August 7, 2007. These two pictures show a list started one year ago and records the completion of most of the items. People who publish romantic stories about risking life and limb in feckless adventures, sailing unprepared boats into dangerous conditions have confused foolhardiness with adventurousness. Adam Nicholson’s “Seamanship” describes departing the Solent in an unprepared, heavy, slow boat in a late winter gale in 2003, only to announce on page 2 that he did not know how to sail. Three months later, after having the boat refitted, he and his captain departed Cornwall for Ireland in another gale, with a flaw in their electrical system that disabled the autopilot. Turn back? No. They proceeded on to exhaustion and danger, surviving to write yet another book in the school that suggests that reckless flirtation with danger is the essence of long distance cruising. We have no plans for such a book. There will be adventure and danger enough, even though we try to proceed sensibly.
July 1, 2007
Ready for a dock/bon voyage party and almost ready to go, August 19, 2007
Bon voyage and dock party on August 19, 2007
All the comforts of home, with a slight starboard list.
August 31, 2007. Sunrise over Angle Island, San Francisco Bay.
August 31, 2007. Summer sailing on the California coast. This image of our shakedown trip to Drakes Bay indicates why we are heading south instead of north from SF Bay.
September 1, 2007. The lighthouse at Pt. Reyes on a beautiful day. The little boat in the picture was fishing, not just drifting, and did not crash into the rocks.
September 16, 2007. On our way. The San Francisco skyline at the start of our trip.
September 19, 2007. After two days in Sausalito try to shake colds, we are now holed up in Half Moon Bay on account of an unseasonable winter storm predicted to bring 45-knot winds to the coast this afternoon. As you can see, the jet stream is positioned to bring the North Pacific storm right down the coast. Yesterday we had a few dolphins around the boat just outside San Franciscco Bay. They made us feel we were really cruising even though we have barely started.
September 22, 2007. The glamorous life of the cruiser, part one: lounging at laundromats in exotic ports. The fact that the morning was truly rainy made it a little easier to while away a few hours doing the wash in Santa Cruz. Later on, the day cleared enough for . . .
September 22, 2007. . . . a train ride through the trees to Roaring Camp. Just before we started back, with a mighty toot this steam train roared in from a tour farther up in the hills. Back at the Boardwalk, Diane cast a longing eye at all the rides, especially the ones that swing you upside down or drop you like a stone from a great height. But she couldn't persuade Ted to join her, so made do with just one solo ride on the roller coaster.
September 24, 2007. Sunrise from the anchoage at Monterey.
September 26, 2007. Stillwater Cove, near Carmel, California. The great blue heron is standing on the kelp afloat in the amazingly still waters.
September 27, 2007. We left Stillwater Cove before dawn so as to make the next port, San Simeon, while there was still daylight. Soon after, the fog settled in and stayed with us most of the way. Sometimes the water was glassy, sometimes lightly ruffled with breeze, but basically the piucture shows what we saw all day long. In such a featureless seascape you can get to musing over the smallest changes in color or texture . . .
. . . like the the pattern of your own wake.
September 28, 2007. The outdoor pool at Hearst Castle, San Simeon, California.
September 24, 2007. Dinner guests arriving aboard FAYAWAY at San Simeon: Jay, Jennifer, Jocelyn, Margaret and Diesel, from MALACHI.
September 30, 2007. Morro Rock, Morro Bay, California at sunrise.
October 2, 2007. Pt. Conception sunrise.
October 2, 2007. Battling our way around Pt. Conception, sometimes called the Cape Horn of North America. Wind NW at 3 knots; swell NW at 2-4'.
October 5, 2007. Busman's holiday. Ted admired the exterior of Santa Barbara's lovely courthouse, then prowled around inside looking for an open courtroom.
October 7, 2007. Albert Anchorage, Santa Cruz Island, at the beginning of a santana, a strong east wind. Shortly after this picture was taken, this fellow left for parts unknown, and we went around the rock in the background to Coches Prietos and rode the santana out there.
October 8, 2007. This is “around the rock” from the prior picture, after the santana had passed and a gentle westerly breeze filled in. While we were ashore, another boat -- from Alameda -- came in and anchored.
October 8, 2008. Hiking inland on Santa Cruz Island. Just around the first bend all the sounds of civilization disappeared; we experienced the silence in awe.
October 10, 2007. Cuyler Harbor, San Miguel Island. Ted down in his room in the lazarette. Despite the remote in his hand, he's not watching the baseball game -- its the workings of the autopilot that engage him. Normally Ted's room is stuffed to the top with everything you see piled next to him in the cockpit.
October 11, 2007. Cuyler Harbor looking east, toward Santa Barbara. Elephant seals on the beaches croak like giant frogs or like frat boys after too much beer.
October 14, 2007 at Ventura Yacht Club. Ted contemplating the head of FAYAWAY. What started as a seal replacement became a major repair when the plastic piece on the bottom (the top in this picture) gave way during reassembly.
October 19, 2007. Marlinspike seamanship with the Ventura Yacht Club in the background. We have been here for a week doing repairs and maintence on our hydraulics, improving the SSB antenna, spending time with a friend and doing some legal work. We will be here a few more days as we are awaiting a santana supposed to set in Sunday and Monday.
October 20, 2007. Years ago we took the topping lift off the main boom for racing and to protect the sail from chafing. But we're out of the racing business for now, and the convenience of a topping lift for cruising is undeniable. So here I am, just after hooking up a new one at the top of the mast, standing on the upper spreaders some 45' up and taking a picture of Diane, who had raised me up with the windlass and is now lowering me. The man on the dock concluded that FAYAWAY is a Swan, and he owns one!
October 20, 2007, from FAYAWAY's mast. I hadn't planned to post this picture because it is just a normal sunny day in SoCal. But that night the santana winds began, and although October 21 dawned clear, fires started in the mountains in the morning, and by mid-afternoon, the smoke had blocked out the sun in Ventura . . .
