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New Boat 4 Sled

The sinking of the Nantucket whaler ESSEX when rammed by a pissed off sperm whale and the subsequent small boat journey of its crew is one of the classic true sea stories, rivaling the Bounty Trilogy, by Nordhoff/Hall.

Wary of Hollywood's lack of sailing acumen after disgust with Robert Redford's disastrous "All is Lost," I have read, but not yet seen "Into the Heart of the Sea," Hollywood's story of the ESSEX. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has.

380 miles westnorthwest of Hanalei Bay, Kauai, lies French Frigate Shoals. FFS, a 20 mile long, crescent-shaped atoll, is a maze of coral reefs, rocky pinnacles, small low lying islands and white sand beaches, many submerged at high tide.

FFS-Aerial-.jpg

Though Polynesians likely visited FFS, it was accidentally first discovered during a dark night in November, 1786, by the French navigator and explorer Jean-Francois La Perouse, when his crew sighted breakers ahead and quickly tacked ship. La Perouse Pinnacle, 120 feet high, is the only remnant of FFS's volcanic origins, and from a distance, looks like a ship under sail.

LPPinnacle.jpg pinnacle.jpg

Before accurate electronic navigation, FFS and it's reefs, were a magnet for later shipwrecks.

In 1821, Captain Pollard, late of the ESSEX epic, was given command of another whaler, TWO BROTHERS, out of Nantucket. As Pollard told his friends, "Lightning doesn't strike the same place twice."

But it did. In Feb. 1823, Capt. Pollard ran the TWO BROTHERS up on French Frigate Shoals, where she quickly came apart and sank. Pollard and crew were rescued by the nearby whaler MARTHA.

Just where was the TWO BROTHERS wrecked? The exact location remained a mystery for 187 years.

Then, by a bit of luck, in 2008, in shoal water, remnants of an old ship were found at FFS, including old style anchors and whale blubber try pots. Two other whaling ships had also been wrecked at FFS, but in later years.

Today, French Frigate Shoals is part of the Papahānaumokuākea Northwestern Hawaiian Islands National Marine Monument and a World Heritage Site. Nothing may be visited, moved, or removed without highly scrutinized government permits.

After exhaustive research and documentation, in 2010 a combined team of NOAA scientists and researchers were able to ascertain with certainty that the newly located shipwreck at FFS was indeed Capt. Pollard's whaler TWO BROTHERS.

There is exciting and excellent film documentation of finding the TWO BROTHERS at French Frigate Shoals available online, including a 30 minute film. The story to date is available here: http://www.papahanaumokuakea.gov/maritime/twobrothers.html

Lightning did strike twice. Pollard, fictionalized in Melville's MOBY DICK, never got another command. The moral may be to keep a good lookout forward, and don't mess with whales.

Blessings and Merry Christmas to All!
 
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Thanks, Rich, for the above link to the NYYC Classic Regatta in Narragansett Bay, off Newport, R.I. At 2:35 is a nice sequence of ANGELITA winning the start, 80 years after her Olympic Gold Medal.

This 12 minute video is eye candy for aficionados of classic and historical yachts, and a reminder that sailing is different in parts of the world. In New England, matching crew uniforms, signal flags, varnish and wood, and yachts big and small handed down through generations of families remains common Maine to Marblehead, Bristol to Essex, and many harbors in between.

To windward, these low freeboard, narrow classics, with overhangs fore and aft, bring to mind a phrase uncommonly heard in these parts:
"Slicing to windward."
 
In stark contrast to sailing classics will be the December 31st arrival in San Francisco Bay of the largest containership ever to visit North America. With a name as long as the ship, I hate to call the MV CMA CGM BENJAMIN FRANKLIN a "her."

The BEN FRANKLIN is over 1,300 feet long, 177 foot beam, and carries upwards of 18,000 plus containers, needing 7 shoreside cranes to unload. BEN FRANKLIN's owner's are touting the "mega" ship as "only" needing 27 crew.

I will attempt to get details from the SF Bar Pilots, but it looks to me, by inexact scaling from photos, that forward visibility from the BEN FRANKLIN's bridge over the top of the 7 high container stacks is no less than a mile. Even with full width bridge wings and steering stations, that's a significant "blind spot," especially as how future plans are to stack containers 10 high once shoreside cranes are raised to accommodate such loading.

