Fun day today.
Watching him coming in, he was so slow motoring with the electric outboard that I feared his battery might have died. But the unit still showed +/- 90% power when he turned it off.
We should all hope to look this well stepping off a boat (any d*** boat) after 46 days alone at sea. He was delightfully cheerful, gregarious, and gracious. I had never met him but have exchanged email with him over a variety of topics over the years. It was like meeting a friend you haven't seen in years.
At our little ol' yacht club that doesn't let things like reciprocity rules stand in the way of honoring a sailing achievement like this.
Lee
s/v Morning Star
Valiant 32
Right next to Morning Star :-)
A distinctive visitor in town, anchored .5 miles offshore the Capitola Wharf, is the USCG Buoy Tender ASPEN.
ASPEN is 225' LOA, carries 49 officers and crew and is responsible for servicing more than 72 navigational aids from the CA/Oregon border south to San Diego.
Gotta have a substantial winch and crane aboard ASPEN to lift aboard steel buoys, their anchor and chain.
Not an everyday event. Some years ago we were racing off Monterey. Point Pinos buoy was our weather mark. ASPEN"S predecessor, the BUTTONWOOD, had just picked up the Point Pinos buoy before we arrived, and steamed 1/2 mile seaward to heave to while cleaning and maintaining the buoy.
We, and the rest of the fleet, gave chase and finally caught the BUTTONWOOD with the Pinos buoy clearly visible on their mid-deck. Much to the amusement of the BUTTONWOOD's crew, the fleet properly rounded the racing mark, leaving the buoy, and the buoy tender, to starboard.
Several months later the BUTTONWOOD returned to the Point Pinos buoy and unintentionally created havoc. At the time, the Pinos buoy sounded the soft sigh/moan of a whistle buoy. As a Coast Guard upgrade, the whistle buoy was replaced with the louder and more obnoxious sound of a diaphone.
Much to the distress of many homeowners on the Monterey Peninsula, their previous friendly buoy that could be heard moaning well inland in the right conditions now was keeping them awake with its new sound.
The homeowners' president and mayor both got an increasing number of complaints. On behalf of their constituents, they called the Coast Guard and gave them an ear full. Sure enough, a week later the BUTTONWOOD steamed back to Monterey Bay and put the old buoy back on position so that sleep was not interrupted on shore.
Last edited by sleddog; 05-02-2019 at 01:24 PM.
At least one SSS'er has been in contact with the Aspen:
https://www.h2oshots.com/2017-Sailin...asco/i-bKw63nn
Last edited by BobJ; 05-02-2019 at 04:32 PM.
Roger, at least one SSS'er has made contact with the ASPEN, likely while ASPEN was tied in her berth at the Coast Guard Station Yerba Buena Island during a 3 Bridge Fiasco. How could anyone do that? Isn't that area restricted to SSS'ers by the S.I.'s? Bad Boy.
ASPEN figured in a mini-mystery in late-Dec./early January of 2009. As reported by the San Francisco Bar Pilots, the San Francisco Approach Buoy, AKA "Light Bucket," 12 miles west of the Golden Gate, mysteriously disappeared one night.
This was no minor matter, as the buoy was 32 feet long, 9 feet in diameter, and weighed 26 tons. It was crucial the missing buoy be found, as it is the rendezvous point for Bar Pilots with all incoming and departing ships. And would make a nasty free range obstruction to encounter at sea.
ASPEN laid a temporary buoy and went on the hunt.
Thankfully ASPEN solved the mystery. The missing buoy was on location, only resting on the bottom in 100' of water, WTF.
I'm sure someone knows who the culprit was who T-boned and sank the "Light Bucket" that night.
The ASPEN raised the missing buoy. "That'll buff right out."
Last edited by sleddog; 05-03-2019 at 09:06 AM.
"At our little ol' yacht club that doesn't let things like reciprocity rules stand in the way of honoring a sailing achievement like this. "
Thanks, Lee, for your serendipitous story and pics of the arrival of GANNET and Webb Chiles!
Does anyone know if Webb ever connected with his Leap Frog Scotch Whiskey or whatever it is that boasts "tastes like dead fish, iodine, a campfire and dirt". ... "Tastes like a burning hospital."? There's a story there.
Last edited by sleddog; 05-02-2019 at 04:36 PM.
I know that stuff. "Laphroaig". No joke, an old friend of mine won their slogan contest a couple years ago. Can't remember the exact quote but something like "The best carburetor cleaner I ever drank". Laphroaig sent him all kinds of custom swag with the slogan, etc.
He corrected me that he didn't win but was first runner up.
This was not a problem. Shipments from well-wishers poured in. Before he left Silver Gate yesterday, he mentioned that he had so many bottles of Lafroaig on board Gannet he wasn't sure how to stow them all.
As a thank you to the club, he sat for an informal Q&A at the bar Wednesday night. Even though we only gave one day's notice to the members, we had a full bar, and he cheerfully held forth answering questions and talking of his many exploits for 2 solid hours.
Last edited by AZ Sailor; 05-03-2019 at 09:29 AM.
Lee
s/v Morning Star
Valiant 32