Tag Archives | trawler

Irma’s Gone

By on September 12, 2017 in Istaboa

Day after day of staring at images like the one above, we had moved on, we’d resigned ourselves to and accepted the outcome of the overwhelming probabilities. Pretty much everything we owned in Jupiter, FL was about to be relentlessly swept away by this massive hurricane. Normally, we don’t pay much attention to the weather-heads, but this time — just the size of the damn thing was undeniable.
We kept saying things to each other like, “it’s just stuff”, and “all that really matters is on the boat right now”, nonetheless in our hearts and minds, we were controlling the sad thoughts that much of the business that we’d worked hard to build, our little bungalow by the beach, and our world in Jupiter was about to be blown away. Life was about to change.

Irma finally arrives.
Sitting on the boat, on the Chesapeake Bay, enjoying beautiful weather, it was unnerving seeing all this unfold on TV and the net, but as time went on, we started breathing a bit easier after seeing the storm leaving Cuba and pushing west. Now out of the “Cone of Uncertainty”, though not out of the woods yet, it no longer looked like the end of the world as we know it.

Because we had access to the many surveillance cams onSpot has installed along the coasts, we were glued to our computers watching the increasing blow at the marinas that were in the path of Irma, .
Key West was the first to go dark, but before losing video I watched a large fellow, (wearing a child’s life preserver?), standing in front of the Southernmost Point Buoy. He seemed to enjoy the massive breakers that violently smashed him head on – then hurled him backwards. He’d get knocked down and sweeped back to the street only to get up and do it over and over again. That’s Key West.

North Palm Beach Marina lasted much longer, but eventually marina management was forced to cut power and it too went dark; the surge had pushed water over the fixed dock landings where the electrical power was located. Danger.
The Bluffs Marina stayed live till late but went offline after a large yacht broke a line and smashed into a power pedestal – completely knocking out power and water for the whole marina.
Then, other than the little Drop Cams, taped to the windows of our house, we were without eyes on the storm. A bit disconcerting, but…

As the storm moved North and the winds subsided, we starting feeling better about the house and the area in general. Though there wasn’t much to see in the darkness, just knowing electricity and internet was still working gave us hope that everything was pretty good.

Then at 11:03, video died at the house, which means lost power.

Luckily, the next morning, other than no power or air conditioning, we discovered there was comparatively little damage, everyone’s good, and all is okay other than a mess to clean up.

Thankfully, we seem to have dodged another bullet. There’s still a life in Jupiter.
For us on Istaboa, if there’s anything good that came outta the storm, it’s the realization of what really matters most.
IT IS just stuff and all that really matters is on the boat right now.   (although there is a guitar at home I would have missed.) Realizing that everything in Jupiter was about to just go away had been fairly easy to accept; kinda liberating actually. We’d envisioned our old life as our new life — again.

Simple = (insert what you want here)

Our next door neighbor posted a video of Irma’s blow on Instagram. Doesn’t look too dangerous, but I bet the anticipation was killer.

A post shared by Glenda Green (@glendagreenart) on Sep 10, 2017 at 1:16pm PDT

Now, for the clean up.

I spoke with a couple of friends yesterday and both said they were amazed how quickly the area was being brought back to life. All agree that the South Florida’s East Coast escaped disaster.

Old Port Cove Marina.
Mark Lavery told me that they are having electrical problems. The docks are okay, but so far power is not on. He hopes to have power back to the inner docks today.
North Palm Beach Marina.
Serious electrical issues. “It may be a while.” was all Mark would say.
Ft Pierce City Marina
No power at this time.
The Harborage at Stuart
Fixed docks are seriously damaged. No power to the floating dock either.
Bahia Mar Marina
The marina is back up and running, per Megan Legasse, the GM
Soverel Harbour Marina.
The marina is okay, but no power for now.

miraculously, the marinas around the Tampa Bay and Sarasota areas are reporting little to no damage.

That’s all we’ve got for now.

Will and Carl, are assessing the damages and onSpot has already started rebuilding. Yesterday they went to Ft Pierce City Marina then worked down to Stuart to bring back 3 marinas there.
Of that group, The fixed docks at The Harborage in Stuart was hit hardest. Pics below


The guys have plenty more work to do, but as they did after last year’s Matthew, they’ll have them all back as soon as it’s safe to do so.

Key West? We’ve yet to see anything there. It may be a while.

All in all, the storm wasn’t as bad for those in South Florida as we had feared.

This crew is happy with the decision to keep on going North after leaving the Bahamas. The Chesapeake Bay is very pleasant… so far.

However, no one is exempt from Hurricanes on the East Coast. We just hope our luck continues.

