Hull to Boston Lighthouse, Graves Lighthouse - 7/14/12

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norm
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Hull to Boston Lighthouse, Graves Lighthouse - 7/14/12

Post by norm »

Bob K. was the organizer of this trip. He said he would like for me to write the trip report, so here it is.

The put-in spot for this trip was the end of the municipal parking lot across from Hull High School. Seven of us signed up for the trip: Bob, Deb, Norm, Barb, Bea, Sue and Gif. The weather was perfect...if you don't mind heat. Better on the ocean than in the suburbs I'm sure. The plan was to basicly "wing-it" all day with the general goal of getting out to the Graves if the conditions were ok and to take a walk on the Great Brewster gravel bar on the way back.

Loading up the boats on the beach. Sue wanted to paddle more distance, so she had launched at Hingham Harbor to get a few miles in before the rest of us, with the plan to get a ride back from Hull to her car in Hingham with me to save a little time getting home.

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Sue, Bea and Deb posed for pictures as we milled around at the put-in while everybody got their boats launched.

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Approaching Hull Gut there was a woman waving to us from the beach. I couldn't tell who it was at first, but realized it was Kate when I saw the pink NDK Explorer on a car behind her. I paddled ashore to ask if she was joining us, but she was waiting for Lorrie and Phil for a different trip and was just waving hello to us. She said we'd probably cross paths out in the islands later, and we did.

The crossing of the channel near Boston Light was pretty easy with just a few pauses for boat traffic.

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As we got closer, Bob asked if people wanted to stop on Little Brewster and take a closer look at the Lighthouse.

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There was no immediate consensus about stopping so we headed toward the beach near the dock to see if there was enough room to land. It was very rocky but Bea was ready to test out her new keel strip.

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The tide was now falling, so there was not much worry about securing the boats. Little Brewster is so small, you can basicly keep an eye on the boats from anywhere on the island. Offshore at the island's mooring ball was the UMass Boston Ship that was apparently shuttling visitors to the island who had special permission to tour the facilities. A Coast Guardsman told us when we arrived that a tour of the lighthouse would not be available to us but we could walk around the grounds. Bea spoke with someone else later that explained how to arrange for a tour.

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The sign on the boat house near the dock lists the date of the original lighthouse.

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Heading up the walkway.

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On the left is the keepers house.

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Looking up the hill. The lighthouse is on the highest point of the island.

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A view of an old buoy, the bell and the lighthouse.

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A closer look at the old buoy.

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Improvised seating for four.

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The bell on display and a close-up of the writing on the far side of it.

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The entrance at the base of the lighthouse and a close-up of the plaque beside the door.

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There are spots on both side of the island showing serious erosion and they appear to be trying to shore it up. It looks like it is getting pretty close to the base of the lighthouse here.

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I don't know what the story is behind this chair that is facing Hull, but I've seen it from the water each time I've paddled past here.

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A stone near the chair had some old markings on it.

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Looking east toward Shag Rocks, you can see more stones that have been added to Little Brewster as well as a couple gravestones of former keeper's pets.

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Bea tried "Walking the Labrynth".

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Looking north-northeast, there was a nice sailboat anchored amidst the Brewsters, with a view of the Graves Lighthouse off in the distance in the gap between Middle Brewster and Outer Brewster.

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Looking back down the hill at the keeper's house.

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Not sure what this little shack is. My guess is that it was an out-house in the past.

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Back near the dock walkway, I wondered what the old rusty structure was and asked a Coast Guardswoman. She said it was the former concrete pier that got destroyed during the "Blizzard of 78". It would be too expensive to remove it, so they just built a new one beside it and are letting the re-bar of the old one rust away. In the background is Great Brewster Island.

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A look at the old rusting pier remains from the water side.

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As we left, the UMass Boston boat was moving from the mooring to the dock, so they told us to paddle under the gangway rather than swinging out around where the boat was maneuvering. Barb was the last one to make it through.

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A look back at Boston Light as we head for Shag Rocks.

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Coasting by the east side of Shag Rocks.

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I read somewhere that Shag Rocks got their name from all the cormorants that make it home. The British nickname for cormorants is shags.

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The shorter rocks seem a lot cleaner as they get rinsed at high tide.

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A picture of Gif's better side as he heads down the east side of Outer Brewster.

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It was lunchtime and the plan was to stop at the beach on the west side of Outer Brewster so we cut through the gap between Middle and Outer. It was getting shallow, so I went first with my plastic boat to find a good path for the glass boats.

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Not everyone followed me as Bob and Bea wanted to pass through a thinner gap in the rocks. It made a nice picture with Boston Light in the background.

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Bea trying to dull down the edges of her new paddle or test out the new keel strip.

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I felt like I missed a chance to get a nice picture of the Graves Light from the side of the rocks Bob and Bea had come from, so I went through and came back. Too bad a bunch of kayakers got in my way to ruin the picture.

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The beach on Outer Brewster was covered in sea-weed. It would have been a difficult, slippery place to get out of the boats and unpleasant spot to take a swim. So, instead of landing here, we headed across to Green Island where I knew there would be a good sized beach in a little sort of lagoon at this tide level.