. . . at 1500, October 21, a very similar view looked like this.
At about 1500 on this cloudless day, the camera is pointed directly at the sun.
The smoke extended out into the Santa Barbara Channel, where it met the westerly sea breeze.
About 1630, the sun reappeared faintly.
October 23, 2007. The fires continue in SoCal. The sun at about 1630 obscured by smoke. Half a million people, mostly in San Diego County, are under evacuation. The santana is over and we will head back out the the Channel Islands tomorrow.
October 23. Tuesday night pot luck at Ventura Yacht Club. Diane is the fifth person back on the left side of the table.
October 24, 2007. FAYAWAY ghosting along at about 5 knots in wind so light it barely disturbs the surface or makes FAYAWAY heel. One of the Channel Islands, either Anacapa or Santa Cruz, appears shrouded in smoke at the top of the picture, just to the right of center.
October 25, 2007. FAYAWAY in Little Scorpion Anchorage, Santa Cruz Island, with the three main parts of Anacapa in the background. This picture was taken as we were returning from a hike around Scorpion Canyon. One could hike almost forever on Santa Cruz Island alone.
October 25, 2007. Returning to the ranger station at Scorpion Anchorage, Santa Cruz Island. This may be the last picture from our trusty Canon camera. It got wet on the trip back and has been sulking ever since.
October 31, 2007. Hiking on Catalina near Isthmus Cove. We found this unmistakable evidence of the buffalo herd on the island, . . .
. . . and not long after, we enountered four of them, of which this was the closest.
November 15, 2007. Cedros Island, intensely rugged, and largely unpopulated, except around a busy industrial salt export operation at the east end. We did not stop.
November 15, 2007. Sinbad, our Simrad autopilot, steering off Isla Cedros. You couldn't ask for a better shipmate. One of his best features is an ability to keep a constant angle to the wind. In a thousand miles of downwind sailing from San Diego to Bahia Navidad, he never let the boat gybe once.
November 19, 2007. A crowded anchorage at Cabo San Lucas. This ship is well lesss than one ship length away, but fortuantely did not swing. The ships arrive at the rate of one or to a day, disgorge their passengers, who frantically address themselves to having fun on the water and in the town, and at duck, they all pile back onto the ships and sail away. Sinbad is not visible in this picture, as he is taking a break.
November 28, 2007. Sign in the Ixtapa Marina.
December 7, 2007. Zihuatanejo. The scholars, Margaret Garms and Diane, and our Spanish teachers, Don Jose, hard at work at lesson.
December 11, 2007. Still hard at work, in another cafe, studying Spanish.
December 13, 2007. Don Jose, our techer, wearing a gift hat from Diane's inexhaustible supply of odd items, as we left him near Jojutla.
December 13, 2007. Detail in the cathedral at Cuernevaca.
December 13, 2007. Facade of a church next to the catherdral in Cuernevaca.
December 13, 2007. Cuernavaca.
Carved detail over the entrance to the cathedral in Cuernevaca.
Decvember 14, 2007. Our hotel in Cuernevaca, about 8 hours by car from Zihuatenejo.
Another view of the hotel.
December 14, 2007. The ruins of Xochicalco, an ancient city near Cuernevaca.
December 14, 2007. The carved plumed serpent at Xoxicalco.
December 14, 2007. The plumed serpent fills all four sides of the base of the pyramid.
December 15, 2007. Ixtapa Marina. Some warning signs are worth paying attention to.
December 22, 2007. Arriving in Acapulco. These are houses on the point marking the entrance.
December 22, 2007. A street scene in the zocalo in Acapulco.
December 22, 2007. The catherdral in Acapulco. When we inquired about the unusual architecture, we were told it was built as a movie set and later adopted as the cathedral.
December 25, 2007. Joe and Diane celebrate a traditional Christmas at the Club de Yates in Acapulco.
December 23, 2007. FAYAWAY on a mooring at the Club de Yates, Acapulco.
December 25, 2007. Acapulco Yacht Club. Who should we run into but Tony Kay. Joe Helfand is on the left.
December 28, 2007. The Small Wall of Mexico just above the water at Puerto Angel.
December 28, 2007. The deserted anchorage at Chachacual, Bahias de Huatulco, Mexico,
December 29, 2007. In the Bahias de Huatulco, a couple of hundred miles southeast of Acapulco, Joe Helfand and a mackerel he landed, cleaned and cooked. It was great eating.
January 2, 2008. Oaxaca. The former corner store adjacent to our hotel.
January 1, 2008. Looking west over the ruins of Monte Alban and the Oaxaca Valley. A highliing unusual cold front actually caused snow in the mountains not far from Oakaca that night. We nearly froze on the exposed tops of the pyramids.
January 1, 2008. Another view from frigid Monte Alban.
January 2, 2008. The unusual carved decorations in Mitla.
January 2, 2008. The “new” chuch“ at Mitla, with the ruins of the ancient city on the right.
Craftswoimen of Mitla show their wares.
January 2, 2008. No Mexican tour would be complete without its breakdown.
January 2, 2008. The inside of the theater in Oaxaca. The building was completed in 1909, just before the revolution. We attened a concert by a consort of 5 saxaphones. Unusual. It was worth the 50 pesos each to see the theater, and they did a respectable version of the Pink Panther.
January 3, 2008. The alterpiece at the 16th century church of Santo Domingo in Oaxaca.
January 11, 2008. We made it through the Gulf of Tehuantapec with winds that never exceeded ten knots. In fact, we motored for 41 of the 71 hours. At the Guatamalan border, the breeze came up and the fish started biting. Unfortunately, we didn't know that this cravally jack would not be good eating. There is a story that goes with this about the DEAD fish that got away, but it's way too embarrassing to write here.
