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New Boat 4 Sled

I know what a sporran is (I even have one) but had never heard of a spurtle - I had to go look it up. The things one learns - thanks, Synthia!

- rob
 
I recall cranking the old Volvo clockwise aboard the Nicholson 32 I grew up on when the starter didn't catch.
A somewhat dangerous affair if you didn't get the engine crank out quickly if it did catch!
 
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Mavericks1.jpg

Spur of the moment took Annie and me up the Coast to Maverick's yesterday where we hiked around the northwest end of Half Moon Bay and out on the beach. Above, people were ascending the bluff trail for a better view.

What we saw and heard was terrific..No mushburgers these. Wave energy was raw and at a max, and the noise sounded like intermittent cannon thunder from the crashing 30-40 footers. The action was happening about 1/4 mile offshore and the closest we got was to a surfer who swam ashore nearby with half his board under each arm.

Here's some still shots, https://www.surfline.com/surf-news/watch-live-mavericks-going-off/105904
Recommend the short video clips of Kai Lenny and Peter Mel. It doesn't get any better than that.

Yiii doggies.
 
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With the highest tide of the year this morning, 6.9 feet, and High Surf warnings, Santa Cruz Harbor was challenging not only for the dredge, but standup paddleboards as well.

Harbor4.jpg

To get my SUP afloat meant carrying the board uphill down the launch ramp. Then, because of surge caused by large swells breaking across the entrance, there were reciprocating currents, ebbing one minute, and flooding the next, at speeds up to 3 knots. This is caused by Santa Cruz Harbor's shape: 300 feet wide and 4,900 feet long, essentially making a long, narrow bathtub for entering waves to slosh back and forth. God forbid we have another tsunami.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKviwV-ejEY

Harbor5.jpg

As I paddled, I saw several boats had broken loose, and two docks broken and adrift due to the cement pilings having been displaced. All in day at ill located and designed Santa Cruz Harbor, where I estimate 25% of boats poorly tied up with a minimum number of undersized and chafed dock lines.

It was not a morning to exit the Harbor in paddle craft, not with the dredge in the entrance, swells breaking, strong currents. It will be fun to return to the Harbor this afternoon when the tide drops to a minus 1.5 feet. In these conditions, the dredge is fighting a losing battle, and the entrance channel shoals faster than it can be cleared.
 
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Paddling this morning was more fruitful than yesterday, although launching was challenging given there was a large harbor seal napping on the launch ramp who wasn't going to be disturbed and let me know in no uncertain terms with grunting noises.

For a Christmas treat of warm Racine, WI, Danish almond kringle, Macaupuno ice cream with pomegranate topping, served on Synthia's new outdoor table cloth she custom made for the CBC deck, what famous solo circumnavigator claimed to have used a singlehanded instrument for position finding that was neither analog nor digital and was not a sextant? This quiz comes compliments of Howard Spruit who will also provide you with as many lemons as needed. Extra scoop if you can name the instrument.

tablecloth.jpg
 
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That is one beaoooootiful table cloth! And the promised treat sounds wonderful. I notice that you snuck in a glimpse of your new vessel, too. Sold the inflateable and bought one that looks like a surfboard! Does it have a name?

I wish I knew the answer to the quiz.
 
Paddling this morning was more fruitful than yesterday, although launching was challenging given there was a large harbor seal napping on the launch ramp who wasn't going to be disturbed and let me know in no uncertain terms with grunting noises.

For a Christmas treat of warm Racine, WI, Danish almond kringle, Macaupuno ice cream with pomegranate topping, served on Synthia's new outdoor table cloth she custom made for the CBC deck, what famous solo circumnavigator claimed to have used a singlehanded instrument for position finding that was neither analog nor digital and was not a sextant? This quiz comes compliments of Howard Spruit who will also provide you with as many lemons as needed. Extra scoop if you can name the instrument.

