Heron visits Seal Beach

Where seals rest, herons hunt, and children play
click to enlarge photos

Striking out with the bases loaded

Nick Swisher struck out with the bases loaded.
Red Sox 5, Yankees 4 

Montana - Madison River Foundation - this river runs through it

Photo courtesy of Bigskyfishing.com

Sponsors of the 9th Annual Ennis on the Madison Fly Fishing Festival, September 2-3, 2011, these guys love Montana and they love to fish and want to protect the river.
 Madison River Foundation: "The Madison River . . . the legendary 100-mile riffle . . . a world famous river . . . spectacular scenery . . . abundant wildlife . . . Montana’s premier wild trout fishery . . . From its headwaters in Yellowstone National Park to its confluence with the mighty Missouri, the Madison River flows through history, imagination, and memories.

Founded in 2003, the Madison River Foundation is an advocate for the Madison amid the challenges of rapid residential and population growth, commercial development, increasing recreational use and the traditional Western competition over scarce water resources. We strive to work collaboratively with all those who live, work, and recreate on this storied river and its related watershed."

Boatbuilder, teacher Harold ‘Dynamite’ Payson dies — Maine News — Bangor Daily News

Boatbuilder, teacher Harold ‘Dynamite’ Payson dies — Maine News — Bangor Daily News

SOUTH THOMASTON, Maine — Harold H. “Dynamite” Payson, a mentor to a generation of backyard boat builders, has died.

Payson died Wednesday at Maine Medical Center in Portland after suffering an aneurysm at his home in South Thomaston earlier that day. He was 82.

Payson is best known in the world of wooden boats as a builder, writer and teacher. In collaboration with the late Gloucester, Mass., designer Phil Bolger, he developed a line of small boats that could be easily built by novice builders using everyday tools and easily obtainable materials.

Payson called them “instant boats” and wrote a series of books explaining his methods for building. He broke down the barriers to boat ownership for a lot of people who might have been intimidated by traditional boat building methods, according to Carl Cramer, publisher of WoodenBoat magazine.

“There are a lot of dreamers who will see a boat and say, ‘I wish I could build that,’” Cramer said. “But building a boat can be a daunting prospect. Dynamite took the ‘daunt’ out of the process.”

His boats are scattered along coastlines all around the world, Cramer said.

Payson was born in Rockland in 1928 and got the moniker “Dynamite” at an early age from his older sister’s boyfriend who said he was pesky and kept “popping up like a stick of dynamite,” according to a 2009 interview.

Circular Hooks, Designed to Release Bluefin Tuna - NYTimes.com

weak hooks

blue fin Atlantic tuna

Circular Hooks, Designed to Release Bluefin Tuna - NYTimes.com: "Starting this month, commercial fishing vessels that drop long lines in the Gulf of Mexico in search of tuna are mandated to use lightweight circular hooks that retain approved fish like yellowfin tuna, but flatten under the weight of the far heavier bluefin and allow them to swim free."

Great white shark spotted off of Martha's Vineyard

Great white shark spotted off of Martha's Vineyard: "A great white shark was spotted this morning off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard by a group of fishermen, officials said.

The shark, which was confirmed as a great white by a state expert, was circling the carcass of a minke whale off of Gay Head, said Reginald Zimmerman, a spokesman for the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.


Jeff Lynch of Chilmark, a commercial fisherman who sails out of Menemsha, said he was headed out to go mackerel fishing this morning with two friends when they spotted the dead whale, then saw the great white swimming around underneath it.


“The funny thing is I was going mackerel fishing to get shark bait,” he said."

A Seal Visits Upper Manhattan, on the Sandy Banks of the Hudson River - NYTimes.com

We have had a lot of marine mammalia around lately.  Bonnie Frogma reported porpoises and seals frolicking with kayakers in the lower New York Bay.  In March we had a harp seal hanging out behind our house in Maine.  And now we've got a seal taking a break from the sea at the beach on the North (Hudson) River at Dyckman Street.
A Seal Visits Upper Manhattan, on the Sandy Banks of the Hudson River - NYTimes.com

South Street Ex-port 2 « tugster: a waterblog

The great ship Peking, the cargo ship Wavertree, the Ambrose Light Ship - all symbols of New York's maritime history - are in danger as the South Street Seaport Museum founders

South Street Ex-port 2 « tugster: a waterblog

AC 45's - `Stadium Sailing' in San Francisco Bay

"Stadium sailing" is what Paul Cayard - who sailed for the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco - calls it.
After millions spent battling to bring the America's Cup back to America Larry Ellison and San Francisco will save the event.  Racing these super fast machines in the San Francisco Bay, in front of crowds on the embarcadero and on the Golden Gate Bridge.  count me and every other sailor in on this one.

Pierre Cayard - reunited with a boat of his youth

Pierre Cayard and ElToro

Paul Cayard, the world champion sailor, tracked down the El Toro sailing dinghy his father had built sailed to win 50 years ago.  HERE is the link.  I love this story because I have spent most of my life trying to preserve and recapture the boating experiences of my youth: my Snipe class sailboat (15'6"), our 16' Thompson lapstrake outboard runabout,  our 23 foot lapstrake Zobel skiff, the 18' Cape Code center board sloop that was the first boat my father bought, and the rowboat we used to get out to it at Sea Cliff Creek, Hempstead Harbor, NY.  And there was the afternoon sail I never forgot on Lou Perretti's Friendship sloop.  

Gladiator

I've done pretty well in my quest.  At the moment I have 1A - a cedar 11' Monhegan skiff, North River 2 - a 17' mahogany keelboat (Buzards Bay 14), and Grace - an 18' Lyman inboard runabout.  And of course we have a house in Friendship, Maine, across the river from the Zuber family which owns the  century old Friendship sloop Gladiator.  Pictured below in Friendship harbor, Bob Zuber tells the story of his family's boat HERE
h/t Eileen Tulipan for the Pierre Cayard story