Coastal living and sea level rise (12/16/2015)

While scenes like the pictures that I took below are idyllic, being on the hook (anchor for you non-boat people) in the York River in the middle of December, or me scrubbing my sail boat bare chested on Sunday morning in the middle of December in coastal Virginia is somewhat unheard of.  I guess it does happen, because Sunday evening my 88 year old father-in-law told us that he remembered that it happened once before some December day approximately 50 years ago (and I am too lazy to research what year that was).  I did hear on the Weather Channel and on the CBS news last night that this is the longest that Buffalo New York has ever gone without any snow in any winter since the start of record keeping in the late 1800s.

December 14, 2015, an early morning scene on the York River in Yorktown.
A ship on the hook and the sun is just coming up over the horizon.
The temperature was 61 degrees that morning, probably 20 to 30 or so degrees above normal for this time of the year.

Sunday December 13, 2015.  Scrubbing the Beagle.
I got so warm doing it, so I took my shirt off and I did it bare chested.
The temperature was 72 degrees.

But hopefully you get the message.  I was so happy when I heard about the climate accord in Paris this weekend.  I did not listen to the conservative pundits (no teaching up state so no travel in a car without satellite radio), but I can just imagine their discussions about a climate’s cyclical nature, the takeover by the United Nations etc., etc.  I did see a small article on how Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell already promised that as soon as President Obama leaves office they are going to throw the deal out.  Here is another example of some criticism.

I know I should not get into the debate, I’m just a minor blogger who tries to show pretty pictures and talk about his teaching, stormwater, his sailing, coastal living, and his travels throughout Virginia; however, my teaching, stormwater, my sailing and my coastal living are all impacted by global warming, isn’t that the truth?  Take a look at the article about Tangier Island (or click on the next one as well).  I honestly hope to write a blog post from my sailboat when I visit Tangier Island next year (at least that is a cruise I would like to make), and yes, it will not disappear in the next few years.  But it still is serious, for the people living there, for our culture, as a colonial heritage site and as part of our history.  As both articles discuss, we really do not need to go to those poor Pacific Island Nations to watch them disappear with sea level rise, we can do that right here, in Virginia.

But then even closer to home, just two minor storm this September and October and we could not even get to our sailboat.  The marina was flooded.  Members of the club were forced out of their home and friends of ours who live in Poquoson on the water could not get in or out of their home, there was one to two feet of water in their yard and streets.  I can just imagine if the water levels rises a bit more over the years combined with the subsidence we will have in our area, particularly during storms.

October 2, 2015.  Flooding at the marina.  The Beagle is in the first slip on the left.  You had to go through almost knee deep water to get to the dock, and then you had to watch out for missing boards that had been pushed up by the rising water.

Oh of course, why should I care?  I’ll be long dead and gone before it would even affect me.  Very optimistically I may have 40 to 45 more years to live.  What can happen in those 40 or so more years?  Climate change is slow, so who cares?

I think that’s the problem we are facing.  Too many people are too cavalier about environmental issues.  We worry about the economy and saddling future generations up with our financial debts.  However, this environmental stuff is too touchy feely and more difficult to define; it does not touch our pockets or directly effects our livelihood, so we don’t worry about saddling future generations up with environmental debts, a.k.a. disasters, such a climate change, sea level rise, famines, desertification, you name it. But environmental debt may also translate into financial debt in the not so distant future, but that is so difficult to define.

I am still simply amazed how misinformed some people are, not informed at all, don’t care, don’t want to know, and of course some people are just plain partisan.  I am not sure if I captured them all here, but yes, even in this country you still run into people who have never heard or considered things like global warming or climate change.  Even if you believe it is cyclical, this is not a time to take things laying down.  How can you be so sure that humans are not aggravating, speeding up, or worsening this natural process?  Even over geological time it has never happened this fast except when there were meteor impacts or massive volcanic eruptions.  So can you be that sure that we humans are currently not "helping."  I strongly believe that we can try to minimize our impact and that we can try to anticipate what will happen and to preempt at least some of it or try to slow it down, instead of just rolling over and saying "so be it, it's natural." 

Evening sail on the Chesapeake Bay (8/22/2015)

We had a great and interesting evening of sailing this past Saturday.  We took our daughter and significant other sailing in the area where the York River enters the lower Chesapeake Bay.  We had a couple of firsts and it was an interesting time.  Sara, our daughter’s girlfriend had never sailed in her life, so that was a first.  The week before there were reports in the newspaper about major algae blooms causing gorgeous bioluminescent events on the river.  The photographs in the newspaper were spectacular.  We had seen the same thing during the meteor shower when my wife and I walked along the York in the evening and aquamarine waves were crashing into the shore that night and we hoped we could replicate something similar for our guests. 

