NY NJ Baykeeper - and its Pedersen skiff

Never have I seen a boat that looks more like our Zobel, built in Sea Bright - not far from Keyport where  Hans Pedersen built this gem. Tugster has the story on the boat and the NY NJ Baykeeper organization.

Central Park - a Currier & Ives Moment

Central Park - image by Marilyn

Desjoyeaux, dismasted, retires from Barcelona World Race

Michel Desjoyeaux and crew of Foncia retire 27 days out of Barcelona after partial dismasting of their Open 60 Foncia 600 miles south of Capetown.

Several years ago Desjoyeaux - in the single-handed Vendee Globe - lost his starter motor (for the diesel engine needed to keep the electrical systems charged).  He jury-rigged his boat to start the engine `manually' by wrapping a line around the flywheel and tying it to the boom.  When he released the main it spun the wheel and started the engine.  But there was no resourcefulness that could put back the top of the mast and allow the two man crew to continue their round-the-world effort.

24 skippers remain in the race, east bound in the roaring 40's of the Indian Ocean.  Race tracker HERE

Foncia describe their mast break and retire from the Barcelona World Race. - News - Barcelona World Race

Clearing winter storm

A familiar sight this month.  January saw 54" of snow fall in Central Park.  We just got another 18".  The temperature is 37F - so we'll soon have huge lakes at every corner in mid-Manhattan. (click on images to expand)

The Palisades after the storm

beleaguered nun

Hand made Chinese noodles - video

Nabokov Theory on Polyommatus Blue Butterflies Is Vindicated - NYTimes.com

When “Lolita” made Nabokov a star in 1958, journalists were delighted to discover his hidden life as a butterfly expert. A famous photograph of Nabokov that appeared in The Saturday Evening Post when he was 66 is from a butterfly’s perspective. The looming Russian author swings a net with rapt concentration. But despite the fact that he was the best-known butterfly expert of his day and a Harvard museum curator, other lepidopterists considered Nabokov a dutiful but undistinguished researcher. He could describe details well, they granted, but did not produce scientifically important ideas.

But now it turns out....

Nabokov Theory on Polyommatus Blue Butterflies Is Vindicated - NYTimes.com

Rare 1770 Map of New York City Is Restored - NYTimes.com

This Times article describes the Brooklyn Historical Society's restoration of one of the three extant copies of a plan of the City of New York, 1770.   My sister Nancy gave us a print of the map a few years ago.  We got it framed and it now takes up most of the living room wall at our house in Friendship, Maine.
Rare 1770 Map of New York City Is Restored - NYTimes.com


For a close up go to the interactive feature

Hawk, Hudson Heights

from the album Walking back from lunch by Ben Berry

First day of ice on the Hudson

makes me remember summer

the Back River from our living room - Friendship

the North (Hudson) River from our living room - New York

Where the stripers go for the winter

Virginia Beach.  Or maybe they just follow Steve Pags.

what we have here is happy men and dead fish

New York - winter playground

It's colder up here in the Heights - of northern Manhattan, in Fort Tryon Park where Jenny  一之 and Du Ying 杜頴 found a place to go sliding after the second snow storm of the season.

Rite of winter: buoy tending by the Katherine Walker, USCG

The Katherine Walker

As I came down the block I saw the Coast Guard buoy tender Katherine Walker - WLM 552 - pulling up the Hudson River 2 channel marker - a flashing  3 meter tower.  I ran upstairs , grabbed my camera, and watched them lowering a small nun - an ice buoy - in anticipation of the coming freeze.  The location: the North River - just off West 181 Street above the George Washington Bridge. (click on images to enlarge)

lowering the winter buoy - lighted tower on deck

pushing away using bow and stern thrusters

Big Sur - December 2010

Peter's shot:

George, Peter & Taisy - summer 2001

on board CO2 - Christopher Makins' Parker skiff

Graymarine Phantom Six - replacing the old engine

Remember, said Garrison Keillor, when you could take the cover off, look inside, and see how things work.  Old engines are like that.  They have grease and gears and valves and hoses and pumps, sparks and circuits you can follow with your eye.  No USB ports, no algorithms.   You'll never put penetrating oil on your hard drive and you'll never have to put any muscle into your laptop.

Fraternal twins

Today - at Jeff's Marine - we pulled out of my 1955 Lyman runabout Grace the old, seized up Graymarine flathead six cylinder 100 and put in a very mint-looking Graymarine Phantom Six - 112.   Very Jersey Shore, as in Bruce's "we're fuel-injected and we're stepping out over the line".  But it has dual carburetors, not fuel injection.   We swapped some parts from old to new and made some adjustments, but mostly the Phantom Six fit right into the bed and connections of the old one.  The drive shaft lines up (almost), the mechanical gear shift linkage fits, the throttle hose  needs some work, and some shimming and grappling remains.  More fun for Jeff and 
Brian. 
Update: it runs!
(click images to enlarge)[more pix HERE]

Jeff getting down

Brian

dropping  the Phantom 6 into the Lyman

Sunset - Back River - Christmas Week 2010

Our tree 2010

Our tree 2010

Snowbirds - heading north to escape the blizzard

Last year Washington D.C. and Philadelphia got more snow than Boston and Maine.  Maybe this winter it's New York's turn.  We headed north just ahead of the blizzard. Friendship is 380 miles 45 degrees north east of the George Washington Bridge.  We got 12 inches of snow while New York got - well, our apartment got snow inside the windows, and the streets? fuhgeddaboutit. (pix by Taisy)

our apartment

Alex Rose Place - West 185 Street and Cabrini Blvd.

Camel traders? Yes, thousands of them - the Pushkar Camel Fair

Lee Gilchrist is traveling through India.  One stop was the Pushkar Camel Fair in Rajasthan.  Lots more pictures HERE

Pushkar camel fair, 2010, Rajasthan, India. Image by Lee Gilchrist