Ulysses Luke - dob 5/9/2009

It's a lot to live up to, expectations to contend with when you have got a name like Ulysses Luke, born to Jesse and Pascale on May 9, 2009, at about 5:00 AM, 9 lbs, 5 oz, in Keene, New Hampshire.

Newborn pix here

Back River Blue Heron

I am going to have to get a longer lens,
like the contributors to the great Spanish birdwatching blog Miradas Cantabricas. But these will do for the moment. These shots are taken right out back at our place in Friendship. The last shot is of the house from my skiff.

Delivery & Launch

Darrin and crew from Carpenter's Boatshop in Pemaquid delivered, on moving-in day in Friendship, my Monhegan skiff, and Marilyn's Adirondack chair.

The bank of the Back River, more on that later, is the kind of environment in which Water Rat and the Mole thrive in The Wind in the Willows, which opens with the famous soliloquy to messing about in boats.

Volvo: Fleet closing in on Boston

With Ericsson 4 487 miles from Boston, with a 36 mile lead over Telefonica Blue and the trailer - Telefonica Black 618 miles from the finish, the fleet will probably reach Boston on Monday.

Here's the 2d viewer.

Bowsprite: Schooners of New York Harbor

Bowsprite has a collection of water colors, and specs on the principal passenger-carrying traditional sailing craft now working New York Harbor. Here is the oldest - South Street Seaport's iron Pioneer. For the rest of the squadron check out Bowsprite.

Qingdao harbor - tugs, warships, and lifeboat racing

Tugster likes to get up close and watch the tugs push freighters around. Here's a shot of a warship getting pushed around - in Qingdao, China. There's some sort of friendly gathering of warships there for a multinational naval parade.

Highlights include a lifeboat (吊船) race, and a stubby Chinese nuclear submarine.

Images: China Daily

Schooner Mary E hauled out on City Island for maintenance

The 100 year old schooner Mary E, which long called Greenport home, but now sails from Port Jefferson, is on the hard at Consolidated, at the opposite end of Pilot Street from City Island Y.C. where I keep North River 2.

Looks like painting, new prop and rudder from what I saw yesterday.

Goliath Crane and Allie B arrive at Black Sea port

All the way from Quncy, Mass the Allie B and its tow - the Brooklyn Bridge, laden with the Goliath Crane, arrived April 16 in Mangalia, Romania. The whole voyage can be seen here on George Graham's site.

Issuma: Why I am hugging the coast of Brasil

Richard Hudson in Issuma is single-handed now, 2000 miles up the coast from Montevideo.

He explains the currents and conditions that led him to take the risks of sailing quite close to the coast, with its hazards of high traffic, and the lee shore if the wind shifts to the east.

Volvo: Across the Equator - a tight pack

All 7 boats have crossed the Equator. Telefonica Blue, which did the last 4000 miles of the epic Qingdao to Rio leg without a headstay, showed its speed by being first at the Fernando de Noronha scoring mark - the equatorial island off the Brazil coast. The next 5 boats were separated by only 14 miles DTF across a stretch of the South Atlantic as they passed over to the north. 3500 miles to Boston.

The usual silly celebrations occurred at the crossings.

Here's the 2-D graphic showing race position.