New Boat 4 Sled

[Cover Craft]

If I recall correctly, the sailor was Joshua Slocum on Spray, and his singlehanded instrument was an alarm(?) clock missing its minute hand. Not much of a chronometer but he couldn’t afford one.

I thin I have his book around here somewhere but it might take hours to find it, so I’ll have to go with memory. Probably 45 years since I read it.

Tom K, on the beach, formerly of the Wylie 33 Constellation

 

[sleddog]

If I recall correctly, the sailor was Joshua Slocum on Spray, and his singlehanded instrument was an alarm(?) clock missing its minute hand. Not much of a chronometer but he couldn’t afford one. I think I have his book around here somewhere but it might take hours to find it, so I’ll have to go with memory. Probably 45 years since I read it.Tom K, on the beach, formerly of the Wylie 33 Constellation

Bingo! Tom K wins the dessert and extra scoop. Great memory, Tom. It was indeed Joshua Slocum who carried a "tin alarm clock with a smashed face and minute hand missing" for navigational purposes..a "singlehanded instrument." Apparently, the clock, which Slocum got at discount for $1.00, had its idiosyncrasies and needed to be boiled in water before use....No calibrated chronometer aboard SPRAY.

Sleuthing recently tracked down a replica of the clock, which wasn't really an alarm clock but rather a "carriage clock made by the E.N. Welch Company and being of the "Little Lord Fauntleroy" model.

Searching for Slocum's Clock is great little story and I applaud its author, maritime historian Richard SantaColoma. https://www.oceannavigator.com/searching-for-slocums-clock/




Just who is Richard SantaColoma and how would he know about Slocum's clock? A sailor, iceboater, and boat builder, his biography provides the clue:

"Heliodoro Richard SantaColoma was born in New York in 1957. By age 13, he was working as a jeweler, the first employee of David Yurman. At age 15, he was managing a small jewelry manufacturing shop in upstate New York. This led to his becoming, by the age of 20, a bonded diamond setter in New York City's world-renowned Diamond District. While later working in several widely varied fields, he researched and wrote numerous articles and lectured on subjects as varied as early submarine development, yacht design and construction, navigation, cipher history, forgery, and the history of the mysterious Voynich Manuscript. Richard is working on several research projects, and is a consultant for, and/or appeared in several historical documentaries."

Thanks also to Jackie for quoting Joshua's Slocum's wonderful description below, an affirmation how ol' Joshua mostly navigated by Dead Reckoning, (as DaveH notes) and kept a sharp lookout when close to land.

"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

 

[Philpott]

Whaaaat? Tom gets my treat? Well, Tom, in case you don't make it down to Capitola until then, I invite you to meet me in Half Moon Bay the day after the SSS race on September 11 later this year. We can sail down to Capitola together, using my Navik which you helped me tweak earlier this year. That way, at least, I'll get some macapuna.

Slocum had such a sly sense of humor. In 1894, as he was provisioning for his journey, Slocum made jest about other options:

"The want of a chronometer for the voyage was all that now worried me. In our newfangled notions of navigation it is supposed to be a mariner cannot find his way without one; and I had myself drifted into this way of thinking. My old chronometer, a good one, had been long in disuse. It would cost fifteen dollars to clean and rate it. Fifteen dollars! For sufficient reasons I left that timepiece at home ... at Yarmouth ... I got my famous tin clock, the only timepiece I carried on the whole voyage. The price of it was a dollar and a half, but on account of the face being smashed the merchant let me have it for a dollar."

 

[sleddog]

Off the news radar, Cat. 5 cyclone YASA has made landfall in the Northern Fijian Islands with gusts exceeding 160 knots and 30 foot storm surge . Fiji is no stranger to cyclones. But apparently this one is off the scale and whole villages have disappeared. In the South West Pacific, YASA is the earliest Cat. 5 cyclone on record, but not the first Cat. 5 in 2020. Cyclone Harold devastated Vanuatu and Fiji last April. Cyclone season in the South Pacific runs November through April.



YASA in this photo is traveling from the NW to the SE (upper left to lower right) and made landfall on Vanua Levu Thursday night. YASA had extreme "rapid intensification," gaining 75 knots of wind speed in 36 hours.

Scientific studies show climate change is causing tropical cyclones to dump heavier rainfall, and intensify more rapidly as sea and air temperatures increase. In addition, some ocean basins are seeing an extension of the storm season, with tropical cyclones forming in regions they did not used to birth in. As a result, Fiji was the first country to ratify the Paris climate accord.

