SHIP'S LOG:
The Sun is Out! The Temp is warming. The Sky is Clear. Looks like a perfect day to go for a sail. Now all I need is WIND!
Yesterday, the wind didn't die down until mid afternoon. It eventually became calm, so calm that it didn't blow at all. Strange weather, what? It gave me a chance to do a thorough cleaning of the clubhouse and rearrange everything to a post-gale state. Aside from that, not much transpired.
It still doesn't feel like summer. Yes, I know it is not summer by the calendar, nor by the astronomical measurement, but summer is really when it feels like summer and right now it just doesn't. Here's hoping that it will soon!
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Friday, June 14, 2013
And It Sure Did Blow! ! ! ! !
SHIP'S LOG:
We got socked pretty good yesterday, probably another 4-6 inches of rain and wind that clocked at a steady 34mph with gusts to 40! It wasn't a pleasant day to spend on the boat . . . .so I did not, nor the night either. I have spent more than enough nights rockin' & rollin' when I had to do so. Now that I do not necessary have to do so, doing so makes no sense.
The boats that were going to participate in the Off Soundings Series never showed up with the exception of those from the club. Three of the four took of for Stonington about 9:30. They left early to beat the wind and rain and waves. The fourth was unable to get any member of her crew down before 6pm(people do work you know). I was willing to go but there was no way to get back save walking and Stonington is much to far on a good day. She didn't want to make the trip by herself, one smart lady, but she really had to be there as she was running the social and dinner for the assembling crews on Thursday night in Stonington. By dint of a lot of p[hone calling, she was able to find crew to go with her and I went over after they got there to bring the crew back. in the end, it all worked out.
The weather continued to deteriorate all day and the Force 5's even decided not to race. As one sagely noted, "Racing a Force 5(small racing dinghy) in 25- 30 knots, in 3 foot waves is no problem when the water is turquoise blue and 8 degrees, like in Key Largo, Florida, but it is a different, and not a good thing, when the water is slate gray and 52 degrees(off TYC)!"
By morning the club skiffs were filled and needed pumping out. When the wind dies off some more, I will put the porch furniture back outside and get around to picking up the wind-blown debris. The SUN is rumored to be coming out this afternoon and tomorrow is actually supposed to be sunny and warm all day. That's what NOAA says. Me, I wait and see.
We got socked pretty good yesterday, probably another 4-6 inches of rain and wind that clocked at a steady 34mph with gusts to 40! It wasn't a pleasant day to spend on the boat . . . .so I did not, nor the night either. I have spent more than enough nights rockin' & rollin' when I had to do so. Now that I do not necessary have to do so, doing so makes no sense.
The boats that were going to participate in the Off Soundings Series never showed up with the exception of those from the club. Three of the four took of for Stonington about 9:30. They left early to beat the wind and rain and waves. The fourth was unable to get any member of her crew down before 6pm(people do work you know). I was willing to go but there was no way to get back save walking and Stonington is much to far on a good day. She didn't want to make the trip by herself, one smart lady, but she really had to be there as she was running the social and dinner for the assembling crews on Thursday night in Stonington. By dint of a lot of p[hone calling, she was able to find crew to go with her and I went over after they got there to bring the crew back. in the end, it all worked out.
The weather continued to deteriorate all day and the Force 5's even decided not to race. As one sagely noted, "Racing a Force 5(small racing dinghy) in 25- 30 knots, in 3 foot waves is no problem when the water is turquoise blue and 8 degrees, like in Key Largo, Florida, but it is a different, and not a good thing, when the water is slate gray and 52 degrees(off TYC)!"
By morning the club skiffs were filled and needed pumping out. When the wind dies off some more, I will put the porch furniture back outside and get around to picking up the wind-blown debris. The SUN is rumored to be coming out this afternoon and tomorrow is actually supposed to be sunny and warm all day. That's what NOAA says. Me, I wait and see.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
About That Wind!!!!