View attachment 6085

The circumnavigation was Marvin Creamer. The instrument was his hand.
The circumnavigation was without conventional navigation instruments. Creamer passed fairly recently, the last year or so.

Ants
 
The circumnavigation was Marvin Creamer. The instrument was his hand.
The circumnavigation was without conventional navigation instruments. Creamer passed fairly recently, the last year or so.Ants

Ants,
Thank you for guessing Marvin Creamer, who passed recently at 104. Creamer, a retired college geographer, did sail his steel 36 footer GLOBE STAR west to east around the World, 1982-1984, without instruments, including a compass. (Magnetic compasses don't work well on a steel boat..the more you heel, the crazier the compass reads. Ask Kim D and me how we know.)

Unfortunately, though inspirational, Marvin Creamer is not the correct answer to the quiz as GLOBE STAR carried two crew in addition to her skipper, so his was not a solo circumnavigation.

I will repeat the trivia question: what famous solo circumnavigator claimed to have used a singlehanded instrument for position finding that was neither analog nor digital and was not a sextant? Extra scoop if you can name the instrument.
 
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That is one beaoooootiful table cloth! And the promised treat sounds wonderful. I notice that you snuck in a glimpse of your new vessel, too. Sold the inflatable and bought one that looks like a surfboard! Does it have a name?

Sharp eyes, Philpott. The inflatable SUP was sold on Craigs List to SS, who lurks on this very Forum. In its place I bought a rigid SUP, same length (11') and beam (34"). After removing the two thruster fins, used for surfing, it's about .25 knots faster. Name? BULL GOOSE LOONY.

SUP6.jpg

PS: You do know the answer to the quiz..You just don't know it yet. Here's a hint: Boiling water makes it work.
 
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"I sailed with a free wind day after day, marking the position of my ship on the chart with considerable precision; but this was done by intuition, I think, more than by slavish calculations. For one whole month my vessel held her course true; I had not, the while, so much as a light in the binnacle. The Southern Cross I saw every night abeam. The sun every morning came up astern; every evening it went down ahead. I wished for no other compass to guide me, for these were true. If I doubted my reckoning after a long time at sea I verified it by reading the clock aloft made by the Great Architect, and it was right." Joshua Slocum

I think this is called lunar navigation. I like this answer. It's a good answer, though maybe not the one you seek: what famous solo circumnavigator claimed to have used a singlehanded instrument for position finding that was neither analog nor digital and was not a sextant
 
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a·poc·ry·phal /əˈpäkrəfəl/ adjective
(of a story or statement) of doubtful authenticity, although widely circulated as being true.

Oh. Silly me. It is a pleasure to read Slocum again, even though he hasn't helped me win this quiz. I sat down and re-read quite a bit of the book before I finally re-found this description. Thanks for that. Ambition led me to poetry.
 
We are looking for 1) a famous solo circumnavigator 2) his apocryphal singlehanded instrument

Here's my W. A Guess-
Harry Pidgeon on the sailboat Islander.

I have no idea of his instrument since I did not read anything about him.

However, since it was not Joshua Slocum, the first solo circumnavigation, a likely guess is Pidgeon, the second solo circumnavigator.

Ants
 
I thought of the Slocum option as well, but rejected it because the instrument usually used to calculate the distance of the moon from another heavenly body for a "lunar" sight is a Sextant, often married to a chronometer to determine longitude. Note the chronometer is not strictly necessary for this, as long as one can determine local noon, again with a sextant.

Also of note, though Slocum did a lot of writing (and bragging) about his "lunars", there is some dispute about how much he actually used them... from the available evidence, he appears to have mostly relied on DR navigation.
That all having been said, he DID sail with a calibrated chronometer and sextant, so again, I discounted that answer.

I'm going with Ants here - the only notes I can find regarding Pidgeon's navigation methodology is "Westward toward the setting sun"

DH
 
Besides, we know old Harry went around on a converted fishing boat out of Santa Cruz Harbor.

Or something like that...
 
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