D'Avalos' Prayer

When the last sea is sailed and the last shallow charted,
When the last field is reaped and the last harvest stored,
When the last fire is out and the last guest departed,
Grant the last prayer that I shall pray, Be good to me, O Lord!

And let me pass in a night at sea, a night of storm and thunder,
In the loud crying of the wind through sail and rope and spar;
Send me a ninth great peaceful wave to drown and roll me under
To the cold tunny-fishes' home where the drowned galleons are.

And in the dim green quiet place far out of sight and hearing,
Grant I may hear at whiles the wash and thresh of the sea-foam
About the fine keen bows of the stately clippers steering
Towards the lone northern star and the fair ports of home.

- John Masefield

Happy Christmas

Thanks to casaCara for the image...

Christmas Eve at Sea

A wind is rustling "south and soft,"
Cooing a quiet country tune.
The calm sea sighs, and far aloft
the sails are ghostly in the moon.

Unquiet ripples lisp and purr,
A block there pipes and chirps i' the sheave,
The wheel-ropes jar, the reef-points stir
Faintly --and it is Christmas Eve.

The hushed sea seems to hold her breath,
and o'er the giddy, swaying spars,
Silent and excellent as Death,
The dim blue skies are bright with stars.

Dear God -- they shone in Palestine
Like this, and yon pale moon serene
Looked down among the lowing kine
On Mary and the Nazarene.

The angels called from deep to deep,
The burning heavens felt the thrill,
startling the flocks of silly sheep
And lonely shepherds on the hill.

To-night beneath the dripping bows
where flashing bubbles burst and throng,
The bow-wash murmurs and sighs and soughs
A message from the angels' song.

The moon goes nodding down the west,
The drowsy helmsman strikes the bell;
Rex Judaorum natus est,
I charge you, brothers, sing Nowell, Nowell,
Rex Judaorum natus est..

-John Masefield, from Salt Water Ballads, 1902

Going to the chapel and we're gonna...

...get married. Tonight! (I actually set this up last week to post as the ceremony begins. Not as bad as changing our facebook status midway through the ceremony, I hope.)

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! See you in 2010!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Santa's sent Redwing a message!

FOCUS: 5th graders on the Bay!

Fifth graders from Stratford and Stewart schools are participating in a new initiative this year known as F.O.C.U.S. (Fifth Grade, Outdoor Education, Community, Unity, Service). On September 16, 2009, F.O.C.U.S. began with a kick-off event at the Garden City Middle School. Members of Garden City's Class of 2017 posed for a group shot before embarking on their marine biology trip: a boating adventure on Long Island’s Great South Bay.

While on board, BOCES naturalists guided the students in a plankton tow and a dredging of the bay floor. Many different specimens were collected and examined under microscopes and in a touch tank. Water samples were also collected and tested for salinity, clarity, and temperature. The captain and crew of The Miss Freeport and The Dolphin taught the students about navigation and boat safety. A perfect ending to an already perfect day came when the crew led the students in a fishing session where many of the children even caught their own fish!

(The above was rephrased from today's Garden City News." See link.)

This is pretty cool. One of the guys I race against is the captain of a fishing boat (not mentioned here), who has been doing this in the off season for a few years. He loves it, and it's a good way for the fishing boat to make some money when it can't go fishing. And, of course, any time schools, clubs, or sailors can get kids on the water we should take it.

BOCES, in case you don't know, is a program run by the county that gives kids opportunities to do things outside the classroom. And it's especially great for kids who haven't been successful in traditional school settings. I often wish I had gone to BOCES for to be a carpenter or electrician.