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!

Christmas wine selection

Seasonally appropriate selection for Christmas dinner - "Recanati" - a red Cabernet Sauvignon from Galilee in promised land Israel

Degustation d'huitres

Specialite de la region - degustation d'huitres de la Rappahannock avec vin blanc naturellement - Jour de Noel 2012. Huitres creuse avec citron ou huitres creuse cuit au barbeque.  Regional specialty dishes... oysters raw with cocktail sauce, or grilled on the barbeque and drizzled with butter and lemon... great pre-Christmas delight.... With Ben, Thompson, David, and JT Eberline.

Merry Christmas

Unbeknownst in popular lore (Matthew 2:11) there were originally five wise men... well actually three wise men featured in the nativity and one not so wise man and one wise woman. Unfortunately #4 and #5 camel had navigational problems and ended up following the wrong star and arrived in the land of the Pharoahs and not Bethlehem where they were supposed to deliver their gifts of fruitcake and maple syrup....

Activity at RYC

Trusses arrive by barge at RYC and are craned into the new reconstruction part of the boat house roof. Meanwhile the fully loaded Purdue grain barge eases out of the creek for the 16 hour slow push to the hungry chickens destination on the Eastern Shore. 

Emerson rises to the musical challenge!!

Outnumbered 3 to 1 by the German passengers (some who fancied themselves as the next Pavarotti), the US team drew their trump card for the musical performance - Emerson's performance.... it was such a success he immediately had a fan club of ladies who insisted on his performance at the musical soiree....

Atlantic Crossing

Half way across the Atlantic Ocean on a Clipper Tall Ship - Canaries to Barbados Transatlantic crossing sunset at 19.13N & 42.06W

More navel business in Marrakech

On a trip across the ocean it is sometimes to easy to confuse naval exercise with navel exercise.... our overnight trip from Casablanca to Marrakech featured the inevitable belly dancing performance while we ate dinner.  Mohammed the guide was a high pressure connection dude detouring us through many of his cronies stores in the medina souk of Marrakech hoping for high kickbacks.  He did not bargain for this group's reticence in making yet more useless acquisitions and nearly had a revolt on his hands. 

Taking the Pilot onboard at Tenerife, Canaries

On November 13th we approached Santa Cruz de Tenerife, one the main islands of the Canaries in the Atlantic. The pilot climbs aboard to guide the Royal Clipper into Tenerife harbour.

Tram #28 is full of pick-pockets

Throughout Lisbon's streets these small and ancient one car trams navigate their way along their rail tracks. Tram line #28 is the line that goes through the area with the most tourist appeal and hence has the reputation for being favoured by local pickpockets as the line with the richest pickings!!

 

More photos from Lisbon click here

Lisbon's famed Fado performance

The rich sadness of the Fado singers comes from the huge sadness of the loss of husband or lover who left Lisbon on a voyage of exploration and never returned. 

Torre de Belem - Lisbon, Portugal

The Tower of Belem symbolizes the great age of Portuguese World exploration - built 1515 it is now listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.....

Waiting for Hurricane Sandy....

Obviously Channel 8 News out of Richmond knows something we don't! Their news truck stood by waiting for high water by the condomimium on Prince Street and were sorely disappointed - they should have gone North a couple hundred miles... thank goodnes for us!

Here comes the Bride

Jahantab and Laree nuptials celebrated on the Inner Harbor at Baltimore one day before Hurricane Sandy sweeps in - married in the nick of time!

Weather station for Harborside

Another Digital Wisdom project installing a Davis weather reporting station at Harborside Storage and Garrett's Marina - see http://www.harborsidestorage.com/weather/Current_Vantage_Pro_Plus.htm for the current weather conditions in the area!

West Coast Treats HQ

Treats at the FurBall.....

Nothing quite like dessert at the Jefferson scene of the annual FurBall fund raiser by the Richmond SPCA - this white and dark chocolate dessert was a play on dog treats for the owners.

Another Beautiful Morning.... After the Disaster

Squashed Pontoon Boat!

Remains of the Devastation!

Over the House......

Last Trunk Removed Showing Boathouse Damage

Inches to spare!

Oak Trunk Disease Revealed

Tree Removal at RYC

Autumn foliage at RYC

Dock Forested

Remaining Oak Leans Over House

Catastrophe at RYC