers for hire, fishing, comes under this new license. So it's not a party/charter designation as it is with the Federal licenses. It's a charter boat license. What I don't understand is; does this allow a party boat, like the Bunny Clark, to fish close to shore as can those with tide water permits, and fish for striped bass? And does this waive the test you have to take in order to get this tide water guide's license? This I have to look into closer. Also, unlike the other online licenses, you have to give them a copy of your vessel's certificate of inspection (COI), the inspection required by the U. S. Coast Guard for carrying more than six passengers. You don't need a COI if you carry six passengers or less. Somehow, six passengers aren't as important to keep safe as having more than six passengers is. This isn't automatic like the other licenses, including the lobster license. It has to be approved. So once I figured as much out as I could, including two calls to the Department of Marine Resources and filling out the appropriate forms online, I was left waiting to be approved. This isn't a problem but it's just a little bit of an added annoyance. So we wait.
My Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB), the one I have on the Bunny Clark, is now out of date, totally. This is a unit with a float free option if the vessel sinks that gives out an emergency radio signal to satellites and boats in the area. The model is old enough so that I can't get a new battery for it. The battery has expired. In fact, the whole unit has expired. And that's just as well. I had ordered a new unit. A much more advanced unit with more life saving capabilities than the previous model. It was ready today. So I drove over to York, Maine to pick it up. By the time I got back home, I had about a half hour to get ready to drive a half hour for my six month eye check-up. During that time I called the Beacon Registration office in Washington to let them know that I needed to take the old EPIRB offline as I was going to register a new EPIRB tomorrow. This is what they did. They are always super helpful and nice on the phone. Always have been. Once I register the new unit tomorrow, I will call back and they will link the information I have there with our lobster/tuna boat, the Petrel.
I got back home from the eye doctor's office at 6:00 PM. I only walked a third of a mile with Gill this night. It was just as well. We took our time more than normal so he could still get all his smells in. He seemed a very happy dog.
I received a $50.00 donation from Bill Devon (VT) today sponsoring me in this season's Pan-Mass Challenge. Bill has donated to my cancer project since I started getting involved in 2007. He dedicated his donation in memory of his former wife, Kathy. She couldn't survive her bout with the disease. On the inside of the card that he sent with the check was a message to me: "Enjoy each other.". No truer words from someone who gives that sentence very special meaning. You, as a person, tend to take so much for granted when everything seems to be going so well for so long. Thanks for everything, Bill. The lot of it, including you, is very much appreciated.
The occasional sleet was well over by 9:00 AM. We were left with cloudy skies and icy conditions everywhere. A Cove Committee meeting was canceled today because the Ogunquit town hall closed for the day. The wind blew out of the north at fifteen knots or more for most of the morning. There may even have been a little east in there during the early part. When I checked after lunch, the wind had more westerly in it, although not directly out of the northwest. Near sunset we had northwest wind of about ten knots. A gentle wind day, I would call it. The sky stayed overcast most of the day. I never did see the sky clear. But I never looked at the sky from mid-day onward. The air temperature hung below freezing for the longest time. We saw the air temperature reach the freezing mark at noon. The highest air temperature that I saw was 34°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 38°F (with a low of 32°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 36°F (with a low of 26°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 33°F (with a low of 23°F).
Today was the first day where Portland had a temperature reading above freezing in 2026. We had a cold December as well. If it stays cold through January and February, it will be a different fishing season starting in the spring. How different? I suspect the haddock will be late. This means the commercial effort will be harder on the haddock before we see them. But who knows, really. Warm winters have always seen the haddock in easy to find places on the first trip. And closer to shore. There are so many other variables that come into play that it's foolish to bet your season on what you think is going to happen. It does make it a lot of fun to try to figure it all out during the fishing.
Today was a sit in front of the computer day. I spent the majority of my day working on my captain's license renewal. I forget how long the whole process takes. Getting my medical certificate was harder this time. This only because I didn't pay attention. And this only because of how I felt the tests ran. They took my blood pressure and it came out at 160/80, the highest blood pressure reading I have ever had, to my knowledge. I don't have high blood pressure. But the figure remains in the testing documents. I should have had them take it again. It was only taken once. So I submitted other readings from other doctors. Am I too anal? Will this be a red flag when they look at the documents I sent today? I don't want delays in getting my captain's license. Hopefully, this won't hold it up. I worry if my blood pressure is 130/70!
