The Maltese Vessel

 

The Bulk Carrier Knossos

Joel Cairo: You always have a very smooth explanation ready.

Sam Spade: What do you want me to do, learn to stutter?

Wilmer Cook: Keep on riding me and they're gonna be picking iron out of your liver.

Sam Spade: The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter.

--The Maltese Falcon quotes from IMDB

I'd seen a couple of small whale spouts just off Ocean Beach, probably migrating Gray Whales, after walking down there yesterday morning. The beach sand was packed so hard from all the rain that I didn't get any in my shoes for once. The sun was shining, but it was not warm. I stood on the beach with my eyes watering slightly from the cold wind, trying to catch a third, and better, glimpse of the whale, which appeared to be moving south. I even watched the offshore flight of gulls on the chance one of them would see the whale and check it out. No luck.

When I got home and set out on my bike, I returned to the Cliff House with my camera, this time to watch whales instead of clouds. I didn't see any whales, but I did see a Maltese-flagged bulk carrier named after the ancient Greek city of Knossos (home of the Minotaur!) heading into port. 

Knossos is a city on the island of Crete, about 600 miles east of the tiny but densely populated Republic of Malta (not to be confused with Malta, Greece). The sailing vessel Knossos was just arriving after traveling almost 6,000 miles from Tianjin Xingang, a Chinese port on the Yellow Sea about 100 miles southeast of Beijing. I'd have thought the Knossos would be riding lower in the water if it was full of goods from China, but maybe it's carrying something relatively light, like textiles (compared to iron ore, for instance).

The Knossos Entering San Francisco Bay

* * *

President Jimmy Carter

 

President Carter on the Flight Deck

Hard to believe how much time has sailed by since I was a teen-ager assigned to the pre-commissioning crew of the Navy's newest aircraft carrier, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69). The ship and its crew were just getting their sea legs when President Jimmy Carter came out visit. 

Our home port was Norfolk, Virginia, and we'd just been out to sea and had our first liberty port in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Carter's visit came a couple of weeks later, on March 17, 1978, when we were 60 miles off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, taking part in a Combined Weapons Training Exercise. 

I only remember two things about that day. The first was eagerly trying to position myself to snap a photo of the president as he watched from the flight deck. The second was watching an F-14 fly right in front of us, not much higher than the flight deck, at supersonic speed. The same jet that I'd only heard roaring in the past, now made no sound whatsoever as we watched it fly closer and closer, finally swooping past us with flaming afterburners, yet still making no more noise than a skulking wildcat. I was totally unprepared for the tremendous sonic BOOM! that blasted us a moment later.

Carter was the first president of my adult life, and even though he got stuck being the boss during a prolonged gas crisis inflicted on us by Arab oil producers for our support of Israel during the Yom Kippur War; the Iranian hostage crisis (and disastrous rescue mission); the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan; and economic problems inherited from prior administrations, I've always admired him, in part because he'd been a Navy nuclear engineer, which made him a genius in my eyes. But also because he was an environmental and social champion. 

He has also been a compassionate and down-to-earth human being (and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize) who, with his wife Rosalynn, continued to do good things for the world after he left the White House. So many people talk about Reagan in glowing terms (I was especially surprised by President Barack Obama's enthusiasm), but his defeat of Carter in 1980 was a major turning point in the American character. And look where we are now. 

The President and First Lady Aboard the Ike

* * *

Cloudy With Chance of Awe

Drama at Seal Rocks

 

Going for a walk this morning I discovered the first San Francisco Wallflower of the season near Grandview Park. It's located in an area we know affectionately as The Wind Tunnel, and it has been living up to the name today, so I haven't tried to photograph it except with my phone. The next highlight of the walk was seeing a Great Blue Heron along Sunset Boulevard, presumably on gopher duty. The final joy was the mass of clouds everywhere but over my head. I walked backwards up one of the last hills before home so I could take in the view.

There were more cool clouds out the back window once I got home, so I set up a timelapse to run while I went out for a bike ride. Still more clouds off the coast drew me up to the Cliff House. It was obviously raining way out at sea, and pouring cats and dogs on Mt. Tamalpais and Tennessee Valley. The whole storm train blew more north than east, so it missed me completely. When I got home I ran another timelapse just for the heck of it while I fixed my lunch.

Above Sutro Baths

Cliff House Falling Into Disrepair

(Add appropriate sound effect of your choice.)

The Tugboat Osprey Pulling Some Kind of Barge Out to Sea

View Toward Muir Beach

Rear Window View

Rear Window Timelapse

* * *

A Movement of Clouds

 

Partly Cloudy Skies, Grandview Park, March 5, 2023

I don't know if I'd been dreaming, but I woke up thinking life is like getting a block of stone when we're born, and we spend our lives learning how to sculpt it. Some people seem to be born with an internal vision of what their final shape should be, although surprises sometimes live even in stone. Other people chisel first one form, then another and another, and later in life, there's very little stone left to work, and their shape becomes a sphere around which passing clouds sail and billow on the wind.