So we decided to make it an evening sail in the hope the algae were still going strong.  We made chicken-humus-spinach-sprout wraps for dinner and armed with some snacks and drinks we set sail at around 5 pm.  The wind was from the north at 10 to 12 knots.

Well, 10 to 12 knots does not sound too much, but coming from the north is fun sailing especially in the southern Bay.  Typically waves are the highest when the wind is from the north and northeast.  With wind from that direction, the waves do not encounter land for a long stretch and are able to build (this is also known as fetch); and even with just 10 knot wind the waves can easily build to 2 feet in height.  Maybe no big deal, but especially when it is dark you cannot see the few extra-large wave that sneak in from time to time; both my wife and Sara were surprised one of them and got thrown around and were slightly hurt and definitively shaken up.

But let’s start with the beginning.  We started out with a somewhat bad omen.  The head sail (jib) went up great, and when it came to raising the main, I had forgotten to connect the halyard to the main.  So I had to get on the cabin to connect the halyard.  A little screw up, no big deal.  Somehow, the main did not want to go up all the way, whatever I tried.  It was stuck, this dummy did not put on his sailing gloves and I am still bothered by a blister on my finger from trying to pull the main up.  Oh well, it might not have looked that pretty, but the boat sailed and I was not going to let it ruin our evening.  I just lowered the boom a bit and it worked.  Next problem, I was not able to pivot the outboard out of the water, oh well again, in hindsight, even with our little sea anchor we still averaged 4.5 knots over the ground that evening.

We were flying, but boy it shows that, now I have all the windows in, I need to pressure wash the boat.  Also the headsail is a little dirty, but there is little I can do about that, I understand.

About hour into our sail, “BANG”, and the boom flies down wind.  The shackle that holds the mainsheet block attached to the boom snapped.  What to do?  Start the motor.  Time to take the vang apart, and use the block and the shackle from the vang.  So while the crew holding on to the boom, I tried to get everything rigged up.  Here comes one of those larger waves and the pin goes overboard.  So let’s try the other end of the vang.  I am able to get that one installed without any additional incidents and we are off sailing again.

After the repair.  The admiral and me with the new block and shackle from the vang.

In the meantime the sky is getting absolutely gorgeous.  We are all clicking away, cell phones, go-pros, Olympus T-3, you name it.  After having dinner it was getting dark and it was time to get the lights up.  We still do not have electricity on out boat, so I bought a set of battery operated navigation lights.  Somehow I had not put them up before we left, so I gave the helm to my wife and crawled up front (without life preserver and two to three foot seas) to put the thing up.  Well, a screw came lose.  Miraculously, I was able to catch it but I needed to crawl back to get a screw driver and fasten it again.  Then crawl back to the front and attach it.  Finally back in the cockpit I checked the GPS for our position and had the shock of my life.  Because of all the time it had taken me to get the navigation lights up on the bow, we had gone too far and actually crossed an area that we usually would avoid at all cost.  The area we crossed has a sand bar with a depth of 4 to 6 feet and our boat draws 4 feet and having no electricity we have no depth finder.  Thanks goodness it was mid-tide, but with two foot seas, we could have hit bottom at the bottom of the waves.  With me up on the bow, trying to attach navigation lights, that would have been very interesting.  Nothing happened, but we learned an important lesson: situational awareness; make sure you know where you are and that you need to have enough wiggle room just in case you need it especially when working on something!

The sun is about to set in the west.

A nice head wind, waiting for darkness and the algae glow.

Shutterbugs.

The rest of the evening went great!  After it got completely dark the light show started.  The sail was absolutely spectacular.  Black seas with aquamarine streaks (the crest of the waves), and an aquamarine wake from the boat sometimes bright enough you could read a newspaper by.  Unbelievable.

The algae that are causing the bloom are Alexandrium monilatum.  The algae is somewhat toxic; not horribly toxic to humans, but this species does appear to be toxic to young fish, young oysters and young crab.  Older ones seem to be able to withstand it.  While the bioluminescence is a sight to behold, it is also an indication of too much pollution in the water.  The algae bloom are caused by the pollutants we generate on land and that runs off in our stormwater, in particular phosphorus and nitrogen in animal waste and fertilizer.  An interesting juxtaposition, my hobby (sailing) and my profession (sttormwater education), all together.