 

[sleddog]

YASA has had plenty of fuel for growth, as the storm developed and evolved over warm South Pacific waters which fuels cyclonic storms. The map above shows current sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the region as measured on December 15, 2020. Scientists have established that ocean temperatures at or above 27° Celsius (80° Fahrenheit), orange/red on the map, will sustain a cyclone or hurricane. The SST data come from the Multiscale Ultrahigh Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (MUR SST) project. MUR SST blends measurements of sea surface temperatures from multiple NASA, NOAA, and international satellites, as well as ship and buoy observations.

 

[AlanH]

Off the news radar, Cat. 5 cyclone YASA has made landfall in the Northern Fijian Islands with gusts exceeding 160 knots and 30 foot storm surge . Fiji is no stranger to cyclones. But apparently this one is off the scale and whole villages have disappeared. In the South West Pacific, YASA is the earliest Cat. 5 cyclone on record, but not the first Cat. 5 in 2020. Cyclone Harold devastated Vanuatu and Fiji last April. Cyclone season in the South Pacific runs November through April.

View attachment 6092

YASA in this photo is traveling from the NW to the SE (upper left to lower right) and made landfall on Vanua Levu Thursday night. YASA had extreme "rapid intensification," gaining 75 knots of wind speed in 36 hours.

Scientific studies show climate change is causing tropical cyclones to dump heavier rainfall, and intensify more rapidly as sea and air temperatures increase. In addition, some ocean basins are seeing an extension of the storm season, with tropical cyclones forming in regions they did not used to birth in. As a result, Fiji was the first country to ratify the Paris climate accord.

J.H. a 30 foot storm surge will submerge most atolls. This is really bad.

 

[sleddog]

Amazing what we discovered on Seabright State Beach this morning....



Happy Solstice, All!
Enjoy the Celestial Jewelry in the southwest sky, shortly after sunset.

 

[sleddog]

Sleddog traversing the Seabright Beach Solstice labyrinth, still extant after 3 days.

A labyrinth, different from a maze with branches leading to dead ends, is an ancient symbol that relates to wholeness. It combines the imagery of the circle and the spiral into a meandering but purposeful path to the center, representing a journey to our own center and back out again into the world. Labyrinths have long been used as meditation and prayer tools.

If you want to read more about who and why created the Seabright Beach labyrinth, it's description is here. Apparently built by one person, taking 8-12 hours by hand, and recreated quarterly. http://www.appliedeurythmy.com/labyrinth

This morning walking the dogs felt the coldest yet, even an hour after sunrise. Howard Spruit found his chair at coffee club at the breakwater covered in a thin layer of icy glazing.

Seabright Beach lies immediately west of Santa Cruz Harbor, and extends a half mile to the San Lorenzo River Mouth, after which it becomes "Main Beach" in front of the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.

Seabright Beach was once known as Castle Beach, named for a now-gone landmark, the Castle. The Castle was first built around the turn of the 20th Century as a bathhouse. Over the years it was added to and operated as a restaurant and art gallery before it was demolished in 1967, three years after Santa Cruz Harbor opened.

 

[sleddog]

At sunset Christmas Eve, an apparition appeared seaward of CBC. Hard to tell how far off until looking at AIS. You don't normally see Naval vessels in Monterey Bay. This one was zig zagging.....and is still offshore this morning, 12 miles distant.

It's the USS MIGUEL KEITH, a "mobile expeditionary ship", damaged last year during maiden launch when the drydock failed. Presumably, when sighted yesterday evening, the KEITH was on a shakedown cruise, inshore of shipping lanes, doing her gyrations,, under command of the Military Sealift Command.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, all.

 

[AlanH]

Oh, I like that beach labyrinth!

Merry Christmas, Skip!

 

[sleddog]

View attachment 6122
At sunset Christmas Eve, an apparition appeared seaward of CBC. Hard to tell how far off until looking at AIS. You don't normally see Naval vessels in Monterey Bay. This one was zig zagging.....and is still offshore this morning, 12 miles distant.

It's the USS MIGUEL KEITH, a "mobile expeditionary ship", damaged last year during maiden launch when the drydock failed. Presumably, when sighted yesterday evening, the KEITH was on a shakedown cruise, inshore of shipping lanes, doing her gyrations,, under command of the Military Sealift Command.

