an infrequent repository of mostly new stuff
It’s already growing dark when Doug gets my attention, says the crabs and oysters are ready and I’m missing them. Indeed, people are seated around long tables under the trees. Sounds of laughter and conversation, and crickets. Shadows seep from the woods and collect in pools beneath the sycamores and cypress. Fireflies lift off from the lawn, scribing arcs above the grass.
Some video from the first morning. Land critters raising a ruckuss, and some seafaring riffraff return. It’s pretty rough; wanted to get it posted before leaving town for a couple of days.
Kevin B thought it was hilarious when I told him about the rooster. In the video you’ll hear why I wasn’t laughing.
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And the five guys who founded OffCenterHarbor.com have the chops to do it right. Steve Stone worked in the film industry for years. Benjamin Mendlowitz is the classic wooden boat photographer almost everyone knows, as his Wooden Boat calendar hangs in offices and boat sheds all over the world. Maynard Bray was head of watercraft preservation at Mystic Seaport and has been a regular contributor to WoodenBoat magazine. Bill Mayher has had a career as a maritime writer. And Eric Blake has been building boats all his life, along both coasts, and is project manager at the Brooklin Boat Yard.
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Sunrise at Freeport Landing
Dawn is very noisy. There’s a rooster. A rooster very near, like next to my head. The sun is barely up, and he is hard at work. Also, something else making a racket I can’t quite place. A sheep? No sleeping through it, rise and shine.
Lightning #2833 with the boom tent
Lightning Fleet #50 prepares for the Doc Gilbert races
With the Chesapeake Float coming less than a week off, it’s a bit disconcerting not to have had a chance for a single test sail in the Lightning. We set a record last week for most consecutive days of rain, weeks of rain, and that really set back progress on the boat. It may still be ready, barely, but I had hoped to have taken a couple of shakedown cruises by now. Lots of unknowns, and I keep finding ways to break things. Sunday morning it was the valve stem on one of the tires, which promptly went flat. I expect a handful of things to break the first time I try to sail in any wind.
I decided to try and see what I am in for, so took a drive to the near side of Washington, DC, to see some other Lightnings. Fleet 50 has an annual weekend regatta on the Potomac out of Leesylvania State Park, known as the Doc Gilbert. Was a couple of hours of driving, but well worth it. Many years ago I had some projects there with the CBYCC. The park has come a long way since then. Continue reading “Lightning Potomac Regatta ~ Doc Gilbert 2016”
Lightning #2833 sees another Spring
Been waiting for this a long time. Easter weekend was grey and chilly, but not enough to stop me from getting Lightning #2833 in the water for the first time. Redbuds are blooming, a startling purple popping out in the still bare woods, a pale green haze of new growth is just starting to show low on the hillsides when the evening light is just right. Seems fitting this old boat should be reborn now.
On this first trip we weren’t getting too ambitious. Just wanted to get her in the water, test the centerboard raising apparatus, and cruise around a bit with the trolling motor. So I spent a few hours on Saturday checking things over again, adding registration numbers, adjusting the improvised motor mount, etc.. That left only a couple of hours of daylight, but that was enough.
Little Old Man