Adios

Nordhavn 57-26 Istaboa

Irma’s Gone

By on September 12, 2017 in Istaboa

Day after day of staring at images like the one above, we had moved on, we’d resigned ourselves to and accepted the outcome of the overwhelming probabilities. Pretty much everything we owned in Jupiter, FL would be relentlessly swept away by this massive hurricane. Normally, we don’t pay much attention to the weather-heads, but this time — just the size of the damn thing was undeniable.
We kept saying things to each other like, “it’s just stuff”, and “all that really matters is on the boat right now”, nonetheless in our hearts and minds, we were controlling the sad fact that much of the business we’d worked hard to build, our little bungalow by the beach, and our little world in Jupiter was about to be blown away. Life was about to change.

Irma finally arrives.
Because we had access to the many surveillance cams onSpot has installed along the coasts, we were glued to our computers watching the increasing blow at the marinas that were in the path of Irma, .
Key West was the first to go dark, but before losing video I watched a large fellow, (wearing a child’s life preserver?), standing in front of the Southernmost Point Buoy. He seemed to enjoy the massive breakers that violently smashed him head on – then hurled him backwards. He’d get knocked down and sweeped back to the street only to get up and do it over and over again. That’s Key West.

North Palm Beach Marina lasted much longer, but eventually marina management was forced to cut power and it too went dark; the surge had pushed water over the fixed dock landings where the electrical power was located. Danger.
The Bluffs Marina stayed live till late but went offline after a large yacht broke a line and smashed into a power pedestal – completely knocking out power and water for the whole marina.
Then, other than the little Drop Cams, taped to the windows of our house, we were without eyes on the storm. A bit disconcerting, but…

As the storm moved North and the winds subsided, we starting feeling better about the house and the area in general. Though there wasn’t much to see in the darkness, just knowing electricity and internet was still working gave us hope that everything was pretty good.

Then at 11:03, video died at the house, which means lost power.

Luckily, the next morning, other than no power or air conditioning, we discovered there was comparatively little damage, everyone’s good, and all is okay other than a mess to clean up.

Thankfully, we seem to have dodged another bullet. There’s still a life in Jupiter.
For us on Istaboa, if there’s anything good that came outta the storm, it’s the realization of what really matters to us.
IT IS just stuff and all that really matters is on the boat right now.   (although there is a guitar at home I would have missed.) Realizing that everything in Jupiter was about to just go away had been fairly easy to accept; kinda liberating actually. We’d envisioned our old life as our new life — again.

Simple = (insert what you want here)

Our next door neighbor posted a video of Irma’s blow on Instagram. Doesn’t look too dangerous, but I bet the anticipation is killer.

A post shared by Glenda Green (@glendagreenart) on Sep 10, 2017 at 1:16pm PDT

Now, for the clean up.

I spoke with a couple of friends yesterday and both said they were amazed how quickly the area was being brought back to life. All agree that the South Florida’s East Coast escaped disaster.

Old Port Cove Marina.
Mark Lavery told me that they are having electrical problems. The docks are okay, but so far power is not on. He hopes to have power back to the inner docks today.
North Palm Beach Marina.
Serious electrical issues. “It may be a while.” was all Mark would say.
Ft Pierce City Marina
No power at this time.
The Harborage at Stuart
Fixed docks are seriously damaged. No power to the floating dock either.
Bahia Mar Marina
The marina is back up and running, per Megan Legasse, the GM
Soverel Harbour Marina.
The marina is okay, but no power for now.

Suprisingly, the marina around the Tampa Bay area are reporting little to no damage.

That’s all we’ve got for now.

Will an Carl, are assessing the damages and onSpot has already started rebuilding. Yesterday they went to Ft Pierce City Marina then worked down to Stuart to bring back 3 marinas there.
Of that group, The fixed docks at The Harborage in Stuart was hit hardest. Pics below


The guys have plenty more work to do, but as they did after last year’s Matthew, they’ll have them all back as soon as it’s safe to do so.

Key West? We’ve yet to see anything there. It may be a while.

All in all, the storm wasn’t as bad for those in South Florida as we had feared.

This crew is happy with the decision to keep on going North after leaving the Bahamas. The Chesapeake Bay is very pleasant… so far.

However, no one is exempt from Hurricanes on the East Coast. We just hope our luck continues.