Working on my boat; the "famous" Catalina smile (6/3/2015)

We pulled our boat this week and were tremendously pleased that my repair of the Catalina Smile on my boat had not returned.  I had fixed it 5 years ago and this was the first time we had pulled the boat out after the repair.

Hauled out after four and a half years in the water 

But let me start at the beginning.  Approximately 5 years ago (May), I motored my little boat over to the York River Yacht Haven to be hauled out.  After some title issues, I was able to take possession of my sailboat a few months earlier, and a friend an I motored her from a slip in the Lynnhaven river over to the slip I had rented in the Poquoson River (it took us 8 hours or so).  So that faithful day in May I motored her over with my daughter and father-in-law on board.  Honestly, not knowing what I had except knowing that she was an abandoned boat that had sunk at least once, I was reluctant to raise the sail and try sailing her.  We stopped in Yorktown to have lunch with the wives.  It was a good trip and even more fun to have lunch on board with five persons eating sandwiches in the cockpit under the watchful eyes of a lot of onlookers.

I was not present when the marina hauled the boat, but when I asked them they told me the keel wobbled a bit.  On further inspection there was a crack in the keel approximately a quarter of the way down.  I learned from the Catalina 25, 250 & Capri International Association that this was the "famous" Catalina Smile.  It seems that the bottom of the boat has a wooden stub and the keel (in my case cast iron) was bolted and glued on to the stub.  I quickly learned that if the keel falls off the boat would immediately fall over, and would likely capsize.  Below is a photograph of what I found that day.

The smile from both sides

From the association members I also learned that this was not fatal and that it could be fixed.  Being on a budget and fairly handy I decided to do this myself.  I bought a repair kit form Catalina Direct and spent a lot of time on the Association's website researching what everyone had done.  In the mean time I cleaned the hull and got it ready for painting.  I very quickly learned I needed better tools than I had and that's where Sears and Harbor Freight came in.  I eventually bought a heavy duty 7" angle grinder and a big industrial drill.  I had to buy cutting oil, to drill into the cast iron keel.  Talking with friends etc I first needed to do some preparatory work: I needed to make sure that the wood stub that the keel was attached to was dry and not rotted.  So I set out to drill five holes in the wood stub at the location I would put the new keel bolts.  The first holes I drilled were slightly undersized and I stopped when I hit metal.  For the next two weeks I treated the holes by alternately flooding them with acetone or alcohol in the hope to drive out any water that was in the stub, or at least near the areas where the new keel bolts were going in.

In the mean time I took the angle grinder and started to cut out the white glue/rubber type substance that sits between the keel and the wood stub.  From everything I read, this is most likely 3M's 5200, a marine glue which is absolutely amazing.  I cut the glue out for the entire length of the smile and tried to go as deep as I could with my 7" disks.

This is what the smile looked like after grinding it out

Back inside in the bilge, I flooded the holes with penetrating epoxy after the two weeks treatment with acetone and alcohol and let it dry for a week.  I made sure that the penetrating epoxy coated the entire bilge, hopefully penetrating the entire stub.  Back to the drill, I subsequently re-drilled the holes but now to the right size and I again flooded the holes with penetrating epoxy.  In writing this, I wonder why I did it this way, but I wanted to make sure that the area was water tight.  I also covered the entire bilge with a layer of glass, in order to get as much strength, stability and water tightness as I could get.  I then re-drilled the holes and I was finally ready for the next step, drilling cast iron and tapping thread in the holes, and this is where I hit a wall.

Drilling in a confined space like the bilge, laying on your stomach was a pain.  Various posts on the Association website talk about drill presses or having professional drillers come in for this part of the job.  My drill bits dulled almost instantly and it took me an entire day to get a half inch deep; and then to think I needed five holes at least 6 inches deep.  Back on line I learned that is was best to drill a pilot hole, so I looked around and ordered  new set of drills, including a number of thinner drill bits to make pilot holes.  Being able to drill one hole per weekend, it took my five weeks to get all the holes done.  In the mean time we had a huge storm that flooded my bilge, and you can understand I was pretty darn happy that I had flooded the holes with penetration epoxy.

