an infrequent repository of mostly new stuff
As you can see from the video, this was a stunning day on the water. Long steady reaches of 5+ knots in warm wind and calm water. Back and forth across the sound, neck and neck like a team of horses, ducking around islands, ending with a downwind run back to camp. Not bad at all for the end of October.
I’m not sure what the piece of music is in this video. I used to visit music chat rooms long ago, where people would post pieces of things they were working on that others could download, add another layer, and repost. I always liked this one, and it managed to survive the move from one computer to another for the last 10 years.
Surf video, with music soundtrack
When I arrived at Assateague, Tony had been surfing for four hours straight. Cold and tired, but happy. After he built his Melonseed, a sailboat, he built several beautiful wooden surfboards. In case you’ve forgotten, he still lives in Montana.
I know, right? Nearest big water is coming out of glaciers. Dude has a serious geography problem. And he makes maps for a living!
video of OpSail 2012
Steve is near the end of a weeklong sailing trip on the sounds inside the Outer Banks of North Carolina. He’s had a stretch of good weather. A short heat wave in the middle, but this time of year the water is still relatively cool. Maybe it wasn’t too bad; not like it will be in another month. I told him I’d have this up by the time he got back.
This video is longer, compared to others posted, but there’s very little repetition. So much was going on that morning. Constant activity, changing views, interesting conversation. Sadly, with so much going on outside the boat, there’s very little to show of Spartina herself; though you do get a little sense of how roomy she is with three of us aboard. Room for six Steve?
Steve was on the Picton Castle, sailing down from New England when tornados struck Hampton. The Pride of Baltimore was in port, and suffered some damage. That was the same day I came off the Sassafras River to ride out the storm in a rickshaw, instead of at anchor. Crisscrossing the harbor, we swept past more people he knew, such as the writer/journalist Paul Clancy out in his boat for the show, other photographers, plus friends crewing on some of the ships. On the Picton Castle, as you’ll hear Steve mention, is a descendent of the Bounty mutineers. Plenty of entertainment for one trip.
It was nice to meet Grace, as well, who roused herself out of bed for this far earlier than any teenager should need to on a weekend. (My daughters, for whom lunch is breakfast, wouldn’t like that a bit.)
Sassafras River sailing.
* Update 6/22/12 – Someone on the WoodenBoat forum noticed something I didn’t. Keep an eye on the foreground during the opening credits. It comes right out of the surf. In the parts I edited out I can tell I almost stepped on it. – BL
Still trying to get the hang of sailing with two hands and working the camera with a third. Can’t seem to do either particularly well at once.
This covers two days. The first full day, starting with beaching on the sand spit, ending with rafting up in Turner’s Creek.
The next day, though it spanned maybe seven hours of sailing, kept all three hands full beating upwind, sitting up on the side rail most of the time. Only got brave enough to grab a couple of short clips. Must start attaching the camera to things, or bringing more hands.
Working hard at the office.
Morning was glorious. Wild Turkeys crowing instead of roosters. Snapped a few photos of the sunrise. It was so striking to see the lotus leaves floating in the sky, buoyed by red clouds.
Red sky at morning . . .
Some time ago, we fell into a tradition of taking a hike on New Years Day, if the weather is good. We skip the whole drunken party deal, opting for sore muscles instead of a sore head. Seems to work out better.
This year Apple Orchard Mountain got the nod, and by noon we were hiking down from the highest point on the Blue Ridge Parkway to Apple Orchard falls, one of the nicest in Virginia. You hike downhill along the stream, following cascades all the way, and about 1000 feet below you get to the main falls. It’s hard to capture scale in photos, but the main section drops over 200 feet.