Rockland, Maine: Lobster Trap Christmas Trees

It's an art form that developed when plastic-wrapped wire traps replaced the iconic wooden lobster traps.  They stack high - and green is one of the common colors used.  This one in Rockland was featured on the Discovery Channel.  You see some on lawns too.  Like this one at a fisherman's house on Main Street in Friendship.
(click images to enlarge)

Another BB 14 - Eastern LI

This boat - built in 2006 - was listed for $36,500 on Yachtworld.  Looks to be very nicely done.  North River 2, of course, is 25 years old and has got some bumps and bruises.  But L Francis Herreshoff included it in his Sensible Cruising Designs collection.  And I have certainly cruised it - seven years on the Hudson - with two trips a year to City Island beginning and end), lots of sailing down to NY harbor from its George Washington Bridge marinas.  Plenty of hours under sail and lots under power pushing back up against a 3 knot ebb - almost all of it diligently recorded in the log books

Issuma - frozen ice boating

The Food Court Allelujah Chorus

Mendelssohn would be delighted, don't you think?

Pescadotes: Buzzards Bay 12 1/2

My Herreshoff obsession began in 1995 when I first saw a couple of 12 1/2's bobbing in the harbor at Pleasant Point Gut, Cushing.  That led to my purchase of North River - which I was told by Sterling Yachts (now deservedly out of business) was a 12 1/2.  It wasn't.  Close - but not the right measurements.  Excellent boat but no pedigree.


Now, of course, I have North River 2 - a Buzzards Bay 14, designed by L. Francis Herreshoff (no doubt about NR 2's provenance).  I call it a stretch 12 1/1.  14 on the waterline rather than 12 1/2, same 5' 9" beam, same 700+ ballast.
water color by Joe Warren at Pescadotes

Lunar eclipse - solstice 12.21.2010

02:45
image: Ben Berry

Christmas Time is Here

It's part of a new program by the Transit Authority called Holiday Pines on Lines.
credit: Tina Fineberg/NY Times

The Wreck of the Lady Mary

Lady Mary

AMAZING STORY by the Star Ledger which commissioned a major investigation of this fatal accident in which 5 of the 6 men aboard the scallop dragger Lady Mary  were lost last November off Cape May.  Video below.  Multi-part article with excellent graphics HERE. by award-winning journalist Amy Ellis Nutt

Reporting began in January 2010 after the U.S. Coast Guard finished its investigative hearings.

For the next seven months, Amy Ellis Nutt and Andre Malok made dozens of trips, to Cape May, Philadelphia, Atlantic City and North Carolina. Those interviewed included: the co-owner of the Lady Mary; the boat’s sole survivor; family members and friends of the six men who died in the sinking; scallop fishermen, especially those working within six miles of the Lady Mary the night she disappeared; the divers who explored the sunken wreck; officials from the Coast Guard and the rescue crew who saved José Arias; and the dock manager for Hamburg Sud, the shipping company that leases the container ship Cap Beatrice.

Back River December 2010

Back River

Katabatic Winds of Antarctica - NYTimes.com

Katabatic Winds of Antarctica - NYTimes.com: "h"