Once the holes were drilled it was time to tap the holes, cut the threaded rods to length and screw the rods into the cast iron keel.  With the rods in place it was time to loosely screw on the nuts and then finally do some work outside.  I filled the cleaned out crack with the 5200 compound  and subsequently I went inside to tighten the nuts with a torque wrench.  Again the Association website was of great help because they gave me the correct measures on how much torque I needed to apply.  Finally after the 5200 had dried it was time to re-glass the crack, paint the entire hull with three layers of a barrier coat and three coats the ablating bottom paint.

The keel bolts are in

She was finally hauled out four and a half years after she was put in.  I had barnacles, sponges and algae growing on the hull, but no smile; all looks well!  One word of caution, Catalina Direct tells us that these bolts are less strong as the original bolts which had a J-shape and were pored into the cast iron keel.  Thank goodness my keel bolts did not look too bad, but I wanted additional assurance of safety in particular since I had a smile.

The latest picture of the keel.
She had been in the water for 5 years now and yes she should have come out for cleaning years ago.
But I'm a happy camper/sailor! 

Chesapeake Bay (5/31/2015)

Boy it was a sailing Sunday.  First a friend of mine and I took my boat over the Wormley Creek Marina to get hauled for a bottom job (the subject of my next post).  We expected some wind and that proved to be somewhat wrong.  It started out good, but around the end things were slow.  We were bucking the tide, and although it looked like we were making some headway based on the wake and current around the boat, our GPS showed we made 0.0 knots over the ground.  In fact we were actually drifting somewhat.  Frustrating but it was fun anyway.  The two pictures below show the approach to the creek and us getting ready to dock the Beagle.

I'm really impressed by Wormley Creek Marina; if I was not a member of the club, I can see having my boat there.  

I was tired and overheated when I got home; jumped in the shower and we ran out to meet friends for what we thought was a moonlight sail on their boat.  Well, the weather had turned and we had a steady 20 knot wind and 3 to 4 foot waves on our part of the Bay.  Thank goodness we were on a 40 foot boat with a reefed main, but we were still flying 8 knots at times.  When we got back, it showed that the highest wind gust we had was 29 knots.  It was an exhilarating sail.

When we got home and downloaded the pictures we were struck how small our Catalina 25 was compared to the Pearson 40 we sailed that evening. 

Nothing really deep to write about today, except maybe that being out on the water is exhilarating at times; without time to think about all the things around you.  You are just in the zone, concentrating on sailing.

York Spit Lighthouse (5/16/2015)

There are a couple of things in life that are really my passion.   They include sailing, photography and teaching; although I have not biked much lately, I would almost want to count that as well as one of my passions in life.   I think what they have in common is that they make me live in the moment.   Doing these things I get in a zone and cannot think of much else.  You just need to concentrate on it, and do the best job at it; stay on course with a goal in mind: get (back) to the harbor; maybe where you started from, or maybe to your next goal (harbor).  Your mind is not allowed to wander much when you do these things; in particular in a boat with a tiller. I notice that I invariably go off course during those few times that I look at my GPS; it is amazing what that brief lack of concentration will do.  Just scanning the water, the horizon or just talking with the crew does not result in drastic course changes, but looking at a screen and concentrating on something else will do that.  Crazy maybe, but when driving a car my mind is often busy with something else, or as Dr. Amit Sood says in his "Mayo Clinic Guide to Stress-Free Living", working on my open files.  During sailing or teaching my file cabinet is closed shut.  Living in the moment is so important!

In the moment (photo taken by the admiral Donna Briedé)

It was a wonderful day of sailing on Saturday.  Winds were 10 to 15 knots out of the Southwest; just perfect to achieve one of my goals: sail out to York Spit light and back.  From the opening of our creek the course was set to 90 degrees (due east) and after about two hours of sailing in the open water of the Bay we approached the spit.  Near the spit, the waves were between one and two feet in height with a great frequency in between that made it a great rolling ride.

Word has it that York Spit used to be an octagonal light house, but ot was abandoned by the coast guard and dynamited.  Below is a picture I stole from Wikipedia:

Now it is just some remnants of the steel base, a light and a few radar reflectors that guard the opening of the channel into the York River.  It is a pity that they could find someone to take care of this historic lighthouse and that they felt the need to destroy it.

Remnants of York Spit Light

After rounding the spit we held the course as close to 270 as we could and zoomed back to the creek we came out of.  We had to lay in one small tack to make it.  The admiral was on the tiller and I had some time to experiment taking photos.  So much for being in the zone (maybe in a different zone).  We had some great encounters with dolphins on the way; it was an absolute great sail.  Very unlike most of the sails that sailors tell you about; they tell you mostly about all those bad experiences they had.

