Elektra at Christmas!

Autumn colors at RivaHaven Y C

Walking the coast near Big Sur California

Ben and Jasmin - San Francisco

Quick weekend at the Tides Inn

Rivah View from the Condo

John takes Elektra out for a spin

Concerts at Atkins Park on the Rivah

Cruise to Cape Charles

Beautiful three day cruise to Cape Charles, departing Garrett's Marina and staying in the Cape Charles House B&B. Fine dining at Aqua and lobster at The Shanty overlooking the harbor. Here we are cruising along at 22 knots back up the Rappahannock Rivah in Emerson's 32 ft Elzey work boat with a large Cummins diesel powering us along... what a fine day, northerly breeze, clear skies, low humidity, and to top it all we nearly rammed a whale 2 miles east of Wolf Trap light on the return trip - a most unusual occurrence in the Bay.

Weekend in Cape Charles

Dinner in Little Carter's Creek

Rappahannock River Sunset

Announcing the Caponka Challenge Cup

First annual Caponka Challenge Cup scheduled for Memorial Day weekend and hosted by the Rivahaven Yacht Club. This is an open invitational to all PHRF handicap rated sailboats. Start line at marker #1 channel entrance to Hoskins Creek, leave to starboard buoy #29, leave to starboard marker #30, back to marker #1 and circle clockwise, loop back and leave to starboard buoy #29, return to finish line at marker #1. Prize awarded to winning sailboat based on time adjusted for handicap. Trophies awarded at the Rivahaven Yacht Club.

PHRF Ratings of boats entered to date: Pearson Electra 288, Kenner Kittywake 270 - that means the Kittywake design is faster and she has to give 18 seconds (difference between 270 and 288 ratings) for every mile raced - the Kittywake has to cross the finish line 61 seconds ahead of the Electra to win the cup.

Caponka Challenge Cup course: #1 to #30: 0.5 miles at 089º, #30 to #29: 0.7 miles at 134º, #29 to #1: 1.2 miles at 295º, #1 to #30: 0.5 miles at 089º, #30 to #1: 0.5 miles at 269º - Total course: 3.4 miles

Tappahannock Concerts by boat!

Chincoteague oysters! aaahhhh!

Elektra on trial

Initial test sail with Elektra in the Rappahannock River. This Carl Alberg designed 1965 Pearson has an urge to take off and can be easily single handled. We still need a motor and so far have managed to sail out of the creek and back in with nimble tacking!

News from RYC

All well at RYC ... Bill (new owner) came by and moved Kittywake off the lift to #4 slip... she will be towed to Garrett's Marina next weekend... Elektra is ready to be moved to #1 dock for inspection...

Rosti!

Experimenting with Swiss dish Rosti - much like hash browns - with runny poached egg topping and freshly baked flatbread from the barbeque grill

Crossing the Great Divide

Heading East at 30,000 ft somewhere near Mono Lake, California and admiring the snow covered topo relief landscape....
 
 

Coyote Point Marina

A very pleasant little marina and park on the lower San Francisco Bay near San Mateo..

First Starbucks store open in'71

First opened in 1971 in Seattle Pike Place Market but strangely enough cannot sell baked goodies due to fair competition rules with other local bakeries - rules laid down by the Pike Place Foundation.

Desolation Pass Washington

Swift flowing tidal stream runs through Desolation Pass which connects the Straits of Juan de Fuca with the Puget Sound.

Boeing Everett

A quick day out to Everett to tour the production plan for 747, 777 and 787's. The 787 line is still rolling out completed aircraft despite being grounded by lithium battery problems... lots of expensive 787's sit parked in every corner of Paine Filed amounting to a multi -billion $ inventory!

Ballard Locks Seattle

Ballard Locks Seattle connect the salty Puget Sound to the fresh water Washington Lake. A salmon fish ladder is built into the lock system to allow salmon to migrate seasonally back up river to their spawning grounds.

Pike Market Seattle

Just a delight of choice, color, variety and tastes!

An Obligatory Visit to Pike Market Seattle

Just one of those things you have to do if you are in the Farmers' Market business. Check out the competition... well at least it is nearly 4,000 miles away!!

Seattle bound but delays abound

RYS expedition to the west coast is delayed several hours while a fierce snow storm batters the NE USA and causes no end of backed up flights and hubs... we manage to slide behind the storm to Chicago and arrive in Seattle with only a few hours lost in the middle of the night.. which we slept through anyway!!

New boathouse at RYC

Finally after four months, the boathouse at RYC is finally rebuilt... well minus electrical work which is ongoing... and the search for a new pontoon or tritoon boat in time for the season....

Selection of Cheeses at the Fete des Rois

Nothing like a bit of cheese.... Comte from the Jura region of France, Brie from Normandy, and a wheel of P'tit Basque lamb's milk from the Pyrenees region... a very tasty cheesy evening at RYC to celebrate the annual Fete des Rois - the Epiphany celebration!