January 11, 2008. Off Guatamala. Betsy Ross Keech realizes that we didn't bring a Guatamalan courtesy flag and sets about righting the situation, with quite convincing results, even if it is too heavy to wave. It is probably the world's first quilted flag.
January 13, 2008. Ruins of a 16th century church in Antigua, Guatamala.
Jnauary 13, 2008. Not very Christian carving on the ancient church in Antigua, Guatamala.
January 13, 2008. Street scene in Antigua, Guatamala, with the active Aqua volcano looming over the city. Two nights before, as we were approachinig at Puerto Quetzal, we saw two spectacular eruptions from Guatamalan volcanoes.
January 13, 2008. The facade of the La Merced cathedral in Antigua.
Detail of La Merced.
January 13, 2008. A view from the ruined convent, showing La Merced and the Agua volcano at Antigua, Guatamala.
January 14, 2008. The Hapag Lloyd cruise ship EUROPA dominates tiny Puerto Quetzal, Guatamala.
January 18, 2008. Bahia Santa Elena, Costa Rica. We had motored in calm waters through the Gulf of Tehuantapec and had real wind and waves through the northern Gulf of Papagayo. Duriing our two days here, we did not see another boat or a building or a person. There were wild parrots, frigate birds and howler monkeys. This was the remotest, most beautiful and peaceful spot we have seen on this trip and reminded us of anchorages in the Marquesas ten years ago.
January 19, 2008. Sail repairs in paradise, Bahia Santa Elena, Costa Rica.
January 30, 2008. Brasilito, Costa Rica. The dry forest of Guanacaste, the northwestern state of Costa Rica, in the middle of the dry season.
January 31, 2008. Brasilito, Costa Rica. Barbara West taking a picture of FAYAWAY . . .
February 1, 2008. En route from Brasilito to Samara.
February 2, 2008. Samara, Costa Rica. This in not your ordinary dinghy launching through the surf. The dinghy had been rolled on our way in, and we had an unusual plan for the return trip.
Notice the panga offshore.
This is Pablo, the owner of the panga carrying us and towinbg the dinghy off the beach for the return trip.
Success!
February 4, 2008. Bahia Ballena in the Gulf of Nicoya, Costa Rica. From right to left, a frigate bird, a black vulture and, aboard CASTEEL, Jan and Joan preparing to come ashore.
See that bird? It may be a clay-colored robin, the national bird of Costa Rica. Diane wonders how it beat out such well-dressed rivals as the scarlet macaw.
February 9, 2008. En route from Herradura, CR to Isla del Coco we discovered that the antenna whip for our Skymnate had disappeared. With a litle help from Skymate, we fashioned a new 38“ whip out of three strands of steel seizing wire and braced it with a sail tie. It works nearly as well as the original.
February 11, 2008. On the way to Cocos: before the squall...
...and after.
February 12, 2008. Early morning arrival at Isla del Coco, 300 miles SSW of Puntarenas, Costa Rica, and 300 miles north of the Galapagos.
February 12, 2008. The ranger staion at Bahia del Chatham, Isla del Coco, taken from FAYAWAY in the “anchorage.”
Barbara views the crabs at Chatham Bay, Cocos Island.
February 14, 2008. Diane swimming at the waterfall above Bahia del Wafer, Cocos island. The day had seemed to start badly. As soon as we got ashore on what was to be our last day on the island, the park rangers told us that it was not wise for us (old folks) to attempt the trail over to the main headquarters, where all the other trailheads are, because of recent rain (about 5mm; read “old folks”). We hung around the beach for a while watching amateur radio hobbyists pack up their gear. Apparently it is a big sport for them to travel to remote places, set up a station, and have radio contact with thousands of people around the world who want to be able to say they talked to Isla del Coco or Timbuktu or somewhere else. Among the six people and three radios, they had ten thousand contacts in seven days. Then the park rangers came along and said we could ride in their boat to the headquarters, which would have required too much open ocean for our dinghy (any amount of open
February 15, 2008. MALTESE FALCON approaching Isla del Coco ...
... and furling sails ...
... before motoring to Bahia del Chatham ...
... and anchoring.
February 16, 2008. Returing from Isla del Coco. These two hitchhikers were later joined by a third.
February 16. Curly, Moe, and Larry on the bow pulpit at dusk. Warning to mariners: no matter how cute any number of red-footed boobies are, do not let them spend the night on your bow pulpit. They are, um, prolific.
February 18, 2008. The Costa Rica Yacht Club sends out a panga to escort visiting yachts through the shoals in the estuary behind Puntarenas.
February 19. Even the moorings at the club have none too much water at low tide.
Dinghy management is easy, though.
But transporting goods is a little more complicated.
The Cocos cuckoo, one of the endemic birds we spotted on Cocos Island.
The Cocos finch, the only species of Darwin's finch outside the Galapagos. We saw lots of these cute little fellows on Cocos.
The yacht-club cat at Puntarenas. Diane invited her to come along, but she declined, preferring the life of a couch potato.
February 20, 2008. Fayaway finally out of the water at Puntarenas after a hairy wait for the water to get deep enough to bring her in under the Travelift. The first day she missed by about four inches.
Sitting in the mud twice a day does a job on one's bottom paint.
February 24, 2008. An owl butterfly at the Butterfly Conservatory in El Castillo.
Ted was very popular with the butterflies. One even landed on his nose.
February 24. The clouds hug Arenal, one of the ten most active volcanos in the world, taken from our hotel room in El Castillo. At night we watched from our bed as red-hot rocks cascaded down the mountain.
February 25, 2008. The rain forest near the Arenal volcano, taken from a bridge built in the forest canopy.
February 26, 2008. El Castillo, Ciosta Rica. An oropendula on the bird feeder outside our hotel room in this tiny mountain town near the Arenal volvano. We got up at 6 a.m. to watch the birds flock tot he feeder.
Left, a clay-color robin. At right, in the green jacket, a bird yet to be identified.
A toucan on the same feeder.