SHIP'S LOG:
The Off Soundings Sailing Club is running a series of races over the weekend. TYC is the most convenient place to load crew and stores for people coming any distanced and a number of participants from around the area usually head here to dock their boat before heading off. This meant that I had to get of the dock to free up space an normally that wouldn't mean a great deal except for the fact that in this case the wind was really blowing. The readings from Ledge Light near the mouth of the river were 30knts steady with gust to 38knts. The wind was out of the North West, right down the river, and as such it was blowing straight down the river and straight into the slips. This meant that I had to try and back out against a lot of wind. No sailboat backs well to begin with and when there is lot of wind, they like it even less. There is also the problem that if you can get the boat moving backwards, as soon as you start to move broadside to the wind, it is very easy to loose control. And unless you keep the boat straight into the wind, getting swung broadside is very, very easy.
I kept waiting for the wind to ease up a bit and while it seemed to do so at times, it never was quite long enough to get the job done. Finally, Chuck the Launch Driver, came up with the idea of using the launch to keep ABISHAG stern-to-wind during the back out, allowing me to get away from piers and other boats, before turning her broadside and going forward. So I started the engine and waited for a "lull." One eventually came, or the closest thing we were likely to get, and I rushed about, dropping lines and climbing into the cockpit and backing her out. It was a lot less dramatic than a lot of other maneuvers I have undertaken and, with Chuck's help, turned out rather easy. So ABISHA is back on her mooring, safe and sound.
And it is a good thing too as today it is supposed to rain all day, with small craft advisories until 6pm when they will be upgraded to gale warnings. It appears that the next few days are supposed to continue to be crappy as well. This spring and summer have so far been rather crazy weather-wise. I hope it all settles down into something approaching "normal" soon.
The Off Soundings Sailing Club is running a series of races over the weekend. TYC is the most convenient place to load crew and stores for people coming any distanced and a number of participants from around the area usually head here to dock their boat before heading off. This meant that I had to get of the dock to free up space an normally that wouldn't mean a great deal except for the fact that in this case the wind was really blowing. The readings from Ledge Light near the mouth of the river were 30knts steady with gust to 38knts. The wind was out of the North West, right down the river, and as such it was blowing straight down the river and straight into the slips. This meant that I had to try and back out against a lot of wind. No sailboat backs well to begin with and when there is lot of wind, they like it even less. There is also the problem that if you can get the boat moving backwards, as soon as you start to move broadside to the wind, it is very easy to loose control. And unless you keep the boat straight into the wind, getting swung broadside is very, very easy.
I kept waiting for the wind to ease up a bit and while it seemed to do so at times, it never was quite long enough to get the job done. Finally, Chuck the Launch Driver, came up with the idea of using the launch to keep ABISHAG stern-to-wind during the back out, allowing me to get away from piers and other boats, before turning her broadside and going forward. So I started the engine and waited for a "lull." One eventually came, or the closest thing we were likely to get, and I rushed about, dropping lines and climbing into the cockpit and backing her out. It was a lot less dramatic than a lot of other maneuvers I have undertaken and, with Chuck's help, turned out rather easy. So ABISHA is back on her mooring, safe and sound.
And it is a good thing too as today it is supposed to rain all day, with small craft advisories until 6pm when they will be upgraded to gale warnings. It appears that the next few days are supposed to continue to be crappy as well. This spring and summer have so far been rather crazy weather-wise. I hope it all settles down into something approaching "normal" soon.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
A Weekend Of Fun
SHIP'S LOG:
Saturday was beautiful. Actually hot, a little too humid, with a fine breeze blowing. I spent most of the ashore, helping the Junior Sailing Director getting things setup for the Junior Sailing Program that will begin soon. The E-mail Blast that was supposed to go out to members to elicit their help got fouled up and never went out and so it was the Director and myself, with a little help from anyone we could shanghai for a while. The most difficult and longest part of the day was removing the sail tubes from underneath the deck of the building. The sail-tubes are about 12 foot lengths of drainage pipe that are used to store the sails we used on the Junior Sailing Program boats. There are 25 of them and they were screwed to 2 boards, fore and aft, and were set on the sand under the porch. Over the years, they have been semi-buried due to flooding and filled up almost completely by blowing sand. As a result, they haven't really been used and the task was to get them out and to a new location where they could be used. Slowly, each had to be unscrewed, first at the front, then at the back. The front was no problem, but the back-ends were really buried and required that I (the Junior Sailing Director in approaching 80!) crawl under the house, dig them out, unscrew them, and then crawl back out and muscle them out into the daylight. A 12 foot sewage pipe, even made of PVC, half filled with sand, is quite a load! Once outside, they had to be flushed out with water and then carted to their new rack location. Though it doesn't sound like all that big a deal, we began about 11 and finished about 4:30. It could have been worse, it could have rained!
