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May 31 - letters to Lucile, Dr. Schultz, Blegvad  air temp. 42°C.  Sand temp. 50°C

like a furnace. Because we are called back to Dhahran a day at least or possibly 2 days will be completely wasted. My first article came out in the "Sun & Flare" tonight; it was more or less an introduction as to how I happened to be doing what I am doing.
  May 31 - Gurley is still undecided about staying on, but it looks as tho he will continue on a temporary contract. We had a meeting this morning with Gurley, Stewart, and "Swede" H. E. Morrill, the new fisherman from IBI. He is over 6 feet and seems very nice with a long standing yen for fishing. He has fished on the California coast. I think he will make a good and desirable ship mate.
My report was turned in without revamping; its briefness being its only virtue. The rest of the morning was wasted because I could not get a truck to off load all the fishing party equipment off the Tarut, a job I do not relish. Jim was kind enough to see what he could do about getting me cleared for a possible trip to Bahrain. The ground temperature outside at 12:15 today was 50°C and the air temperature 42°C, in other words "wadjit" (it is found) hot. I also wrote a letter to Dr. Blegvad, with a written copy for Dr. Schultz. The truck and car situation is a lot worse than a few months or rather a month ago; so I was unable to get a truck to off load the fishing party equipment. I even went down to Al Khobar but could find nothing there. But I spoke to the crew and rescued some cigarettes for Jim. When Gurley got back from Ras Tanura he said formalin had leaked down in the bilge; so it was agreed that the best thing was for me to return to Ras Tanura. On the way, we saw a jackal (about the size and build of a small coyote) cross the road around Qatif. The strong south east swells had rocked the boat considerably, and the big bung was not tight so formalin had leaked a little out of there. Abdullah and I moved the boat once during the night because it pounding against the pier.

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terns  [[underline]] Gulf weed gone [[/underline]]  67

June 1 - Light east winds at dawn. After trying to phone Jim at Dhahran and see Mr. Brown (both unaccomplished missions), I decided to troll around east pier. We left the fish pier at 9:15 A.M. and threw over the red & white & orange & white jigs. The wind was light from the east, sky cloudless. Tarut Id. visible, but Jebel Dhahran and distant shores very hazy almost invisible. White terns abundant on Ras Tanura point. There are greyish terns like the white ones only they appear dirty underneath. Possibly it is caused by oil from tankers. There were 3 freighters (French & English) tied to east pier, and six at anchor. At 11AM. at buoy 7 we caught one barracuda on the orange & white jig. The wind was very light from the east. (When going thru the town of Al Khobar yesterday I noticed almost no flies a complete reverse of the situation in March. I had been given to understand that there were more in hot weather. Even at west pier the flies do not seem to be as bad as they were a month or so ago. About 11:30 A.M. a light northwest shamal came up. We got back at 12:15. I talked with Mr. Brown about arrangements for cleaning the boat which was more or less up to us, but with a short handed crew I decided to let it go. At 2 P.M. I lifted my 3 eel pots which were set just south of the new fish pier about the end of the submerged drain pipe at 1 1/2 fath. to 2. There were 2 moderate sized E. tauvina (1 each in the cloth funnel eel pots) also 1 Plesiops, 5 wrasse, and 2 [[underline]] Lethrinus nebulosus [[/underline]]. The tide was high about 1 P.M. about 2:00 P.M. we headed for Za'al Id. where I hope to catch 2 low tides.  At 2:40 P.M. we caught a small barracuda with near ripe ovaries. We arrived at Za'al shortly before 3 P.M. Shamal winds are increasing slightly. At 4:20 P.M. most of the distant land was blotted or blurred with dust, and strong shamal winds were blowing. I set my three eel pots off the S.W. corner of Za'al on hard sand & weed bottom. All the long [[underline]] rooted gulf weed had [[/underline]] disappeared only small stems and roots were left; apparently