My Dearest Friend,

Please forgive my long delay in writing. Our ship had drifted off course thanks to the interminable incompetence of its captain (whom I dare not name, for fear he’s reading this and would know who he is). We’ve been exploring the uncharted Northern Waters of Fathomland, west of Westerberg, and deep into the gnarls of Yesterday, according to the charts. It’s partly why everything has been at least 1 day late in delivery. It’s difficult when you’re trying to catch up to today. But the captain has kept us busy singing sea shanties, cleaning the deck, AutoSalt installations, Hardware and Software R&D, software, mobile, and musical development, and other passing fancies. He had all the plumbing on the ship switched from copper to lead, because he “likes the taste better.”

But we’ve seen some amazing sights: the Northern sun peak just above the horizon over an ancient tundra; Dan Jackson working away furiously on his laptop while the river rises all around him and the hills of the Yorkshires roll by and cast their beguile over me; Mt Fuji leaping out at us as Maeda-san drove myself and Danielle-san towards the Izu Peninsula to install AutoSalt for Yuko-san in the University of Tokyo research forest; Andy Shaw standing in goal during a game of Night Soccer in Norrköping when we made it very clear that there were no goalies. Just startling, awe-inspiring stuff.

Thank the heavens we’ve now found a safe harbour in The Edgelands. Near Coal Harbour, overlooking the Great Northern Railway, we were finally able to drop anchor in this safe harbour, allowing me to write this letter to you. Here’s a quick Table of Contents.

1.0 Dispatches from Qikiqtaaluk

“On the morning of the 5^th day, look to the East” and sure enough, Pierre and the helicopter breached the ridge of freshly crested snow along, with the new dawn.  Sam, my work companion throughout the five days, reminded me of this quote from The Two Towers, the next day as we sat in the warmth of the Frobisher Hotel café, in Iqaluit, Canada.  It was a grueling adventure: installing two independent Big Fluvial Flow Auto-Salt Systems (BFF-ASS®) in the McKeand River, north of Iqaluit for the Nunuvat Nukkusiit Corporation (NNC).  The NNC is considering this site as a potential hydropower project with dam storage to meet the needs of the growing Arctic community.  With a proposed capacity of 15MW and sufficiently impressive storage, this project could offset millions of litres of diesel that is shipped by tanker to the remote community every year, Heather from the NNC informed me.  It seemed very improbable that she had hired my friends at Sea to Sky Energy Solutions (S2SES), after a somewhat “chance” meeting of S2SES CEO Peter Zell and Heather just under 6 months ago.  I was thrilled to be invited to submit a proposal for the system. If you build it, they will come.

The BFF-ASS® consists of two AutoSalt systems with the standard 300 Litre PE Tank and aluminum stand, coupled to an auxiliary 1000 litre tank.  This system featured Unidata Neon Globalstar telemetry systems to monitor system health.  Next year, we’ll have the ability to report measured Q values over satellite telemetry as well.  This system is capable of measuring flows up to 500 m³/s, as well as flows under ice, although this is the first deployment of the BFF-ASS® into an Arctic environment. If the armoured bears of Svalbard don’t destroy it (and they are withing their rights) I think we’ll get some good data.

Everything is strange (to a southerner) in this place.  I was not accustomed to seeing a 20m range of water level from lows of zero (or more than zero??) in the dead of -50°C winter (-70°C with windchill) to highs of 500 m³/s during the relatively brief freshet.  Placing the probes and injection hoses was a guessing game of where the water will be, and whether the equipment will survive the icing of the waters (up to 4m deep) and subsequent breakup (“Like the arc of a love-affair” Paul Simon Hearts and Bones).  Sam and I, on our mission to save Middle Earth from the burning eye of unmitigated Fossil Fuels, did our best to imagine what that scene would look like, and installed all the pipes and conduits in the various nooks and crannies, and secret places that the ancient rock offered.  Like solving the riddle of rock as Aragorn and crew tried to open to Door of Durin, we followed the cracks to higher ground, drilling and pounding in our rock bolts until the earth yielded and our desires found purchase in the stone (what! It’s been 5 days on the remote tundra in a cramped and smelly tent with two other heterosexual males! Give me a break).