February 25, 2008. Ted and Barbara stroll above El Castillo on our last morning there. In the afternoon we took a boat across Lake Arenal to the astonishingly bumpy road up to Santa Elena and the Monteverde cloud forest.
February 26, 2008 A blossom by the side of the road in El Castillo.
February 27, 2008. Monteverde Cloud Forest. Central America's most astonishing bird, the resplendant quetzal. We were lucky to see three in one morning walk.
February 28, 2008. Sky Walk above Santa Elena. Part of the astonishing variety of plant life in the cloud forest. Our guide told us that a big tree here plays host to some 200 species.
March 26, 2008. A few of the fifty or so ships at anchor -- and one under way -- at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal as we approached Balboa. This deceptively peaceful scene fails to reflect the hundred-mile beat into thirty knot winds over and under some truly nasty small waves through the Gulf of Panama.
March 30, 2008. A Maersk ship passes our mooring close by at the Balboa Yacht Club, at the south end of the Panama Canal. The Bridge of the Americas is at the far right.
April 3, 2008. At a mooring practically under the Bridge of the Americas at the Balboa Yacht Club, Panama. Poor FAYAWAY looks like a garbage scow, but is almost ready to transit the Canal.
April 6, 2008. Just west of the channel to the Panama Canal. Francisco, our transit advisor, prepares to board at about 0810. Because of a delay in the Canal, we returned to our mooring at the Balboa YC and remained there until about 1020.
Then we got underway toward the Bridge of the Americas and the fabled canal.
Winston (left) and Lucho, two of our line handlers with nothing to do ... yet. They were always ready and exactly in the right spot whenever a threat appeared.
Diane at the helm between the Bridge of the Americas and the first Miraflores Lock.
Our first view of the twin Miraflores Locks. The two ships are at different levels in different locks.
Our lock mate, GHOST, a 120' sloop.
A better view of GHOST
Approaching the first Miraflores Lock. We will follow the tug that is visible in he lock on the right.
Beginning to line up to enter the lock.
Lucho at the ready as we approach the boats we will “nest” with.
GHOST “center locking” behinds us.
As the lock began to fill, we could see the turbulance around GHOST ...
... and off our own port quarter.
The lockhouse at the first Miraflores Lock with the tracks for the “mules”.
With the lock full, the gates began to open.
Spectators on the top level of the building. There is a web camera that shows current transits at http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html.
About to depart from the second Miraflores Lock into Miraflores Lake as soon as the lock gate opens.
Jamie and Casey, line handlers, and Francisco, the transit advisor, as we motor toward Pedro Miguel Lock.
Diane at the helm in Miraflores Lake.
Waiting outside Pedro Miguel Lock for the “nest” to form in front of us . The black-hulled ship has already been raised to the level of Culebra Cut and Lake Gatun, the continental divide.
Dredging to widen Culebra Cut, part of the prject to expand the canal with locks 1400' long.
After a hundreed years, parts of the Culebra Cut have not reached their angle of repose and must be stabilized and dredged.
Passing close to a car carrier going the other way in Culebra Cut.
Line handlers Jamie and Casey in a quiet moment in Culebra Cut.
Ted at the helm in Gatun Lake as we steam as fast as we can go in order to make a 1630 lock time at Gatun Locks in order to avoid a $450 charge for delay. Not long after, the engine quit in the Banana Channel. It took 10 or 15 minutes to discover the cause -- a fault in the fire supression/engine shut-down system.
At 1626 we entered the first Gatun Lock with 4 minutes to spare.
Each of the six locks is actually two locks, side by side. The container ship on the right completely filled the lock on that side.
Preparing to nest at the forward end of a Gatun lock. Now GHOST is ahead of us in the same lock. The ship ahead of GHOST is in the next lock. And astern of us . . .
... a ship entered the lock ...
... and came closer ...
... and closer ...
... and closer.
A mule, just left of center, along with three or five of its colleagues was responsible for stopping the ship.
The container ship in the adjacent lock barely clears the lockhouse
Almost through! We're going to make it without a scratch.
Ted rejoices at the effectiveness of the mules.
The canal inspires different people differently. This fellow is up GHOST's mast (170'+/-) to get the perfect picture.
The lock wall, a place to keep away from.
The last lock gate opens to the Atlantic side for GHOST and us as the day ends
We designed our own closed chocks for the transit. They served us well.
April 8, 2008. On the Spanish Main at Portobelo. Remains of an 18th Century fort guarding the staging port for treasure galleons from the New World to Spain.
April 8, 2008. The fort at Portobelo -- black vulture capital of the world.
April 9, 2008. Fisherman working near our anchorage at Isla Limon, on the way fom Colon to the San Blas Islands.
April 11, 2008. Outboard motor problems sent us back to Panamarina looking for a mechanic. There is a French bistro there, miles from anywhere, with the best food we had in almost six weeks in Panama. The engine sort of fixed itself, which is a lucky thing, for there wasn't a mechanic to be found.
April 11, 2008. Panamarina's television draws a gecko, lower right of the TV screen.
Chichime Island, our first stop in the San Blas. A lttle crowded, but fantastically beautiful.
April 13, 2008. Unable to keep our own outboard running, Ted was called upon to minister to an outboard that had been dunked or drenched that morning, while Veronica engaged Diane with the molas in the carboard box. Determined to do no harm, Ted sprayed contact cleaner on the sparkplug and let it go at that.
April 13, 2008. Chichime. Our first mola saleswoman arrived in the family dugout (powered by a 15 hp motor). We bought enough that Veronica couldn't object to being photographed, although she did remove all her gold jewelry.
April 14, 2008. The beach at Chichime.
April 15, 2008. The supply boat arrives at Wichub Huala, near El Porvenir.
April 17, 2008. The Lemon Keys. A dugout under sail, with two crew on trapezes.
The same dugout an hour later towing a second with a chid about four years old.