Is San Francisco really able to accept a ship this size? Someone is about to find out.

http://gcaptain.com/photos-first-ul...in-arrives-in-the-united-states/#.VoGIXFKyq8A
 
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Tornados and waterspouts are relatively rare on the West Coast of North America. A winner of the National Geographic 2015 photo contest provides a spectacular look at an equally rare "anti-cyclonic" tornado in Colorado: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-...015-national-geographic-photo-contest/7060526

If it weren't for the fact Colorado tornado is possibly 200 feet in diameter, and 2,000 feet high, it looks like a length of 3-strand, hemp rope descending from the heavens.

The first place National Geo photo winner, from more than 18,000 submissions, was judged to be a mother and young humpback calf cruising in the vicinity of Roca Partida, in the Revillagigedos, southwest of Baja.
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/photo-contest-2015/gallery/winners-all/1
 
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sleddog said:
The first place National Geo photo winner, from more than 18,000 submissions, was judged to be a mother and young humpback calf cruising in the vicinity of Roca Partida, in the Revillagigedos, southwest of Baja.
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/photo-contest-2015/gallery/winners-all/1
Click to expand...

And, for my (non-award winning) untouched photo of Roca Partida see post #884 above. And yes, it does look like a sailing ship from a distance with nothing else in sight but blue ocean. Roca Partida is an amazing place at the edge of the continental shelf. I've been diving there on two trips, but never saw whales. Since the location is out in the deep blue there are lots of palagics (not the autopilot types): giant mantas, sharks and lots of big fish. The vertical faces drop to about 200' where there's a bit of a shoulder then drops off to 10-12,000 feet. Don't count on a depth sounder to give any warning.
 
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And here "HE" comes. MV CMA CGM BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, the biggest container ship yet to visit North America, is currently northbound off the Big Sur Coast, jogging along at 11.4 knots, with an ETA Oakland tomorrow morning, 0830. You can watch on Marine Traffic AIS here: https://www.marinetraffic.com/ee/ais/home/centerx:-502/centery:27/zoom:2 or here: http://hd-sf.com/shippingreport.html

I have a feeling this is just a PR visit, and no containers will be unloaded from the Big Ben.

Meanwhile, halfway around the World, close friend Capt. Ivo of the Czech Republic has just safely transited the Suez Canal northbound on his 1,201 foot container ship, inbound from the Far East to Genoa, Italy.

Ivo and I have stayed in touch, sailed together, and become family, since that day in 2008 when he skillfully piloted his ship, MSC TORONTO, into position to safely take me aboard from WILDFLOWER, 400 miles off the California Coast.
02-12-2013 01;42;46PM.jpg

On his recent Suez Passage, Ivo reported the Egyptian pilots even more bickersome than normal, yelling and shouting, and demanding cartons of cigarettes to continue. Though Ivo does not easily give into bribery and doesn't smoke, it cost 37 cartons of Marlboros to safely complete the Suez transit.

I can only guess somebody didn't pay the pilots enough bribery for this to happen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ocTTkHqQcg
 
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sleddog said:
Ivo and I have stayed in touch, sailed together, and become family, since that day in 2008 when he skillfully piloted his ship, MSC TORONTO, into position to safely take me aboard from WILDFLOWER, 400 miles off the California Coast.
Click to expand...

Wow, that's very cool you two remained in contact.
 
The history and development of marine grade plywood is a fascinating subject. DAZZLER, RAGTIME, and I touched on this subject when discussing STARBUCK and other van De Standt designs on pages 20-21 of this Forum in 2012.
http://sfbaysss.org/forum/showthread.php?655-New-Boat-4-Sled/page20

Though not true plywood hulls, high speed WWII PT "boats" were built with two diagonals of 1 in. thick, mahogany planks, with a glue-impregnated layer of canvas between, held together by thousands of nails and screws. This type of construction made for a quick but strong build of these lightweight, planing, torpedo firing, "mosquitos." Damage to the PT boats' wooden hulls could be repaired at the front lines, and if worst came to worst, parts of a PT boat would stay afloat indefinitely, as happened with the bow section of PT 109, (future President) John F. Kennedy's command, when it was rammed by a Japanese destroyer in August, 1943, in the Solomon Islands. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/japanese-forces-attack-pt-boat-with-kennedy-on-board

