More guests = more breeze. But we had a glorious sail, yet again.
Sunday, July 5
Saturday, July 4
12. We had guests, so...there was a stout breeze...
We had some guests aboard, first time sailors, and as is usually the case in these situations we had a big wind. We had some brisk sailing!
My sailing mojo is as high as ever, but my blogging mojo is non-existent.
My sailing mojo is as high as ever, but my blogging mojo is non-existent.
Friday, July 3
Saturday, June 20
Redwing for sale in Saskatoon
Saskatoon? And what the hell is with all of these Redwings for sale? This one looks like Hull #51, built in 1968. Pretty cool. Some unique additions/edits, especially in the cabin. And it has a steering wheel!
Wednesday, June 17
Redwing for sale in Michigan
This one here is in mint condition, and when I say "mint" condition...well, check it out for yourself.
Sunday, June 14
11. Bridal Brunch Sail
Alli had bridal party brunch and dress shopping with the girls, so Dan and I went sailing. Then, when the girls were through, we picked up Allison and went out for a bunch more sailing...
Friday, June 12
A Redwing for sale in Canada
Yet another Redwing for sale. This one is way up in Vancouver, far from Redwing's hometown Ontario.
Sunday, June 7
1968 Redwing for sale in CT
This Redwing is a little older than ours, but just as pretty. And it's for sale.
Saturday, June 6
Clams return to Great South Bay
It's less a return than a regeneration, but we'll take it. The following whole article was taken from here. Thanks Nature Conservancy!
Carl LoBue from the Conservancy’s Long Island program presented another phenomenal success story about bringing back clam populations in Great South Bay.
Great South Bay once produced more than one-half the clams eaten in the United States, but over-harvesting reduced clam populations to trace levels. The loss of the water filtration provided by thousands of acres of clams led to out-of-balance plankton populations with serious impacts to seagrass and other species. In 2004, the Conservancy acquired 13,000 acres of underwater land in Great South Bay and has worked closely with local communities to develop thoughtful and adaptive clam restoration strategies. It’s working!
Carl and company intercepted clams harvested from nearby estuaries that were on the way to market, purchased them, and relocated over 3 million of them onto the 13,400 acres of submerged lands owned by the Conservancy. The adult clams were placed into a network of carefully selected “spawner sanctuaries” covering approximately 50 acres. A critical interim measure of success for reclamation of the bay was to increase juvenile clam density from near-zero to five juvenile clams per square meter.
Carl’s presentation unveiled the latest survey results: 5,000 acres met or exceeded the interim target density, and about 320 million baby clams are estimated to have settled on Conservancy property as well as adjacent public property. Each adult clam can filter up to one gallon of water per day…one female clam can release up to 6.3 million eggs each year.
So what’s going to happen next? Suffice to say that about 3 million parent clams helped make over 300 million babies and Great South Bay is on track to being great again. And some bonus good news: Preliminary indications from the Sound this spring suggest that without harvest pressure (and at high-enough densities), clams may be more resilient to algal blooms and predation than they previously have been given credit for.
Carl LoBue from the Conservancy’s Long Island program presented another phenomenal success story about bringing back clam populations in Great South Bay.
Great South Bay once produced more than one-half the clams eaten in the United States, but over-harvesting reduced clam populations to trace levels. The loss of the water filtration provided by thousands of acres of clams led to out-of-balance plankton populations with serious impacts to seagrass and other species. In 2004, the Conservancy acquired 13,000 acres of underwater land in Great South Bay and has worked closely with local communities to develop thoughtful and adaptive clam restoration strategies. It’s working!
Carl and company intercepted clams harvested from nearby estuaries that were on the way to market, purchased them, and relocated over 3 million of them onto the 13,400 acres of submerged lands owned by the Conservancy. The adult clams were placed into a network of carefully selected “spawner sanctuaries” covering approximately 50 acres. A critical interim measure of success for reclamation of the bay was to increase juvenile clam density from near-zero to five juvenile clams per square meter.
Carl’s presentation unveiled the latest survey results: 5,000 acres met or exceeded the interim target density, and about 320 million baby clams are estimated to have settled on Conservancy property as well as adjacent public property. Each adult clam can filter up to one gallon of water per day…one female clam can release up to 6.3 million eggs each year.
So what’s going to happen next? Suffice to say that about 3 million parent clams helped make over 300 million babies and Great South Bay is on track to being great again. And some bonus good news: Preliminary indications from the Sound this spring suggest that without harvest pressure (and at high-enough densities), clams may be more resilient to algal blooms and predation than they previously have been given credit for.
Monday, June 1
Happy Birthday Mr Masefield
John Masefield's birthday today!
"Let no religious rite be done or read
In any place for me when I am dead,
But burn my body into ash, and scatter
The ash in secret into running water,
Or on the windy down, and let none see;
And then thank God that there’s an end of me."
"Let no religious rite be done or read
In any place for me when I am dead,
But burn my body into ash, and scatter
The ash in secret into running water,
Or on the windy down, and let none see;
And then thank God that there’s an end of me."