It was an absolutely great Saturday without many worries, except staying in the zone.  One of the worst ways of going off course is by looking back; come to think of it, that is a crazy metaphor for life isn't it?

Seaford (5/10/2015)

This morning it looked like a buzz saw: tropical storm Ana was coming on shore near the border between North and South Carolina.   Northeastern wind (less than 25 knots) means the water will pile up in the creek where the marina is located.   Probably not that much to cause coastal flooding, but enough for a nice high tide.  I went to inspect the boat this afternoon and it was blowing steadily.   While the tide watch information provided by the Virginia Institute for Marine Science shows very little increase because of the storm, things looked high; but then I was visiting around high tide.

In the photograph above you can see the bow of the Beagle  (our boat); as a biologist I need to somehow relate it to the father of evolution, Charles Darwin.   Our marina has quite a few small sailboats that members can use whenever they feel like it.  But suffice it to say that no one was out sailing on a blustery day like today.

What amazes me is the fact that we had a tropical storm,  tornadoes,  and a snow storm all on mother's day.   For a tropical storm that is about a month earlier than the beginning of the hurricane season.   This climate is all out of whack; it is going to be fascinating what the next decade or so is going to bring.

Chesapeake Bay (4/18/2015)

Finally, this was the first time this year that we went for a sail on our boat instead of the boat of a friend.  I like sailing in general, and yes, sailing on boats from friends is great.  Those boats are usually larger, and warmer.  Our friend Ben has a Catalina 30, of which he can enclose the entire cockpit and keep you out of the cold weather.  It was great sailing with him around Christmas time, while it was snowing outside, and on other cold days this winter.  But as a boy of the tropics, I prefer warmer weather, and of course nothing is better than sailing your own, even if it is inferior to other boats.

During our sail we had to test our new camera (an Olympus TG-3).  Yes I know not a Go-pro, but ; being an avid Olympus user all my life I just gravitated to this one.  Moreover, it does everything a Go-Pro does and then some.  We clipped the camera to the mast with a monopod and was able to take pictures using my cell phone as a remote.  I used my phone as a view finder and could use it to zoom in or out and take shots.  Great fun!  On the photo below you can see me operate the camera with my phone.

The weather was great, a few clouds in the sky and winds around 10 knots.  Temperatures were in the mid-70s, but with the wind over the colder water it was chilly.  During the sail we were reminded that it is pine pollen season on our part of the world, and if you are not from our part of the world you would not know what I am talking about.  During pine pollen season everything gets covered by a layer of fine yellow dust.  It is amazing.  While they say people are not allergic to pine pollen, on Sunday my body was not as happy as it usually is, the sky was yellow, and everything had a thin cover of yellow dust.  I wrote about it before (here) almost exactly a year ago (on 4/19/2014).  So interesting how closely nature is synchronized. 

With the first rainstorm streams are covered by a yellow slime and in a way it is actually indescribable.  The admiral (my wife) took a picture of a plume of pine pollen that we sailed through well off shore (maybe a mile or two) in the Chesapeake Bay (see the photo below).   What amazes me here that there must be this strange current in the water (or a combination of current and wind) that concentrates the pine pollen in this narrow band.  But you can see is goes quite the distance.

Seaford (2/20 &2/21/2015)

As regular readers might have seen, we have had a harsh weather week these past few days.  It snowed on Monday and temperatures went below 10 degrees Fahrenheit (or -12 degrees centigrade).  Yes for us southerners that is cold!  It was that cold that it froze Back Creek where our boat is located.  As I mentioned previously, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) website mentions that seawater freezes below 28.4 degrees and our measurements showed the ice surface was 28 degrees; indeed cold enough for saltwater to freeze.  Expecting rain on Saturday night, I thought it was prudent to at least get a lot of the snow of the boat, in the hope to let the rainwater runoff easier and keep the inside drier.

First getting on the boat was an adventure.  She was stuck in the ice.  Thank goodness we were able to pull her forward a bit and I was able to push some of the snow of the bow with my snow shovel, thus taking some of the weight of the bow and loosening it enough that I could pull it over.  Now getting on without slipping and going of the other side.  I did succeed, and got most of the snow pushed of.  I only slipped once and thank goodness I fell right into the cockpit and did not need to try to swim in 28 degree water.  The snow was nice and soft.  I tore off the handle to the companion way hatch on my way down, but at least I've got something else to work on this winter.