This evening the MIGUEL KEITH continues plowing the ocean while steaming N/S at 7 knots on 10 mile legs back and forth offshore Santa Cruz.

MK was built at the General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Co.in San Diego. On July 11, 2018, the drydock at the shipyard flooded when a seawater barrier failed, floating MK of its blocks. The unfinished ship flooded through hull cuts made to allow workers and equipment to reach interior spaces. Repairs pushed back Navy acceptance of the ship at least a year. Apparently the Navy will be held financially responsible.



The ESB class (Expeditionary Sea Base) of ships has a displacement of 90,000 tons, and up to 250 crew. The ESB class design is based on an Alaska-class crude oil tanker design. The ESBs include a four-spot flight deck and hangar above a mission deck.

To create the mission deck, the ESB’s designers scooped out the middle section of the ship, leaving a massive open space to support aviation facilities, berthing, equipment staging support, and assets such as unmanned vehicles and small boats.

The ESB class of ships was initially intended to support mine countermeasures and special operations forces through the launch and recovery of small boats and unmanned vehicles. Helicopters can operate off a flight deck above the mission bay area. However, the Marine Corps has since expressed an interest in using the platform for a variety of missions, notably for forward-deployed forces in the Middle East.

?????

Marines in charge of a Naval ship that nearly sank before it was launched?

 

[sleddog]

Oh, I like that beach labyrinth! Merry Christmas, Skip!

Thanks, Alan! I did not realize it at the time, but the Seabright Beach labyrinth, when viewed from above, fittingly represents a coronavirus. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, “the spikes that adorn the outer surface of the virus impart the look of a corona surrounding the virion, when viewed electron microscopically."

 

[Philpott]

"... the Seabright Beach labyrinth, when viewed from above, fittingly represents a coronavirus."

The Capitolans are a clever people.

 

[sleddog]

"... the Seabright Beach labyrinth, when viewed from above, fittingly represents a coronavirus." The Capitolans are a clever people.

Navigation wise, Seabright Beach is in City of Santa Cruz, 1/4 mile east of the Boardwalk, and 4 miles west of Capitola city limits. Just offshore the Rivermouth/Labryinth is the site of the first waves ridden by surfers on the continental Mainland, 3 Hawaiian princes sent to a military academy near Palo Alto. The documented date was Sunday, July 19, 1885, and they rode heavy redwood boards with no skegs.

The cool thing is these solid redwood surfboards were discovered in storage in the basement of the Bishop Museum in Honolulu and sent to Santa Cruz a few years ago to be displayed in our local Museum. Reverential observers lined up around the MAH building for a glimpse of these cultural icons of "Surf City", since returned to the Bishop Museum.

 

[sleddog]

Stick a fork in it. The Race2Alaska is done, and won't be held in 2021. Possibly every other year; possibly never. There's no way to get to Alaska through Canadian waters, which are closed due to Covid, unless one sails well offshore Vancouver Island.

In the R2AK's place the Northwest Maritime Center has made an inspired move with a new race course called the Washington360 aka WA360. 360 miles counter-clockwise around Puget and Washington Sounds, engineless and unassisted. Stopping for respite is fine provided local Covid rules are followed. 3 classes. You can race your SUP or rowing shell against a Santa Cruz 70 with traps or turboed multihull with foils if you wish. Win class, win a leather belt with 10 pound engraved buckle that will be rededicated each competition. https://nwmaritime.org/wa360/

The WA360 rules are minimum, so much so that it's currently difficult to tell where exact waypoints will lie. Here's the course: From Port Townsend to Port Ludlow to Olympia to Tacoma to Seattle to Oak Harbor to Anacortes to Bellingham to Pt. Roberts, and back to Port Townsend. Now that is a challenging and scenic course. Deception Pass whirlpools anyone? How about the Swinomish Channel mudflats? Which way through the San Juan Islands?

WA360 start is Monday, June 7th, 2021. Entry fee is $550 plus $50/crew member.

For those into masochism, the Seventy48 starts 3 days earlier in Tacoma.

Ad no, NMC haven't said if portaging is legal as it was in the R2AK.

 

[sleddog]

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Whew, glad 2020 is over. Though nothing is assured in the New Year, the amount of loss last year is an almost unbearable burden for so many. Thank you all for your stories, visits, and friendships which I enjoy sharing here and elsewhere to help lighten our loads.

