Richard Hudson: Issuma Back in the Water

No blog post yet, but this shot from Richard's picasa photostream during a sail on the river from Buenos Aires to La Plata demonstrates virtues common to Richard's summer crews.

Vendee: Downwind for Rich Wilson - Sunday Arrival

Rich Wilson is sailing downwind for Les Sable D'Olonne, France, about to complete the solo, non-stop circumnavigation in 118 days.  The 59 year old American, aboard Great American III has not had an easy go of it, but he is on the verge of finishing in 9th position with two boats behind him.  19 starters retired. Vincent Riou was given redress for the damage he suffered in rescuing Jean Le Cam, whose boat capsized and turtled when the ballast bulb was lost.  Here's the link to the Vendee Globe

Volvo: Half-way to Rio, leader loses forestay

Pity Telefonica Blue and its crew. What can you say when you're 6,000 miles from port with 6,000 miles to go and the forestay fitting snaps in two?  

A jury rig with halyards will keep the mast up so long as the wind is at your back.  But you're crippled upwind.  And half-way between you and Rio is Cape Horn.  Port William in Chile is one possiblity - but that's 3,000 miles.  Heading west to New Zealand for repairs is another - but that's upwind - and the winds are light in that direction.

Other than that all is copacetic in the fleet with only 96 nm separating 1st from 5th place 3 weeks out of Qingdao, as they head east to the two ice gates - mid-Pacific points above which the boats must pass  to stay clear of the iceberg zone.  And points are gained for your position at each gate.

Here's the Race Data Centre. Check the 2D viewer when you get there.

The next step in drug cases: product stewardship

My comments on the landmark preemption decision of the United States Supreme Court in Wyeth v. Levine have been moved to my new blog - Otherwise, Commentaries on Law, Language & Politics 

1A - My Monhegan skiff

I'll tell the full story when I get the facts straight, launch it in Maine, and have some time to tell the tale.  The short of it is I just closed the deal on Sherm's skiff - an 11 foot Monhegan skiff that I bought from the kind folks at Carpenter's Boatshop in Pemaquid.

It will spend summers on the Back River, behind our cottage in Friendship.

The green one is mine - 1A. (story to follow)

The other shot is to demonstrate a Monhegan skiff in action on Monhegan.  Good for two men and a 50 lb barrel of bait.  I won't carry that much bait - but I will carry 60 lbs of Labrador Retriever.

Somebody's gotta do it!

And that may be East River Rigging - when you need a guy (or doll) to scale the walls, looking for leaks and loose cornices.

Buoys of Summer

Yesterday's snow day and today's bright skies have me thinking of summer. The Katherine Walker reminded me of a day two summers ago when Nancy and I took the Parker to Rockland, ran into Jeff en famille on High Idle, had lunch, and headed home via Muscle Ridge Channel. A story with a storm.

But it was the buoys on the seawall that the Katherine Walker dropping the summer buoy in at West 181 and the River brought to mind.

Snow Day on the North River

 A late winter storm is blowing through, with 5 inches of snow on the first pass.  Mid-day highs in low 20's and wind 20 NNW.

The river is ice-free and the highways clear.  Light fuel barges seek shelter in the North River anchorage in the lee of the Palisades.  The Little Red Lighthouse  stands watch under the GW Bridge at Ft. Washington Point.

Just to the left of the tower and above the roadway you can make out the seawall and docks of North Hudson Yacht Club (where I used to keep North River 1 and 2) and Von Dohln's marina next door.  Nautical havens saved by stubbornness (Von Dohln) and developer's distress (N. Hudson Y.C. - the guys sold the 100 y.o. club's land for $250k each, and now run it like a private boatyard, waiting for the shovel that Reaganomics promised but did not deliver before the bubble burst).

City Island Nautical Museum

A fire closed the doors of the City Island Nautical Museum on Fordham Street, down the block from City Island Diner, and just before Barron's Boatyard, where my North River 2 winters and is cared for.

But now the Museum has reopened.  In the old PS 17 are rooms of City Island memorabilia, mementoes of the days when the Rosenfelds of City Island made the iconic photographs that the Times website features, that decorate countless hotels, restaurants, and apartment walls.  The Rosenfeld Collection  - a million images - is at Mystic Seaport.

My City Island roots go back to our adoration for the Vim, the 12 meter that challenged for the right to defend the America's Cup in 1957.  Originally built for Vanderbilt by Harold Nevins on City Island, it was bought by Ed Matthews the owner of the stevedoring company my grandfather worked for on the Brooklyn docks.  Their manager Sven Pedersen was in charge of the boat. Vim was skippered by Bus Mosbacher - who went on take the helm of Ted Turner's Courageous (also built on City Island).

The Museum is open 1 -5 on Saturday and Sunday.

So here's the City Island Nautical Museum's website

Katherine Walker and the Rites of Spring

The 2 buoy, a lighted red tower, flashing 2.5 seconds marks the east side of the channel just above the GW Bridge at  W 181 Street.

If you click on the thumbnail and look carefully below a branch, in a straight line below the bow of the light fuel barge seen here on  a January afternoon with my low res waterproof camera, you' ll see the snow and ice encrusted 2 buoy doing icebreaker duty as the river shoves those floes down river at 3.3 knots (not the 2.0 predicted peak in Eldridge's Pilot Guide)  I know because in the still waters of the Morris Canal my North River 2 does 5.2 kts.  And I have spent many hours making 1.9 kts. northbound against the ebb tide.

  The other two shots are the Katherine Walker (CG buoy tender) setting the newly painted replacement buoy, and backing away using both bow and stern thrusters.