KB Gallery - Bronze in midwinter light

Khachik Bozoghlian works in bronze.  His K.B. Gallery is down the block and around the corner from us on 181 and Riverside Drive.  I stopped by today 30 minutes before sunset, and got some good images using the midwinter light that Andrew Wyeth loved. For the whole sequence go to my picasa webpage .

K.B. Gallery's website is here

New Hudson River School of Painting - Bennett Vadnais

K.B. Gallery at West 181 St. and Riverside Drive features the oil painting of Bennett Vadnais.

Most of this series of realistic oils are painted at the base of the George Washington Bridge - looking north or south.  The first image is looking north from under the Bridge at low tide. The second image is looking south in low winter light from Linden Terrace, Ft. Tryon Park.   Here is the series

Understimulated? Krugman Lays it on the Line

Over the years we have come to tolerate the polite blather of what passes for policy debate on the Lehrer News Hour, putting the appalling up against the ordinary or the modestly challenging.

Finally we have got a guy who can stand up and slug it out.

It is Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman.

Check out this debate on MSNBC Morning Joe - Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan against Paul Krugman.  Paul Krugman can take a punch and land a punch. 

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Canting keels - how they work

Rich Wilson's horrifying knockdown in the Vendee Globe  prompted Shira Arnow to search out some technical information on canting keel systems.

Here it is. CBTF (Canting Ballast Twin foil Technology)

And here is a demonstration video of the Schock 40

NYT Discovers Rich Wilson & the Vendee

The Times used to cover sailing.  When I was a kid the paper listedthe results for one design racing on Manhasset Bay.  I followed enviously from the South Shore. Until a few years ago Herb McCormick, editor of Cruising World, covered the Whitbread/Volvo and Vendee races.

But now niche sports get the occasional human interest story only. The Vendee is one.

But at least the Times woke up for Rich Wilson, sailing Great American III.  The only American and the oldest sailor in these cans that don't even have a 厕所, just a bucket.

Wilson nearly lost the boat the other night, as Desjoyeaux arrived home - with a 5,000 mile lead over Wilson who is in 10th place, with only 2 behind him. 18 have been forced out.

Finishing this race is a huge accomplishment.  remember the rules: 

One man on a boat (an Open 60)

No outside assistance

Leave Antarctica to starboard

Pass a couple of waypoints in the Indian Ocean to pull you away from the ice

Leave from and return to France, propelled only by the action of wind and waves on sails, hull, spars and rigging

Here's the Times account

Super Sunday

Sunday - February 1.  Beautiful day - hit 50 F, wind south at 8-10.

Rowed out a mile to the 46 Nun (opposite Stepping Stones) that marks the shipping channel into the East River.  And ran into plenty of shipping.

A February thaw is necessary to achieve the goal of rowing every month of the year.  Got one in January too.  And December.

Steelers (with Obama on their side) 27.  Arizona (with McCain and Derek on their side) 23.

Vendee: Victory for Desj., Survival for Great America

30 started.  1 finisher.  11 still racing.

Victory

"Sailing more than 28,303 miles, averaging around 13.2 knots, French solo skipper Michel Desjoyeaux has shattered the Vendée Globe race record today  by 3 days 7 hours and 39 seconds on his way to becoming the first skipper ever to win the solo non stop around the world race twice. 

Desjoyeaux crossed the finish on Sunday 1st February at 15:11.08 GMT , after 84 days 03 hours 09 minutes of racing. Foncia completed the race in twenty knots of breeze under sunny skies, greeted by a massive armada of spectator boats before being warmly welcomed by huge crowds who gathered along the waterfront and harbour area of Les Sables d’Olonne, where the race departed at 1202 GMT November 9th 2008."

Night from hell - but alive to tell the tale

Rich Wilson, Great America II

Nothing but the full text of his report will do.

If you are not familiar with these boats you need to know that the canting bullet keel is 30 degrees to windward.  In a crash jibe all the ballast is on the wrong side.  The boat is NOT self-righting.  With the boat on its side and the sails in the water you have to get to the controls and bring the keel to midships - and then as the boat lifts you get another crash jibe. 

