Pilot boat on Pilot Street

There is a pilot station on Pilot Street, City Island. At the opposite end of the street is City Island Y.C., where we are members and North River 2 is moored. The pilot boat - Newark Bay - docks on the inside of the rusting old fuel barge that protects Consolidated Yachts. One of the oldest yards on City Island, it is still the home of a lot of good boats. It was here that the schooner Mary E was hauled out last winter for maintenance.

Pink

James is positioned at the bow of my Walker Bay 8, like an explorer poised to be the first to step onto the new land and claim it for Clan Costello. As as for me - without my SPF 70 my skin tone is indistinguishable from my official Herreshoff T-shirt and cap - both of which are pink.

Big ship approaching Piscataqua River Bridge

It's a landmark - the high Piscataqua River bridge on I-95. Portsmouth, NH on the south, Kittery, ME on the north and the swift Piss-Kat-uh-Kwa running underneath. As we crossed a week ago we were startled by the massive bulk carrier approaching the bridge, southbound. Seemed as high as the bridge when we first spotted it upriver, guided by two tugs - one port and one starboard, down the winding river, with the tide (I hope).

Issuma - southbound

Soutbound from Salvador "out of the tropics" toward cooler weather is where Richard Hudson reports he is headed. It'll get cooler alright. This is the astral winter, isn't it?

The Peloton - Stage 6

winning speed: 29 mph, 112 miles

Fabian Cancellara, Switzerland wears the yellow jersey

New Jersey's official tall ship - the A.J. Meerwald

The A.J. Meerwald - a 115 foot restored Delaware Bay (South River) oyster schooner - is visiting the Hudson (North) River.

The Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area and the Crossroads of the American Revolution Heritage Area, in cooperation with the Nyack Boat Club and the Palisades Interstate Park are sponsoring a cruise on the Hudson River. Driven by over 3,500 square feet of sail, it should get a move on even on a light air summer day!

The boat will depart from the Alpine boat basin.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

9:30 am to approx. 5:00 pm

To register, visit the Crossroads website at www.revolutionarynj.org and click on donate and then the menu option "other".
For further information, email Palisades Park Convservancy at info@revolutionarynj.org or call 609-633-2060.

Thomaston - New England's first town

Thomaston is 8 miles north of Port Clyde on the St. George River, just west of Rockland. Few stop there, though some head by and for boats to Lyman Morse - the all-purpose yard specializing in luxury yachts. Some check in at Jeff's Marine where the "pirate of the Midcoast" will sell you a skiff with a Yamaha 4-stroke on the back.

Thomaston has a great Fourth of July parade - and a great Halloween too. Crowds line the Main Street for 1/2 mile in front of classic colonial homes, and the monument-studded mall.

The site of George Waymouth's first sustained anchorage - in 1605 - at what is now George's Harbor - 12 miles south - is the acknowledged founding spot of New England. The cross placed there in 1905 by the governor of Maine marks Waymouth's first sustained anchorage in the New World.

But Thomaston has a distinct claim to fame: Waymouth landed and claimed a right of possession there, where the River narrows and turns west. A bronze plaque marks the event. Some highlights of the parade are above.

Bowsprite - the Sturgeon of Liberty State Park

Thanks to Tugster and Bowsprite for exploring a surviving bit of the salt marsh behind the Statue of Liberty. They find clams, oysters, sturgeons and other harbor edibles. A video of the biggest find - the carcass of a 6 foot sturgeon - shows that the fish that once dominated the river survives.

The marsh and the fish are transformed by Bowsprite's watercolors, which beautifully abstract the shock of the found carcass of a six foot sturgeon. The fish lies half-buried in a salt marsh of the kind that once dominated the harbor shoreline, in a lost, beautiful world. The river and the harbor fed New York City and its surrounds. Sturgeon (Albany beef), shad, stripers and blues, along with the oysters that carpeted the bottom of the New York Bay, were the staple source of protein in New York's first three centuries.

My daughter Taisy's fifth grade teacher - Mr. Lofton - at P.S. 84 on Columbus Avenue - took the kids to Jamaica Bay to cast nets and catch shiners (spearing)! Mr. Lofton was an award-winning teacher. The City should be pleading with Bowsprite and Tugster - to teach teachers how to teach children (and grownups) about the Harbor.

Why wood

Beauty and functionality are two answers.

I'll let Tugster do the talking and the photography. HERE is his spread taken at the Wooden Boat Festival in Mystic, this past weekend - sponsored by Woodenboat.

Above are a rowboat from tugster, and a shot from the dock at Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club of Canvasback. A 100 y.o. (with all original planks!) 48 foot "commuter boat". Wait, I want to go to work that way too.

Volvo: St. Petersburg finish for 37,000 mile race

The Volvo Ocean Race finished yesterday in St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad). 37,000 miles, 11 legs, 8 boats. (All but Team Russia finished th entire circuit.)

The final event was a parade of boats up the Neva River.

The final account is here.

The skipper of the winning boat is the great Brasilian Olympic sailor Torben Grael. For his sailing bio, see his wikipedia entry here.

Two of the top three teams, including Grael's, were sponsored by Ericcsson. Puma finished second, skippered by Ken Read, and Telefonica Blue, skippered by Boewe Bekking.