Removing snow from the boat (photo taken by Donna A. Briedé)

It is always good to be at the yacht club.  I’m seldom alone; there is always someone working or at least visiting their boat.  This was also the case on Saturday and actually on Friday as well.  The advantage of membership of a group such as this is comradery and friendship.  It is a great place to hang out.  We humans are social animals and need others around, despite my regular assertion that we men are all monks and rather be alone.

Seaford (12/7/2014)

One advantage of having a (sail)boat is that I am even more intimately in-tuned with the weather.  There isn't a day that goes by that I do not check what is going on out there.  This is somewhat amazing, having a wife who is a micro-meteorologist by training.  However, like a lot of generations in the past, for me weather was something that happened; something you had to live with and could not do anything about.  When we lived in Cincinnati you were aware of large thunderstorm complexes.  Cincinnati was kind of at the far end of "Tornado Alley", so always something to be aware off.  However getting a boat, you have to keep an eye out for hurricanes in the summer and nor'easter in the winter.  On top of that you need to know if it is good sailing weather.

This weekend the wind was 30 to 40 knots (1 knot is 1.15 miles per hour) from the north and north-north-east.  A wind coming straight down the Chesapeake Bay at that force forces the water to pile up on the southern shore of the bay and in the little creeks that jot into the shore in the area.  Currently the actual tide is running 1.5 to 2 feet above the astronomic (predicted without the wind) tide (see here for the website).  I just learned that the storm is redeveloping and moving back towards us.  It seems that is will pile even more water up in our creeks,

I went to the boat on Sunday, just to check it and to get a little water out of the bilge and the front locker.  Water always seem to accumulate in these areas.  While my ports (windows) are relatively water tight, I do have a leaky anchor locker and leaky stanchions.  Moreover, my companionway hatch is not waterproof, so yes I will have to dry the boat out after a rainstorm.  On top of that, winter time also means condensation time for my boat and water will drip anywhere and from every thing on a cold day in winter.  I wonder if I can turn my boat into a whiskey still.

It was mid-tide when I got to the boat, and the water was higher than an ordinary high tide.  The wind was whipping.  Two friends of mine arrived just after me, announcing they were going for a sail (remember 30 to 40 knot winds).  They later told me they made it out to the mouth of the creek, but waves were 5 to 7 feet and they decided not to chance it.  Waves can be the general problem where we sail.  Our part of the bay is very exposed to winds from the north to the east and the waves can build pretty high when it blows out of that direction; there is nothing to stop them between us and the eastern shore.  Even in summer there are days we feel uncomfortable going out; when the wind is from the northeast waves can easily top 2 to 3 feet, and that is not much fun in a 25 foot Catalina.

Anyway here is a photo of my slip; you can see how high the water is; and this is mid-tide.  At least our marina is very sheltered and the water is relatively calm.

Chesapeake Bay (11/11/2014)

I found a quote from L.A. Meyer in an article by Lisa Frost in the recent Old Boat magazine that also applies to me: "We clear the harbor and the wind catches her sails and my beautiful ship leans over ever so gracefully, and her elegant bow cuts clearly into the increasing chop of the waves.  I take a deep breath and my chest expands and my heart starts thumping so strongly i fear others might see it beat through the cloth of my jacket.  I face the wind and my lips peel back from my teeth in a grin of pure joy."

I think that most sailors feel that way.  There is something magical in sailing a boat.  For me it is when I shut off the outboard and the boat keeps going propelled by the wind.  It is an amazing thing, the silence and the feel of the boat underneath you.  I simply love it.

This was the feeling I had going out on Tuesday.  It was misty and the winds were light.  But despite all that it was still exhilarating to be out, to shut off the motor, pull it up and settle in at the helm for a few hours sail with a friend.  During our sail trip we saw lots of overwintering water fowl, a few recreational fishing boats and one of the scallop boats (pictured below).  We got a little wet but felt sad when we had to start the engine and return to port.