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Bea couldn't resist trying to find a spot to test out that keel strip.

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A lone sea gull on a rock that took off as I went by and I got a clear picture of it as it flew by.

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There were 2 beaches available at Green Island. One was already occupied by some guys that I think were from a dive boat off-shore.

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We chose to use the beach on the other side of the lagoon which was fully occupied with sea gulls. I went ashore first and the birds all moved up into the rocks. Most of the rocks were coated with sea weed or bird crap, so most of us just sat on the hard ground.

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After eating, Sue looked around for sea glass and found plenty.

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Three of the boats were pulled up by the old rusty barge that spends half it's time underwater and is heavily coated in sea weed.

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A close-up of the barge shows there isn't much left of the bottom.

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Nearby, there is an old engine block. I don't recall seeing this last year but it must have been here.

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I lifted up a plate of rusted steel to see how thin it was and found this little crab underneath.

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I don't recall who spotted them first, but somebody spotted kayaks off in the distance headed our way.

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Bea wasn't content that we had evicted the sea gulls from their beach, she had to climb up on the rocks and bother them some more to get a close-up picture.

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The kayakers acted like they were going to pass us by.

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But they were only kidding, they turned around and headed in.

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But there wasn't enough water left for the opening they came in.

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But Kate was determined to squeeze Dora the Explorer through the rocks.

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Phil backed out to go around and Lorrie just watched.

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Eventually everyone made it into the lagoon and we had a nice little chat.

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Lorrie had evil duckie on her bow for chasing and hastling Phil all day.

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After a short visit, Kate, Phil and Lorrie moved on and we packed up to leave also.

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We headed in different directions.

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Barb had actually fallen asleep on that hard stony beach and I had to wake her up and tell her it was time to go. She must like a hard mattress! Barb was the last one out of the lagoon.

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Five of us were on one side of the island and had the Graves in our sites but Bob and Gif were nowhere to be seen.

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After moving a little out toward the Graves, Bob came into view on the far side of Green Island. I guess they turned the other way when they left the lagoon.

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We gathered up and headed out in pretty calm water. Bob was in the lead.

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The group milled around on the south side of the Graves Lighthouse at first.

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The cameras were pulled out for pictures. Barb leaning back to get the best shot reminded me of how my grandmother always leaned back taking pictures.

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I got a good shot of Bea as we started to move out to circle to the other side.

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There weren't many waves, but I got a little splash action in one shot.

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Coming around the other side I went between some rocks (in my plastic boat) while others went further outside.

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As I came into a serene little cove, there was something silvery on a rock.

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It was a cute small seal.

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As I drifted closer, I tried to get everyone elses attention without making any noise. Bob and Bea were the first to come in and by that time, the seal had slipped into the water. It came up right by Bob.

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Bea was quicker to get her camera out than Bob was and she got some great shots. It seemed like the seal followed Bob around a little bit and Bea happened to be in the right spot most of the time.

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The seal came up close to me a few times also.

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Poor Bob, the seal always seemed to come up behind him as he tried to get a picture. We thought it might be attracted to the black bottom of his boat.

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I tried switching to video mode on my camera and got a couple good clips. View them on http://www.vimeo.com at:

http://vimeo.com/45769494

and

http://vimeo.com/45769434


As people started to move along, a second seal showed up but it wasn't as friendly. He kept making splashes behind me and then came up and tried to look mean.

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Another view of the Graves Lighthouse.

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A little color besides gray and birds all lined up.

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A cormorant drying his wings and a closer view of the lighthouse top.

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Moving on across the open water to Great Brewster off in the distance. If I recall correctly, this was the hottest part of the day with very little breeze.

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The cliffs of Great Brewster.

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A better perspective of the size of the cliffs - notice Bob paddling by at the base of the cliffs.

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One of Bob's goals for the day was to visit the Great Brewster gravel bar that extends for about a mile toward Lovell's Island. Here is a shot of the gravel bar between us and Boston Light.

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The UMass Boston boat couldn't get to us from the other side of the gravel bar. Sue and I had a head-on run-in with that boat in Boston Harbor last fall. We're safe this time.

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We pulled our boats up onto the gravel bar to take a water break, both drinking and swimming.

Looking back toward Great Breswster.

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Looking toward Lovells. The tide is rising and starting to cover the bar a hundred yards from where we stopped.

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Looking toward Hull from in the water.

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Looking back at Boston Light over the gravel bar.

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Bea finally takes it easy on her boat and floats it over the bar.

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Crossing that main channel to Hull was a breeze again, the second time in a row for some of us. A couple waves from wakes heading through Hull Gut, but nothing serious.

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Calm water back at the take-out.

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Here is a Google Earth map of the area with our actual track from my GPS highlighted.

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A few specs from the trip:

Launch time: 10:40am
Stop at Boston Light: 11:37am Distance: 3.32 miles
Left Boston Light at: 12:14pm
Lunch stop on Green Is.: 1:06pm Distance: 6.32 miles
Back on the water: 2:01pm
Stop on gravel bar: 3:50pm Distance: 11.40 miles
Left gravel bar: 4:07pm
Take-out time: 4:47pm
Total Distance Paddled: 14.00 miles

Thanks for posting the perfect trip for the tides and conditions Bob!