After WWII, with the growing popularity of the recreational boat market, plywood's use increased.. Many fiberglass boats built in Costa Mesa in the 60's and early 70's, including CALs, Ericsons, Rangers, Santanas, and MacGregors, used plywood in their deck coring and internal structures, including bulkheads, furniture, and floorboards.

The birth of modern marine grade plywood first began in 1939 when Cornelius Bruynzeel of Holland developed a plywood that used naturally water resistant wood, and synthetic resins and glue. In conjunction with yacht designer Ricus van De Stadt, in the 1950's and early 1960's, Bruynzeel's son, South African yachtsman Cornelius Bruynzeel, Jr. of STORMVOGEL fame, pioneered the use of Bruynzeel plywood, a high quality marine plywood that found increasing popularity in both amateur and professional boatbuilding. To this day, Bruynzeel Okume remains the gold standard in marine ply.

Over subsequent years, marine plywood has continued to be improved upon, and remains popular in boat building, especially for small craft. Howard and I built my 22 foot cat WILDFLOWER almost entirely of marine plywood, Douglas Fir stringers, West System epoxy glue, stainless steel screws and bronze nails.

An insightful look at how marine plywood is made is the 5 minute video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGnr8ATHHX8
 
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hodgmo said:
A thorough restoration is being done on PT-305 in New Orleans. The time I spent touring that and the associated WWII museum was well spent. http://www.nationalww2museum.org/see-hear/collections/artifacts/pt-305.html
Click to expand...

Thanks, Steve, for bringing this community backed restoration and preservation of PT 305 to our attention. What a cool project for New Orleans, and inspirational for the memory of all who served. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNmB-1wq5n4

As a kid in Newport Beach, just across the Bay in front of Christian's Hut, was moored "PT Joe." (PT 695) ptjoe.jpg
When they started up those three 1500 horsepower Packards with six giant exhaust pipes, you could hear the throaty roar a mile away.

I wonder if anyone has seen "PT Joe" on SF Bay?. It is rumored she was, or still is, a Sea Scout Ship at Rio Vista. http://www.warboats.org/ptjoe.htm
http://www.warboats.org/ptjoe.htm
 
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Here's a nice sunset Green Flash taken by Jim Howes on New Years Eve from Moss Landing.

GF.jpg


It was good sunrise Green Flash viewing at the end of last year with 5 sightings since Dec.23.

No two Green Flashes appear quite the same, varying subtly in color, intensity, shape, and timing.

A notable blue-emerald flash, for a count of 11, appeared Dec.26 as the sunrise was split by El Gabilan Peak, above Hollister, about 25 miles distant.

Catching a sunrise (or sunset) Green Flash can be elusive and rarely done with the naked eye or camera. Even with a clear horizon, because of atmospheric conditions, GF don't always occur. Elevation and a steady position help. I place my binoculars on a cliff fence post. When afloat, being braced against something sturdy like the mast or cabin top helps.

Wearing sunglasses when looking through binos also helps.

For some reason I do not understand, if it is clear on the horizon at sunrise, about 20 seconds before the moment of sunrise, a horizontal band of "steam" appears near the position of sunrise.

Green Flashes can be seen over land as well as over water. Sailing from Hawaii to the West Coast often sees GF's in the region of the Pacific High, where the atmosphere is clear and the ocean's surface calm.

Same is true from Princeville, above Hanalei Bay, Kauai.

At sunset, best not to focus on the sun too early. Wait until the sun is dipping below the horizon. The moment of the Green Flash usually occurs when the upper limb of the sun is tangent to the horizon. However, Jim Howe's photograph appears to show the GF when the lower limb is tangent, something I have not seen before.

Good hunting in 2016!.
 
