Today was a mapping day. I'm getting eager to complete the map. You can see the top of my "plane table" in the canoe. It is a small drawing board mounted on a tripod. After aligning the board to north, I sight along a triangular ruler and then can draw my sights directly onto my map. The bay has been an interesting project for learning about making maps by hand. Of course, I'm mostly mapping water - I can't pace off distances and much of the shoreline is marsh. The main part of the bay involved taking sights over long distances (3/4 of a mile). It required some rethinking when I found that key locations had enough metal around to throw off my compass (the trick is the order in which you take the sights). The lagoons and islands require different approaches to the problem as gone are the clear sightlines, the distances are short and the reliable points that I took out on the main bay can't be seen. Lots of time today paddling back and forth across small channels. I talked with several people about the project today. Saw some herons, ducks, geese, turtles - it seems to be the lazy summer days for critters. I like winter better, when the birds are getting ready to mate, nest and migrate.
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