Showing posts with label first. Show all posts
Showing posts with label first. Show all posts
Saturday, December 10, 2016
The worlds first CNC Mirror Dinghy kit has been cut
This is Mirror kit number one as far as CKD Boats cc is concerned, a milestone for us and I am told a world first in Mirror Dinghy history?
News just in today on the subject:
We are very pleased to be selected to offer and build the Mirror Dinghy kits, this first kit has a buyer and once we have it built, then measured we will be offering the design as a kit.
http://www.ukmirrorsailing.com/
Fully built boats to any standard are possible.
Roy
News just in today on the subject:
Hi Roy,
yes, you are the 1st to CNC cut a kit.
Click the picture to enlarge it.
We are very pleased to be selected to offer and build the Mirror Dinghy kits, this first kit has a buyer and once we have it built, then measured we will be offering the design as a kit.
http://www.ukmirrorsailing.com/
Fully built boats to any standard are possible.
Roy
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
The First Chill
Fall arrived at pace a few nights ago, the temperature dropping 20 degrees overnight and staying put, with the October winds showing up for good measure as well. Today, looked to be a good day with some breeze and a lot of sun. It is time for my annual collecting of shed swan feathers.
I found most of the swans, some eighty or so, in the bottom of the cove. Unfortunately, it was windier than predicted, something closer to 20 than 10, and it had been windy for a few days. So, there were very few feathers to be found, certainly not enough to be worth wetting my fingers on such a chilly day (my fingers were numb from the cold wind alone). Any feathers that had been shed were long blown into the depths of the marsh where I could not reach or even see them.
I clawed my way into the headwind up the cove, hugging the shore for whatever buffer the forest might provide, and turned up the Moodus, a narrow and relatively protected river. Once out of the wind, I paddled along slowly and quietly staying alert for fauna and scanning the bottom for the odd rare find of past events. I spotted 2 kingfishers, heard one distant woodpecker, and saw a flicker.
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| The Moodus |
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| Beaver bank burrow in the Moodus |
Returning to the cove, I crossed to the far side and took the tailwind boost down that shore. The late staying osprey is here. I'm guessing it is the same late osprey as last year, one that stays long after the others have migrated south. When I cross back over the cove, I notice the silhouettes of two large birds in a bare tree top. The whistle and chatter ID's them as bald eagles. I get several minutes to enjoy them as the wind pushes me past their perch.
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Our first overnight guests!
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| Can you tell they're brothers? |
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| Trouble in a dinghy! |
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| A good day of sailing |
We had a lazy morning at anchor, with coffee and smoothies and BIL heading out in the kayak. The wind started to pick up nicely, so we hauled up anchor by 10:00 am (nice to have extra crew members) and had the sails up 15 minutes later as we turned back into the main part of the Chowan. The brother's were quickly playing with sail configurations/trim and different tacks. It was a beautiful day to sail with 10-15 kts of wind and max speed of 7.5 kts. We started with a close reach, then a beam reach and finally a run.
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| I love these guys! Three way Cunningham sail trim consult! |
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| Every day is something new. We finally got around the a wing & wing configuration. |
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| Beautiful downtown Edenton Marina & Lighthouse |
Family departs Sunday morning. I stepped out into the cockpit to see the Captain watching his brother scrubbing the may flies off the deck. "What's going on out here?" "He volunteered!" The second our guests head down the dock, Amelia comes out to reclaim her territory! We borrowed the marina courtesy car to go grocery shopping (but no beer, because it's before noon on Sunday--Captain will have to make a second trip), cleaning and naps. As usual, we've found a another party on the waterfront. It's Music by the Bay sponsored by the Barkley House--Justin Holland & Friends is playing acoustic country right across from the marina. We sneak onto the upstairs porch of the Barkley House and watch from the shade of the rocking chairs with a breeze. Purchased the books, History of the Dismal Swamp and Cornbread Nation.
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| Music by the Bay (with Odin in the top right) |
Thursday, October 27, 2016
First Boats First Voyagers
A good friend gave me a copy of Jared Diamond's Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
for Christmas. I'm about halfway through it -- good stuff, indeed. Early on, there's an interesting passage about the probable use of watercraft a long, long time ago. I'll quote at some length:The Great Leap Forward (what Diamond calls the evolution from earlier versions of man to Cro-Magnons, the first fully modern humans) coincides with the first proven major extenion of human geographic range since our ancestors' colonization of Eurasia. That extension consisted of the occupation of Australia and New Guinea, joined at that time into a single continent. Many radiocarbon-dated sites attest to human presence in Autralia/New Guinea between 40,000 and 30,000 years ago (plus the inevitable somewhat older claims of contested validity). Within a short time of that initial peopling, humans had expanded over the whole continent and adapted to its diverse habitats, from the tropical rain forests and high mountains of New Guinea to the dry interior and wet southeastern corner of Australia.
