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OpSail 2012 ~ Leaving Norfolk

video of OpSail 2012 

 

direct Youtube link

 

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.)

 

 

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Sassafras River ~ Video

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.

 

 

 

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Plan B

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 . . .

 

Continue reading “Plan B”

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Hiking in the New Year

 

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.

Continue reading “Hiking in the New Year”

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A Christmas Story

 

 

 

Really well done.

Regardless of your spiritual beliefs, it’s a great story.

So many ways to celebrate the return of the sun (son).

 

 

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360 Degree Music

“Come and Go” 

 

This is fun. A music video shot with a 360 degree video lens. People exit out of frame right and simultaneously reenter on the left. Trippy. The music is pretty catchy, too. (Best when played full screen.)

Continue reading “360 Degree Music”

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Making It Up


  The proper way to do a reading

 

I have friends in New York City, and I’ve spent a bit of time there off and on over the years. Enough to know it’s a very different place. I grew up in the South, after all. It’s a place unto itself, for sure, not so much a part of America as in spite of it. And so, quintessentially American. But it ain’t Kansas, Dorothy.

A friend on the west coast, a fellow writer and small boat sailor, contacted me about a new project the other day. We met through a mutual love for writing over 20 years ago, and he went on to publish one of the first online literary journals for the web, The Blue Moon Review. It’s been dark for some time now (kids, life, etc.) but he’s been writing again, and got the bug, so has decided to fire it up again as The Blue Penny Quarterly.

We think a lot alike, and I’ve offered to design and produce the digital downloadable version of it. Should be fun, with lots of experimentation and pushing the limits on things. There’s so much you can do with this medium that you can’t do with print alone. Some will fail, no doubt, and some will hopefully work in wondrous ways. It’s all part of the process.

The video above is part of the promotion for a gallery show of Letterpress Art Show opening in NYC called New York Writes Itself. (I have other friends who are practitioners of this arcane, impractical, outdated craft, and this is right up their alley.) I like the untraditional twist on the author’s reading. Hope they do more like it.

If you’re a writer with a literary bent, the submissions line is open. If you know someone who might be interested, pass it on.