- gwc

“The past 24 hours have been among the most difficult so far. A huge low, much wider east-west than forecast, has taken its toll. After finally  getting to the west side which had the southerly winds, we took off at high speed with storm jib and 3 reefs in the mainsail in the late afternoon/evening. Into the dark the wind built from 25-30-35-40-45-50 knots. 

It turns out that we had the fastest run for that period in the fleet. It was not intentional. The pilot was doing well, set on its highest response settings, but the wind and boatspeed kept rising. The highest I saw was 24.5 knots, the fastest of the whole race. 

Finally at about 3 am I realized that this could only end in disaster, the wind was not abating, and there was no way to know how much we might get, or how big the seas might get. Already, they were 25' and climbing, just gigantic, breaking in every direction, angry, and huge, gigantic masses of water with no good intentions. Another risk is if the mainsail is down and the boatspeed drops to 4 or 5 knots with just the storm jib, then you are at the mercy of the seas, and could get rolled over. There is dynamic stability in speed. 

Anyway, decided to try, had one arm in the foul weather gear, and the worst happened, the boat veered high, then low as the autopilot tried to correct, I saw the number 40 degrees low, OH NO, then a huge CRASH, and the boat laid over on its side. 

The boat had gybed, and now the wind was on the wrong side of the mainsail, and the keel was canted fully on the wrong side. The boat laid over at about 70 degrees of heel and just sat there, then the autopilot alarm went off, just to add to the fray. 

Got the jacket on, helmet on, gloves on, and went into the cockpit sideways. All old handholds are useless when you turn your world on its side. Waves were washing down the deck, but not too much coming into the cockpit because it was to leeward. The mast was still there. I tried to jam the tiller over, no response. 

Then I remembered, that is not the sequence. This has happened in various conditions 3 times before. OK, got to the keel, walking along the walls below, center the keel with the keel motor winch, was able to do this, and good that the batteries were up. Then go to the cockpit and try the tiller again, to try to gybe back. The boat was now more upright with the keel movement, and I pushed the tiller over hard, nothing, then something, then here it comes, she's turning, oh boy there's going to be a gigantic CRASH when it gybes back, hang on and duck, BAM, the mainsail gybed back again. 

I write this in the late afternoon, the wind is down to 35 knots, the seas are still gigantic, and perhaps I'll try to get the main back up before it gets dark if the wind continues to abate a bit. Anyway, dodged a gigantic bullet there, could have lost the rig, runners, could have gotten hurt trying to get the boat back in its right direction, or in bringing the sail down.”

Rich Wilson (Great America II) in his daily message

Go to: The Vendee Globe

Birds: Miradas Cantabricas

What can I say - it's  a bird blog Miradas Cantabricas

The Winter so far

The world order seems about right today, the last of January.  It's 26F in Friendship, 21 at our place overlooking the North River, 4 in Anchorage, and 23 in Beijing.   There have been a lot of below zero readings in Friendship - none in New York - and 40's in Anchorage.

There was ice in the river this morning at 8 but it's gone now as the rising tide brings sea water north.  But we've had ice most of the time - except for the sloppy thaw a couple of days ago, which Bill Cunningham records in his On The Street audio photo essay with his Boston accent and chahming eccentricity.

He ridicules the men who wear dress shoes knowing they are going to confront the ponds at every corner when a day of rain melts the snow and the drains clog with ice.  I did that.  I put on my best winter suit and wanted my shoes to match.  I couldn't find those Totes rubbers.  I was just getting a bit tired of winter and didn't want to wear boots in the overheated law school all day.  Besides they didn't match my suit and were stained anyway with fuel I'd spilled.

Finally the unlikely event of a water landing was the biggest maritime happening on the North River- as Sully Sullenberger brought an Airbus down off the ferry terminal just below the Intrepid and the pilots of New York Waterway promptly rescued the passengers who lined up on the wings (some of them knee deep in the brine)  like Londoners in a dark moment rather than New Yorkers pressing to get on the cross-town bus in the rain.

Vendee: Desoyeaux set for Sunday finish

Michel Desjoyeaux, who beat Ellen MacArthur four years ago, is on track to repeat.  He is expected Sunday afternoon back Les Sables in France, an 84 day circumnavigation.  

Rich Wilson, the sole American, is about 5,000 miles back, heading up through the South Atlantic.

Here's a link to the Vendee Globe news