Kelly Slater & top surfers coming to Long Island

Kelly Slater, 10 time world champion and other top surfers are coming to Long Island, chasing a million dollar purse, the Times reports.  I remember trying to surf on a heavy 11 foot surfboard at Gilgo Beach.  


I wasn't the swimmer that my brother Peter was.  When I could catch a wave I had only a few seconds of fun as the board slipped down the wave face - no fancy turns, etc.  But I got a glimpse of what fun it could be.  I have seen the surf at Rincon Point near Santa Barabara and seen the kind of conditions in which Kelly Slater is featured here.

Bowsprite - a New York Harbor Sketchbook

Have I mentioned Bowsprite?  She rides her bike all around lower Manhattan (mainly) and paints fanciful ink drawings of the harbor and waterfront.  Never seen a pink tugboat?  You have now.  Her tools are below.  You'll find her at Bowsprite - a New York Harbor Sketchbook.

China - it's not just bullet trains and skyscrapers

It's great scenes like this from a market in the Chinese City of Yulin by Brian Glucroft, guest blogger for James Fallows at The Atlantic.

Hinckley Sou'wester

I remember the day in the summer of 1960.  It was blowing 25 from the southwest, the Sound covered with whitecaps, as we watched a single sailboat push through the chop, under jib and mizzen, approaching the old harbor at Block Island.  Everyone knew enough to stay at the dock that day.  But that rule didn't apply to the hardy couple who had a Hinckley Sou'wester.  It could have been this boat.

NY NJ Baykeeper - and its Pedersen skiff

Never have I seen a boat that looks more like our Zobel, built in Sea Bright - not far from Keyport where  Hans Pedersen built this gem. Tugster has the story on the boat and the NY NJ Baykeeper organization.

Central Park - a Currier & Ives Moment

Central Park - image by Marilyn

Desjoyeaux, dismasted, retires from Barcelona World Race

Michel Desjoyeaux and crew of Foncia retire 27 days out of Barcelona after partial dismasting of their Open 60 Foncia 600 miles south of Capetown.

Several years ago Desjoyeaux - in the single-handed Vendee Globe - lost his starter motor (for the diesel engine needed to keep the electrical systems charged).  He jury-rigged his boat to start the engine `manually' by wrapping a line around the flywheel and tying it to the boom.  When he released the main it spun the wheel and started the engine.  But there was no resourcefulness that could put back the top of the mast and allow the two man crew to continue their round-the-world effort.

24 skippers remain in the race, east bound in the roaring 40's of the Indian Ocean.  Race tracker HERE

Foncia describe their mast break and retire from the Barcelona World Race. - News - Barcelona World Race

Clearing winter storm

A familiar sight this month.  January saw 54" of snow fall in Central Park.  We just got another 18".  The temperature is 37F - so we'll soon have huge lakes at every corner in mid-Manhattan. (click on images to expand)

The Palisades after the storm

beleaguered nun

Hand made Chinese noodles - video

Nabokov Theory on Polyommatus Blue Butterflies Is Vindicated - NYTimes.com

When “Lolita” made Nabokov a star in 1958, journalists were delighted to discover his hidden life as a butterfly expert. A famous photograph of Nabokov that appeared in The Saturday Evening Post when he was 66 is from a butterfly’s perspective. The looming Russian author swings a net with rapt concentration. But despite the fact that he was the best-known butterfly expert of his day and a Harvard museum curator, other lepidopterists considered Nabokov a dutiful but undistinguished researcher. He could describe details well, they granted, but did not produce scientifically important ideas.

But now it turns out....

Nabokov Theory on Polyommatus Blue Butterflies Is Vindicated - NYTimes.com