Snow and more snow

Brrrrrrrrrrr. An Almost-Wordless Wednesday post.

Red in the Morning...

Red in the morning,

Sailor take warning…

"This old saying actually has a scientific explanation. It relates to moving high and low surface-pressure weather systems, and the way that the colors in sunlight are scattered differently by dirty and clean atmospheres. This is the explanation of how these phenomena combine to color our sunrises and sunsets." (NOAA link) 

I read then reread the NOAA page, trying to absorb the explanation of how a low pressure system has a cloudy and cleaner atmosphere causing different scattering of blue vs red light rays, etc. The diagrams helped and I thought I had a grasp on it, right up to the statement:

"A cleaner atmosphere at sunrise or sunset is colored by a mixture of all but the blue colors, giving it a yellowish appearance."

What? this week the atmospheric pressure was high, very high, and this is what a sunrise looked like… definitely yellowish. So much for science and folk wisdom - this calls for further study. 

Several cold, clear blue sky days brought frost to the boat decks and to the dock, freezing puddles of standing water that didn't thaw for days.

Finally this so-called Arctic Blast produced a lovely, early December snowfall. Snow shovels and brooms were put to good use, over and over, as the snow kept falling throughout the day. Almost six inches of snow fell, turning the marina into a black and white version of it's usually colorful self.

Some feathered critter managed to find a food source underneath the blanket of white... 

…while the local feral cats looked uncomfortable, waiting for their usual morning feeding from a small group of volunteers.

The tidal range was quite small this week, making the ramp to shore less challenging than it might have been. It was a slippery climb, but manageable.

This snowplow started work early, not waiting for the snow to pile up before clearing the road and parking lot. He kept busy all day, pushing the snow into small mountains around the shopping center.

Man-made objects added eye-catching spots of color to the black and white landscape ashore. While I enjoyed my morning walk, the cold got to me, I was ready to head back inside and warm up again with a hot cup of something. (link)

Under Cover for the Winter?

Not the Rhapsody

How do you protect a boat from the worst effects of winter weather? Without storing a vessel in a boathouse, local boat owners use a variety of methods to deal with the occasional winter snow, and the more common ice and driving rain in the Pacific Northwest. Recently the daytime air temperatures have dipped below freezing, but the saltwater has maintained a steady 43-44 F throughout the week. This makes it possible to leave boats in the water for the winter, rather than hauling them out to store on the hard.

Most boats are left open to the weather, hopefully watertight and leakproof. Other vessels sport tidy canvas covers, casual tarps, industrial grade polysomething shrink-wrapping, and more. On a sunny Autumn day the covered boats remind me of postponed adventures, parked on some mental shelf until… who knows when?

Looks Like Winter, Feels Like Winter

Brrrrrr! Yes, it's that cold even though official winter is still three weeks away. Evidently Mother Nature doesn't pay attention to the calendar, it's cold enough to be winter right now. Frost covered the boat's caprails and decks early this morning, and the icy puddles on the dock remained frozen until the sunshine warmed them mid-morning. Regardless of temperature, the day was lovely and I found several excuses to walk around the marina in between our boat projects, my galley efforts, etc. 

Photo: Early morning view thru the pilothouse window

Photo: Snow on the westerly peaks, with much more predicted this week.

Photo: Beautiful sunset, with advancing storm clouds.