The winch above was one of a pair of "Hafts" rescued from a restoration of an early 60's, 19', O'Day Mariner by local denizen and Port Captain of Capitola Boat Club (CBC) Howard Spruit. Said Howard, "if Commodore (Tompkins) can have a polished Barient 22 winch on his dining room table for a candle holder, so can I!"

Big surf coming locally tomorrow to our California coast. Capt. Bob reports 30-35 feet at Waimea Bay yesterday on the N.Shore of Hawaii's island of Oahu. Warnings are being issued by our harbormaster, weathermen, and law enforcement. Local surfologist and Paipo rider, Rainer, calls the incoming swell the "humunga cowabunga from down unda."

There were 50 spectators at the Santa Cruz breakwater lighthouse yesterday during the afternoon's minus tide, watching surfers take off on waves just feet away, narrowly missing the large cement tetrapods of the west outer breakwater as they shot the curl. From a distance, I couldn't tell how many observers were masked. Not everyone is showing consideration, especially during weekend and holiday visitations from out-of-town for New Years.

"Beware Sneaker Waves" KSBW news is parroting. "Riptides can sweep you, your kids, or your pet off the beach." and out to sea."

Never mind the sneaker waves, Monterey sheriff's (and in Maui also) are actively issuing tickets and fines for parties, group gatherings, and those unmasked in public.

 

[sleddog]

My nephew Jeremy's epic motorcycle trip in 2016 has been previously visited in these pages. However, solo sailor Whitall Stokes recent encounter with government officials in Argentina and Chile brings to mind a short vignette of a similar encounter Jeremy experienced not far distant from Whitall's.

A quick review. In 2016 Jeremy took leave from the NY Times and set off from NYC for the tip of South America on his 2014 Kawasaki KLR650.



Enroute, Jeremy ran a total of 44,640 miles, encountered 33 border crossings, and rode his bike to 15,800 feet crossing the Andes in Northern Chile. Also while on the road, in Santiago, Chile, Jeremy met his wife-to-be on a blind date, and Lore ultimately rode the back of the bike back to NYC! Here's Jeremy's story:

"I'm afraid my experiences with officials in Chile and Argentina entirely align with those of Whitall's, which is one of the many reasons I'm so enamored with Chile as a country: its liberal political structure and social solidarity allows people in positions of power to act humanely towards each other, whereas in pretty much every other South American country, that would be the rare exception to the rule.

My clearest border comparison was a few days ride north of Ushuaia, crossing the Andes at Paso Rodolfo Roballos, way out in the middle of nowhere. The Argentine border station was two bored teenagers in a shack, and they informed me that I couldn't enter the country without a fresh printed copy of my reciprocity visa waiver — which is usually something that can be looked up electronically at the border, but not here, in a shack with no cell service or other connectivity. I would have to ride back three hours on dirt to the nearest Chilean town, print it out there, and try again tomorrow.

I rode back ten minutes to the Chilean border outpost — a much spiffier affair, with two pickup trucks and a nicely kept guard building, despite the almost zero vehicular traffic on this isolated route — and asked at the front desk, on the long shot that they might be able to help me out. They allowed me to use their satellite internet and computer to log in to my email and print out a copy of the visa reciprocity receipt, and then invited me to join them for a farewell lunch they were having for a captain who was being shuffled off to a different border post. Filled with ribs, marrow, potatoes, cabbage, wine and coffee, I went back again on my way, and was able to make it out of the pass to Ruta 40 to camp just before dark."

 

[Philpott]

Great story, wonderful photos!

 

[AlanH]

If he can get back up to Puerto Montt in Chile...admittedly a difficult sail and several hundred miles, he'll find a lot more in the way of facilities. Punta Arenas is wide open, I would not go there in a sailboat.

 

[sleddog]

If you wondered the origin of large swells along the Pacific Coast the last few days, look no further than a Pacific storm of record proportions that swept the Aleutian Islands chain on New Year’s Eve with hurricane-force winds and 50-60 foot high waves.

According to NOAA scientists with the National Weather Service, it was the most intense storm ever recorded in the North Pacific, excluding typhoons, which are more tropical, need warmer waters, and are generally smaller in diameter.



At the center of this "cyclonic bomb"” was a barometric pressure of 921 millibars, equivalent to the eye of a Category 4 hurricane and lowest recorded pressure over the Aleutians in 70 years.