Once again this morning I drove over to Grandview Park on the chance of catching a rainbow, and this time my disappointment was realizing it was too early in the morning for the bow to be in the right position (arcing over Mt. Tamalpais). But since I was already there, and my coffee had no doubt already cooled back on my desk at home, I set up the camera for a timelapse and waited to experience whatever nature had on offer. 

Although the cloud action was mainly over the Marin Headlands, a line of clouds formed up in the west with the promise of a good rainbow angle. I changed lenses and pointed the camera toward them, keeping my camera bag ready for a quick exit from the swiftly approaching rain. The clouds blew in from the ocean and darkened the western edge of the city, casting a giant shadow that moved toward me like a solar eclipse. 

There would have been a great rainbow -- if only the clouds had been showering. Drat. No rain fell, but the temperature dropped precipitously as soon as the shadow fell upon me, so I packed up my gear and headed home for breakfast as the clouds continued their eastward journey.

* * *

Tangled Up In Blue

 

Crow & Hawk in Urban Web of Life

I was sitting at the front gate after putting out a couple of used bike tires for someone to come pick up. I'd just put them on Craigslist "free stuff" and someone responded right away. It's been my experience that people don't always come, even after saying they'll be right over. And they never tell you that they've changed their plans. Non-human animals are much easier to understand.

The cat (who's doing much better after getting some medicine from the vet) was sitting with me, enjoying the afternoon sunshine. When a large leashed dog made a lunge for her, I was proud to see that she hardly flinched while giving him her best "Keep walking, buster" look. As the dog and its walker headed down the sidewalk I saw the crow that had been squawking. The cat doesn't like crows, but this crow wasn't squawking at a cat.

I'd been thinking about bringing my camera along on my bike rides for the last couple of weeks because I've been hearing and seeing red-shouldered hawks more than usual. In a nice twist of fate, this one actually came to me, perching on the web of wires a few doors down. I don't think the hawk was bothered by the crow, but I probably got a little too close for its comfort. Either that, or it gave up on the white-crowned sparrow that had been singing so boldly from the top of the bush below, but was now safely hidden in the shrubbery depths.

Exit, Stage Left (With Crow In Hot Pursuit)

* * *

Mountain Cams

 

Snow on the Mountains, March 2, 2023

I wasn't able to make it up to Mt. Tam when it snowed on Friday, February 24, but at least my trail cams were there, and thankfully some passing deer set them off. The lens on one of the cams had a big glop of snow obscuring much of the view, but even that was kind of fun to see.

What surprised me when I biked up there yesterday was the view toward the city, with snow still clinging to the peaks of the inner coast ranges, at least 65 miles away.

The one surprise on the cams was a couple of people who hiked through along the deer trail, coming from who-knows-where. There are no marked trails anywhere near there. I'd love to know where they started out and where they exited. They noticed both cams and the woman contemplated dancing for one of them, but the guy didn't seem into it. The one cam that picks up audio gave me a smile when it caught the guy looking at the tiny Foxelli cam and saying, "This doesn't exactly look official, does it?" I've seen a couple of the "official" cams, and he's right. Theirs were bigger, much more expensive, and were either out of reach or locked to something, or both.

City View with Snow on the Mountains
(as seen from the H. Dana Bowers Memorial Vista Point north of the Golden Gate Bridge)

It's so rarely low tide when I pass this point going to and from the mountain that I couldn't resist stopping to snap a picture. The tide had been much higher when I rode by on my way up the mountain a few hours earlier. Compare with this scene from when I was there a little over a week ago. The black-necked stilts, American avocets, and wigeons were all still there, along with numerous gulls who were feeding on the Richardson Bay mud flats.

The Japanese-flagged Plumeria Leader, a vehicle carrier, sits anchored at low tide in San Francisco Bay, perhaps waiting for the tide to rise enough to continue its journey (view from Sausalito waterfront).

Blacktailed Jackrabbit
(composite image)

Fresh Powder on Mt. Tam

A Little Later it Has Melted a Bit

Fox Captured in Beam of Foxelli Cam

Turkeys Heading Over the Hill as Coyote Appears

In this composite image showing the bobcat moving across the frame, it looks like the cat is moving directly toward the second cam. I couldn't believe it when I sorted through the more than 2,000 frames from that cam, many of which simply showed trees blowing in the wind, and could not find the expected pictures. I figure the cat either darted up the hill after leaving the Foxelli frame, or the second cam simply malfunctioned at a very inopportune moment.

