Sea-Fever blog

Nothing better than a dramatic YouTube video of a classic yacht riding the rough North Sea set to classical music. Enjoy!

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Weekend sailors should be aware of the many different hazards to navigation that they may encounter. Some are rarer than others.

Wishing you safe and enjoyable boating!

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Monday was a bad day for historic schooner groundings on both coasts of the United States.

First, the Adventuress ran aground off Orca Island while transiting Wasp Pass in the San Juans off Washington State. Our friend, marine salvor and fellow maritime blogger Captain Richard Rodriguez is all over this story, literally! As you can see from his above photo, his vessel and blog share the same name: Bitter End. Thankfully, that won’t be the result for the Adventuress; no injuries or serious hull damage has been reported. (KING 5 video report)

Tragically, another historic schooner, Robertson II, met her bitter end last year in similarly treacherous waters off the coast of Washington state.

Meanwhile on the Atlantic Coast, the Sylvina W. Beal, a Maine windjammer ran also ran aground yesterday. The Canadian Press reports:

The U.S. Coast Guard station in Eastport, Maine, says it received a report Monday night that the schooner Sylvina W. Beal had run aground near Indian Island in Head Harbor Passage and needed help. he Coast Guard evacuated the (41) passengers from the 25-metre-long vessel. No injuries or pollution are reported and the coast guard says the vessel is not taking on water.

The good news is that there were no reported injuries, significant damage or pollution in either incident.

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On Thursday we got a call from Luke’s (5) daycare that they would be closed on Friday because electricity had to be turned off in that part of town for a few hours. A little while later my mother called to say that she couldn’t babysit Joy (3) like she does every Friday because she and my father had to attend a funeral. My wife Jenny has been extremely busy with work over the past few weeks so that left me to entertain our little people. Uh, oh! Thank god for friends! More on that in a bit.

Thursday night Luke and I took my podcasting partner, gCaptain CEO/blogger and friend Captain John Konrad with us to a book signing at The Book Stall in Marion. Another friend, Randy Peffer, is an English professor at Phillips Academy Andover and prolific author. His newest book is titled Old School Bones; fortunately for Randy, but unfortunately for us, the book signing was so successful that he ran out of books by the time we arrived so we had to back order it.

Randy also has several great maritime themed works including Watermen, a classic, and Logs of the Dead Pirates Society: A Schooner Adventure Around Buzzards Bay, one of my all time favorites. As its name suggests, Logs chronicles a sail training adventure with Andover students around Buzzards Bay on Randy’s Nova Scotia schooner Sarah Abbott. He also has a US Civil War maritime series coming out later this year. Randy writes!

At the book signing Randy asked if we wanted to go sailing Friday. Well, Captain Konrad unfortunately had to work but the little people and me were free so we took him up on the offer. Saved by sailing!

What an great day we had on Buzzards Bay. Here are a couple of pictures and a short video (the sound is terrible but you get the idea what kind day it was on the bay.)

Continuing on the topics of sailing and books, in today’s (June 21, 2008 ) Weekend Wall Street Journal Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the first man to solo circumnavigate the globe nonstop lists his 5 favorite sailing books:

1. The Last Grain Race by Eric Newby (Houghton Mifflin, 1956)
2. Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana. 1840
3. The Acts of the Apostles circa A.D. 60
4. Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum, 1899
5. Last Man Across the Atlantic by Paul Heiney (Mainstream, 2006)

Those are all great books for your maritime library. Of course, make sure you also have Watermen and Logs of the Dead Pirate Society too!

Finally, if you need more to read this summer, Bookmarks Magazine had a great article in August 2006 entitled 101 Crackerjack Sea Books by Dean King. This list should keep you busy for a while!

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The Tabor Boy Project is one year old!

It all start after attending a Headmaster’s Council meeting at Tabor Academy on April 14, 2007. I have always felt incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to go to Tabor but that day really brought it home for me. While It is great to catch up with a few of the Council members that I went to school with or which I knew from living locally, the real inspiration came from the camaraderie and fellowship that spanned across the decades represented that day.

Last April Drs. John Crosby and Karl Kistler made a great presentation during the Headmaster’s Council meeting that became the inspiration for the first post on The Tabor Boy Project. Teaching Ocean Science at Tabor. Last Friday, April 11th, Dr. Crosby, this time with 5 Tabor students, made another fascinating presentation about the Caribbean studies program that took place aboard SSV Tabor Boy this winter. Clearly for me the highlight was listening to the animated young students tell stories that will stay with them for a lifetime. It’s great to know that at her advanced age, Tabor Boy still has it in her to excite young people, foster real learning and transform adventurous adolescents into young adults. Check out the Caribbean Studies section of Tabor’s website.

