Wednesday is Cruising Photo Day - 2020!
- Thread starter TomY
- Start date
jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 23,145
Isn't that how all New England mystery novels start?
I would have thought the image out the starboard portal might have given your bones a shake?
What privateer lurks outside exposing their port batteries to me?
Death LarsonWhat privateer lurks outside exposing their port batteries to me?
-Will (Dragonfly)
Went to Port Jefferson, Long Island over the weekend. Came across a bunch of these guys on the way back to Connecticut:
First time we've ever seen dolphins in Long Island Sound.
First time we've ever seen dolphins in Long Island Sound.
Chillin' on Kolibri with a nice cab and some good sci-fi.
Spent last weekend anchored in Still Pond, on the northern Chesapeake. Had a very nice evening, with only some high clouds drifting up from Hurricane Delta to make the sky a bit interesting.
After sunset Still Pond became even a little more still.
After sunset Still Pond became even a little more still.
Brings back memories. When we first cruised down the East coast ('91), we entered the Chesapeake in late October/ November, having left from Vermont (Lake Champlain), with snow flying.
After clearing the canal, it was like entering a new season. We were in heaven, 2 Vermonters basking in the heat.
We spent our first night in Still Pond. It was a lovely place to overnight. We went aground there as well, something we did regularly all the way to the Exumas.
Gunkholers, through and through. Thanks!
Wow glassware to match the boat !
I’m sort of hooked on the story, any chance you could turn the page?
Doing some "land cruising" this week on my mountain bike and in my old 4Runner back in Boulder. Here's a shot from this afternoon after the wind shifted and the air quality went bad due to a forest fire near Fort Collins.
Echo Bay, July 31 this year. Docks are empty except for us. Covid has made a big difference, these docks are normally full at this time of year.Under the float home across the bay ( red with blue roof) a momma mountain lion had her cubs. They were learning to growl and roar while we were there.
Hi Michael, Carol the "Bead Lady" and her husband John had their studio in that building, as I recall. Their float house was towards the head of the bay. I wonder how they're doing these days? Also, the pictographs on the wall behind the house were interesting in how the First Nation people placed them and have remained intact after so many years.
It’s a better brand of paint than I buy for sure. Too bad it only comes in one colour.
At the bar. Torrey Island in the Eggemoggin Reach, 2020.
Mid-September Cruise. Perry Creek (no pics) Duck Harbor and Bucks Harbor.
I sailed to Bucks Harbor from Duck Harbor in three hours flat in too much wind. I was hitting speeds up to 10kts a few times and trashed my fiberglass dink by running over lobster pots in Isle au Haut Bay, both sides of the dinghy had 10 inch cracks in the fiberglass. I was towing a sea anchor, but was going so fast I never realized what happened until I got to Bucks Harbor. In that wind, I couldn’t have done anything but cut it loose anyway. I wish I had pictures from underway but I could not have let go of the tiller that long.
Truth be told I should not have been out. I could not see staying at Duck Harbor with the Westerly wind sending big rollers right in to the cove.
I sailed to Bucks Harbor from Duck Harbor in three hours flat in too much wind. I was hitting speeds up to 10kts a few times and trashed my fiberglass dink by running over lobster pots in Isle au Haut Bay, both sides of the dinghy had 10 inch cracks in the fiberglass. I was towing a sea anchor, but was going so fast I never realized what happened until I got to Bucks Harbor. In that wind, I couldn’t have done anything but cut it loose anyway. I wish I had pictures from underway but I could not have let go of the tiller that long.
Truth be told I should not have been out. I could not see staying at Duck Harbor with the Westerly wind sending big rollers right in to the cove.
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The elk were being surly. Nobody likes a surly elk, let alone a bunch of surly elk.
Jim, I'm trying to envision a fiberglass dinghy hitting a pot buoy so hard as to rupture the hull. I know you're telling the truth!
Was the dinghy riding bow high? You say you were dragging a sea anchor, from the boat or from the dinghy (small, to keep it back?). It's just that I slam into them all the time with our dinghy and never thought about damage. Especially back in that area of the dinghy (seems like they would just glance off).
What kind of dinghy is that? Not a Puffin is it?
The whole ride sounds pretty hairy but I don't doubt the winds, especially westerlies in September. Maybe I won't go out this weekend.
Tom, it has no branding, so I don’t know what it is, I’ve had it for almost 20 years. It was well used when I got it and has has a rough life since on the overcrowded Bayside dinghy dock. My friend thought it might be an early Puffin, but it is lighter than they are now. It wasn’t very heavily built, but I liked it because it’s light and row and tows well.Jim, I'm trying to envision a fiberglass dinghy hitting a pot buoy so hard as to rupture the hull. I know you're telling the truth!
It's just that I slam into them all the time with our dinghy and never thought about damage. Especially back in that area of the dinghy (seems like they would just glance off).
What kind of dinghy is that? Not a Puffin is it?
The whole ride sounds pretty hairy but I don't doubt the winds, especially westerlies in September. Maybe I won't go out this weekend.
As to the damage, it was a dry dinghy with no damage when I left that morning. I did see it glance off some pots, but don’t know exactly when and how the damage occurred. I have been sailing those grounds with that dinghy in tow for two decades, so it is highly unusual. The only thing different was the speed. My boat was fast for it’s day and size but I usually cruise in the mid to high 5 knot range with occasional sustained 6.5 if the wind is good. That day I was slowing to 7 knots in the lulls, and consistently hitting 9 on the front side of the bigger waves, and saw 10 knots on the GPS several times. I was mostly in control with a reefed main and the Genny rolled up about 30%, but even on a broad reach I was severely rounded up several times. The dinghy’s bow was riding high but I thought it was solely due to speed, but I guess it wasn’t. Also it didnt fill totally until we slowed inside the harbor.
There were two large cracks, in almost identical points on each side at the water line and extending up. The only thing that comes to mind is the pots, Youve seen how thick they can be and at the speeds I was seeing I really had to be on my toes to dodge them. They are all toggled in that area from IaH up through Eagle island.
My boat will snag a pot because I have a mini skeg with some forward projection in the rudder, which will grab and hold a line, I’ve probably been snagged almost a dozen times over the years. That was what was scaring me the most that day, but thankfully I didn’t pick one up. At time they looked like a solid wall and I didn’t have much time to identify the toggle pairs.
I’ve repaired all the damage, even the cracked center little glassed in stringer that an overzealous buddy broke trying to pull the dinghy up onto the float in Bayside, but it’s destined to be retired soon. I want to build one of those Chesapeake lightcraft passagemakers, hopefully a post retirement project.
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Could it have slammed down hard onto something from off a wave top? I can’t imagine how a pot buoy could do that. It looks to me like it was dropped, or maybe crushed between a boat and a dock.