Most of my photos of this place are panorama’s, for obvious reason.  The landscape was like a drink by which I could not be satiated.  The more I looked at the colours and language of the land, the more I wanted.  Like an exoplanet pioneer, the land seemed full of potential.  It’s with a jaded sense of discovery that I consider this analogy.  While there is much work to do, the thrill of new land, of discovering a place for oneself, and the immense beauty that Earth offers us, that we’re imbued with a sense of responsibility to sustainably live here.  It’s why I entered this field, and never shied from controversial topics around renewable energy development.  But it does feel as though Iqaluit, Nunuvat, the NNC have found a balance between social, environmental, and economic development.

We’ve already measured several flows from 15 to 20 m³/s at the site over the course of 5 days.  It’s amazing to me that only 5 kg of salt could move through this giant in-river lake, shown to the left in Figure 1.5,  and appear 2km downstream of Site A with a decent signal strength 2 hours later, shown in Figure 1.9. 

This site would benefit from another AT conductivity sensor upstream of Site A, however, we were limited by time and materials when preparing this order in only a matter of 4 weeks to make cargo shipment delivery times (apologies if your QiQuac order has been delayed!)

Back in camp, our guide, Alex of Polar Outfitting, is watching Netflix to pass the time.  He’s been an early adopter of Starlink for remote internet access.  “You don’t have any bandwidth competition out on the tundra, lightning fast internet speeds.” Not something I’d heard about the tundra before.  With the tent always warm, powered, full of food, and wifi’d, it did feel like glamping.  No Lembas bread for Sam and I.  When Alex wasn’t cooking up steak and eggs, we had several buckets of ReadyWise dehydrated meals to get through.  When the rain was ice and we walked through the landscape like a wet blanket, the idea of a hot meal and coffee for lunch was inspiration to carry on.

Sheltered behind our protective rock, Sam and I reminisced about Dungeons and Dragons, RPG computer games, fantasy novels. BTW, that’s an Atmospheric Environmental Services Canada Radiosonde in the upper left (white plastic) I found littered on the river bank to the upper left of my knee.  It was like finding garbage on the moon.  But apparently AES maintained  a station here until only last year, when I guess they smashed it up and left it on the bank out of rage?  I’m unsure of their motivation, at the time of writing.

Alex is an interesting dude.  He grew up in Grise Fjord (I had to get him to spell it, Grease Ford? Grise Fjord. Grease Ford?)  It’s most northern community in Canada at Latitude 76.25°, home to ~100 people.  Both Alex and the Premiere of Nunavat (P.J. Akeeagok) are from this remote northern village of midnight sun and endless nights, draped in Aurora Borealis so often that it’s like wallpaper, or a cosmic curtain behind the stage, on which the players fret and strut.  Alex runs a program sponsored by the Federal Government to engage Inuit youth with the land, taking groups out camping on the tundra, learning to survive, learning to read the land.  “On a full moon, you must be careful for water running over the snow.” He explained at our initial meeting. 

“Wha?” was our collective response.  I suppose what happens, in the dead of winter, the flow of water is so constrained by ice, that lakes influenced by Spring Tides (when the moon, sun, and earth are aligned) overflow into the waterway.  As I was saying to Francois, like the best Hard-Sci-Fi by writers such as Arthur C Clarke, the physics are the same as we experience in the south, but the behaviour of the elements, especially water, is unfamiliar in the north.  Like a new planet, the day, the sky, the land, the weather all work differently in the north.  Alex stares at us from his cot, as we try to come to terms with this world.  Then offers up even more shadowy behaviour: “Don’t follow the lights.” 

“Ok.”

“They say two white guys got lost in a snowstorm in their skidoos, never found.  When you see distant skidoo lights, they say those of the ghost of the skidooers.  Don’t follow them.” 

“Ok, good tip”

Clearly enjoying toying with us, he continues “One time we were out hunting, and we heard footsteps on the snow outside.  All the animals here are four-legged, they sound like this.” He made the sound of 4 feet walking on hard snow. “But we heard this.” He made the sound of two feet  walking on hard snow. “We heard somebody playing with a tent fastening outside. “ he made the sound, “and that was it.  We called out to them, but nobody responded. When we went out in the morning, there was freshly fallen snow, but no footprints.  “ 

“OK.” 

