A BELUGA WHALE EPIPHANY

Coming back from the Exumas cruise I had good intentions to get BIANKA splashed as soon as possible. Until I heard of some unusual visitors in Long Island Sound. Three Beluga Whales where feeding and playing around in various harbors on Long Island Sound. Since these creatures normally reside in Arctic waters having them in the local area is a reminder that the cold temperatures of the past brutal winter are still leaving their mark on the local waters. So that I might not be able to start swimming off the boat soon.  I'm now thinking there really is no rush to get  launch the boat and get out to the mooring until things warm up a bit. I'll continue on my various brightwork projects for another week or so. Trimming with paint brushes is always better when the boat is not moving about anyway.

ANOTHER MAGICAL EVENING

 I was a little bummed as I finished cooking some Chicken Tika Marsala for which I forget to buy some cream to finish it off so I had to use non fat milk instead.  Oh well. As I sat down in the cockpit to enjoy it along with a nice glass of red wine, I heard from across the channel the channel the jolly sound of a Concertina  being played. The delightful sound of sea shanties one after another were drifting across the water in the still night air providing me with great joy as I dined. The sound was coming from a raft up of two boats where some people were enjoying themselves sans electronics. It reminded me of a recent book I had read of a journey along the New England coast in the 1840's. The author described being at anchor somewhere in New England and hearing the singing and playing of Sea Shanties coming from one of the other ships in the harbor. For me it's was one of those special evenings that elude those on land or get off their boats after a short day sail. It also made me imagine what it must have been like that evening in that harbor in New England back in the 1840'S. Just another magical evening on board the BIANKA.

BACK ON BOARD JUST IN TIME

I have been off BIANKA for a month. For three weeks I was working in the wicked city of Washington doing a free lance work gig. Following that I spent a few days on the beach in Amagansett Long Island with my girlfriend. She enjoys walking along the beach and I stare at the ocean wishing I was out there on BIANKA. With that all behind me I was glad to finally get back on board. After opening the hatches and unloading the dingy it was time for a swim, nap and drink at sunset. My pleasure was enhanced later in the evening when I glanced to the east and saw a beautiful full moon rising over the harbor:

Because I had been off the boat for the month and I had been working and staying on land I had not been paying attention to the tides or the moon. I had been working inside during the day and also spending the nights indoors too. That's why it was such a pleasant surprise to see the moon show up as it did and once again I was glad I was on board BIANKA to see it. Again, the words of  Paul Bowles come to my mind every time I see it:

“... we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.”


I am always glad to see a full moon rise when I am on board. It is such a simple thing but, I appreciate it so much. It just makes me feel good I was able to see it once again.

CAPT. MIKE IN THE LEEWARD ISLANDS PART THREE: HEADING TO CULEBRA

It's been many years since I was in Charlotte Amalie harbor St. Thomas. We picked up a charter here on a 44 foot monohull back in the 1980's named Valkerie and another time when we had a weeks vacation on board one of the Windstar cruise ships in the 90's.

We left the St. John area bound for St. Thomas in late afternoon with a favoring trade wind and tied up to a mooring for the night near the old Navy submarine base area in St. Thomas. The area now houses a marina and some cruise ship docks. The shoreline nearby was littered with the wrecks of boats whose owners failed to reason with the Hurricane season and other storms:

The next morning we dropped off the mooring and headed out West Gregerie Channel for Culebra:

We passed Sail Rock. A uniquely shape geological form that is said to have fooled many pirates to appear to be a ship under sail.

They would sometimes fire a warning shot at it. The sound of which would echo off the rock surface and make it sound like return fire. Only when they got closer would they see that it was only a rock and not another ship to be plundered.

Things were moving along nicely as OPUS towed the twenty foot dingy:



We were breezing along when all of a sudden there was a crash at the stern. The dingy had crashed into the boarding ladder and smashed it up pretty good:

Well that's sailing! You are cruising along fine and then something happens not always in a positive direction. Capt. Billy scrambled and was able to save the bottom half of the ladder but, were were never able to quite get it back into shape to use. After about three hours we were in the channel heading into Ensenada Honda Culebra's major harbor:

 After we cleared the reef at the entrance we turned to port and picked up a mooring in Ensenada Dikity.

There were a few boats already there when we arrived:

Including this boat which seemed to have something missing:

CAPT. MIKE IN THE LEEWARD ISLANDS PART FOUR Click here.

WINTERLUDE 2012

I went down to check on the boat recently. It's that time of year that I call the winterlude period after the waltzing Bob Dylan tune of the same name. This year was a rather mild winterlude compared to the winterludes of 2011 and 2010 and even 2009.  So I'm not complaining.  I spent several hours just hanging out an enjoying the unusual winter warmth. I even set up my new GoPro camera and tried a little time lapse shooting from my cockpit view as the tide ran out:

 You know after seeing this video I made sure the camera was Seagull proofed before I started shooting. All in all not a bad way to spend part of winters day.

SCENES FROM IRENE PART 2 WITH A HAPPY ENDING

An anonymous reader of the BIANKA LOG BLOG posted a link to a rescue of a wayward sailboat in a mooring field in Winthrop Massachusetts during Hurricane Irene. Unlike the previous SCENES FROM IRENE this one has a happy ending. Thanks to  a lot of luck as the boat seems to have missed hitting many other boats as it traveled through the mooring field:
WARNING: Thar be salty language in the video:

 

One particular harbor...

BIANKA at anchor in one particular harbor in October 2006. Where is it? I would not even tell Jimmy Buffet if he was picking up the bar tab!