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Thread: New Boat 4 Sled

  1. #521
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
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    Capitola,CA
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    I'd only seen nighthawks once before, in the Nevada high desert. They migrate 7,000 miles from Argentina. Last evening before dark, there were at least 9 nighthawks overhead, feeding on insects. These birds look like large swallows/swifts, but fly erratically like bats in pursuit of food. Sometimes at the bottom of a dive they create a mini-sonic boom of courtship or territorial behavior.

    Also in the night sky were the Perseids, the meteor shower Earth is passing through for the next few days. The night sky in this area is especially dark, with the Milky Way like a celestial highway directly overhead.

    For many years during the now defunct Around the State Race in Hawaii, we would cross under the Perseids on the long fetch from Niihau to South Point on the Big Island. Turning South Point for the weather leg up the Ka'u Coast, things changed dramatically. The volcano Kilauea is in almost constant eruption, and short tacking up an active lava flow was the name of the game. The sulphur mist, steam, and the ever changing shoreline, not corresponding to any charts, made it challenging for the navigator.

  2. #522
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    Santa Cruz
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    108

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    It sounds good in the great north west, with night hawks, clear nights, milky way, meteor showers etc. Here in Santa Cruz we are having our normal foggy season, with the added enhancement of a rolling gun battle on Mission Street and a drive by shooting on Murry Street just behind the harbor, what fun! So captain, count your blessings, It sounds real good up there.
    <H>

  3. #523
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    Sep 2007
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    Capitola,CA
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    Cruising the Pac NW has challenges similar to a Single Handed Transpac. (SHTP) It takes a good deal of planning and expense to get the boat safely there and back.

    In addition, there are the usual issues of preparation; rigging; weather and navigation; coms; standing watch; electrical, fuel, food water, and anchor management; bottom cleaning; and systems maintenance.

    Despite daily attention and the simplicity of WILDFLOWER's systems, the "List" in my Log continues to grow, as it will for anyone contemplating a SHTP.

    Yesterday at a lunch stop, I anchored in a nearby shallow lagoon. There was 5' of water under the boat at low tide, and I let out 15' of chain. It was fun to visually observe the Delta anchor dig and take a bite in the sand.

    From the Avon inflatable, I was able to wipe the incipient growth on the bottom paint by hand. Despite positive reviews, white Petit Vivid bottom paint has all the anti-foul attributes of Miracle-Gro. The green grass on the sunny side waterline appears overnight, and grows an inch during the day. Did I mention the blisters that come and go with varying water temperature and salinity?

    The warm temps and long hours of daylight up here at latitude 50 N mean the cabin, even with four hatches open and awning rigged, warms to 88 degrees most afternoons.

    If I were a SHTP aspirant, I would add to my list of must have equipment: a bean bag chair for comfortable helming, a fan at the head of my bunk, a flower mist sprayer for air conditioning, and a cockpit umbrella or small awning for mid-day shade when the sun is at nearly 90 degrees overhead, and the brain begins to sizzle.
    Last edited by sleddog; 08-12-2013 at 03:30 PM.

  4. #524
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    Sep 2007
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    3,688

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    Skip, we had the OYRA "SF Entrance Race" on Saturday. It was an Escherian Stairwell kind of course where you sailed almost 30 miles, seemingly always upwind. I left my "lucky" SSS hat in the car so indeed, my brain began to sizzle. At the risk of providing "TMI," I also forgot my pee bottle.

    The next bottom on Rags will be Micron 66 but that means no more white . I'll have to choose between red, blue or green on the dark blue hull. A poll will be taken.

  5. #525
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    Sep 2007
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    Capitola,CA
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    Localized thunderstorms yesterday brought periods of welcome rain. But not much wind. At sunset, the Okisollo Channel was glassy, with not a hint of wave action. The Okisollo is about a mile wide, and 5 miles in length. As the evening wore on, I noticed an unusual fog bank forming. It was only over water, and 5-10' deep. Kayakers would have been in near zero viz at the surface. But a skipper on the bridge of a medium sized vessel would have unlimited visibility above the fog bank.
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    Last edited by sleddog; 08-16-2013 at 10:37 AM.

  6. #526
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    Sep 2007
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    Capitola,CA
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    A pod of 7 orcas (killer whales) swam under WILDFLOWER yesterday. The big male's dorsal fin was about 6' high. I'm guessing his overall length about 20'. Brings up interesting thoughts of aspect ratios in nature, and the use of vertical control surfaces for propulsion/steering.