Norm
Last edited by norm on Tue Jul 17, 2012 7:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Hull to Boston Lighthouse, Graves Lighthouse - 7/14/12

Post by kayakerjnj »

Looks you all had a picture perfect day and lot of fun! Thanks for sharing :D
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Re: Hull to Boston Lighthouse, Graves Lighthouse - 7/14/12

Post by ddempesy »

Thanks Norm !!!! Awesome summer day on the water !
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Re: Hull to Boston Lighthouse, Graves Lighthouse - 7/14/12

Post by norm »

Ok, you 2 early birds read the report before I had a chance to fix the typos and fix the missing GPS track picture.

Hopefully Bea will add a link to her excellent pictures on her Facebook page...when she wakes up at noon...
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Re: Hull to Boston Lighthouse, Graves Lighthouse - 7/14/12

Post by NorwayLady »

Thank you for organizing, Bob. Best day ever! And thank you Norm for documenting such an incredible day on the water.

Here is the public link to the photos I posted on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... 6f48369921

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Re: Hull to Boston Lighthouse, Graves Lighthouse - 7/14/12

Post by Birdseye »

I read somewhere that Shag Rocks got their name from all the cormorants that make it home. The British nickname for cormorants is shags.


But what's the English word for the British nickname shag? Possibly that has something to do with the name. :D

Excellent report, great shots. Felt like I was there.

I heard anyone who kayaked to the island would get a tour. Not sure why you guys didn't. Was it because of the UMass tour?
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Re: Hull to Boston Lighthouse, Graves Lighthouse - 7/14/12

Post by Chip »

Whoopee Rocks doesn't have the same ring to it. :mrgreen:
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Re: Hull to Boston Lighthouse, Graves Lighthouse - 7/14/12

Post by norm »

Birdseye wrote:
I read somewhere that Shag Rocks got their name from all the cormorants that make it home. The British nickname for cormorants is shags.


But what's the English word for the British nickname shag? Possibly that has something to do with the name. :D

Excellent report, great shots. Felt like I was there.

I heard anyone who kayaked to the island would get a tour. Not sure why you guys didn't. Was it because of the UMass tour?


I'm not touching the shag question with a ten foot pole.

I read "in a book somewhere" that Hull to the Graves was your favorite trip. You should have joined us since the tide was out mid-day and there was no wind for sailing!

The Coast Guard guy said something about preservation work and it seemed like they had a lot of guardsmen around as well as the people touring, so maybe they were trying to get some work done around the scheduled tours or something. Bea may have more information - she said something about finding out how to arrange for a tour on her Facebook page. I think you're more likely to get a better reception on the island and possibly a private tour if there's less people around.
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Re: Hull to Boston Lighthouse, Graves Lighthouse - 7/14/12

Post by Birdseye »

Would like to have joined you but just got back from being away all week.
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Re: Hull to Boston Lighthouse, Graves Lighthouse - 7/14/12

Post by NorwayLady »

To have access to a tour of the light house I got the impression that you had to be part of a guided trip that starts in Boston. The ranger told me there are ways to arrange private tours, but they had to originate in Boston. I had in mind a Wild Turkey guided tour arriving by kayak, but that was not an opiton if I understood her correctly. She gave my a phone number and a website, but without a pen and paper that information didn't stick with me very long.....

Here is a photo of Sue going through the Hull Gut on the way home. That was the most exciting conditions of the day!
IMG_8824.JPG
IMG_8824.JPG (90.14 KiB) Viewed 21532 times

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Re: Hull to Boston Lighthouse, Graves Lighthouse - 7/14/12

Post by Birdseye »

Back in '06 our group got the guided tour. Possibly because I was there :wink: .

There are a few pics from the tour at the bottom of this page:
http://www.wtpaddlers.org/cgi-bin/pro/emAlbum.cgi?c=show_thumbs;p=Boston%20Harbor%20Outer%20Islands%20-%208-5-06%20%28Nelson%27s%20photos%29;i=30;pg=2

Things must have changed some since then.
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Re: Hull to Boston Lighthouse, Graves Lighthouse - 7/14/12

Post by Chip »

I am pretty sure he wasn't supposed to let us in. He was being a nice guy. We happen to show up when the island was empty.
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Re: Hull to Boston Lighthouse, Graves Lighthouse - 7/14/12

Post by Birdseye »

Chip wrote:I am pretty sure he wasn't supposed to let us in. He was being a nice guy. We happen to show up when the island was empty.


I still think it was because of me. Did you see me sitting in that driftwood chair with those stylish booties. Who could say no to that. :D
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Re: Hull to Boston Lighthouse, Graves Lighthouse - 7/14/12

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Pretty intimidating, I must say.
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Re: Hull to Boston Lighthouse, Graves Lighthouse - 7/14/12

Post by wildwoman »

Norm, you got some fantastic photos! Thanks for sharing in a great trip report!
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