Saturday, October 28, 2017

Volvo Ocean Race: Vestas wins Leg 1 Scuttlebutt Sailing News



Above Stacey Jackson is one of the two women among the nine members of the Vestas Wind crew which won the 1,450 nm leg 1 of the round the world Volvo Ocean Race.

The Volvo Ocean race 2017-2018 began a week ago.  Thanks to a rule change that allows larger crew if women are included on the team every boat has at least one women.  And SCA - Scallawag has five women and five men.

Like its predecessor known as the Whitbread it is a race to the southern ocean, then a circumnavigation of Antarctica.  the premier one-design ocean race.  It has the intensity of club round-the-buoys racing: but the buoys have names like Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn. - gwc

Volvo Ocean Race: Vestas wins Leg 1 Scuttlebutt Sailing News: (October 28, 2017; Day 7, 14:09 UTC) - Vestas 11th Hour Racing have won Leg 1 of the Volvo Ocean Race, crossing the finish line in the River Tagus in Lisbon.  Skippered by Charles Enright the boat carries both U.S. and Danish flags.

2017-18 Edition: Entered Teams – Skippers

• Team AkzoNobel (NED), Simeon Tienpont (NED)

• Dongfeng Race Team (CHN), Charles Caudrelier (FRA)

• MAPFRE (ESP), Xabi Fernández (ESP)

• Vestas 11th Hour Racing (DEN/USA), Charlie Enright (USA)

• Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag (HKG), David Witt (AUS)

• Turn the Tide on Plastic (POR), Dee Caffari (GBR)

• Team Brunel (NED), Bouwe Bekking (NED)
Background: Racing the one design Volvo Ocean 65, the 2017-18 Volvo Ocean Race began in Alicante, Spain on October 22 2017 with the final finish in The Hague, Netherlands on June 30 2018. In total, the 11-leg race will visit 12 cities in six continents: Alicante, Lisbon, Cape Town, Melbourne, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Auckland, Itajaí, Newport, Cardiff, Gothenburg, and The Hague. A maximum of eight teams will compete.

Sunday, October 22, 2017

Favorite fish food - Bunker, Menhaden, Pogies

Image result for menhaden fish
Bunker, Menhaden, Pogies - they're swarming all around our area.  Thousands in schools are favorites of foraging blues, striped bass, and whales.  Further north in the warming Gulf of Maine they are importing bunker for lobster bait.
I have seen waves pushed up by bunker fleeing marauding packs of bluefish.
This excellent short documentary tells the story. - gwc


Foraging the High Seas: a Menhaden story from Red Vault Productions on Vimeo.

Friday, October 13, 2017

Smithsonian Announces Artists For Obamas’ Portraits: See Their Work – Talking Points Memo

Smithsonian Announces Artists For Obamas’ Portraits: See Their Work – Talking Points Memo



Barack Obama chose Kehinde Wiley to paint his portrait for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.

Michelle Obama chose Amy Sherald to paint hers.

From lobsterman to oysterman -A Fisherman Tries Farming - The New York Times



Oyster farming has been growing in Maine.  Up river and in salt ponds they are said to be sweet.  Closer to the open sea they're briny.  Joe Young's spot above looks just like the Wadsworth Point public lading near us.  There on the Friendship River  a friend Barrett Lynde had the seed beds for Gay Island Oyster.  -gwc

A Fisherman Tries Farming - The New York Times

COREA, Me. — The boats start up around 3:30 in the morning, stirring the village with the babble of engines before they motor out to sea. They will return hours later, loaded with lobster.
Joe Young’s boat has not gone out lately. Instead, he puts on waders and sloshes into the salt pond behind his house, an inlet where water rushes in and out with the tides. After a lifetime with most of his income tied to what he finds in the sea, this lobsterman — and sixth-generation fisherman — is trying his hand at something new. He is farming oysters.***