Adios

Nordhavn 57-26 Istaboa

Life Post Harvey

By on September 12, 2017 in The Pearl

“If you want to touch the past, touch a rock. If you want to touch the present, touch a flower. If you want to touch the future, touch a life.” ―Author Unknown

It’s been a long, stressful three weeks. We are back in Ithaca, NY for a short time as we get The Pearl ready winter storage. I thought I would share a few pictures from the past few weeks…some were posted on our Facebook page during the past few weeks and some are new. Just a little insight to our life after Hurricane Harvey.
CONTINUE READING HERE…»

FPB 78-1: Time Traveler

By on September 12, 2017 in Wind Horse

Having barely completed sea trials a year ago in New Zealand, FPB 78-1 Cochise has just surpassed the 14,000NM mark. We are …Read More

Nate and Primo

By on September 11, 2017 in Idyll Time

Several folks have asked what the birds do all day long. We thought an explanation about our companionable and ever entertaining pets would give you a better understanding. Nate and Primo are Yellow Naped Amazon Parrots. Their day starts around 7 AM, about the time the Admiral rises. They will have preened themselves completely by […]

ENVOY CRUISING AROUND CEPHALONIA

By on September 11, 2017 in Envoy
Envoy is now cruising around Meganisi with our daughter Amy aboard.
I meant to include this picture of Di in the Corfu market in an earlier post. Although we’ve been mostly unsuccessful in our fishing endeavors there is an enormous annual fish catch in the Med of 800,000 tonnes.

Di in Corfu fish and produce market


Fish shops and markets are common place, supplied by an estimated 82,000 commercial fishing boats employing 314,000 people. Virtually every seaside village has its own tiny shallow harbour, generally consisting of a simple rock wall providing some shelter to its fishing boat fleet – mostly boats under 10 metres.

After leaving Lefkas Marina we head south through the canal, initially constructed by Corinthians in the 8thcentury BC. It’s always great to visit places for the first time and we anchor in a stunning bay at the island of Nisis Arkoudian. During the day there are five RHIBs anchored but we enjoy the solitude of being the only boat there at night.
From here it’s a short cruise over to Ithica Island, said to be the home of Odysseus in ancient times.
Many nice bays are too deep to anchor in, being over 40 metres and offshore the depth is hundreds of metres. We anchor in Ormos Skhoinos offshore from a local family’s holiday villa. They’ve had the same caretaker for over 50 years, who lives in a beautifully maintained wooden sailing boat alongside their jetty. 

The family villa’s caretaker lives aboard this unusually painted boat


Envoy at anchor in Ormos Skhoinis


Further out in the bay a superyacht is anchored looking more like a floating childrens’ playground than a serious boat.


While a boat of this size would turn heads back in New Zealand, there are hundreds of boats like this in the Med and nobody really bats an eyelid.

Very close to this anchorage is a stunning unnamed bay with a rustic but ramshackle beach bar. 

Sitting outside the bar is a very thin older man looking like a biblical prophet cleaning some recently caught squid that are covered in wasps. When Di and Amy commented on this he replied “wasps don’t worry me they are my friends.” We think this highly amusing as wasps have been an issue in some bays and both Di and Amy have been stung. Very few flies or mosquitoes though.

This ferry drives up onto the beach to disembark day trippers using a builder’s ladder

We move on to Cephalonia, the largest of seven main Ionian islands, although there are many dozen smaller islands. I’m sure I’ve mentioned previously that this island is also where the events took place on which the novel and movie Captain Corelli’s mandolin are based. That is in 1943 German soldiers massacred around 5,000 Italian soldiers of the Acqui Division who had surrendered and represented no threat to the Germans.

First we anchor in the harbour of Ay Eufimia, one of our favorite anchorages. Here is a great butcher’s shop where we are able to buy New Zealand lamb chops and top quality fillet steak at surprisingly reasonable prices.
One morning we walk inland up a gorgeous valley to an old Turkish village called Drakopoulata. 

The lush valley leading inland from Ay Eufimia


During the 1920s Turks living in Greece were sent home as were Greeks living in Turkey and now the village remains largely ruined.


This old building contains rusty remains of olive presses



Cruising down to Ormos Katelios we put our trolling lure in the water for the first time this year and catch a small tuna. It’s far too small to eat but at least it proves the lure works.

This is an interesting anchorage as it’s quite shallow with many areas of underwater rocks and requires great care. The locals have marked some of the reefs and rocks with buoys which is a big help.

Looking down on Ormos Katelios


From here we’re heading to Cephalonia’s capital – Argostoli.

James Watt Dock Marina

By on September 11, 2017 in M/V Dirona

We had an excellent month-long stay at James Watt Dock Marina in Greenock, Scotland near Glasgow. The marina was convenient for making train trips to explore Glasgow, Edinburgh and the West Highlands, and was a secure place for Dirona while we returned to Seattle for a couple of weeks. We also took a few deliveries…

This city makes me insatiable for education and culture!

By on September 10, 2017 in Kindred Spirit III
 I LOVE this city and I never want to leave!  This afternoon I entered the auditorium in the bowels of the Smithsonian Museum of American Art for a piano concert. I sat beside a lady who was a delight with whom to chat before the concert began. She’s from Sweden, lived in the Virgin Islands for 30 years, and recently moved to D.C. She doesn’t have a car; doesn’t want a car; and loves to walk or cycle everywhere she goes with an occasional Metro thrown in. She pays $85/year for the BikeShare program and just raved about it, it’s easy, availability, and convenience.

