December 5, 2005 Field Trip - The CRS at 5.96 feet

On December 23, 2010, I made a field trip to the Conner Recovery Site and published photos of close-ups of the rock breakwater that Conner had to get across to land where he was found in my article entitled "A formidable barrier."  The section of breakwater that he had to cross was established by my December 5, 2005 field trip, documented on SII, for the sole purpose of determining if there was another water channel Conner could have traveled rather than coming over the massive south breakwater.  Not only those who believed Scott guilty but also some who believed Scott innocent thought it possible that he was washed onto the site at another location and drifted to his resting spot.  They all were laboring under the belief that the CRS fills with water at every high tide, and the December 5 field trip busted that myth.

The NOAA Richmond 9414863 was down on December 5, 2005, so I calculated the water levels by using the San Francisco 9414290 station and applying the corrections used to calculate the 2005 predictions:
2005 NOAA Tide Predictions: Chevron Oil Company Pier, Richmond

(Reference station: San Francisco, Corrections Applied: Times: High +0 hr. 24 min., Low +0 hr. 38 min., Heights: High *1.04, Low *0.98)

13:24 + 24 = 13:48; 5.73 * 1.04 = 5.96

13:30 + 24 = 13:54

9414290 20051205 13:18 6.08 5.69     13:42   5.92

9414290 20051205 13:24 6.08 5.73    13:48   5.96
9414290 20051205 13:30 6.09 5.73    13:54   5.96
The NOAA predicted that the Richmond station's HH would come in at 1:53 at a height of 6.3 feet
9414290 20051205 13:36 6.08 5.72    14:00    5.95
9414290 20051205 13:42 6.07 5.71    14:06    5.94

You can see from the above data that the water level came in lower than predicted and the water level doesn't drastically start to fall when the tide changes.  The difference for each 6 minutes is only .01 feet, which is a little more than a tenth of an inch.

BAAQMD Richmond Field Station reports the following wind conditions for December 5, 2005.

• 12 Noon:  speed 7 mph, gusts 17 mph, direction 53 degrees (NE)
• 1 p.m.:  speed 8 mph, gusts 16 mph, direction 36 degrees (NE)
• 2 p.m.: speed 7 mph, gusts 13 mph, direction 19 degrees (NNE)
• 3 p.m.: speed 6 mph, gusts 11 mph, direction 10 degrees (N)

My report on SII includes all the photographs and videos I took that day, but this one, started at 1:58 p.m., captured the site at peak high tide.  My comments are suited for the field trip's objective to show that no water channel existed from the SE, the East, the North, the West, or the SW to carry Conner to his resting place, but the panoramas of the whole site reveal that the site does not fill with water at each high tide.  The isolated puddles of water you see along the path are from the previous day's HH tide of 6.34 feet.