My mother found the these two photos in a shoe box last week. In the top one, that’s me on the left handing Captain George Glaeser a present. To the right of Capt. is Billy Rose, also Class of 1977 and First Lieutenant on Tabor Boy. For a little spooky foreshadowing, I’m wearing a t-shirt from the American Sail Training Association, an organization that I would go on to lead 24 years later. (2001-2006)

To me the above picture really captures the essence of my experience at Tabor. There’s Capt. and Mrs. G. sitting around with us boys and a couple of dogs: one big happy family. Of course, we all had our families at home but this was our Tabor family all brought closer by our shared experiences aboard Tabor Boy. For me The Tabor Boy Project has extended that family even farther.

I started using Google Analytics to track activity on The Tabor Boy Project in August 2007 and thought you may be interested in some of these statistics:

• 109 Crew members
• 425+ photographs
• 2,812 visitors
• 1,783 absolute unique visitors
• 19,144 page views
• 53 countries
• Dozens of blog and forum posts and replies,
• Countless messages between members

More important than any of these numbers is that The Tabor Boy Project, through words and pictures, tells the incredible story of this amazing ship that has changed so many young lives over the years. It has reconnected lost shipmates and been the catalyst for new friendships.

I had very few expectations when I launched The Tabor Boy Project on April 15, 2007. It was simply an experiment in using web 2.0 / social networking tools. One of the exciting things about it is you just don’t know what somebody will contribute. I sincerely thank all who have done so over the first year and I look forward to welcoming aboard more new members, reading more sea stories and viewing more old photographs over the next year. The Tabor Boy Project comes to life through your amazing contributions. Let’s keep telling the story together.  

Cross posted in The Tabor Boy Project and Sea-Fever blog.

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For some strange reason I really love these crazy ocean adventures. I’ve written about a few in the past. (100 Days at Sea - Mars Ocean Odyssey, Abora 3, Roz Savage) On Messing About In Ships podcast we also recently talked about the adventures of Nick from Big Oceans Tiny Boat as he sails solo across the Atlantic in his 26ft boat, Constellation.

Next month a new ocean adventure will get underway in order to raise awareness about plastic marine debris. The Algalita Marine Research Foundation is dedicated to the protection of the marine environment and its watersheds through research, education, and restoration.

“We hope to share our clear message that this mounting issue is no longer “out of sight, out of mind.”

Dr. Marcus Eriksen, the foundation’s research and education director, will embark on voyage from Los Angeles to Hawaii in a 30′ vessel constructed from 30,000 plastic bottles held together by fishing net. The vessel will be called Junk and it will sport a cabin fashioned from the fuselage of a Cessna airplane.

You can follow the expedition on their blog.(http://junkraft.blogspot.com/) and if you are interested in supporting this worthwhile mission, you can sponsor one of the 30,000 plastic bottles for $5. (here).

We wish Junk fair winds and following seas. Godspeed.

Via Neatorama

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Rounding out my last few blog posts, here’s a lesson about Waves from Twitter Sailor Darusha from her presentation at the Bluewater Cruising Association weather seminar. Nice job.

Darusha and Steve keep a blog about their sailing adventures aboard their 45′ centre-cockpit cutter rigged sloop, custom designed by Stan Huntingford and built in 1980 by Schmidt Boatworks in Sidney, BC. Their blog, S.V. Scream, is also the name of the boat.  From “about us:”

Steven and Darusha learned to sail in a classroom in Ross Shepherd High School in Edmonton, Alberta from a Continuing Education class that they thought would be about power boating. After a couple of afternoons on Lake Wabamun, they had attained their Basic Cruising standard through the Canadian Yachting Association and had caught the bug.

Always amazed by how sailing can change life course.

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A couple weeks ago the blogoshere was abuzz about the plant that Twitter’s. Well, that might be interesting to horticulturists, florists and plain old plant lovers but it really doesn’t float my boat.

However, I was excited to learn (via Russell Davies blog) that one of the most famous bridges in the world uses Twitter to tell the world about it’s ups and downs. You can now follow London’s Tower Bridge for the latest activity on River Thames. Now this is something us mariner types can really appreciate.

Not on Twitter? Don’t even know what Twitter is? Here’s a great short video by Lee Lefever of CommonCraft that explains things.

Twitter’s free so you should consider joining and if you do, you can follow me at http://twitter.com/petermello; I’ll end up following you back too. There’s also a group of sailing enthusiasts on Twitter that you can join or follow. Give it a try, it can fun and useful after you get the hang of it.