Sunday was another beautiful day and this one I spent sailing, actually racing, with Jim Avery. Jim is a great guy, approaching 82, and sails a NONSUCH, a modernized version of a catboat. It has but one large sail and is touted as easy to sail, and it is, but Jim's daughter, Ellen, isn't happy with him sailing by himself. Actually, I don't think that Jim likes all that much by himself. He enjoys company, hence the crew. It was three great races, the second Sunday of the Chilli Series, and aside from the fact that we mis-read the course for the first race and so were disqualified from it, we did veery well in the next two and won our class in the over-all series. Not a baad Sunda of sailing.
Monday started out gray and eventually turn wet, but nonetheless, I went and helped out Rich Weber get his boat ready to launch. It is an old boat, but new for him, and he had to remove all the lifeline stanchions as all were cracked, a a couple broken.They are a one-piece rod-&-base, held to the deck with four bolts. As seems common on all boats, taking them off was easy, but re-installing them was difficult. You could get to one or two of the boat rather easily in most cases, but there were always at least 2 that you needed to be a contortionist to get the washer and nut on, and most of the time, it had to be cone completely by feel, without being able to see what you were doing. The basic procedure was to put caulking around the four holes on the deck, a line of caulking around what would be the edge of the base, set the base down, insert the four screws, put on the washers and nuts and tighten the whole thing down, the inside make holding the nut while the outside man tightened. The toss-up between being the outside man and the inside man was choosing whether you wanted to be the contortionist or whether you wanted to be out on the deck in the rain. I got the rain!
And it poured all night. Hard rain and lots of wind and it was rock 'n' roll all night long. Ah, the fun of baot ownership.
Saturday was beautiful. Actually hot, a little too humid, with a fine breeze blowing. I spent most of the ashore, helping the Junior Sailing Director getting things setup for the Junior Sailing Program that will begin soon. The E-mail Blast that was supposed to go out to members to elicit their help got fouled up and never went out and so it was the Director and myself, with a little help from anyone we could shanghai for a while. The most difficult and longest part of the day was removing the sail tubes from underneath the deck of the building. The sail-tubes are about 12 foot lengths of drainage pipe that are used to store the sails we used on the Junior Sailing Program boats. There are 25 of them and they were screwed to 2 boards, fore and aft, and were set on the sand under the porch. Over the years, they have been semi-buried due to flooding and filled up almost completely by blowing sand. As a result, they haven't really been used and the task was to get them out and to a new location where they could be used. Slowly, each had to be unscrewed, first at the front, then at the back. The front was no problem, but the back-ends were really buried and required that I (the Junior Sailing Director in approaching 80!) crawl under the house, dig them out, unscrew them, and then crawl back out and muscle them out into the daylight. A 12 foot sewage pipe, even made of PVC, half filled with sand, is quite a load! Once outside, they had to be flushed out with water and then carted to their new rack location. Though it doesn't sound like all that big a deal, we began about 11 and finished about 4:30. It could have been worse, it could have rained!
Sunday was another beautiful day and this one I spent sailing, actually racing, with Jim Avery. Jim is a great guy, approaching 82, and sails a NONSUCH, a modernized version of a catboat. It has but one large sail and is touted as easy to sail, and it is, but Jim's daughter, Ellen, isn't happy with him sailing by himself. Actually, I don't think that Jim likes all that much by himself. He enjoys company, hence the crew. It was three great races, the second Sunday of the Chilli Series, and aside from the fact that we mis-read the course for the first race and so were disqualified from it, we did veery well in the next two and won our class in the over-all series. Not a baad Sunda of sailing.