Seaford 10/5/2014)

Although the weather was decent for sailing this weekend, I decided to put in another port (window) into the boat.  All my ports were leaking and in very bad shape.  It was so bad that a previous owner had lined the outside of the with duck tape and on top of that even blue painter's tape.  Try getting that stuff off after it has been on a hull for a couple of years.  To add insult to injury they had put some dark colored plexiglass on top of the entire window frame and fastened them with some kind of silicone.  Finally, the boat has one missing port, where the previous owner had just put a garbage bag over the hole (which I replaced with a sheet of plywood).  The boat was a mess.  Over the past few years I have been slowly replace the ports (probably to slowly for the admiral, but I want to sail the boat as well and enjoy it).  So I know it is time to do the windows, being a member of a yacht club, being the first boat on the dock (and thus the first boat everybody sees), and considering I have had the boat for four years now.

2010 picture, just after I took possession of the boat (note the plywood cover over the window opening) I just arrived for the first time at my new skip.

Knowing I had one missing window, I jumped at an offer on the Catalina-Capri 25s International Organization for the purchase of a complete set of secondhand ports.  I got the for a decent deal, and they have been sitting at my home for the past year.  So I knew it was time to start with the replacements.  I bought a new port resealing kit from Catalina Direct and read all that I could on the message boards of the Catalina Association.  From all that I read, it seemed that it was almost better for me to try to get butyl tape and set the windows in that, instead of putting them in the silicone that came in the kit from Catalina Direct.  Butyl tape is relatively inexpensive, and I took the plunge, although I knew nothing about that stuff.

Out came the first port, it was located above the head (toilet) The port that was in there had a sliding window, and I painstakingly tried to restore it.  I also had the restore the opening.  The wall of the cabin at this location is a sandwich of a balsa plywood core between two layers of fiberglass.  Over the years and because of all the moisture, the core had deteriorated, and after letting it dry for a few weeks, I injected penetrating epoxy into the core and then, at a later time used the West System Epoxy Adhesive that you can put unto a caulk gun to inject epoxy into the core.  I clamped the opening with small C-clamps of get an even thickness in the opening.  After building the opening up and sanding it the opening was finally ready to receive the refurbished port.  Well, disaster struck, The sliding glass port leaked like a sieve.  Taking it out was easy with the butyl tape keeping the port in place, I cannot imagine how I would have accomplished that with fresh silicone.  Finally, I got the new port in using using fixed glass, and it does not leak.

We yesterday we did the fourth port (of the six total), and here are a few pictures of the work.  I am happy to say that we are done with one side of the boat now.

This weekend's opening, ready to do a final sanding and then the fitting of the port.

The fourth port is in!

The three ports on the port side of the boat are in, you can still see the mess that years of adhesive tape have left.I'll eventually will have to sand and paint the entire deck part of the boat.  E few weeks ago I put a non-skid coat on the botton of the cockpit so I have started that as well.

Seaford (10/4/2014)

I have been working on my sailboat today.  I am rebuilding one of the port (window) openings of my boat, and tomorrow I will be putting a new port in.  I will do a separate blog posting on that tomorrow.
Coming back to close up my sailboat this afternoon I was taken by surprise that the water was so high.  It is not spring tide (yet); that happens with full and new moon, when the moon and the sun are either in opposite sides of the sky or in the same general area.  I hope it was the wind, which was coming from the north and might be piling the water up in our creek,.  I think and hope it is too early to see the results of sea-level rise.
Either way it was fun getting in and out of the boat especially since we do not have any floating docks.  As you can see, the access to the dingy dock is shut off and you would get wet feet if you would like to go laser racing.

Chesapeake Bay (8/7/2014)

Came home last night, ate a quick left over/reheated or as we say at home second hand dinner and we went sailing.  It was a beautiful evening; the wind was from the northeast and there were some waves.  Just floating along, with only the main up.  Absolutely wonderful evening.  All the ospreys and their chicks were panicking when we sailed to close to their nests on the channel markers.
On the way out, one of the scallop boats was either ready to go out or doing a test run.  I shot this photo of the boat.  A great sight indeed.  We were back at the slip by 8:30 just in time for it to get dark.  A wonderful evening, absolutely worth repeating.

Seaford (7/12/2014)

Friday and Saturday were the days for a “supermoon”, or the closest a full moon comes to the earth that year.  So naturally we had our evening coffee on the boat this Saturday evening play some music and gaze at the horizon for the moon.  Truthfully, it was spectacular but nothing you can capture with your measly cell phone camera with only has a digital zoom.  But of course I forgot my hotshot camera.

There were others at the marina, drinking beer/water and enjoying in conversation.  A few had ventured out to see it come up over the bay.  Moreover, I heard (after the fact) that there was actually a moonlight (sail) race that night as well.  Sailboat owners are an active bunch, and it is fun to be part of them. 