Thursday, May 28
Monday's sail
Here's our approximate course on Monday's sail. It's not as fancy as using the GPS to track our exact course. In fact, it's little better than grease pencil on a plastic flimsy overlay on the real chart. We may or may not have hit that big old sandbar sticking out into the middle of the bay. That thing is annoying! But now I have a better idea of exactly where it is.
We bounced a few times, and then bounced to a stop, like a rubber ball. I got all of us on one side of the boat, jibed the sails, and got us off the sand. We bounced a few times as we clawed our way north, back to buoy 11. But the we were off and running again. Back through the bridge for a few laps on the plum-pudding side.
Monday, May 25
9. bittersweet sailing
Today we had the most guests we have had at one time. It was a sublime day that would be diminished by any explanation. Or at least any explanation that I could put down here in a single post. More on today's sail later on this week.
Today was also one of the saddest days as a sailor that I have experienced. You may recall that last year, on Labor Day, there was a fire at our dock. The idea sends chills up my spine, and the fact left me cold and worried for weeks afterward.
Today when we got to the boat we discovered that a beautiful Hylas at the end of the street burned down overnight. The owner's dog barked at about 1 am, and they heard a car tear off down the street. Then banging at the door, and the word that their boat was on fire. By 1:15 it was all over. The boom and sails caught fire and destroyed the entire cabin top, melted two feet of the foot of the mast, the entire cockpit, and a lot of the cabin. The sight of the destruction was really unbelievable. Sadder because the owner was, like many of the guys in our club, one of the guys who enjoyed working on his own boat: waxing, sanding, varnishing, and so on.
And so as we prepared to go out for our sail we saw mourners come and pay their respects to the owner, a former commodore of our cruising club and a very popular guy on the Bay. One of the Old Salts. I'm assuming this continued throughout the day - today was Opening Day for the club - because when we got back people were still coming around. It was like elephants who don't want to leave a fallen family member, and urge the victim to get up, please get up!
And so we, the boat owners on the block, have a problem. Fire #1 on Labor Day, and now this.
I'm nervous for July 4th.
Today was also one of the saddest days as a sailor that I have experienced. You may recall that last year, on Labor Day, there was a fire at our dock. The idea sends chills up my spine, and the fact left me cold and worried for weeks afterward.
Today when we got to the boat we discovered that a beautiful Hylas at the end of the street burned down overnight. The owner's dog barked at about 1 am, and they heard a car tear off down the street. Then banging at the door, and the word that their boat was on fire. By 1:15 it was all over. The boom and sails caught fire and destroyed the entire cabin top, melted two feet of the foot of the mast, the entire cockpit, and a lot of the cabin. The sight of the destruction was really unbelievable. Sadder because the owner was, like many of the guys in our club, one of the guys who enjoyed working on his own boat: waxing, sanding, varnishing, and so on.
And so as we prepared to go out for our sail we saw mourners come and pay their respects to the owner, a former commodore of our cruising club and a very popular guy on the Bay. One of the Old Salts. I'm assuming this continued throughout the day - today was Opening Day for the club - because when we got back people were still coming around. It was like elephants who don't want to leave a fallen family member, and urge the victim to get up, please get up!
And so we, the boat owners on the block, have a problem. Fire #1 on Labor Day, and now this.
I'm nervous for July 4th.
Sunday, May 24
8. out with Alli
After being very disappointed with our attempt to go sailing with some friends on Saturday, Alli and I got out for some private sailing time today.
We were really looking forward to having new guests, a couple we really like, out on the boat yesterday. But, as usual, the weather-folk completely misforecast the weather. I guess I should know by now that when they say SE 5-10 they mean 22 with gusts to 30. Silly me!
We were fortunate enough to run into Mike D of Loon at WestMarine who told us that all hell was breaking loose down on the Bay. Not good for guests. So we went for a bike ride with them on Saturday instead.
But today, we went out and had a perfectly glorious sail. We just rolled out some jib and reached to the bridge and back. Al has a serious cough (it's not H1N1, we swear), and so we called it quits early so she could get some rest.
We did see Loon out there, though, looking so, so good with all three sails out.
Loon is a Pearson 35.
So pretty.
We were really looking forward to having new guests, a couple we really like, out on the boat yesterday. But, as usual, the weather-folk completely misforecast the weather. I guess I should know by now that when they say SE 5-10 they mean 22 with gusts to 30. Silly me!
We were fortunate enough to run into Mike D of Loon at WestMarine who told us that all hell was breaking loose down on the Bay. Not good for guests. So we went for a bike ride with them on Saturday instead.
But today, we went out and had a perfectly glorious sail. We just rolled out some jib and reached to the bridge and back. Al has a serious cough (it's not H1N1, we swear), and so we called it quits early so she could get some rest.
We did see Loon out there, though, looking so, so good with all three sails out.
Loon is a Pearson 35.
So pretty.
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