Monday started out gray and eventually turn wet, but nonetheless, I went and helped out Rich Weber get his boat ready to launch. It is an old boat, but new for him, and he had to remove all the lifeline stanchions as all were cracked, a a couple broken.They are a one-piece rod-&-base, held to the deck with four bolts. As seems common on all boats, taking them off was easy, but re-installing them was difficult. You could get to one or two of the boat rather easily in most cases, but there were always at least 2 that you needed to be a contortionist to get the washer and nut on, and most of the time, it had to be cone completely by feel, without being able to see what you were doing. The basic procedure was to put caulking around the four holes on the deck, a line of caulking around what would be the edge of the base, set the base down, insert the four screws, put on the washers and nuts and tighten the whole thing down, the inside make holding the nut while the outside man tightened. The toss-up between being the outside man and the inside man was choosing whether you wanted to be the contortionist or whether you wanted to be out on the deck in the rain. I got the rain!
And it poured all night. Hard rain and lots of wind and it was rock 'n' roll all night long. Ah, the fun of baot ownership.
Friday, June 7, 2013
It Should Be Summer! ! ! ! ! !
SHIP'S LOG:
. . . . but it ain't! True, it does actually get comfortable enough to wear shorts and t's, but it is still "chilly." Stand in the blowing wind, it is actually cold. Temps at night are down in the low 50's, the water temperature is still official "cold and the wind blows constantly. The again, it is happening in New London as opposed to it happening in Portland, so it could be worse. But really, I don't care a lick as I am here and not there and I can go sailing any time I want!
Then again, I really have to get ABISHAG cleaned up and ordered. I am still trying to figure out where everything goes on the boat. Last year, everything had its place, but so far this year there is still a lot of stuff in the salon and I can't seem to remember where and how I had it stored last year. In addition, there is still more stuff to come, but I can bring it to the boat until I find a "home" for all the stuff that I have now.
I had though that it would take awhile to get into the routine of living on the boat again. Truth be told, it took less than a day. I got right back into the mind-set. As I lay in my berth Tuesday night, the wind was blowing quite a bit. I could hear the "comforting sound" of the wind generator turning. There was, however, a ticking, clicking sound when the wind blew strong. My first, and actually only thought, was that something was screwed up with the generator. It actually sounded as though the blades were hitting a shroud our something. Since it was night and the generator was 40 feet in the air, there was nothing I could do about it so I rolled over and went back to sleep. The next morning there was no wind . . . . at first, so I could not track down the source of the sound. Eventually the wind picked up enough to get the generator turning a good clip so I went to the mizzen mast and put my ear against it. There was some rattling so I gave a gentle pull to the wires running from the generator to see if maybe there were loos and so whacking the inside of the mast. I went into the stern cabin to see if I could still here the sound and . . . .yup, it was still there! Damn! As I "raised my eye to heaven in prayer" figuring now that I would have to go all the way back to Portland so they could fix the problem, I happened to glance out the hatch and could see one of the shrouds really vibrating. Hey, perhaps this is the problem, one that could be solved with a simple tightening of the rig. So it was back up to the Mizzen Mast and that shroud. But it wasn't the shroud exactly. Attached to the shroud is a small flag halyard cleat, on of five on the boat. With no flag attached, the halyard was secured to the cleat and the two bronze clips, used to attach a flag to the halyard, were right at the cleat. And as the shroud vibrated, they beat a tattoo on the shroud producing the clicking/ticking sound. I retied the halyard with the clips up at the top near the block. Problem solve! Huzzah!
All eyes down here are on the 1st Hurricane of the season which came to birth on the first day of the official Hurricane Season, June 1st. True, ANDREA is only listed as a "Tropical Storm," but then so was SANDY and IRENE! Right now she is moving along the coast of South Carolina and head our way. Hopefully, Cape Hatteras and its barrier islands will do their job and send her spinning off into the Atlantic, keeping her far from us. We are already feeling the effects here and the weather today and tonight will be a bit nasty, with lots of rain and some decent wind. It is being pushed by ANDREA, but it is more her influence than her real impact. Still, it is a bit disconcerting to have a storm like this possibly headed our way so early in the season. I haven't been paying much attention to the weather for the past 6 months, now once again, it has to become part of the daily routine. O Joy Of Joys!