Except for an hour taken to go down and talk to our harbormaster about Cove issues coming up, I spent the time from 4:00 AM until 5:00 PM in front of the computer, mostly online. I also called the Coast Guard's regional exam center about six times just to make sure I filled out the documents correctly. They are always so very nice.
The sky was clear or partly cloudy all day. The wind was light and variable all day as well. The ocean along the shore was calm. The visibility was excellent. The air temperature was mild, as compared to what we have been experiencing. The highest air temperature that I observed today was 44°F. 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 42°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 22°F).
As soon as the town office opened up, I went in to reschedule the Harbor Committee meeting after it was canceled with the weather on Wednesday. By law, you have to give the town's people a seven day notice. And since I didn't specify a rain date, I had to post the meeting for next Wednesday on the 14th.
From there, I drove to the Safe Harbor yard in Eliot to discuss working on improvements for the Bunny Clark. Before I finalize this I will have to consult the Coast Guard to make sure I complete what they want me to have done before the upcoming fishing season.
That done, I had to travel to Kittery Eye to order new lenses for my glasses. Glasses are so expensive now.
At noon, Deb and I met Betsy & Fred Kunz for lunch at Greenleaves. It was great to see them both. We had a good time. And it was nice to catch up with Betsy, where we haven't seen her in a long time.
The afternoon was spent on the computer setting up the plans for tomorrow and the weekend. I plan to come up with the schedule over the weekend. This will mean creating this year's reservation book, planning the long trips and working on prices. The weekend is a good time as I won't be pestered by vendors, etc.
I hate to admit it but I had a very interesting and enlightening talk with Greg Veprek today. Apparently, he has his health in order and is a physical force to reckon with. I don't know as he has gone so far as to train with the Celtics. But. knowing him, he probably has the training staff on speed dial in case he needs help. We did compare training routines, life, fishing and who we think should be the fishery Czar moving forward in the management scene. I'll give you a hint on who that would be; he loved fishing with Captain Kenton Geer on the Bunny in the old days. So everything is right in the world of Greg Veprek. No, we didn't discuss his love life. He also warned me that he would be seeking my presence for a future luncheon in Feburary. I've got to remind myself to get some sleep beforehand so I can stay sharp enough to sustain his dry wit when we meet. That's a challenge, for sure.
I did walk the dog this evening, where I didn't yesterday. Too much was going on to make the time. So tonight, at 6 PM, we walked. It was icy. And, to further protect myself, I wore wrist braces that I used to wear roller blading when I was ski training in the summer. Tonight, Gill had a harder time walking than I did. It was icy but also crusty over two inches of snow cover, with the glaze on top. At that time of night, the air temperature was slightly below the freezing mark. All those spots that warmed up during the day, melting spots, were black ice tonight. I stayed off the sidewalk so I could see where I was walking and stayed mostly on the Marginal Way, which wasn't as bad as the sidewalks. Anyway, we were slower, which is good for Gill. And we only completed 1.66 miles, which was also good for an aging border collie.
The sky stayed clear for most of the morning with clouds moving in. By mid afternoon, the sky was overcast. We saw the first drops of rain around 4:00 PM. But the rain became steady at 6:30 PM. The visibility went from excellent to good after sunset. The wind was light for most of the morning with a west to northwest bent. After 10:00 PM, the wind became established out of the south. Wind speeds were fifteen to twenty knots out of the south after noon and on into the night. The closest offshore weather buoy report showed a wind gust up to thirty-one knots at 6:30 PM. We did not see that along the shore here. I was walking Gill along the Marginal Way at that time. Sustained winds felt like fifteen knots at that time. The air temperature was mild all day. The highest air temperature I saw was 45°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 52°F (with a low of 27°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 48°F (with a low of 19°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 43°F (with a low of 17°F).
