Got a late start to the day, after last night's late Grand eruption. It didn't help that Grand followed up with an interval well over seven hours.
Went down to check East Sentinel. No change since last visit. Didn't stop at Fan & Mortar as it seemed to early to get sucked into that time sink.
From there it was back to wait for Grand. The water levels in the Sawmill Group were high, with Sawmill in eruption. Spasmodic had been in overflow recently, as the runoff channel was still wet. Slurp was actually quiet, with just some gentle steam coming from the vent. Belgian & Crystal were down perhaps 1.5cm.
West Triplet had finished just before I arrived. Only had to wait one Turban eruption interval for the One Burst Grand eruption. It featured not only a boop well before Grand started, but a significant pause pause about nine minutes in. Just at the time when it was obvious there was no longer a chance for a second burst. Slurp was still quiet as we left.
Heard the call for Beehive, and got out there with plenty of time, as this Indicator interval was nearly 19 minutes.
Then time for another Grand wait. The Sawmill Group was back into a deep drain, with Slurp a fumarole, and Belgian and Crystal down about 3cm. I arrived to a Turban eruption, a long one lasting 5-1/2 minutes. I suspicious that I had just missed a Turban Delay Interval were confirmed when the next interval had no Grand overflow.
Then ten minutes into that interval the call comes in that there is splashing from Main Vent down at Fan & Mortar. Fortunately, if there was a Delay, it was only a Two Turban Interval Delay, as Grand was suddenly full and having waves and overflow from Vent. Once again, it was a One Burst Grand Eruption, with Vent & Turban quitting even though the eruption was barely 10-1/2 minutes long.
With that out of the way, it was time to head down to Fan & Mortar. We had already decided that that was going to be our destination after Grand, to do a quick check on early activity before sunset.
But as the activity progressed, it became obvious that despite the 2-1/2 day interval, this was not going to die down. The Frying Pans became active much sooner than usual, and were quickly followed by increased noise from Upper Mortar. The vents on Fan by then were erupting continuously, with High Vent up to 3 or 4 meters high.
There was an aborted attempt at a start from Upper Mortar, then a second, longer attempt. After about ten seconds, this one died down, then suddenly every vent started erupting. The wind was mostly cooperative, and with it being late evening, all the vents were backlit nicely. Between the vents was usually a good place to see everything.
During the eruption Norris Pool rose to slightly above its rim. At some point Spiteful's back vents stopped, with the pool calm and pouring out water from a level perhaps 1-2cm higher than usual. Toward the end of Fan & Mortar's eruption the back vents of Spiteful reactivated briefly.
After this eruption, did a quick check of East Sentinel. There was no change from this morning.