. . . . but it ain't! True, it does actually get comfortable enough to wear shorts and t's, but it is still "chilly." Stand in the blowing wind, it is actually cold. Temps at night are down in the low 50's, the water temperature is still official "cold and the wind blows constantly. The again, it is happening in New London as opposed to it happening in Portland, so it could be worse. But really, I don't care a lick as I am here and not there and I can go sailing any time I want!
Then again, I really have to get ABISHAG cleaned up and ordered. I am still trying to figure out where everything goes on the boat. Last year, everything had its place, but so far this year there is still a lot of stuff in the salon and I can't seem to remember where and how I had it stored last year. In addition, there is still more stuff to come, but I can bring it to the boat until I find a "home" for all the stuff that I have now.
I had though that it would take awhile to get into the routine of living on the boat again. Truth be told, it took less than a day. I got right back into the mind-set. As I lay in my berth Tuesday night, the wind was blowing quite a bit. I could hear the "comforting sound" of the wind generator turning. There was, however, a ticking, clicking sound when the wind blew strong. My first, and actually only thought, was that something was screwed up with the generator. It actually sounded as though the blades were hitting a shroud our something. Since it was night and the generator was 40 feet in the air, there was nothing I could do about it so I rolled over and went back to sleep. The next morning there was no wind . . . . at first, so I could not track down the source of the sound. Eventually the wind picked up enough to get the generator turning a good clip so I went to the mizzen mast and put my ear against it. There was some rattling so I gave a gentle pull to the wires running from the generator to see if maybe there were loos and so whacking the inside of the mast. I went into the stern cabin to see if I could still here the sound and . . . .yup, it was still there! Damn! As I "raised my eye to heaven in prayer" figuring now that I would have to go all the way back to Portland so they could fix the problem, I happened to glance out the hatch and could see one of the shrouds really vibrating. Hey, perhaps this is the problem, one that could be solved with a simple tightening of the rig. So it was back up to the Mizzen Mast and that shroud. But it wasn't the shroud exactly. Attached to the shroud is a small flag halyard cleat, on of five on the boat. With no flag attached, the halyard was secured to the cleat and the two bronze clips, used to attach a flag to the halyard, were right at the cleat. And as the shroud vibrated, they beat a tattoo on the shroud producing the clicking/ticking sound. I retied the halyard with the clips up at the top near the block. Problem solve! Huzzah!
All eyes down here are on the 1st Hurricane of the season which came to birth on the first day of the official Hurricane Season, June 1st. True, ANDREA is only listed as a "Tropical Storm," but then so was SANDY and IRENE! Right now she is moving along the coast of South Carolina and head our way. Hopefully, Cape Hatteras and its barrier islands will do their job and send her spinning off into the Atlantic, keeping her far from us. We are already feeling the effects here and the weather today and tonight will be a bit nasty, with lots of rain and some decent wind. It is being pushed by ANDREA, but it is more her influence than her real impact. Still, it is a bit disconcerting to have a storm like this possibly headed our way so early in the season. I haven't been paying much attention to the weather for the past 6 months, now once again, it has to become part of the daily routine. O Joy Of Joys!
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
WAITING NO MORE! ! ! ! ! !
SHIP'S LOG:
At Last, At Last, At Last . . . . I write this from the upstairs lounge of TYC and 100 yards away, ABISHAG rests peacefully at the dock. Yes, SUMMER has truly begun. HUZZAH! ! ! ! !
Russ Kennedy and Tim Duffy joined me for the trip from Portland(Goodbye!) to New London (Hello!) on what could only be described as a perfect day! The wind was blowing 10 - 15 knots, gusts to 20,out of the Northwest shift later to the Southwest. The only negative, if you wanted to count it, was that we were battling the tide on the run up the Sound from Saybrook to New London but with the wind, we still averaged 6.5 knots topping out at 8! in the gusts and when surfing. It was fantastic for a first day sail.