April 26, 2008. Another San Blas Island. What more could you ask for?
April 27, 2008. Chichime, San Blas Islands. This baker charged $1 for ten little loaves of bread tasting of coconut husk smoke. Because Ted gave him some bread he had baked, we got an extra loaf, and the picture also cost a dollar.
April 27, 2008. Near Chichime, as we depart to return to Colon. This is the island we claimed for the Oakland Yacht Club and named for the Commodore. Other islands of the San Blas are scattered in the background.
April 29, 2009. As we approached Colon from the San Blas, it was nearing the end of the dry season and the beginning of the wet season. We were caught in this tremendous squall.
May 2, 2008. Back at the Balboa Yacht Club (by bus from Colon) where we met Rick and Sandy. Here Rick and Ted talk to one of the other cruisers at BYC. The channel to the Bridge of the Americas and the Canal is just beyond the moored boats.
May 3, 2008. Leaving “The Flats” anchorage at Colon.
This is apparently a replica of the Bounty.
May 5, 2008. On the way to Providencia we realized we needed a Colombian courtesy flag, and Diane set to work again.
And created one.
May 5, 2008. Sunset in the anchorage at Providencia.
May 6, 2008. Municipal art in Providencia.
May 6, 2008. Ted, Rick and Sandy keeping a lookout at the old fort in Providencia.
May 7, 2008. While at Providencia Diane designed this repair to the mailsail after the fabric actually tore for about six feet along the line of the leech tape. The repair lasted for 1300 miles, all the way to Norfolk, VA, and probably would have been good for many more miles.
May 12, 2008. Repairing the salon table at Isla Mujeres. Between Providencia and Isla Mujeres we were boarded by the US Coast Guard. In addition to bending two stanchions on deck, they managed to knock the table partly off its mount.
May 13, 2008. The mayor of Isla Mujeres
May 13, 2008. The reef at the southern end of Isla Mujeres, Mexico. A few of the hotels of Cancun smudge the horizon.
May 13, 2008. A denizen of the turtle conservatory at Isla Mujeres.
May 13, 2008. Isla Mujeres. A reminder to Chora Nova: Diane is not a soprano.
May 14, 2008. The lighthouse just north of Isla Mujeres. We are making any early morning trip to the Isla Contoy nature reserve north of Isla Mujeres.
May 14, 2008. The boat we rode the 17 miles to Isla Contoy.
May 18, 2008. American Gothic in Key West, Florida.
May 28, 2008. Joe Helfand fighting a huge dorado as we sail up the east coast from Miami. Unfortuantely it was too big for our net, and the net knocked the hook out.
May 30, 2008. With Cape Hattewras rounded, we sail gently along the coast toward Norfolk.
May 31, 2008. Motoring past an osprey's nest on the channel marker into Hampton, VA.
June 3, 2008. The Air and Space Museum at Hampton. For Mike Jackson.
June 14, 2008. Sailing with friends on the Chesapeake near Annapolis. This is the last of many of these lighthouses on the bay. We were told that many we destroyed by ice!
June 15, 2008. Emily, Diane, Joe, Gemma and Wolfgang in Crab Creek. MD.
June 17, 2008, Norfolk, VA. It was time for the teak decking to go as part of a project to stop the deck leaks once and for all.
June 19, 2008. At the same time the two forward hatches came out and all the windows came out again for replacement with a new deign in lexan instead of acrylic. One hatch and one windoww are on the dock. The mainsail and jib are getting permanent repairs, and the dodger is being repaired as well.
June 20, 2008. The new hatches are in, and the deck has been partially scraped. The little hatch is about to get a new seal.
June 24, 2008. Almost ready for new gelcoat.
June 24, 2008. The first coat makes a huge improvement. The color match by Glen of Bay Fiberglass is truly amazing.
July 8, 2008. Hampton Yacht Club, Hampton, VA. Here’s FAYAWAY with new lexan windows, new hatches, new dorades forward of the mast, new track for the jib cars and new adjustable jib cars (not yet rigged with control lines on this side) and new non-skid decks, all a result of five and a half weeks of slavish labor. There were about 300 bolts and 60 screws that all had to be removed and replaced, many multiple times. During the work we had three downpours that flooded us, but is has been pouring rain this afternoon, and we have only two small leaks, neither of which is over our bunk. The exterior looks pretty good. The interior still looks like a bomb went off.
July 9, 2008. Why we didn't swim in the Chesapeake. Sea nettles are common there in the summer. Later as we went north, we encountered bigger, reportedly more unpleasant jellyfish in the waters all the way to Block Island and western Buzzards Bay.
July 11, 2008. Hampton, VA. We found this unidentified volunteer in the dinghy the day we left. It is the only fish we've landed between late May and at least the end of September.
July 12, 2008. Carter Creek, Irvington, VA. We found lovely, quiet anchorages all up the western shore of the Chesapeake.
July 12, 2008. The old salt coils a sheet.
July 13, 2008. Reedville. VA. This was once a prosperous town, the center of a menhaden fishing and processing induistry, where the tycoons built themselves grand houses along the main street.
July 14, 2008. St. Inigo's Creek Md. We anchored right in the middle of this still little pond.
July 27, 2008. Rhode River, Md. There are osprey nests all over the Chesapeake, but this was the only one we saw advertised.
August 1, 2008. Bear, Delaware on the C&D Canal. One of the denizens at the marina where we stopped along the canal.
August 4, 2008. This Lady greeted us as we entered New York Harbor under sail.
August 7, 2007. Moored in the mighty Hudson at New York's W. 79th Street Marina. The current was awesome.
August 7, 2008. One of several waterfalls installed this year around the Brooklyn Bridge, taken as we were heading up the East River toward Hell Gate. We were able to ride a favorable current down the Hudson from W. 79th Street, up the East River, through Hell Gate and well out into Long Island Sound.
August 7, 2007. Back on Long Island Sound for the first time in 43 years.