I had a lot of running around to do today. Canvasworks for side curtain repairs, the town office to pay the new year's bills, sponsoring the Ogunquit Playhouse, supporting Great Works Regional Land Trust, finalizing the requirements of the Coast Guard for the Bunny Clark inspection in April, setting up the new year with the Ogunquit Chamber for both Barnacle Billy's restaurants and the Bunny Clark, etc., etc. It was a run around day trying to get things done before the weekend.
At 3:00 PM, I took part in a meeting with representatives from NOAA, the Northeast Fisheries Center and the Planning and Development Team of the New England Fishery Management Council under the organizer, Kimberly Bastile, for an informational class on how to run the new tool to make model runs for acceptable recreational fishing regulations for the Western Gulf of Maine. We had a similar tool last year but some, me included, had a hard time running the tool. Last year I ended up having someone run the tool for me to come up with acceptable regulations that I ended up crafting into a motion that was accepted by all parties but was never implemented last season. This year, the tool has been made easy enough so that even I can handle the different model runs. It's also a lot quicker. And you can plug in all kinds of ideas (including cod season length, minimum size of both haddock and cod, bag limits, etc.) to see if they meet the muster. So, for the first time, in practice, I was able to get on line and start to run the tool. It goes online Monday. From then on, I should be able to come up with meaningful regulations that meet the acceptance parameters.
My main concern is keeping cod in May. We haven't been able to keep cod in May since 2014. So a proper model including May for keeping cod does not really exist. There is so much of a difference between the availability of cod in 2014 and now as to be almost unworkable. If a May cod season is accepted by all regulatory parties we could conceivably go over the acceptable sub-ACL (or recreational cod quota for the year). If so, we will be penalized in 2027. The thought in my mind is that if you have a directed cod fishery in May on spawning fish, this could have a huge negative impact on the spawning stock biomass. We do not know how much damage this could do in the places where cod spawn. The cod aren't spawning in May. But groups of potential cod spawners do stop in certain areas as they move to the spawning areas to settle in. I have tagged cod in these areas before actual spawning time and found that they did indeed end up in known spawning spots. So I'm uneasy about opening up the cod fishing in May. Just my thoughts.
Like so many days this last week, the sky started off clear for most of the morning. And like so many days this week, by noon, the sky was headed to the overcast route, which it became in the afternoon. By 6:00 PM, today, it was overcast and looked like rain. It was raining two hours later. It rained through the night. The wind was somewhere else in the world today. It was calmest day I have seen all year. From 8:00 AM until sunset, the ocean was flat mirror calm all day. The wind started to blow out of the east at 6:30 PM or there abouts. By 9:00 PM, the wind was fifteen knots out of the east. I lost track after that. The visibility was excellent during the morning, good in the afternoon in haze. The highest air temperature that I saw was 45°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 52°F (with a low of 38°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 48°F (with a low of 36°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 46°F (with a low of 28°F).
I spent the whole day on this coming season's reservations. As I wrote earlier, we are only doing the marathon trips this season. There will be no more extreme day trips (trips I invented for Ian Keniston and Jared Keniston), no full day trips and no half day trips. I loved all those trips. But, without an ace, like Ian, I have no desire to do them. So we will have fifty-nine marathon trips, my favorite trips, maybe a couple more. Or, maybe, less, depending on the weather, of course.
Deb and I went over pricing and the actual dates we will be running. I spent the rest of the day building the reservation book. In the old days, with a full season's worth of trips, it would take about fifteen hours to complete the reservation book. My father and I designed the book. For thirty years, he used to do it with me. It started by me going to the office at the restaurant where the copy machine resided. He was always there working, regardless of the time of year. He offered to help from the very beginning. The winter of 2012 was the last winter that he helped me. He passed away in 2013, July 16 to be exact, while I was on the Ultra Marathon trip. I was giving the boat pool to Ray Westermann for a pollock that was over 20 pounds at the exact moment he passed. I didn't find out about it until the Bunny Clark was an hour out. The boat was 59 miles offshore when it happened. I still build the reservation book the way I used to do it with my father. But, now, of course, it is without him. But I always think of him every time I start to work on it, in the office at the restaurant where it all started.