The trip down the Connecticut River was uneventful which is a good thing. The only thing of note was the rather shallow water depths just south of the Pratt & Whitney Plant. For the most part now, the is little in the way of commercial traffic going up and down the river and as a result there is little reason for them, whoever "them" are, to do the needed dredging. As a result, it is beginning to silt-up badly in several places, more the further north you go. We actually had to slow down and creep around the corner and the depth actually played with the 9-10 foot mark but that was as low as it went. Drawing 5.5 feet, it was a little cause for concern but it was only momentary. And aside from that, it was no muss, no fuss. It was interesting to see that the depths on the chart and what we were reading on the depth sounder were not always in agreement. Some places were more filled in and others were scowered out, though the fill-ins out numbered the scrower-outers.
On second thought, there were two things that happened that were amusing and each involved one of the two bridges we had to pass on the river. At the East Hadem Swing Bridge, which opens on the half hour, we got there in place about 11:15 and so had to wait. We used the time to have lunch and help out another sailboater waiting for the bridge with a radio problem he was having. It was a fun way to past the time and wait for the 11:30. At 11:30, the warning bells and horn went off, the gates dropped, the cars stopped and the bridge didn't open! Something was stuck and the poor woman bridge tender was really embarrassed and so apologetic. It wasn't a long delay, about 12 minutes, so it didn't have much of an impact on us. However since the bridge, like most these days, once it started to open, couldn't be closed until it was all the way open. This caused a problem for the State Police who came roaring up to the barrier, lights flashing, siren wailing, just after the bridge started its swing. When we passed through the bridge, I thanked the tender over the radio and she apologized again. When I mentioned that the Staties must be really upset, she brushed it off saying that when they come by "on the job" they are supposed to call ahead and notify the bridge tender and ascertain the status of the bridge. These guys didn't call an so she said it was their own fault.
Down near the mouth of the river is the Lyme Railroad bridge. As we cross under the Baldwin Bridge (I-95), I called the Railroad bridge and asked when their next opening was. I did this more to find out if it was back in regular service. It had been very restricted in service for several weeks and surprisingly it is tough to get up-to-date info on its status. The bridge tender told up to get up close, in bridge terms less than 100 yards and call again. Between the time we called and then got to the 100 yard spot, two trains cross the bridge in opposite direction. Once the second one pass the tender called us and told us he was opening the bridge and then proceeded to launch into a long mechanical history about the bridge - it's 105 years old; it has a different operating system now than when he started 45 years ago; it moves at 50% slower speed opening and 20% slower speed than closing than when he started; it has "chimpanzee controls" rather than controlling with levers the bridge so that he can raise and lower it to the degree needed, now he just has to push a button but like most bridges, once pushed it has to open all the way before it will be able to be closed. He went on and on and on. I think he was lonely.
With the great flooding of the river (thank goodness no debris) and the good wind we made the trip in seven hours which is an hour better than last year.However, this was a more pleasant and enjoyable trip. Still, it was also exhuming as I am certainly out of sailing shape after the winter. But I am here now and all is right with the world.
At Last, At Last, At Last . . . . I write this from the upstairs lounge of TYC and 100 yards away, ABISHAG rests peacefully at the dock. Yes, SUMMER has truly begun. HUZZAH! ! ! ! !
Russ Kennedy and Tim Duffy joined me for the trip from Portland(Goodbye!) to New London (Hello!) on what could only be described as a perfect day! The wind was blowing 10 - 15 knots, gusts to 20,out of the Northwest shift later to the Southwest. The only negative, if you wanted to count it, was that we were battling the tide on the run up the Sound from Saybrook to New London but with the wind, we still averaged 6.5 knots topping out at 8! in the gusts and when surfing. It was fantastic for a first day sail.
The trip down the Connecticut River was uneventful which is a good thing. The only thing of note was the rather shallow water depths just south of the Pratt & Whitney Plant. For the most part now, the is little in the way of commercial traffic going up and down the river and as a result there is little reason for them, whoever "them" are, to do the needed dredging. As a result, it is beginning to silt-up badly in several places, more the further north you go. We actually had to slow down and creep around the corner and the depth actually played with the 9-10 foot mark but that was as low as it went. Drawing 5.5 feet, it was a little cause for concern but it was only momentary. And aside from that, it was no muss, no fuss. It was interesting to see that the depths on the chart and what we were reading on the depth sounder were not always in agreement. Some places were more filled in and others were scowered out, though the fill-ins out numbered the scrower-outers.
