Post Barge Collision Reconstruction

Jes and crew from Edgewater Marine sinking 35 ft pilings to replace the broken and fractured pilings from the barge "HBM 3022" and tug "Evelyn Doris" collision. New 12500 lbs lift will be installed and Elektra remounted.

Bodie Island Lighthouse

The entrance to Oregon Inlet to Pamlico Sound is under the watchful eye of this lighthouse. A splendid week in OBX (Haterras Outer Banks Islands) was a seafood delight!

Avalon Pier OBX

Walking the miles of beach you come across iconic Americana like this old fishing pier that has survived countless hurricanes and storms!

Just Gardens Tour

Upper Essex Just Gardens Tour allowed for an afternoon stroll in the Wellford Garden to admire the beautiful ponds with lilies and kois... so peaceful !

Prepping the Caponka Buoys

Getting ready for the big day when we install the three wreck buoys around the remains of the 220ft Caponka twin screw wooden steamship just off the main channel of the Rappahannock River.

Dinner Tonight!

Three different variations of Indonesian curries being served - vegetarian version, non-dairy version and my version! (Shrimp and Yogurt!)

Finally back go School!

Back to Hogwarths on the Harry Potter trail at Universal Studios!

Hogwart's Express

	Here's ex-GWR #5972 "Olton Hall" a.k.a. "Hogwart's Express" taking advantage of the Harry Potter craze for all it's worth. In actual fact, not only is the story pure fantasy, but so is the paint scheme and name on "Olton Hall!" It's a Great Western Hall Class, not a Castle Class and Great Western painted their locomotives Brunswick Green, not red!

Checking out sunset at Naples Beach

Re: Barge collision with Elektra

Purdue tug was trying to leave mid-tide with a fully loaded grain barge that draws ten feet - it hit the mud on the creek bottom and slid sideways into our dock and boat. The tide was about 18 inches lower than normal because the high winds that blew the water down river. Elektra is a classic Carl Alberg design yacht built by Pearson - a 23 ft fibre-glass hull built in 1965 and fully restored in 2002. The boat is model is Electra and we have named her Elektra - she suffered only minor scratch to the hull. Jes Sgroi with Edgewater Marine is salvaging the boat right now before high winds tonight that could displace the precarious state of the boat lift and cause much more damage.

Nautical icon!

The trident has always been an inspiration for nautical adventure and mythology of power at sea. Found this one in Islands of Adventure in Universal Studios in Orlando!

Cold night at RivaHaven Yacht Club

Winter on Hoskins Creek

After a couple of nights of 15ºF temperature,
Hoskins Creek is completely iced over allowing
our friend the fox to traverse the solid ice and
start exploring the island. Yesterday a Nutria
walked the waterfront trying to find his natural habitat....

Short side trip to West Palm Beach

How much power do you really need?

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!

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....