Photo credit: Diliff via Wikipedia.

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Sea-Fever Style has moved to Saturday to make way for Sunday VOWs.

Last Sunday’s NY Times Play Magazine had a style section titled Mast Appeal which presented “sailing-inspired styles for seaman and landlubber alike. You don’t have to know how to hoist a spinnaker — let alone trim a gollywobbler — to look the part.”

Above: VICTORINOX SWISS ARMY SAILING JACKET made with wind- and abrasion-resistant stretch fabric, a snap-off hood and an adjustable harness to help prevent unintentional swims. $650. swissarmy.com.

Recent Sea-Fever Style Posts:

Sunday Sea-Fever Style (Bonus): Maiden Voyage (NY Times)

Sunday Sea-Fever Style: Living in a shell

Sunday Sea-Fever Style - Jason Taylor’s Underwater Art

Sunday Sea-Fever Style: The Harbour Crane Hotel

Sunday Sea-Fever Style: Tom Price’s Meltdown Chair

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Messing About In Ships podcast episode #13 has launched.

(42 minutes)

Download MP3 file: Messing About In Ships Episode 13

Show Notes over at Messing About In Ships blog

Subscribe Via iTunes HERE

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On Thursday, February 21st, Bonnie from the great frogma blog left a comment on 300 behind, 700 ahead - The 1000 Days at Sea Project with breaking news about Reid Stowe’s 1000 Days At Sea: The Mars Ocean Odyssey. Reid’s sole shipmate Soanya Ahmad longed terra firma after an extended debilitating period of seasickness in the Southern Ocean.

This adventure never ceases to amaze me. The schooner Anne was able to rendezvous with a vessel from the Royal Perth Yacht Club with Jon Sanders, the Australian sailor who became famous in 1988 for his nonstop triple circumnavigation being the person to welcome her aboard. Sanders also currently holds the longest solo at sea record of 657 days. In an ironic twist of fate, now that Soanya’s off the schooner Anne, if Reid is successful in his quest of 1000 days at sea, he will have have spent 693 days alone and will unseat Sanders as the record holder. This story has more twists than a counterclockwise coiled mainsail halyard.

An Australian sailing website Freodoctor.com.au has been closely following the events over the past few days and placed on YouTube a video interview with Soanya and a short one with Jon Sanders too.

To me it’s interesting that after more than 300 continuous days at sea, Soanya still seems remarkably naive and unweathered by the experience (with the exception of the seasickness that caused her to disembark.) Here is a video interview of Reid and Soanya from before launching the Mars Ocean Odyssey (warning, I found this YouTube video to load very slowly)

One chapter of this story ends and another one begins.

Using Web2.0 tools could be interesting but from my perspective the first 300+ days have been pretty humdrum. While the daily chores and routines have been regularly reported, we got few glimpses of the social interactions of their life together at sea. I’m not talking about any of a purient nature but rather the normal ups and downs that build and cause stress in all relationships. Maybe Soanya is saving all of that for the book that she plans to write according to her Freodoctor interview.

Now our window into schooner Anne’s adventures will be from a single perspective, Reid’s. A year ago yesterday I wrote a post about the stresses that are felt by solo ocean racers. (NY Times - Study of Solo Sailor Stress and How Humans Cope). Granted Reid is master of his own route and schedule and therefore isn’t under the same pressures as solo ocean racers; however, if he keeps up the daily schedule of posts on 1000Days.net, he could give us a real valuable look at solo life at sea over an extended period of time. It could be fascinating. Stay tuned…

Photo credit: 1000 Days blog

Related posts:

Final Countdown to 1,000 Days at Sea

Drama on the High Seas

Another Sailing Adventure Departs New York Harbor

208 days at sea, only 792 more to go!

300 behind, 700 ahead - The 1000 Days at Sea Project

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Another significant waypoint in one of the craziest maritime adventures of all time!

As of yesterday 300 days have passed since Schooner Anne left New York City for her 1000 days at sea without making landfall. 100 day increments make for a nice round number so I’ll try to remember to catch them here along with a brief update.

Yesterday Reid and Soanya woke up to a shredded main sail and they report that their spare is buried deep in the cargo hold under several tons of provisions. I’ve been reluctant to be too critical of this expedition; however, how could they stow the most critical sail, and one that is probably destined for the earliest demise, like this? It’ll be interesting to read how they deal with this challenge. They have proven to be pretty adaptive up to this point.

In any case, I continue to wish them well and will continue to follow their adventures via their blog.

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