On second thought, there were two things that happened that were amusing and each involved one of the two bridges we had to pass on the river. At the East Hadem Swing Bridge, which opens on the half hour, we got there in place about 11:15 and so had to wait. We used the time to have lunch and help out another sailboater waiting for the bridge with a radio problem he was having. It was a fun way to past the time and wait for the 11:30. At 11:30, the warning bells and horn went off, the gates dropped, the cars stopped and the bridge didn't open! Something was stuck and the poor woman bridge tender was really embarrassed and so apologetic. It wasn't a long delay, about 12 minutes, so it didn't have much of an impact on us. However since the bridge, like most these days, once it started to open, couldn't be closed until it was all the way open. This caused a problem for the State Police who came roaring up to the barrier, lights flashing, siren wailing, just after the bridge started its swing. When we passed through the bridge, I thanked the tender over the radio and she apologized again. When I mentioned that the Staties must be really upset, she brushed it off saying that when they come by "on the job" they are supposed to call ahead and notify the bridge tender and ascertain the status of the bridge. These guys didn't call an so she said it was their own fault.
Down near the mouth of the river is the Lyme Railroad bridge. As we cross under the Baldwin Bridge (I-95), I called the Railroad bridge and asked when their next opening was. I did this more to find out if it was back in regular service. It had been very restricted in service for several weeks and surprisingly it is tough to get up-to-date info on its status. The bridge tender told up to get up close, in bridge terms less than 100 yards and call again. Between the time we called and then got to the 100 yard spot, two trains cross the bridge in opposite direction. Once the second one pass the tender called us and told us he was opening the bridge and then proceeded to launch into a long mechanical history about the bridge - it's 105 years old; it has a different operating system now than when he started 45 years ago; it moves at 50% slower speed opening and 20% slower speed than closing than when he started; it has "chimpanzee controls" rather than controlling with levers the bridge so that he can raise and lower it to the degree needed, now he just has to push a button but like most bridges, once pushed it has to open all the way before it will be able to be closed. He went on and on and on. I think he was lonely.
With the great flooding of the river (thank goodness no debris) and the good wind we made the trip in seven hours which is an hour better than last year.However, this was a more pleasant and enjoyable trip. Still, it was also exhuming as I am certainly out of sailing shape after the winter. But I am here now and all is right with the world.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Waiting! Waiting! Waiting! etc . . . . . . .
SHIP'S LOG:
ABISHAG has been sitting patiently at "C" Dock at Yankee Boatyard in Portland all set and ready to go. Unfortunately, it isn't anything wrong with her that is hold the departure back, it is what is wrong with my bank account, too few Marine Units. Actually, I have almost all of it and hopefully will have it all by the end of the week. Then it will be clear sailing if:
a.) there is not a lot of flotsam & jetsam washing down the Connecticut River after the deluge of the past week;
b.) if the Lyme Railroad Bridge is functioning normally;
c.) if the wind moderates just a tad;
d.) if the storms are over for awhile.
If it all works out, I should be at TYC by the weekend but I have learned never to make "firm" plans more than 24 - 48 hours in advance as things have a way of changing and sometimes just don't work out as you want. Ask George Armstrong Custer about plans.
ABISHAG has been sitting patiently at "C" Dock at Yankee Boatyard in Portland all set and ready to go. Unfortunately, it isn't anything wrong with her that is hold the departure back, it is what is wrong with my bank account, too few Marine Units. Actually, I have almost all of it and hopefully will have it all by the end of the week. Then it will be clear sailing if:
a.) there is not a lot of flotsam & jetsam washing down the Connecticut River after the deluge of the past week;
b.) if the Lyme Railroad Bridge is functioning normally;
c.) if the wind moderates just a tad;
d.) if the storms are over for awhile.
If it all works out, I should be at TYC by the weekend but I have learned never to make "firm" plans more than 24 - 48 hours in advance as things have a way of changing and sometimes just don't work out as you want. Ask George Armstrong Custer about plans.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