      As I rode my bike home tonight, I became amused and kinda chuckled all alone and by myself! For blocks, a bus drove right beside me. It’d stop to pick up or let passengers off and I’d pass. Soon, it’d pass me again and at the next corner, I’d pass it. We leap-frogged all the way down to my point to turn so even though it was “even Stephen”, I think I won. I didn’t pollute, use fuel, and got a tiny bit of exercise. Guess I’m just easily entertained!

     At intermission a lady from Beijing sat down on the other side of me and after the concert was over, she and I chatted at least 30 minutes. They used to live here but moved to the Philippines for 15 years for her husband’s job, and now they’re back. We shared ideas and experiences and when we said goodbye, it was with a hug as if we’d known each other for ever.
     Since we’ve been here I feel like a dry sponge. I can’t see enough; go enough; cycle enough; hike enough; do enough; or learn enough. The energy of this city and the stimulation it offers is something that I will crave forever. 

10 September 2017 – Touring the Vietnam Memorial – Washington, DC

By on September 10, 2017 in Kindred Spirit III
     The country of Vietnam and its war has always been a great curiosity to me because our children’s father served there the second year of our marriage and the first year of our oldest son’s life. Despite the entrance to the memorial reading “Vietnam War”, it’s now called the “American War”. 


    

     I joined a tour group led by a docent who was very well versed on the war and the people of that country.  Our group was small but there were 5 who’d been to Vietnam as tourists.

     This sculpture, depicting three female nurses caring for a fallen soldier, calling to mind the courage and sacrifice of all the women who served. Around the memorial are 8 trees—a living tribute to the 8 servicewomen killed in action while in Vietnam and whose names appear on The Wall. 265,000 women served during the war and since they were prevented from being in combat, they served in health care, communications, intelligence, and administrative positions. This memorial honors not only those women who served but is also for the families who lost loved ones. It provides a visual that their family members who were suffering and dying, were being provided comfort, care, and a human touch. 

     Our docent pointed out an obscure plaque embedded in the pavers that he said generally goes unnoticed. It memorializes those who died prematurely years after the war had ended making it clear that the toll the war had taken on those who served had not ended. Many of the deaths were related to their service because of Agent Orange and other carcinogenic factors. Others endured the consequences of PTSD. The inscription in the black granite reads, “In memory of the men and women who served in Vietnam War and later died as a result of their service. We honor and remember their sacrifice.” 



          The artist who created The Faces of Honor, said, “They wear it on their uniform and carry the equipment of war; they are young. The contrast between the innocence of their youth and the weapons of war underscores the poignancy of their sacrifice. There is about them the physical contact and sense of unity that bespeaks the bond of love and sacrifice that is the name of men at war…. Their strength and their vulnerability are both evident.”


     The Vietnam Veterans Memorial stands as a symbol of America’s honor and recognition of the men and women who served and sacrificed their lives in the Vietnam War. There are more than 58,000 names inscribed on the black granite walls of those who gave their lives or remain missing. The idea for the park was conceived by Maya Lin, a 21 year old student of architecture. There were many designers whose submissions were considered so this was quite an honor for that young lady and what a jump-start for her career. This is one of the most moving monuments in the nation’s capital. 

     




Bill and Laura Bender
Gangplank Marina
Washington, DC

Solomons Island and Irma

By on September 10, 2017 in Istaboa

Yep, another beautiful Sunday morning after a somewhat sleepless night.

There’s a loss for words when trying to describe the feeling while looking out the salon window. Out there, the reality is the beginning of another beautiful day in Solomons’ tranquil little harbor. Meanwhile, at home, in Jupiter, our house is being pounded and our friends, who have stayed put, are confronting Hurricane Irma that’s bearing down on South Florida. (See live video of the effects of Irma here: NPBM)

Below, in the video that’s streaming from a front window at home, as I write this, not much is happening. It looks just like last year’s Hurricane Mathew that passed by without doing much damage.

Hope it stays that way.

Guilt is certainly not the descriptor that comes to mind, though anxiety is definitely in the mix. Conflicted doesn’t seem to fit either.
Is there a word that combines fortunate and grateful? If so, that’s it.

And then I turn and look out the salon window again —

Yes, anxious, fortunate, and grateful all apply. — God willing, we can add “Lucky” later.

Our thoughts are with everyone in the path of Irma. For those who stayed in Florida, please be safe. For those of us away, who have property in Florida — it’s just stuff.

Adios,

Nordhavn 57-26 Istaboa