During the Ice Ages, so much of the oceans' water was locked up in glaciers that worldwide sea levels dropped hundreds of feet below their present stand. As a result, what are now the shallow seas between Asia and the Indonesian islands of Sumatra, Borneo, Java, and Bali became dry land. (So did other shallow straits, such as the Bering Strait and the English Channel.) The edge of the Southeast Asian mainland then lay 700 miles east of its present location. Nevertheless, central Indonesian islands between Bali and Australia remained surrounded and separated by deep-water channels. To reach Australia/New Guinea from the Asian mainland at that time still required crossing a minimum of eight channels, the broadest of which was at least 50 miles wide. Most of those channels divided islands visible from each other, but Australia itself was always invisible from even the nearest Indonesian islands, Timor and Tanimbar. Thus, the occupation of Australia/New Guinea is momentous in that it demanded watercraft and provides by far the earliest evidence of their use in history. Not until about 30,000 years later (13,000 years ago) is there strong evidence of watercraft anywhere else in the world, from the Mediterranean.
Initially, archaeologists considered the possibility that the colonization of Australia/New Guinea was achieved accidentally by just a few people swept to sea while fishing on a raft near an Indonesian island. In an extreme scenario the first settlers are pictured as having consisted of a single pregnant young woman carrying a male fetus. But believers in the fluke-colonization theory have been surprised by recent discoveries that still other islands, lying to the east of New Guinea, were colonized soon after New Guinea itself, by around 35,000 years ago. Those islands were New Britain and New Ireland, in the Bismarck Archipelago, and Buka, in the Solomon Archipelago. Buka lies out of sight of the closest island to the west and could have been reached only by crossing a water gap of about 100 miles. Thus, early Australians and new Guineans were probably capable of intentionally traveling over water to visible islands, and were using watercraft sufficiently often that the colonization of even invisible distant island was repeatedly achieved unintentionally.
Wow. 40,000 years ago! You go, boat people.
Monday, October 24, 2016
The First Hatch
I stroll the Harrison portage to the big lake. For some reason, it seems a leisurely and casual walk and I savor whatever it is that is in today's air. My conversations along the way are brief and not much more than a nod or a greeting of just a few words.
A southeast wind blows on the big lake and I paddle north with a moderate wave and chop that comes to me behind my right shoulder. It goes well and I round Potlatch Point and move up to the big lodge to check on the goose nest. It has not yet hatched - it should be a few more days, but all is well and the female rolls her eggs while I am there. Then, I just poke around in the back corners of the east marsh. The floating island is still where it was on my last trip, sealing the west channel. I find a scent mound (beaver) in the center of the north patch, just a splatter of mud on top of a grassy hummock, but with my nose down to it, I can pick up the odor of castoreum.
I head out and around the bay, a survey to see what is changing in the May marsh. There are very few ducks left. I spot a few buffleheads, a few ringnecks, and. up north, a small flock of common mergansers. Most of the winter migrants are well off and the bay is Canada geese, and the resident ducks. When I get to the South Railroad Island, I find that the incredibly wealthy asshole that lives nearby has view pruned city property once again, in nesting season. It's not enough to have a ten million dollar property... f-ing pig.
As I enter Yesler Swamp, I find two Canada geese herding four golden goslings. This the the first hatch of the year and it was the first nest that I found. The nest looks like it was abandoned within the last day or two (once the goslings hatch, they have no use for the nest...and goose nests are pretty primitive at that). The big female bald eagle from the north nest is perched nearby.
I wonder how many eggs hatched. Anyway, those two adults are not giving the young much room. Crossing the north shore, I find another 75 lb block of foam. As I wrestle the pig into the canoe I stand in a soup of foam pebbles that have crumbled off. This junk should be banned from use as floatation material. I dispose of it in the usual spot where the grounds keepers can get at it.
I exit at Portage Bay. Just as I come to shore, I catch a serpentine dive out of the corner of my eye. I pause, and while watching, catch a second brief serpentine dive, again out of the corner of my eye. This time I spot the bubble trail and I sit still until a small river otter pops up all too close to the canoe, as they often do. Then, it's gone. And soon, a mother duck with a large brood of ducklings takes to the water. They were most likely on shore while the otter was near, as otters do eat baby ducks.
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