Trans-Atlantic Comms

I'm given to understand that some Waterford-and-Wider folks are hopping from one foot to the other for closure on the Harrington, Maine Captain Fraser's wayward buoy story. I didn't get any feedback from the local government in Harrington, so I turned to the Fourth Estate. [An idea that stems from Edmund Burke "Burke said there were Three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporters' Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important far than they all." Thomas Carlyle]. The nearest organ of the USA's justly famous Free Press is the Machias Valley News Observer ($1.60 but still editorially free!). Good timing! because Sarah Craighead Dedmon, the we-never-sleep Editor of MVNO, was in the process of putting that week's edition to bed. She asked for a higher resolution version of the photo, because MVNO has Standards in that department, and hammered out 200 words to fill in a bit of a hole on the back page of her paper. I'm dead chuffed by the whole story. Captain Dave Fraser seems resigned, if not exactly buoyant, about the loss of his kit. I like to think that the newspaper readers of Washington County ME will face the day with a little more Spring in their step. Schools were starting late there last week because of the latest dump of snow, so any feel-good story is sure to be welcome.

I made a facetious quip comparing the mighty size of Cap'n Fraser's buoy with my diminutive Red Yaris. Obviously the size difference is exaggerated by the perspective. Three days after retrieving the big blue buoy from Garrarus strand, I was back on a different beach and spotted a distant pink dot with my binoculars. Without the optical aid, everything beyond my outstretched hand is a blur. As I got closer, the pink blob revealed itself as the biggest buoy I've ever found. It was really light though, and I dragged it back to the car-park fondly imagining that it would fit in the trunk. It didn't but it didn't fall out either - wedge! There are various letters T(FN)M and numbers 320678 on my latest acquisition, I'll need some help tracking down its origin.

The pic [R above] of the blue buoy's ring-bolt is a final angle on the Maine buoy story. These bivalve molluscs have hitch-hiked across the ocean: it gives some clue about how difficult is the study of oceanic biogeography. A prize for the first person to identify the species.