    Shortly after our encounter with the orcas, we crossed wakes with the small cruising cat WISECRACK, maybe 18' overall. In the light winds, WISECRACK was making about 2.5 knots with the skipper pumping on foot levers which I believe were attached to a Hobie Mirage propulsion system. http://www.hobiecat.com/mirage/miragedrive/
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    Last edited by sleddog; 08-17-2013 at 08:32 AM.

  7. #527
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    Sep 2007
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    Capitola,CA
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    8/21/13

    With NW winds of 10-18 knots at our backs, WILDFLOWER and I donned our 7 League Seaboots yesterday and sailed 75 miles south from Gorge Harbor to Nanaimo in 12 hours. This morning we transit Dodd Narrows near slack tide, and enter the 'inland sea" of the Canadian Gulf Islands. I've spent my last Canadian "Loonie," and will be re-entering US waters, likely in two days time.

    All well aboard. With the Pacific High re-establishing dominance, weather has again turned warm and sunny.

    For you piano aficianados, parties unknown have placed a working baby grand on a spectacular Pacific Ocean overlook, seaward of Highway 1, somewhere between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz. Bonus points for its location. double points for a pic of you playing Claire de Lune on said piano.
    Last edited by sleddog; 08-23-2013 at 12:03 PM.

  8. #528
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    Sep 2007
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    Lacking an America's Cup racing presence, today the Port of Anacortes staged its Talk Like a Pirate Faire and Workboat Races. I rode my bike over to watch, but couldn't quite get a handle on the scene, which is supposedly to celebrate Anacortes' working waterfront tradition.

    The Workboat Races were three laps around a one mile triangle. The entries were three Vessel Assist boats, a pumpout boat for holding tanks, and a Fish and Game boat with a flashing blue strobe.

    The Vessel Assist boats were running 1.2.3 when on the final lap the leader broke down, dead in the water. The second place Vessel Assist slowed, apparently indecisive whether to offer a tow or not, allowing the third place Vessel Assist to nudge out the holding tank pumpout boat for first, in a stirring finish that had the pirate on the public address system beside himself. His parrot had nothing to say.
    Last edited by sleddog; 08-24-2013 at 07:54 PM.

  9. #529
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    Sep 2007
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    Capitola,CA
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    This afternoon, returning from Seattle, I dropped down to the western shore of the Swinomish Channel to confirm rumour that Steinbeck's WESTERN FLYER had been raised from her mud grave. (see previous post #441, page 45, June 6. http://www.sfbaysss.net/showthread.p...-4-Sled/page45)

    Apparent good news: WESTERN FLYER was gone. Further research turned up that she had been raised a few weeks earlier and towed to Port Townsend, where her muddy hulk had been hauled and propped up on stands.

    What will happen with this icon of American Literature? Scuttle is that WESTERN FLYER is too expensive to be restored and will be cut up and scrapped.

    NO!

    Calling Paul Allen. Paul Allen pick up the phone please. "Paul?" "Do you realize that for the cost of that new carbon fiber staircase on your mega-yacht OCTOPUS, restoration could begin on WESTERN FLYER?" "You didn't?"

    "Not only, but for the cost of a tank of fuel for OCTOPUS ($1.25 million) WESTERN FLYER could be completely restored."

    "Hell, Paul, for a year's salary of a wide receiver on your professional football team, WESTERN FLYER could not only be restored, but transported to her rightful resting place in front of the Steinbeck Museum in Salinas, and maintained in top notch nick for perpetuity."

    http://earthfix.opb.org/water/articl...ownsend-dry-d/
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    Last edited by sleddog; 08-26-2013 at 06:11 AM.

  10. #530
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Reno, NV
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    Ahem... I sent photo of previously described piano...though not a baby grand, it was a fun upright with several keys in disrepair and I had to modify Claire de Lune finding that an improvised Moondance by Van Morrison played much better.. Name:  IMG_4558.jpg
Views: 833
Size:  94.5 KB However I didn't get the sound recording - though it was a very cool moment A hint that it lies between Pigeon Point Light House and Half Moon Bay.... You also need to use the rope staked into the ground to get to the beach below Name:  IMG_4611.JPG
Views: 790
Size:  90.4 KB
    Last edited by Santana20Vixen; 08-27-2013 at 12:13 AM.

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