Fordham 47, Holy Cross 41 - OT

Fordham 47, Holy Cross 41 - OT

Fordham is ranked # 10 in the NCAA Football Championship Series division

The tying 48 yard field goal as time expired

Landing craft provides vital ‘barging’ in Thousand Islands - Professional Mariner - October/November 2015

Landing craft provides vital ‘barging’ in Thousand Islands - Professional Mariner - October/November 2015

story and photos by Will Van Dorp

Capt. Jakob “Jake” Van Reenen was watchful as the 10-wheeler fuel truck inched down the dock and into the cargo well of Seaway Supplier, a 1954 landing craft.

The instant the truck’s front tires touched Seaway Supplier’s deck, it began to push the vessel away from the dock. Van Reenen reacted, throttling forward to keep his vessel flush with the dock, until loading was completed safely. The fuel truck was then carried across the St. Lawrence River to Grindstone Island to deliver its cargo. At the dock on Grindstone, the same careful control of the vessel throttle was necessary for an uneventful offloading.

Seaway Supplier is the newest acquisition of Seaway Marine Group, owned and operated by Van Reenen in the St. Lawrence River town of Clayton, N.Y. His other boats are smaller and associated with TowBoatUS, although Seaway Supplier is also used in small boat salvage. His family has spent summers in the Thousand Islands since his great-grandfather kept a houseboat there. He now lives in Clayton year-round.

Locally, what Seaway Supplier does is called barging. A customer would say something like, “What is the charge for barging my car over to Grindstone?” But whether you call it a self-propelled barge, LCM-8, or Mike-8, as others say, Seaway Supplier is U.S. Coast Guard-certificated and classified as a freight ship. It was launched in 1954 as U.S. Army LCM-8010, a product of Higgins Industries in New Orleans. Two twin-pack Detroit Diesel engines (four 6-71s) generate about 600 hp, turning two 34-inch-diameter three-bladed screws. The outboard engines of each twin pack also drive air compressors for the air-assist ramp and steering. The inboard engines are belted to battery chargers as well as dewatering and fire pumps.

24 and counting - Friendship - Blueberry fields forever

Starting our 25th year. - gwc

Friendship River meadow

Blueberry fields forever

Our landing

Welcome to Heron Bend

Friendship River from Blueberry Lane

Camden Hills - the view from the dump

I-95 bridge Piscataqua River southbound

The ghost fleet

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/naturalresource/winter2001/ghostship.html

Happy birthday Annabel

Heritage Cup 2015 - award ceremony

Here I am celebrating my 2d place finish at the 2015 Heritage Cup awards ceremony.  I always feel like a salmon returning to spawn at Sea Cliff - the cove where I first sailed en famille at age 8 on our 18 foot center board boat - a Cape Cod knockabout.  Still sailing small boats and still loving it.   

The race course was north from host Hempstead Harbor Club to Weeks Point G1, downwind across to the harbor to the mouth R2, close reach to R8, finish.  Sailing single-handed I took second, beating the schooner Myth, which struggles going to windward. Ahead of me at the first mark by 100 yards was the Friendship Sloop Natanya.  But they rounded the mark, shook out the reef for the downwind leg in 17-21 kts NE and left me in their wake.

Golden Eye - Bob & Mike Emmert- Regatta Chairmen

Natanya - Friendship sloop

Picking up the mooring single-handed

The trick on this is that the boat should come head to wind, ideally in irons at the mooring.  As that happens you go forward with the lobsterman's gaff.  You can snag the dinghy painter or the pickup mast.  But...a current carrying you beyond the mooring or too much headway carries you beyond the mooring.  So you have to try again.

The other method is a line from bow to stern with a carabiner that you can snap onto the  painter.  I used to do it that way.  Maybe I should again. 

Top Ten Sailing Books - Halcyon Yacht Delivery

My favorite is Lansing's account of the famed voyage of Shackleton and comrades whose ship was crushed in the Antarctic ice. Another is Miles Smeeton's Once is Enough, the account of his twice wrecked ketch which was dismasted as they approached Cape Horn.  And, of course, the incomparable Joshua Slocum's classic Sailing Alone Around the World.

Top Ten Sailing Books - Halcyon Yacht Delivery

Sailing at 91 -On the Water with John Bradley

John Bradley

Indian Harbor Y.C. Classics Regatta - 2015