Dutch Harbor, where our boat is moored, is great for wildlife viewing. One of our favorites is the Osprey. Note the talons for catching fish. The Osprey circle about 20 feet above the water looking for fish. Suddenly they will just old up their wings and plummet into the water. Then they struggle back up into the air, often with a fish in their talons. Osprey are still listed as an endangered species, but there are several nests on the island, and always young birds every year.
Candy Store Cup Regatta
Every year Newport holds what is called the Candy Store Cup Regatta. It is not really a race; more like a showcase for large super-yacht sail boats greater than 90 feet. The huge boats are fun to watch. The boat shown here, “Meteor”, is 170 feet long. The two masts are in the range of 150 to 200 feet high.
Fog
The seagull is grounded in the fog, and so are we. When the weather isn’t fit for sailing, we do a lot of walking, as well as sitting and reading.
Sunset
Dutch Harbor, our home port, is justly known for gorgeous sunsets, and we were treated to one yesterday evening.
On Board and First Sail
We moved on board for the summer non July 1. We spent that day with friends in Jamestown. After checking the boat out thoroughly and getting settled on board for the summer, we went for our first sail on July 5. It was a light air day, which allowed us an “on the wind” opportunity to make certain that the sails and rigging were all set right. Got up to 6 knots with a 10 knot wind. Just a delightful first sail. That was repeated with a nearly identical sail on July 6. A great start to the summer. Today, …
Syzygy is In the Water
Syzygy was finally launched on June 12 at Clark Boatyard. We got on board on June 14 and and checked out everything. The anchor light and steaming light did not work, but we don’t use either one very often; figure them out later. Everything that we really need worked first try, even the radar and the wind instrument, which are the most complex electrical hookups, and the most common source of problems. On June 15, we brought her around the island to our Dutch Harbor mooring. DH Boatyard had installed the wrong mooring lines, but we got that straightened out …
Spring 2017 Is Here
That means getting the boat ready…..and that means painting the bottom. Bottom paint keeps away all of the hitchhiking critters, flora and fauna, that love to attach to the bottom of the boat. It’s a bit of a nasty job, but it has to be done. At least there are now water-based bottom paints available, and we don’t deal with the smelly solvents any more. In spite of all the rain this spring, the job is done. As of today (June 11), the bottom is done, the water system is cleaned, the mast is up, the boat yard has …
End of Summer
Well it is official. Our summer living on-board Syzygy has come to an end. With the storm treat 10 days ago we decided to pull the boat. Although we are sad to see the summer come to an end the fall has some great adventures in store for us. We are off to Yellowstone for 10 days. We will be doing some fantastic guided tours with many opportunities for wildlife photographs and spending time exploring on our own. We went to Yellowstone about a year and a half ago and we are very much looking forward to this trip. We …
Weekend with our daughter
We had a wonderful weekend with our daughter, Evening, on-board. After she finally managed to get through the horrific traffic jam on the Mass Pike (what should have been a 2.5 hour drive took her 6 hours), she was finally able to put her feet in the ocean for the first time time in over 6 years. We had a relaxing early Friday dinner at J22 in Jamestown and then walked to Island Scoop for a tasty dish of black raspberry ice cream. I remember introducing Evening to black raspberry ice cream when she was still a babe in my …
“Get ahead” week on-board
Well it was a real “get ahead” week here on Sail Syzygy. Basically the week started with a head (aka toilet for any landlubbers) issue. This involved a concern with the macerator. Luckily we were able to get everything all flowing before it became a really crappy situation. Of course when I sent a text to our daughter about the issue the auto correct came out with a “mascara toe” problem. To say the least she was a bit confused and was wondering why we were putting make up on our feet. We were able to get in a few …