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My brother's father-in-law was Marine in WWII, but since he was a farm boy with mechanical skills, once he arrived in the S. Pacific he was "sort of" transferred to the Navy and spent most of his time in PT Boats keeping those Packard engines running. They were essentially Rolls Royce-Packard airplane engines (think Spitfire and P-51 fighters) and burned aviation fuel. And, according to him, were very temperamental. Everything we love about the ocean - salt, moisture, rust, fuel contamination - played havoc with their performance. And since they were fresh-water cooled, there was the added complication of keeping pumps and radiators working. He wore hearing aids in later life. If the roar from across Newport Bay was loud, think about inside the hull of PT Boat.

By the way, he also talked about the wooden plugs they kept aboard the boats to stop up bullet holes. Since the hulls were essentially a form of plywood, small caliber bullets just went straight through and out the other side without too much damage if they didn't hit something on the way. The plugs were like the wooden ones we keep onboard to stop up thru-hull issues. They just hammered the tapered plugs into the holes. One of my uncles was in the Navy in the S. Pacific, too. He'd been a high school wood shop student (not an academic!) and his Navy job was patching the wooden hulls the Navy used for various small boats. Sometimes the military uses good sense in matching up skills with jobs.
 
I have seen many green flashes, but only one at sunrise. A wee bit harder to predict exactly when and where to gaze! Don't recall seeing "steam". One of the best places I have been to see green flashes from land is the Palau Pacific Resort, just one island south of Koror. Built on an old Japanese seaplane base (and an earlier China Clipper stop) you can sip a cocktail by the pool on the beach outside the restaurant and watch for it. I've often had luck on Hanalei's beach near the "tree". Sailing to Mexico often offers good opportunity.

The "bullet plugs" for the PT boats may have been the seed idea behind our use of green duct tape on on our helicopters in Viet Nam. The Air Force used "silver" colored tape...actually sticky back thin aluminum or stainless steel.

Fair Winds to all in the new year....
 
The B-29 on display at the Pima Air Museum in Tucson has "silver dollar" patches were some Japanese fighter bullets went through. These were riveted into the holes once the plane returned from the mission. The B-29 was pressurized, so the crew didn't wear oxygen masks at high altitudes as other American bomber crews did. The pressure came off the engine superchargers. B-29s carried "rubber" patches for the crew to use to plug up holes, but reports indicated the supercharger pressure could keep up with things without the plugs most of the time, so if the hole(s) were in difficult place to get to they just flew home with them.

My cousin Doug flew helicopters in Viet Nam and talks about the duct tape. Actually he said it was more like the metallic tape A/C guys use, but colored green to match the camo paint. He said it worked for about a 100 uses around the base, but that he never had to use it on one of his helicopters during his two tours. I'm glad!
 
Harrier said:
The "bullet plugs" for the PT boats may have been the seed idea behind our use of green duct tape on on our helicopters in Viet Nam. Fair Winds to all in the new year....
Click to expand...

Plugging bullet holes with duct tape and single-handed sailing may seem unrelated. But not really. I've written about the top of my mainsail being perforated by a trigger happy guard in his tower on Alcatraz as we short tacked up the Cone in search of current relief. The warning sign to keep 200 yards off was obscured by bird poop. As if that would have had much effect.

A better bullet hole story may be the that of Stan and Sally Honey. Somewhere back in the mid-80's, before Stan won the 1994 SHTP with their Cal-40 ILLUSION, ILLUSION sat near the Hwy 1 freeway fence, out back at Moore's Reef Boatyard in Santa Cruz.

Stan and Sally had bought ILLUSION, Cal-40 #57, from an East Coast owner, and she was in a sad state of neglect after arriving cross-country by truck.

Stan and Sally commuted from Palo Alto to Santa Cruz on weekends to work on their dream boat. I visited them one Saturday afternoon after the inside of the boat had been stripped. As we sat on a bare bunktop and shared enthusiasms for Cal 40's, I couldn't help but notice many small holes in the port side.

I remarked on this and asked why they were drilling holes in their fiberglass hull. Were they trying to let in ventilation to dry out the insides?

Stan was a bit sheepish, and replied, "those are bullet holes. People driving by on the freeway like to take target practice."

I don't remember sticking around very long after that revelation.
 
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