It took me seven hours to complete the book today. Some parts always take me the same amount of time. But there are less pages. So that took much less time. I got back home at 6:00 PM. Gill and I went for a damp walk of 2.1 miles. There was only one slab of ice on the Marginal Way that doesn't seem to want to disappear. Reminds me of the memories that I hope will never die.
After I had posted this report, I checked the visibility over the ocean and found that I could see the light on Boon Island clearly. I have to look out the very edge of the window. So I probably wasn't close enough during the initial viewing. The visibility was excellent all day. The sky remained overcast, I would say, all morning. I didn't pay that close attention to this. The rest of the day was mostly cloudy with clear patches of sky throughout. It was still mostly cloudy after sunset but there were plenty of stars that could also be seen. The wind settled in out of the north for the day. Almost twenty knots at times in the morning, by noon there was barely ten knots at the closest weather buoy. Less than five knots ashore. The afternoon saw very light wind and a flat calm ocean along the shore. We started to see westerly winds up to twenty knots at 8:00 PM. The air temperature reached a high of 42°F in the afternoon but was in the high 30s and low 40s all day. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 44°F (with a low of 34°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 43°F (with a low of 31F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 37°F (with a low of 31°F).
The first thing I worked on after posting this report was the schedule and rates for this coming Bunny Clark fishing season. So the stage is set. I have completed these winter projects much earlier than I did in the last twenty years. Of course, there are a lot fewer trips, were a lot fewer trips last season and less to write about and do this winter. I had more time. But I'm also leaving for England to watch football games for a week. So I had more drive than normal to get things done. Doing this won't leave Deb handcuffed while I am gone. She doesn't go with me to England. She does not like the climate. I love it.
I spent some time working with the model tool that came online for the first time for us fishery managers with the New England Fishery Management Council. It works great. The biggest problem, as I have mentioned previously, is taking cod in May. This is the time of year when the cod are first starting to spawn. But on top of this, the model tool has no data for cod since 2014 to run with. So anything we come up with on the cod side will be artificial with any tool presented to us. And I don't believe there are enough cod to catch. This has been proven to me over and over again in the last ten years of fishing. The cod we could potentially catch in May may be the spawners. This is the only way that the recreational angler can have an adverse impact on the cod stocks. We don't make a dent in numbers. We are a small fish as compared to the commercial effort in that regard. But, by fishing on spawning fish, we disrupt the system. We are catching too many cod commercially. We need to slow down on that end. But we certainly don't want to be adding to the impact on the recreational side. If we find, statistically or scientifically, that we took too many cod in this coming season, it will definitely affect what we can keep in fiscal fishing year 2027. This could come in the form of less haddock that we can keep per angler and no cod for the fall. This is not in the recreational angler's best interest. And how can you depend on bookings for the party/charter fleet if we don't have reliable consistent regulations that the patron can depend on to book trips in advance.
In an ideal world the angler would have a set of regulations that would be the same from year to year instead of being able, for example, to keep five haddock this year, ten or fifteen the next, cod one year and no cod the next. It makes a difference to those people who want to utilize the party/charter fleet. We, as managers, should strive for regulation stability. To do this I don't think we can keep cod in May. My opinion, of course.
I was able to get all my licensing requirements completed today. The two outstanding licenses right now are my captain's license and my letter of authorization for the Bunny Clark to fish on the closed commercial fishing areas, the western Gulf of Maine and the Cashes Ledge area.
Gill and I had a great two mile walk tonight. It was mild, 38°F, at 6:00 PM when we went. And there was no ice for the old man to fall on. One thing I will say, I don't take a flashlight and I don't walk where there are lights, if I can help it. So my route is a mile or more of the Marginal Way and around now uninhabited summer houses. Without the snow, it's much harder to see where you are going, like tonight. So Gill and I were slower. Or, I should say, I was slower and Gill had to follow. He stays right with me, fast or slow.
I also signed up for the Pan-Mass Challenge again today. This will be my twentieth year with this cancer project. In that time I, personally, with my involvement have saved lives and kept those who, finally, did pass to live longer. Of course, it wasn't me specifically as it was those donors who helped me fund research more than I ever could myself. So thank you. And I hope you will help me this year.
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