I really think sailboat owners represent a fairly good cross section of the population.  Yes, sailboats can be expensive; in particular new ones, but the members in our club range from conservative to liberal.  They needle each other so now and then, but the one thing they have in common is their love for being on the water.   Although, some of the guys openly admit that it is nice to be out of the house for a bit on the weekends to work on the boat.  Another thing in common is the love of nature; sailing in a sewage lagoon is no fun, and most if not all are committed to keeping the Bay clean.  This is very much like people from organizations like Ducks Unlimited.  Yes they are all duck hunters, but without good wetlands there would not be any ducks, so they are a driving force in wetland protection.

I think this all comes to show that persons with great differences in conviction and belief can work together to further a good cause.  While we live in a pluralistic society, it feels more and more like we live in a polarized society.  I sense a loss of civility, compassion, and empathy, whether it is in international politics and strife, or our national politics.  I find this very disturbing, and I’m not sure what I, as an individual, can do about it, except for trying to practice empathy myself and writing this blog.

Anyway, this is my rendition of a wonderful evening of watching the supermoon and thinking about things I see and learned this Sunday in the church I attend. 

Seaford (7/3/2014)

The day before Independence Day (July 4) was spent securing the boat for the onslaught of hurricane Arthur.  We were still not sure what would be happening and what the exact course would be, so better safe than sorry.  I spent the day putting in double mooring lines and cutting a Plexiglas hatch cover to keep the water out of the cabin.  Plexiglas is pretty brittle, but to my surprise, also easily repaired or glued with the use of some acetone.  Amazingly easy.  I took this photo during my work on the boat, yesterday.

A quick update, the boat came through alright and the hatch worked like a charm.  Albeit, I screwed up with the mooring lines and the boat must have hit the piling some during the night.  There were enough bumpers that that was ok and maybe we'll be sailing tomorrow!  Hurricane Arthur was kind to our region, I've seen little or no damage, and the winds were not that strong this time around.  Hopefully this was it for this summer.

Seaford Yacht Club (6/21/14)

This may be a lame picture for some of you, but it signifies progress to me.  As some of my readers will know, I am trying to restore (and sail) a 1979 Catalina 25 for the past few years.  Being people of modest means, we have to do it slow.  This is fine; we enjoy the sailing, although going to the bathroom on a Home Depot bucket is getting old for my wife.  We guys have it a bit easier I guess.  This year I have already replaced two of the 6 windows in the boat, and I feel comfortable now that I can finish the head (toilet) on the boat, so my wife gets something better. Last week's sail to the eastern shore with my friend gave me the idea of how to install our camping stove in the boat.  Yesterday I vacuumed the boat, in preparation for us sleeping on the boat last night.  This photo is just me trying to see if my camping stove fits on the location I think I want to mount it.  I will need to make a (removable?) shelf in that location, but that should be easy.  I'll post a picture once I have completed the job.

Seaford Yacht Cub (6/17/2014)

Today I had to post a picture of my own sail boat.  We had our monthly dinner meeting at the club, and after dinner we took a walk to the dock to look at the boats.  Mine is the first one; which may be the right thing to do the shame me in fixing up the boat.  It is going way too slow (the fixing up), but as a friend of mine told me, “you have to enjoy it also.”  I agree, otherwise fixing things up becomes such a chore.  But then safety first, and I do feel safe when sailing.

The yacht club is fun.  There are a lot of social things going on, sometimes (or should I say often) with a lot of drinking.  It is something to watch out for, and I generally try to behave myself. 

As you can see from the photo, the weather was absolutely delightful.  It was hot and humid, which I like.  It was still, as you can see, the river was glass; but there were no bugs, which was amazing. 

Sitting there talking to my wife and father-in-law was absolutely delightful.  One of the boat owners (an older gentleman) came over to let his dog off the boat and walk it.  The dog, a friendly white Scottie, was all over us; I think he was happy to be of the boat.  On our way back to the car, another  gentleman came over to make sure the dog walker had not hurt himself and fallen off the pier.  As you can see a social club, but we all watch out for each other.

The smooth water was disturbed by one of the members whose home is across the creek and came to the meeting in his small power boat. He left, but first went for a short ride, after which he returned home. Very considerate, you could hardly hear him start the engine, and he left very little wake. Not hot dogging for him, just enjoying the moment and being on or near the water.