Another look at Anodes

In last week’s report on sacrificial anodes, Lynn Lohr mentioned a study that had been commissioned by then-FHA President Stan Barbarich which verified zinc anodes’ ability to fight hull corrosion. Now Stan sends along an addendum about an alternative: aluminum anodes. He points to one of the findings in the...

Tour Leads to First Place Science Project

Last October the FHA was contacted by the father of a teenager at Centerville Middle School in Fremont who was on a team of kids entering an international contest to design a city of the future. Each year the competition involves a specific element of urban planning and this year’s...

Zinc or Swim

We love our floating home lifestyle, but we often find ourselves concerned with subjects the landlocked know nothing about, like freeboard, macerator pumps, and the health of the hulls on which we float. West Pier neighbor Court Mast and I talked at length about hulls as we recently spent time...

Correction: Sea Level Rise

Last week we quoted a projection from the Marin Independent Journal that sea levels would rise “more than 6 feet by 2100,” according to the California Ocean Protection Council. Soon after our post appeared, the IJ issued a correction, changing the projection to one foot of sea level rise over...

King Tides and Sea Level Rise

The Marin IJ has reported that King tides are expected to bring flooding risks in Marin shoreline communities between November and January. According to the paper, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts that tide levels could reach more than 6.4 feet and rise further during rainy weather. High tide...

Herring in our Bay

The first large ethnic group to move to Marin in the 19th century were Portuguese from the Azores Islands. One sign of this heritage is the Portuguese Cultural Center at the Northwest end of Caledonia Street. The entrance is labeled “IDESST Center”, or “Imandade do Divino Espirito Santo e Santissima...

Ocean Science Open House Oct 13

The Estuary & Ocean Science Center (EOS), located at SF State’s Romberg Tiburon Campus, is hosting a day of discovery on Sunday, October 13. From 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Attendees will experience science in action at the only marine lab on San Francisco Bay. This is a chance to...

Bacteria in our Bay

There is a beautiful little beach in the middle of Schoonmaker Marina. On sunny summer days you see children and parents lying on the sand and splashing in the water, maybe even a few serious swimmers [Fig. 1]. But typically, several times a year you will find the beach empty...

Tech Lab Opens in Marin City

A new maker space called The Lab opened last week at 101 Donohoe St. in Marin City, on the campus of Saint Andrew Presbyterian Church. Open to all ages, and free to use for everyone, The Lab is a maker space, creator space, hacker space, coding space, gaming space, idea...

Diatoms: algae that live in glass houses

We don’t notice much of the life in the water around our floating homes because the individual organisms are too small. Diatoms fit that description; they range in size between 2 and 200 microns (0.002 to 0.2 mm). Anything 2 microns long, about 4 wavelengths of light, is well below...