August 8, 2008. In Northport this guy came over to see whether Fayaway was a real Swan.
August 8, 2008. Moored in Northport looking northwest into another thunerstorm. We regret that we didn't get a shot of the waterspout we saw forming in Oyster Bay the day before.
August 10, 2008. The view north over Long Island Sound to Connecticut. These four stacks in Northport are familiar to any Long Island Sound sailor.
August 11, 2008. Long Island Sound near Porrt Jefferson. A ferocious thunderstorm left this hail in the cockpit. It also left a nasty bump on the head of Diane,who had to stay at the helm because Sinbad the autopilot was feeling poorly.
August 16, 2008. The pony pull at the Delaware County Fair.
August 16, 2008. Chainsaw sculptor and his work in progress at the Delaware County Fair, Walton, New York.
August 24, 2008. Schooner off Greenport, New York. Shelter Island is in the background.
August 25, 2008. We are anchored jin Pipes Cove ust north of Shelter Island, inside of the flukes of Long Island, and the thunderstorms that have pummeled us since we arrived in the Chesapeake continue.
August 26, 2008. Block Island. A passing german shepherd.
August 26, 2008. Block Island. A man, a woman, and a lobster, left.
September 5, 2008. Vineyard Haven on Martha's Vineyard is renowned for a boatyard that that specializes in old wooden boats, and these are a few of the many that are home-ported here.
September 5, 2008. Vineyard Haven, Martha's Vineyard. The foretopsail schooner SHENANDOAH in the background is a 1960's replica of a 19th Century revenue cutter.
September 6, 2008. Pants and suspenders: getting ready for tropical storm Hanna in Vineyard Haven. In addtion to the double pennants to the mooring hawser, we shackled our anchor chain to the buoy, which was attached to a 3000-pound block, we were told. After all the preparations, we got only about 30 knots.
September 8, 2008. A lovely old gaffer at sunset in Great Pond, Nantucket
September 11, 2008. Nantucket. After Labor Day, the tourist attractions get some sprucing up.
September 11, 2008. The cottage behind this garden in 'Sconsett on Nantucket dates from 1670.
September 11, 2008. Near the edge of the bluff near the lighthouse on the southest corner of Nantucket
September 11, 2008. 'Sconsett, Nantucket. This grand old summer house was the only fixer-upper we saw on the island.
September 17, 2008. The peaceful west end of Cuttyhunk Island.
Septeember 17, 2008. There IS affordable housing on Cuttyhunk.
September 21, 2008. An astonishingly dense school of poagies seeking refuge from bluefish in Marion's Sippican Harbor.
September 27, 2008. Early moring fog in Marion, MA. Marion was our home base for three weeks of exploring Cape Cod and the Elizabeth Islands.
October 3, 2008. Atlantic City, NJ. We stopped here about 35 miles north of Cape May because it was a better place to drop off Kirt Mead. A walk through the town yesterday revealed all the charm of of any down-and-out city dominated by three Trump casinos and a dozen others, not to mention the MIss America Pagent.
October 2, 2008.
October 19, 2008. Cooperstown, NY. The carousel at the Farmers' Museum
October 22, 2008. Snow on the car as we depart from a week at the farm.
October 23, 2008. Baltimore, MD. Sally and David Heaphy have been our friends for more than forty years, since we worked in the Job Corps together, and we managed to see them on both transits of the Chesapeake. Note the silverware on the top shelves.
Dave Heaphy and the new cat, both equally interested in what is emerging from the printer.
November 9, 2008. Cape Henry lighthouses at the entrance to Chesapeake Bay as we are departing for Beaufort. We decided on the fly to take advantage of good northerly breezes and clear weather to go all the way to Charleston
November 9, 2008. Sunset over North Carolina's outer banks.
November 16, 2008. Charleston, SC
November 16, 2008. Charleston, SC. The final of the local college basketball tournement between Clemson and Temple.
November 11, 2008. A handsome 1808 federal-style mansion in Charleston, SC. And this is the back door! We spent a week in Charleston waiting for a weather window to make the 1 1/2 day run the St. Augustine.
November 23, 2008. St. Augustine, Florida. The Castillo de San Marco, built 1673 to 1695. Before construction started, St. Augustine was already more than a century old.
November 28, 2008. A cypress swamp in Silver Spring, Florida.
December 18, 2008. Oasis Boat Yard, St. Augustine, Florida. The harbormaster at his post. One of the best things about St. Augustine is the birds -- this egret . . .
. . . a small blue heron, maybe . . .
. . . two hooded mergansers at the marina . . .
. . . a wood stork on the dock . . .
. . . a great blue heron . . .
. . . and a pelican. For the first few days we had ibises, but they disappeared before we could get pictures . . .
. . . not actually a bird, at Silver Spring, Florida . . .
. . . ibises and a flamingo at Silver Spring . . .
December 25, 2008. Christmas in St. Petersburg with the Bettencourts. From the left, Diane, Susan, Hilda's tail, Joey and John.
December 26, 2008. The St. Augustine light.
January 20, 2009. At last! A crowd watches President Obama's inauguration at the A1A bar in St. Augustine.
January 27, 2007. West End, Grand Bahama Island. Not quite the tropics, but a lot warmer than St. Augustine.
January 27, 2009. International Bazaar, Freeport, Bahamas. Col. Mustard, in the shop window, with a hurricane. Wilma devastated Grand Bahama Island in 2005. The Bazaar, once busy with cruise-ship tourists, is now all but deserted. Some abandoned shops, like this one, still have faded merchandise in their windows.
January 30, 2009. West End, Grand Bahama Island. Everybody needs a hobby. All the guys in the marina swarmed around this little runabout when it sank suddenly, each one with a theory for raising it. The owner, in red shorts and gray tee, is hauling on our mainsheet, which Ted contributed to the effort.
January 30, 2009. Heave away!
