Building the Atkin skiff "Cabin Boy"

[jalmberg]

If I had to pick my favorite city in Florida, St. Augustine would win hands down. Helena and I made a short visit here a few years ago, and we both loved it. This time, I had the pleasure of landing in it from the sea side.

I anchored off the Municipal Marina, which is located right downtown, at the foot of the main street. I arrived just in time to sit out the daily thunderstorm, which have started to become a real issue... They come like clockwork every afternoon around 5, and you really need to have an anchor down in a sheltered place before they strike...

Read blog post: Beautiful St. Augustine

Enjoy: John

[jalmberg]

One of my goals on the Blue Moon is to get really good at this sailing/cruising business. I've sailed practically my whole life, first with my Uncle Marty (who's sailing the Newport-Bermuda race, right this minute), then with my father, and finally on my own boats, but sailing over 700 miles in a small boat has given me a whole new outlook.

Oddly enough, practically every improvement I've made in how I'm doing things has involved eliminating things. I call this process improving things out of existence...

Read blog post: Improved out of Existence

Enjoy: John

[jalmberg]

This Sunday, Helena and I drove up to Mystic, CT for the annual Wooden Boat Show. One day really isn't enough for this great show. Next year, we plan to sail the Blue Moon down the Sound to Mystic so we can anchor off the show (as several other boats did this year) and spend 2 or 3 days there.

But working guys and gals have to be happy with what they can get, so we made the most of the time there.

One thing I wanted to see was Sam Johnson's demonstration of bronze casting. This is something I have been interested in for a while, so I was super keen on seeing this, and Sam did not disappoint...

Read complete blog post: Bronze Casting

Enjoy: John

[jalmberg]

I am a volunteer crew member on the Christine -- the oldest Oyster Sloop in America. This 50' gaffer is commanded by Captain Pete, who likes everything ship-shape and Bristol fashion.

This summer, the Christine was sporting a brand-new set of sail ties, and as soon as I laid eyes on them, I realized that I'd been making due on the Blue Moon with an sad collection of old scraps: odd lengths of frayed rope, a couple of ragged bungee cords that had long lost their spring, and a knotted strip of cloth that must have been salvaged by a previous owner from a drowned kite.

In contrast, the Christine's new sail ties looked like they'd been hand-crafted by a master rigger. Sail-tie envy burned in my breast. I had to have a set, just like them!

Read complete blog post: Sail Tie Envy

-- John

[jalmberg]

Way back in April (April!?!?), at the very beginning of my intermittent 2000 mile voyage on the Blue Moon, I complained about being relegated to crew member:

There were many reasons why I felt like an overworked galley slave, including the fact that I was in over my head and had no idea what I was doing, and so I had to work twice as hard as I should have.

But the biggest reason of all was that I was a slave to the tiller...

Read complete blog post:

http://www.unlikelyboatbuilder.com/2...m-captain.html

[jalmberg]

One of the first places I stopped in Georgia was also one of the nicest.

Cumberland Island is a large barrier island off the coast of GA, about a day's sail north of the Florida border. I wasn't planning on stopping there, but as I was cruising up Cumberland Sound, the current was so strong against me that I decided to pull in to wait for the turn of the tide...

Complete blog post: Cumberland Island

[jalmberg]

E.F. Knight's "Sailing" is one of my favorite sailing books. It's the book that John Walker consulted when, as a young lad, he had to sail the Goblin across the North Sea to Holland in a gale (in "We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea"), and it's probably the book Arthur Ransome learned to sail with.

Knight says the science of sailing is "practically infinite", and I agree -- particularly when it comes to weather. After many months of studying weather forecasts, and comparing them with the weather that actually showed up, all I can do is quote the ancient weather proverb: "Believe it when you see it."

Oh, and "Take it with a grain of salt."

Complete blog post: Going For It

Fair Winds: John

[PAR]

I completely disagree with your weather assessment John. I was born on the water, literally and have been on or near it most of my life. I've learned how to read weather and am just as accurate, if not more so then the nightly news guy. With the current crop of satellite imagery, pattern modeling and prediction subroutines, there are very few surprises any more.

As a kid, I remember the east coast getting caught with it's paints down one hurricane season and lots of damage and a few lives where lost. This isn't the case now, we don't get surprised any more, which is a huge step, though the folks that where like me back then knew a storm was coming, they just didn't know how bad it would be. Now, we knew how bad Katrina was going to be (well everyone except George Bush anyway). We knew a week in advance, not hours.