Alex, clearly pleased with his story and our reaction went back to his movie, leaving Sam and I to question our reality.

The North is like no other landscape I’ve encountered.  While it seems vast and empty from aerial photos and maps, it’s full of details, full of stories.  Glyph-like blocks rise up abruptly from the horizon, like morse code.  Fortresses of stone stand like alien sentry points, like the Argonath on the horizon.  The water moves in an ancient language of force, temperature, state, energy, on a slow pilgrimage towards the ocean, then up again into the clouds in a perpetual rhythm. I can’t help but stand in awe.  I reckon I spent about 1 hour a day just staring at the land, taking photos, drinking it in, all completely… billable… time…<–beautiful ending.

2.0 Nordic International Hydrometry Workshop (NIHW 2024) Norrkoping Sweden.

We descended from the various corners of the globe into Arlanda Airport.  Like the Elves f Rivendell, the Swedish people are ethereal, elegant, fluid, and wise: and then there’s Mikael.  Mike of the Lennermark Coal Mines in Fathomland.  Mike who is all too willing to show me his firestarting bracelet and whisper “I could burn this all down,” he snaps his fingers, “just like that” and he smiles his puckish grin. 

Mike of House Lennermark harkens back to the olden ways, the hembygdsförening.  They make their own coal, they trade in animal products, they spend time with their family.  “It’s archaic!” I confided in Francois.  “Why go backwards, when it’s so easy to go forwards!  Look, I have 3 cell phones!” I exclaimed and showed him my 3 cell phones,   Francois Rainville is the charismatic leader of House Canada.  Having only appeared in previous workshops as a giant floating apparition of a head, his incarnate form seemed to fascinate the other tribes.  While a compact man, he carries himself with a confidence and wistfulness becoming of a tall prince, or perhaps a wayward ranger, or a senior level bureaucrat easily scaling the corporate rungs towards Senatorship.  Yes, yes, the latter description is the most noble.  Francois and I both are from Canada, but from opposite ends of the country: I from the English speaking hillbilly country of the Cariboo, he from the erudite heights of Quebec, with time spent in Iqaluit.  But we share a common sensibility, an appreciation of the CBC, of Hard Sci-Fi, and of engaging with the land.  Like Mike, and like many people at the conference, we were all driven back to engagement with the land, through water. There’s something very familiar about everyone at the conference, a readiness to laugh, an appreciation of food and wine, and an unnerving fascination with plaid shirts.  Even the ladies! 

Technically, there were no show-stoppers at the conference.  This time, it was Alex Haute’s turn to be the giant floating head, as he presented measurements from the Congo.  It was so good to see my friend Carlos Marcelo Garcia Rodriguez from Argentina present their results on sampling time for flow tracker measurements.  Travis Knight (awesome name) finally made it out of Fort USA to join his hydrometric comrades and talk shop.  It was also great to see our friend Kristoffer asking pointed questions. The obvious missing character from the royal court was King Nick of UKCEH.   You’ll remember King Nick from previous adventures, and sadly had to miss the conference because it “didn’t come with a charge code.”  So if anyone has a spare charge code to send UKCEH with Nick’s name attach, do it now so he can join us next year and make the world a happier, more entertaining and optimistic place.  My once nemesis, now quasi-friend, possible corporate spy Christophe Sommer presented their new sinister agent of subterfuge, The Man in the Hat.  It seems even the family owned Sommer group has succumbed to the dark  AI lord as we hand over the reigns of human agency to shadowy dark boxes.  Give me stats! Give me regression! Give me plucky ducks that enjoy a bit of mischief! Alas, I shout into a large empty hall.

As we ate our last meal, I had a pleasant chat with Bent, the leader of SMHI and our host.  A regal and charming fellow himself, we discussed snowboarding and music, farming and family.  It’s amazing how much we all have in common.  Just when we were settling into alternating coffee (care of Bent) and wine (care of Francois), the SMHI crew upped the ante by presenting a circus themed extravaganza!  Comprised of uni-cyclers, which Francois thought would be funny to block the path of, followed by acrobatic maneuvers much to the pleasure and wonder of the crowd.  After the show, Mike, Jenny, and our new friend, Fanny retired to the SMHI “Play Hall” where adults can have some fun playing ping-pong, climbing gymnasium walls, or riding unicycle.  We four did some more acro-yoga moves before hitting the dance floor as the SMHI house band, which included Bent on Bass, rocked the SMHI dining hall with hits from the 70s and 80s.  Note to self: learn to dance already!