January 30, 2009. Success!
February 5, 2009. Palm Beach Shores, Florida. Cannonsport Marina, where we holed up for three days of frigid northerly winds. We're at center background, a rare bird among all the sportfishers.
February 5, 2009. Cannonsport Marina. Sign of the times: one of a group of six brand new condo buildings at the marina. They have stood completely empty since last year.
March 30, 2009, Berkeley Rose Garden. After five weeks in Berkeley, spring finally sprang.
March 29, 2009. Most of the family gather at Susan's house in Benicia.
San Francisco, March 24, 2009. Diane poses before the green roof of the new California Academy of Sciences.
March 19, 2009, Berkeley Rose Garden, with only one rose visible. Ted with Julian and Suzy in California sheltering from the Conneticut winter.
April 4, 2009. Sunset in the Atlantic between St. Augustine and Charleston. It would take nearly two weeks to get to Norfolk, for we had only three 36-hour weather windows with seven days in Charleston and Beaufort on account of high winds or cold temperatures.
April 5, 2009. Mari Campbell keeps a sharp lookout as we motor toward Charleston to beat an approaching cold front indicated by the increasing clouds.
April 5, 2009. Gary Campbell on watch.
April 7, 2009. Spring in Charleston while the weather holds us in.
April 7, 2009. Mari Campbell in a Charleston garden.
April 7, 2009. Spring in an old Charleston graveyard.
April 7, 2009. Construction details revealed in a decaying old Charleston house.
April 10, 2009. On our way to Beaufort, NC., Gary Campbell is alert to every potential danger.
April 12, 2009. Lookout Shoals Light from Lookout Bight, a beautiful lagoon behind the barrier island just outside Beaufort, NC, where we spent a night waiting for the the seas outside to subside before we rounded Cape Hatteras.
April 14, 2009. We have rounded Cape Hatteras and are headed for the Chesapeake, making a Gulf Stream-aided seven to eight knots with a double-reefed main and partially rolled up jib. The weather is closing iin again.
April 17, 2009. Hampton, VA at last. A redbud tree.
April 17, 2009. Hampton. Dogwood trees were everywhere.
April 18, 2009. The military cemetery in Hampton. Diane and Mari participated in a walk to the gravesite of Hampton's only Medal of Honor recipient, Lieutenant Ruppert Sargent, who died in Vietnam.
April 18, 2009. Williamsburg, VA. Spring flowers in a memorial to a William & Mary graduate.
April 18, 2009. More spring flowers.
April 23, 2009! Spring flowers in the Catskills. At least the ice on the pond at Diane's tree farm has melted.
April 26, 2009. Julian and Susan (taking a break in the background) bring their professional skills to Spring clean-up at the farm.
April 30, 2009. We have flown to Tortola to help friend David return his boat to the Chesapeake via Bermuda in the Altantic Cup Rally. Does anyone know this handsome fellow is?
April 30, 2009. Tortola. Ron, Diane, Bob, David, Ted and DANCING IN THE DARK prepare feverishly for the Atlantic Cup.
May 9, 2009. The Customs House at St. George's Harbor, Bermuda after the end of the Atlantic Cup. We'll never tell how we did in the race -- but had a grand time at the end with, among others, a group of mad Irishmen aboard FADO FADO and a mad little dog who lives to retrieve things.
May 14, 2009. Arriving in Hampton, VA and greeted by the same osprey family who met us here last year.
May 14, 2009. Hampton Yacht Club. Our skipper David Heaphy maneuvers to a slip. We have sailed 1,500 miles with a two-day stop in Bermuda.
May 14, 2009. Door-to-door service. David and crew have dropped us at a dock about 50' from our boat at Sunset Creek in Hampton and are heading for their slip.
May 22, 2009. A wee waterman's house in St. Michaels, MD. It's about 40 degrees warmer than when were here in late October.
May 28, 2009. A denizen of the Summit North Marina in the C&C Canal.
May 28, 2009. The “Ship John Light” in Delaware Bay.
May 30, 2009. In the Atlantic off Long Island headed for New Bedford. See, we do sail sometimes, and the sun does shine occasionally .
June 14, 2009. In the Atlantic between Cape May and Buzzard's Bay. Joe operates on a patient who presented with a fishhook in its mouth. The patient died; the operation (a fileting) was a success, except that Joe, unaccustomed to using a fileting knife when a scalpel was called for, wounded himself during the excitement. The ensuing meal, also managed by Joe, was an unqualified success.
June 12, 2009. Diane and childhood friend Margaret Karker at lunch in Sandwich, MA, just off the Cape Cod Canal.
June 16, 2009. The Public Garden in Boston. Another Swanabee.
June 16, 2009. Ted & Joe on a WWII destroyer at the Charlestown Navy Yard (next to the CONSTITUTION).
June 16, 2009. Fenway Park. While it may appear that the pitcher is absent, he is behind the pillar. The pillar provided added excitement, for we never knew when the play was beginning until the ball appeared between the pillar and home plate.
June 19, 2009. Gloucester, MA. A modern recreation of a gorgeous Herreshoff design.
June 19, 2009. On a mooring at the Eastern Point Yacht Club, just inside the breakwater and lighthouse in Gloucester Harbor, MA on a calm day.
June 20, 2009. Gloucester. Ted admiring the ADVENTURE, a 1927 Gloucester fishing schooner being restored in Gloucester. Forty-four years before, almost to the day, Ted had sailed aboard as a sort of camp counselor for two weeks, his first job out of college.
The ADVENTURE. The vessel is in the midst of a restoration project that will turn it into an educational center.
June 20, 2009 Salem, MA. A seventeenth-century New England house, billed as “The Witch House.” It actually was home to one of the judges in the infamous witch trials of Salem. Held in Gloucester for a week by nasty weather, we had a chance to see a lot of the environs.
June 21, 2009. Rockport, MA. After three months of terrible weather, this sign seemed ominous for late June in Massachusetts.
