Blog #24 10/21/10 Wildlife and barges in the river

So this blog has taken a little hiatus since my last posting on Sept. 4 about American Airlines.  Sadly my effort to elevate AA's social conscience has fallen a bit short.  Sigh....so it goes....  But now I have many better things to write about including strange creatures and a large object in the Charles River.  You may have heard that late in the summer a 4 foot alligator was captured up river.  This is ominous for someone who occasionally swims in the river, either through capsize or the Charles River One Mile Swim (http://www.charlesriverswimmingclub.org/).  I am comforted that it was only 4 feet long.  However what about it's mother or father?  That's what really concerns me. 
Another visitor to the Charles River was spotted numerous times over the past week - a harbor seal.  We've seen him/her several times as have many other folks at MIT and the Duck Tours.  I spoke with the NE Aquarium (as have others) and yes the seal probably belongs on the other side of the locks.  This isn't the first seal to wander up river from the locks and hopefully it will find it's way back out to the harbor soon on it's own. In the meantime the NE Aquarium is aware of the seal and is monitoring the situation to see if they will attempt to capture and remove it to where it more properly belongs.

Now onto barges.  The demolition/construction barge/crane has arrived and is parked alongside CBI's docks. The  barge arrived today only a couple of hours after the official "ground breaking" for the dock project, where Secretary Ian Bowles, having received extensive training by your truly, fired CBI's world famous signalling canon to initiate the demolition of the dock.   The canon's mighty bang was awesome and thunderous, a show of explosive force, truly terrible and magnificent all at the same time. After the smoke had cleared, and the smell of gun powder lingered briefly, the windsurfing shed met it's demise at the hands of a large tractor.  As you may realize by now, all this is to say, in as long winded a way as possible, that the dock demolition has begun in earnest.  We've shifted the web cam (http://www.blogger.com/cbi-weather) to face down the dock so you can watch the progress of the project online.
Here's a picture of the barge and crane today. 

Tomorrow I'll review the status of the project and the  financial support from both the state and private partners which are making the new docks a reality.

Charlie