3.0 Dan Jackson’s Salty Yorkshire Adventures.

Dan Jackson is a Renaissance Man.  A photographer by trade, he’s thrown his hat, and his whole head, into the hydrometric ring.  Like most of us, he’s an artist masquerading as an engineer.  I’m convinced after speaking to many hydrologists and hydrometricians, this is the case..  Like all great artists, he’s solved a transient/dynamic puzzle of Art/Science/Budget, and Bureaucracy, like throwing a ball through rings moving in 4d.  Dan lives, hunkered down, in the venn diagram of these four spheres of meaning.   After performing a triple somersault (possible?) interpretative backflip through the bureaucratic hoops at UK EA, he managed to purchase two AutoSalts for difficult UK EA stations: Moorhouse and Low Houses.  “Beware the Moors” they said to Sherlock, and I know why! Like the Arctic Tundra, there are gremlins in the mist. One gremlin found his way into our van engine as we climbed out of the shire, shown in Figure 3.0

Carousel 3.2 These photos are from LowHouses station in the Yorkshires.

Carousel 3.3 Photos from Moorhouse Station

4.0 Nippon, Some Time, and Peter Cat

Carousel 4.0 Japan-EZ

The sites in the Chichibu Research Forest on the Izu Peninsula were suspiciously beautiful. Everything seemed a bit too pleasing to the eye, and ear, and nose. Like a giant Zen retreat center. I looked around for hidden cameras, but there were none.

Nippon, I learned, is the Japanese word for Japan: Sun Origin. At the forced invitation of Maeda-san and Yuko-san, (I insisted on being invited) I came with Danielle-san to install an AutoSalt here and tour the area. Maeda-san was a perfectly gracious host, ensuring Danielle-san and I were entirely taken care of, fed, transported, washed (Onsen, aka Hot Springs, are for nude unisex bathing, fyi!) and entertained (“Some Time” in Kichijoji, Tokyo is a great subterranean jazz bar). If you’re a fan of Haruki Murakami, you must visit The Waseda International House of Literature (Haruki Murakami Library) where you can listen to his jazz collection, borrow his books, use his bathroom, and have delicious coffee in the Peter Cat (Jazz Cafe) inspired Orange Cat Cafe. Ask me for details.

5.0 Shiny Things

Like the Tom Waits song says, we all like Shiny Things. Fathom Scientific’s committed to satisfying that particular appetite of the human condition. To this end, the elves (not Santa’s elves, but the deadly Sylvan Elves) have been busy crafting two new online tools this holiday season: the Gauge Level Check (GLC) Tool (beta) and WIT-Wally (beta). Both tools are part of a complete Watershed Information Tool meal and available to try freely for existing Fathom customers. We intend to run some online sessions to introduce users to the tools and go through some demonstrations. We will also discuss the new WaFFFling tool introduced earlier this year.

We’ve been pouring time into several services in the WIT:

• AutoSync to upload recorded files from AutoSalt systems to the WIT
• KTSSync to create “live” channels with uploaded telemetry data.
• TimeScale DB should be ready for deployment in 2025. TSDB uses HyperTables to speed up access to timescale data
• AutoProcess SDIQs: continues to allude us, but we are nearing its day in the sun.

5.1 The GLC Tool

The GLC Tool helps you to manage your gauge level checks in the Watershed Information Tool ecosystem. The tool is fully documented in the Enter Yon Salt Portal! post. Here’s a screenshot of the GLC tool in action:

The GLC tool is part of a complete hydrometric management program, and available on trial until the end of January 2024, when it will become part of the WIT Subscription Package.