Tam Cam Video Clips

* * *

Rainy Days

 

Storm Squall Floating Over San Francisco

The wind chill was almost certainly dipping into the 30s yesterday (~45 degrees w/ 25 mph wind) as I waited for the squall above to blow into rainbow position. It felt downright wintry in the stiff wind that was blowing most people off the top of Grandview Park after just a few minutes of taking in the view. 

I had seen the squall on internet radar and drove over to the park in the hope of catching a big bow over the city, but it was not to be. A little bitty fragment showed up briefly, but even that scrap of color was gone before it drifted into a more interesting position over the city.

I had hoped to try again today, but Coco, the semi-feral neighborhood cat that we've been feeding (and sheltering on cold or rainy nights), seems to have come down with something, and I'm still waiting to go pick her up from the vet. I wasn't prepared for the sticker shock of going to the vet since I haven't been to see one in probably thirty years. Wow. Hopefully they'll get her back to her frisky self soon.

Color Streak

The Pegasus Voyager oil tanker sails into headwinds in the Golden Gate, with storm clouds blowing in over the Marin Headlands and Mt. Tamalpais.

Phone Snap from Grandview Park

Coco the Cat, after sleeping in the rain under a neighbor's oak tree a couple of days ago.

* * *

Bird Flu for Bandies

 

Band-Tailed Pigeon

I just read that band-tailed pigeons are having an outbreak of Avian trichomonosis (which is caused by a protozoan rather than a virus like bird flu, but I took alliterative license in the title of this post). So far this season an estimated 200-300 of these sleek and colorful California native pigeons (Patagioenas fasciata monolis) have succumbed to the virus, which thankfully is a far cry from the estimated 18,000+ that died during the record-breaking warm years of 2014 and 2015. Meanwhile, an estimated 5,600 birds were taken by hunters in the Pacific Coast region in a recent season, which lasts only eighteen days (it's split into two nine-day seasons by region).

Infection with avian trichomonosis isn't always fatal to the bandies, but it can cause lesions in the upper digestive tract that block the passage of food and even air, and eventually cause death. The birds encounter the parasite from contaminated water or food, and adults can infect their chicks when feeding them. The parasite, Trichomonas gallinae, can infect domestic fowl and other wild bird species as well, including raptors that eat infected birds.

Bird feeders and baths are believed to be sites of transmission of the parasite and should be cleaned regularly to help prevent infection.

Bandies Feeding on Soil (or something in the soil) at Agate Beach in Bolinas

Band-Tailed Pigeon Showing Its Tail Feathers

Bandies at a Watering Hole

Four Other Water Hole Visitors (Montage)

* * *

Grandview Park

 

Rainbow Over the Richmond District

I was browsing the internet this morning with my oatmeal and coffee when the sun started breaking out. I wondered if I might have time for a walk down to the beach, so I checked the weather radar and then the Ocean Beach web cam. 

The radar showed that rain was almost certain to get me, but I was surprised to see on the Ocean Beach cam that snow had fallen lower than I'd expected on Mt. Tamalpais. I bolted from the computer, grabbed my camera gear, and drove over to Grandview Park to try to photograph the snowy mountain. 

Unfortunately, even in the short time it took me to climb the steps to the vista point, a phalanx of clouds moved into to obscure the snowy ridge. For just a couple of seconds near the bottom of the stairs I had been able to see the whole mountain from the ocean to East Peak adorned with a frosting of snow, but by the time I reached the top and set up the camera, huffing and puffing, the mountain heights were almost completely obscured.

I hung out for quite a while, hopeful that the mountain would reveal itself again, and shot some time lapse footage instead of just standing in the cold. No luck on the clearing. Meanwhile a dense rank of storm clouds was blowing closer and closer, and with the first few drops I packed up and took refuge in my car. 

The storm passed over, by and by, and a rainbow began to form over the Marin Headlands. I grabbed my gear and started hiking back up the stairs when I stopped to photograph a ship heading out to sea, disappointed that I couldn't have caught it closer to the foot of the rainbow. The ship turned out to be a vehicle carrier called Cetus Leader that had just left its San Francisco anchorage bound for Nagoya, Japan.

It was interesting to see the rainbow so low on the horizon. A little later I thought I might see another bow as a squall moved perfectly into position, but by then the sun was so high that no rainbow could be seen (42 degrees above the anti-solar point, where the rainbow would be, was well in front of the rain squall).

View from the fire look-out on Mt. Tam's East Peak this morning

Clouds Preparing to Obscure the Last Bit of Snow

Crop of Previous Image

Rain Heading for the City

City View from Grandview

Japanese Vehicle Carrier Cetus Leader with Rainbow

Rainbow Fragments
(click images to view larger)

Time Lapse of Clouds Over Mt. Tamalpais

* * *

10K Ride

 

Esplanade Sea Wall

Just out and about on Thursday when the odometer rolled over from 9999 to 10000. 

Mileage Milestone

Beach Horizon

Cedar Waxwing in a Juniper

* * *