I can tell you when a weather pattern is changing by the clouds. If you have a few very simple gauges and regularly use them (several times a day, with records) it's not rocket science, just experience, observation and some understanding.

This isn't a new thing, people that rely on the weather to make a living, have been reliably predicting weather for a long time, with each generation getting better then the last. Sailors and farmers are who you talk to, when you want accurate weather predictions. Pilots to some degree though they're more into weather avoidance.

I've tracked about every single Atlantic hurricane in the last 40 years and though a few took turns when I didn't expect them to, none really surprised me, because I was paying attention. Again, people that rely on the weather to make a living, will know what's about to occur, so ask your local farmer and compare it to the evening news guy and see how nails it down better. We (sailors and farmers) have been kicking their butts for decades.

In WWII, we managed to launch operation "Overlord" in a predicted 8 hour fair weather window! The best of the best were gathered, with really limited equipment and the sailors of the area, with these experts nailed it, in the early summer of 1944. We've gotten a hell of a lot better at it since . . .

[jalmberg]

Originally Posted by PAR

I completely disagree with your weather assessment John. I was born on the water, literally and have been on or near it most of my life. I've learned how to read weather and am just as accurate, if not more so then the nightly news guy. With the current crop of satellite imagery, pattern modeling and prediction subroutines, there are very few surprises any more.

As a kid, I remember the east coast getting caught with it's paints down one hurricane season and lots of damage and a few lives where lost. This isn't the case now, we don't get surprised any more, which is a huge step, though the folks that where like me back then knew a storm was coming, they just didn't know how bad it would be. Now, we knew how bad Katrina was going to be (well everyone except George Bush anyway). We knew a week in advance, not hours.

I can tell you when a weather pattern is changing by the clouds. If you have a few very simple gauges and regularly use them (several times a day, with records) it's not rocket science, just experience, observation and some understanding.

This isn't a new thing, people that rely on the weather to make a living, have been reliably predicting weather for a long time, with each generation getting better then the last. Sailors and farmers are who you talk to, when you want accurate weather predictions. Pilots to some degree though they're more into weather avoidance.

I've tracked about every single Atlantic hurricane in the last 40 years and though a few took turns when I didn't expect them to, none really surprised me, because I was paying attention. Again, people that rely on the weather to make a living, will know what's about to occur, so ask your local farmer and compare it to the evening news guy and see how nails it down better. We (sailors and farmers) have been kicking their butts for decades.

In WWII, we managed to launch operation "Overlord" in a predicted 8 hour fair weather window! The best of the best were gathered, with really limited equipment and the sailors of the area, with these experts nailed it, in the early summer of 1944. We've gotten a hell of a lot better at it since . . .

I agree with you that 24 hour NWS marine forecasts are quite good, but having just spent 8 months sailing a boat from the west coast of FL, through the Okeechobee, and up the coast to NY, I can say that they definitely are not perfect. That is why the NWS calls them predictions, not absolute sureties.

More importantly, marine forecasts cover a large area, and within that area there is a lot of variability. Many times I was bathed in sunshine while watching a thunderstorm batter some unlucky folks a few miles away.

But I guess my main beef is with these new GRIB forecast computer apps. They show you 4 day wind and wave forecasts with pin point computer accuracy. You can look at these apps and get the idea that 3 days from now, off this point, the wind will be from the south at 5-10 knots, and the wave heights will be 1-2 feet.

Maybe. But I wouldn't bet my life on it. I think these GRIB apps are dangerous because they give the impression of computer-type accuracy, while depending on forecasts that have no where near that level of accuracy.

Bottom line, I do what I said in my article: I look at the NWS forecast for the day, try to get some local knowledge, and look at the weather with my own two eyes.

If the forecast says one thing and my eyes say another, I believe my eyes!

[jalmberg]

At last! The final segment of "Cabin Boy's Big Adventure". Don't miss it!

When you reach the southern end of Governor's Island, you have a choice of either the main channel to the west, or the Buttermilk Channel to the east. I chose the Buttermilk because it took me out of the main traffic and seemed a bit more protected from the northerly breeze.

Governor's Island got it's name when New York was a British colony. The island, being just a mile south of Manhattan, and close to the anchorage for the British fleet, was reserved for the use of the royal governor.

Even back then it was location, location, location...

Read complete blog post: East River Adventure

Fair tides: John