5.2 Wally Walks Among Us

Walter MkMGr (aka Wally) grew up in the mean streets of Nairnia in the Fathomland Highlands. Running with a gang of old-school multivariate regressioners, they’d look for patterns. Like how a bloke was more willing to lose his bet on a boxing match on payday after 3.4 pints (on average). Wally would box the local stooge, but they were no match, as he’d recently grown two extra appendages (as the result of a freak nuclear submarine-grilled cheese sandwich disaster) and a right chip on his shoulders. His signature move was Left-Left-Right-Left-Right-Right. But with his success in the alley, so grew Wally’s reputation as a charlatan, and soon he was out of matches, out of money, and out on the street. Destitute, he found himself boxing kangaroos in a traveling fair, often losing. Drunk as a skunk on bulk Vanilla Extract, sitting in the mud and singing old Fathomland Folk songs, he was carried home by a shadowy cloaked figure. It was none-other than retired fathom-weight boxing champion: Scotty McBabakaiff.

Reeking of vanilla and urine, Scotty cleaned him up, soaking him with government funding, until he was back on his feet. He and McBabakaiff would go for long runs through the highlands, discussing the weather, the land, the rivers, and the significant correlations between them. He learned to watch the weather, read the elevation contours like brail, study the seasonal patterns. Life was Spartan in those halcyon days, but each day was memorable. Eventually, Wally was chosen as the King’s champion, which you can read all about here.

These days you can find Wally helping out hydrologists and hydrometricians, from 7:30AM to 19:00 PST, estimating a variety of watershed features in British Columbia, such as Mean Monthly Discharge, Mean Annual unit-area Runoff, 7Q10, 50%ile flow exceedance, etc, for any catchment in the province. You can also download catchment .shp files for any point in the province. To use the Beta version of Wally, simply create a login with your email at wally.fathomscientific.com.

5.3 AutoSync, KTSSync, etc

We continue to develop the Automated services embedded within WIT. The AutoSync service pulls files from AutoSalt systems for both upstream (injection) and downstream (conductivity) sensors and stores them in the cloud. These are available from the “Devices” menu on the side menu, followed by “Files” or “Connected Services” or “Kits”. Multiple files can be zipped and downloaded from “Temporary Files” or can be synced to “Live” channel via the Kronos Time Series KTSSync service.

To use the KTSSync service, enter your target Project/Time Series. Select “KTSSync” from the menu on the left. Select a Start and End time (or Live) and the device which you’d like to sync. The service will enter the AWS S3 bucket online and pull all files associated with this device at the frequency set in the service.

6.0 Happy Birthday to Us!

It’s been 10 years of Fathomland Ill-Advised and Haphazard Saltwater Adventure this January 1, 2025. Hard to believe we made it this long and this far. So many memories, so many near misses, so many new friends, so many pseudo-sci-fi write-ups, so many fake regatta narratives, so many QiQuac (on #103 now) so many AutoSalt Installs. As part of the 10 year anniversary, and the launch of the new WIT-Wally and WIT-GLC services, we’re offering a 15% discount on the first year of subscription; that’s up to $7,500 in savings²! See the product page for prices,

7.0 Summary and Wrap-Up

It was a pretty crazy year full of spills and thrills. I met some great folks out there on the salty road. It was a privilege to tour around the country with you, and apologies if I didn’t get our adventure written up in this sounding; time slipped away from me so quickly. But I’d happily come back to your sites and install more Fathom gear. Or maybe you’d like to visit us in our new shoppe in Railtown, Vancouver! It’s not fully setup yet, but we intend to retail a variety of STEAM³ related kits and gifts, STUMP™ brand stumps, JAPAN-EZ™ kitchen counter furniture inspired by the elegant designs of the land of the rising sun, semi-dangerous kids toys, ethical tailored clothing, and more! Enjoy a Free* espresso-based drink while you gaze out the floor-ceiling windows at the loading railcars, the twinkling lights of Cypress mountain, or the iconic float planes as they jump over leisure boats, all available at Fathom’s new Headquarters, at..

Fathom Scientific Ltd
15 Gore Ave
Vancouver, B.C.
V6A2Y8

1. Free with every $100 or more purchase. Limit 1 per customer and no sharing! Customers closely monitored for evidence of sharing.
2. With the purchase of 10x WIT Pro + Subscription packages.
3. Science Technology Engineering Arts Math: Cool that “Art” is in there, isn’t it?