an infrequent repository of mostly new stuff
Up before the sun
The South Wind blew itself out overnight, left everything warm and quiet in the morning. Very quiet. Just birds and crickets and the occasional splash of minnows along the water’s edge. Got up early before sunrise, made some coffe, and watched the wildlife wake up slowly. There’s some nice video at the end of this post. It will give you a really good feel for what it was like.
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.
Tony and Shirley on Candide
Ok, it’s not called Assateague Sound. Officially, it’s Chincoteague Bay. But it’s almost all behind Assateague Island, not Chincoteague. And where I come from, bodies of shallow water behind barrier islands are called Sounds. In Georgia and the Carolinas, even the river mouths are called Sounds. Bays are big and round and deep. This body of water is big, yes. Round and deep, no.
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.
Caesura on the sound behind Assateague
It’s great to have a friend with a nice camera and a nice boat who is also foolish enough to take the one onto the other. Even better if he knows how to use them.
My boats have been finished for over a year now, but I’ve never had a good look at them under sail. As a builder of a boat, you wonder all sorts of things you can only answer when you see them sailing – like how she rides on her lines, how does she heel under power, is the mast bending, and of course the general esthetics of the thing. What the heck does she look like in action?
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!
Beach Hut on Assateague
It’s a 6 hour drive from here to there, and it means running the gauntlet of Hampton Roads – through perpetual traffic congestion, rough roads, backups at bridges and tunnels. For a traffic wimp like me it’s harrowing at best, and at worst, when there’s an accident or just rush hour mayhem, it can add hours to the trip. Sometimes I leave in the middle of the night just so I can sneak through when everyone else is asleep.