June 21, 2009. Downtown Rockport, MA, looking northeast toward Maine, with the wind on the nose.
June 22, 2009. The mooring field at the Eastern Point Yacht Club in Gloucester, MA, which is a little exposed to the north. We saw 38 knots in this storm, which did serious damage farther south, on Cape Cod.
June 22, 2009. EPYC in Gloucester. This was the beginning of a remarkable density of artists and art students all down the New England coast to Maine. These watercolorists keep working on the yacht club deck despite the gale.
Two days later. The pictures will be finished before this gale blows through.
June 25, 2009. Landfall at the Isles of Shoals, about 8 miles offshore on the New Hampshire-Maine border.
June 26, 2009. On a mooring in the Isles of Shoals. This complex on Star Island is a summer retreat for Universalists. It is a huge summer camp for adults and kids. Note how low the tide is; we are about 50 yards away from Maine, home of huge tidal ranges.
June 26, 2009. Smuttynose Island, Maine, in the Isles of Shoals. Hiking on this island in June requires carrying a stick overhead to discourage aggressive seagulls from attacking to protect their nests and nestlings. Actually we would have been better protected by umbrellas, since the only attack we experienced was a bombing run.
More Smuttynose, once home to a few families.
The outdoor painting season isn't very long on Smuttynose. We believe it began on June 25 and ended . . .
. . . on June 27. Portland, Maine in the fog and northerly winds that held us here for a week.
June 29, 2009, Portland, Maine. Fayaway and the most enormous tanker we've ever seen.
June 30, 2009. Portland. A day-tripping schooner modeled on the Grand Banks schooners. Note the life rafts on the boomkin.
July 2, 2009, Averill Park, NY, in Diane and Mary Ann's lawyer's office. Stella is an enthusiastic receptionist, but not much of a typist.
July 9, 2009. Robinhood, Maine formerly known as Riggsville. This is the old Riggs home, close by our mooring. At last a break in the weather!
July 10, 2009. Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine. A nice fellow named Tom let us us his mooring for the night; we later learned he is Tom of Tom's of Maine.
July 10, 2009. A special message for Diane's sister Mary Ann
July 9, 2009. South Bristol, Maine. A handsome old boathouse in Andrew Wyeth country.
July 9, 2009. The remains of the Harvey Gamage shipyard in South Bristol, Maine, where the ADVENTURE was built about 1927. Ted met the late Mr. Gamage at a boat launching at this yard in 1965, back in the days when almost no Mainer knew how to swim. Ted commented on the handsome pocket watch Mr. Gamage checked in anticipation of high tide, asking if he was concerned about losing such a fine watch around the water. “No,“ he answered; “ 'ttached to me with a good stout chain. And if I fall in, don't make no difference, 'cause I'm gonna drown.”
July 9, 2009. South Bristol, Maine. The old Gamage yard now functions only as a marina.
July 14, 2009. Rockland, Maine. FAYAWAY'S propeller is entangled in a lobster pot buoy and line. We made the mistake of trying to motor out of a field of pots after becoming becalmed in it. We were able to cut and retie one, and Diane managed to free one from the rudder, but that was all she could accomplish in the 63 degree water. This one, unfortunately, followed us home. Fortunately the wind came up and we were able to sail the twenty miles to Rockland. We had decided to spend almost a week in Rockland anyway, for reasons that are pictured further on, and so we had some major underwater work done here -- work we had been planning since leaving St. Augustine in April.
July 15, 2009. Journey's End Boat Yard in Rockland. Nick, left, and Bill discover that the new propeller doesn't fit the taper of the old shaft. Oops! Need new shaft, too.
July 18, 2009 at the grand opening of Captain Jim Sharp's Sail, Power, and Steam Museum in Rockland. Hardy crewmen never had this much fun at the capstan.
Guy fun. The men tried to figure out how the governor on the donkey engine worked.
Jim Sharp, at the far right, was the only one who knew how to coax the old donkey engine off ADVENTURE to life. Sharp was the owner and captain of ADVENTURE during Ted's stint aboard. They had not communicated in the intervening 44 years. We learned that the trip in June 1965 had been Sharp's first with the ADVENTURE as a Maine windjammer captain and he had been very apprehensive about it. Coulda fooled Ted, whose awe at Sharp's competence and confidence has lasted for decades.
At the museum, Ted and Orvil Young are preparing a log for the broadax, which would make it a square beam. Just beore Ted fell from exhaustion . . .
. . . Captain Young, himself a former windjammer captain, produced this chain saw, which he just happened to have in the back of his car.
July 18, 2009. The director of the museum, Tom Crowley (no relation to the San Francisco tugboat Crowleys) swings the broadax.
July 18, 2009. Musicians performing beneath the half-model of ADVENTURE.
July 18, 2009. A gathering of Friendship sloops at Rockland.
July 20, 2009. Sunset at Rockland.
July 22, 2009. Ready to go. New propeller, cutter, and shaft. The yard also reinforced the strut and inside added a PSS shaft seal, a soft coupling, and a new shaft coupler.
July 25, 2009. Pulpit Harbor, Maine. The windjammer NATHANIEL BOWDITCH getting under way.
July 27, 2009. Stonnington, ME. A beautiful, largely non-touristy working harbor for lobstermen. One of our favorites in Maine.
July 28, 2009. The NATHANIEL BOWDITCH in the morning fog at Stonnington.
July 28, 2009. Low tide at Stonnington.
July 28, 2009. Somes Sound, Mt. Desert Island, ME.
July 29, 2009. A loon in Somes Harbor at the head of Somes Sound.
uly 30m 2009. The fleet of Internationals (IODs) gathers for a start in Somes Sound.
August 5, 2009. The Loyalist re-enactors drilling on the pier at Shelburne, Nova Scotia.
August 6, 2009. The Shelburne Harbor Yacht Club.
