Salt Spring Photographer John Cameron
Orcas. A mother and calf swim by at dusk.
A bit far for a good look from shore, even with a long lens. But it was still a special moment! A dozen or so individually swam by over a period of 20 minutes, each surfacing occasionally for a couple of seconds.
The mother and calf were the only two swimming together and they were perfectly synchronized.
Nature’s composition
Along a southern shoreline, lovely layers add interest to a morning walk. The dry grass is a concern this time of year.
At daybreak, a rare and dense spring fog slowly lifted to show a strip of white light across the eastern horizon.
Moments later, the fog returned, hiding everything but the foreground rock.
I waited for this otter to get close (very close); he didn’t seem to know I was there. For him though, the sound of the camera shutter was like a starting gun!
So here’s the thing. The first boat to cross the finish line doesn’t necessarily win a sailing race. Round Saltspring 2015 was scored using the Time on Distance formula and the distance used was 42.0 nautical miles.
Each boat has an assigned handicap. In the photo above the little boat, a ‘Left Coast Dart’ with 5 sailors on deck (Ogopogo) has a handicap of 114 seconds per mile. The big boat, a ‘Santa Cruz 52’ with a million sailors on deck (Marda Gras) has a handicap of -9 sec per mile.
What this means is that for every mile of the race, Marda Gras needs to be about 2 minutes ahead of Ogopogo. Marda Gras needs to finish about 84 minutes ahead of Ogopogo.
In the photo above, about a third of the way into the race, Marda Gras needs to be far ahead of Ogopogo.
Marda‘s elapsed time on the Round Saltspring course was 8:28:18. Ogopogo‘s elapsed time was 9:16:02.
Which boat finished ahead on corrected time?
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By the way baaad kitty!’s elapsed time was 08:28:43, her corrected time (based on her handicap over 42 miles) was 07:48:09. And that was the fastest time overall.