They are quite clever with beak and claw. Check this nest on the whirly crane near RYC.
Attachment 1006
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They are quite clever with beak and claw. Check this nest on the whirly crane near RYC.
Attachment 1006
Remind me not to buy a J/24 with a Berkeley hailing port.
Hey Steve, I just moved that Icom 402 (etc.) from one spot in the garage to another spot in the garage (again). If you still want it, it's yours. Just let me know how to get it to you. BobsailsSF at the yahoo place
Now back to your scheduled bird nesting.
My current location, Cape Cod, was under "Severe Thunderstorm Warning", and "Tornado Watch" until 11 pm last night. Exciting weather. In the pitch dark, the sheet lightning lit the sky as the heavens dumped. At least one tornado touched down, somewhere south of Boston.
At some point, a friend's O'Day 12 foot Widgeon dinghy was blown over in local Hospital Cove. After the mast was extracted from the bottom, and the Widgeon righted, I spent an hour getting mud out of the mast. Reminder to self: tie a Clorox bottle to the masthead of the Widgeon for flotation.
As if on schedule, 40 years to the day from the debut of "Jaws," Cape Cod's first Great White Shark of the season, a 15 footer, was sighted yesterday off Orleans, on the East Coast. Great Whites are plentiful in these warm summer waters. 80 tagged Great Whites were cruising the Cape Cod shoreline last year. http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/great.../22/id/651611/
As good friend Skeeter is wont to say, "Don't let Bruce put the nibble on you."
Tornados, mast in the mud, Great Whites. All in a day on Cape Cod.
Wow! That's a lot of excitement for one day! And you complained about the wind here! We don't have tornadoes in Berzerkely. And Great Whites? Not on the Olympic Circle for sure. At least not recently. No wonder you left. Booooring. All we've got to offer is She Who Must Be Obeyed, still sitting on her nest. I've decided she's a sneakaboard. Rents are high around here. Who can blame her?
Cape Cod ain't got nothing on the number of sharks near Aptos....http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/201...nta-cruz-area/
Yesterday, in the Small Boat Shed at Mystic Seaport's Wooden Boat Festival, I found the original ALERION. Built in 1912 as Nathaniel Herreshoff's personal boat, ALERION has been called the "sweetest singlehander ever built."
ALERION is 26 feet LOA. Capt. Nat kept her rigged and ready to sail at moment's notice. Herreshoff sailed ALERION both on Long Island Sound, and in Bermuda, where she was painted Herreshoff green, presumably to match the local waters.
ALERION's design captured sailor's hearts for years to come, and many copies were built. Between 1990 and 1997, Alameda's own Carl Schumacher designed four different versions of the ALERION: the 28, 38, 20, and 33.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN2d0BN1yG4
While rowing around the perimeter of Mystic Seaport, I encountered the extreme "sandbagger" ANNIE, built in 1880. ANNIE's length is 28' on deck. But overall from tip of bowsprit to end of mainboom she is 56'.
Sandbaggers had wide, shallow hulls, and a large centerboard, and needed crews of 10 or more to handle their huge sails and shift 50 pound bags of sand or gravel ballast. Downwind, or when the breeze went light, sand bags as well as crew were jettisoned overboard.
From the 1860s to the 1890s, sandbagger racing was popular from New York to New Orleans, and even in windy San Francisco. Sandbagger racing mixed working watermen, amateur sailors, and crowds of spectators, many of whom bet on the winners of match races. Bribing the Race Committee was not an unheard of occurrence.
With few rules, sandbagger racing was exciting and capsizes were common. But sandbagging died out in the 1890s after yacht clubs developed “Corinthian”-amateur-regulations and measurement rules for handicapping racing yachts.
ANNIE was Mystic Seaport's first acquisition in 1931. Mystic's collection now numbers more than 500, and is a "must see" for any sailors visiting the area.
Going back to the schooner races. There's a very nice article about "Brigadoon" (ex-"Joann") in the May/June issue of "Wooden Boat" magazine. Launched as "Joann" in 1924 "Brigadoon" is now owned by Terry Klaus. "Joann's" lines were similar to pilot schooners and her rig two nearly equal masts. There are some nice drawings in the article. The boat was trucked from the East Coast to SF by Sterling Hayden, who had the rig re-designed into a more conventional Banks schooner look. I think "Brigadoon" is one of the most beautiful boats sailing on SF Bay - especially the way Klaus maintains her.
Good friend and occasional poster to this Forum, "Santa20VIXEN," recently won the Wrecking Ball Trophy at the Holy Gale Regatta when her wheels came off while leading and sailing at 65 knots. The Holy Gale is held annually at Smith Creek Dry Lake, in Eastern Nevada, and this year's event featured a 60 knot wind storm.
Here is VIXEN's commentary: "As the storm approached, That's me in the video throwing last minute stuff in the car and getting some goggles to prepare for holding stuff down. I lost my tent, an awning and a box of spare nuts and bolts… It did spin my trailer but it went to weather well … too heavy to flip…
I drove the wheels off my boat … Led to the windward mark then Mary, who'd gone wide, carried speed better in the rounding and took the lead… however, she set a narrow line to the leeward mark and would have to go wide… so I footed off, powered up to over 65mph and set up wide to take the inside line… I initiated my turn wide before the leeward mark and rounded just as Mary shot past the leeward mark… sheeting on after the apex I was windward and ahead pointed right for the finish line… then the wheels came off… literally … lost the leeward wheel, spun 180 deg and lost the other wheel, spun 180deg again sail still sheeted on and if I could have dragged myself to the finish I would have. … However, I was very lucky to have stayed upright and only have broken the spindles and maybe 1 wheel.
For a short video of the gale at the Holy Gale, check out: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/20...n-advertising/
During the Wednesday nite "prayer meeting" at the Santa Cruz YC hoist we got a full report of the Holy Gale.
They had a 65mph+ gust from one direction that took out most of the camp and a few minutes later got a 57mph+ gust from 90 degrees the other direction which finished the job, And of course brought massive dust clouds and with the added ingredient of RAIN so it was raining MUD!
WHAT FUN!
I was told they are going to have change the name of the event from "in search of the HOLY GALE" because the GALE has indeed found them!