an infrequent repository of mostly new stuff
Motor deployed.
Today was sunny and almost 70 degrees. We sat in the sun to drank our coffee this morning, watching the crocuses bloom in the grass. Be sailing weather soon.
Spent most of the day making an adapter for the motor mount, so it will fit the big saltwater trolling motor. Was hoping to have it done in time to take a spin around the lake and also try the centerboard mechanism. That was a bit optimistic, turns out.
Dan Sutherland in one of his sailing canoes
Thus begins a new series, likely attended with no regard for schedules or continuity, re-posting notable photos from years past.
More often than not, in a place where one fine photo can be taken, many many more are gathered at the same time. Because I’m a lousy editor I post a lot of them at once. Which means that many very fine photos get buried in the deluge.
Less is more sometimes, so now and then (especially in winter, or when weather or circumstances otherwise inhibit acquisition of new photos) I’ll pull out some favorites and give them their due.
These photos are from October 2010. It was a beautiful weekend for the Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival in St. Michaels, Maryland. Dan Sutherland was Boatshop Manager at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum then. He was one of the foremost experts in Rushton canoes, and the museum always had several beauties turn out for the show.
He love sailing them, a unique and challenging art form all its own.
These photos are from the middle of the race. Dan enjoying good wind and sunshine on a fine day, on one of his fine canoes.
On a reach with batwing sails in the Miles River
A meditation on working on water. I can’t embed the video here, but it’s well worth watching.
Original link to the video: The Long Haul
This morning it was 5° Fahrenheit. Right now it’s snowing again, with 4-7” expected by morning, followed by sleet, then ice.
But back in December, just a week before Christmas, we had a spell of warmth. I took Caesura for a row on the reservoir. Geese, ducks, herons, turtles.
Nice to remember now I had forgotten it.
A Thousand Hands Ago from S Ensby on Vimeo.
A short film about of recalling the knowledge of long dead craftsmen.
Over the course of three days, Danish kayak builder Anders Thygesen builds an Aleutian iqyax by the shore of his local lake. He reflects on the process of learning these skills from masters whom he has never met.
Nice video featuring some friends across the river. Red Knierim of Red and the Romantics and his wife first lived in a yurt in the woods along the river. They recently upgraded to a one room cabin. He was out walking and singing in the snow storm. We walked down to the river from the other side.
I wondered what that sound was.
Blizzard Ballads with Red Knierim from Surface Below Media on Vimeo.
Re-rounded winch drum, with new Amsteel Dyneema cable and thimble.
Sunshine and temps in the mid 60s today are a welcome reprieve from snow, which is mostly gone now. A great little window for attending to a couple of things on the new old Lightning. I had intended to raise the mast to see how that works and to assess the rigging (which actually looks relatively new). That will have to wait for another day – I got distracted by the malfunctioning centerboard winch.