These geniuses left their brains at the dock

Tuesday Dec 23, the Providence Journal banner headline reads, "Storm leaves sails, voyage to Puerto Rico in tatters." It should have said, "Four sailors rescued off RI in winter storm are lucky to be alive."

Starting early in the week the forecast called for a major winter storm to hit Rhode Island, and extend over much of the east coast with a foot or more of snow, temperatures in the 20's to 30's, and NE winds at 25 mph. Most of the schools in the state were closed Friday morning on account of the snow, which eventually accumulated about 14 inches over most of Rhode Island. Here is an excerpt from the weather page of the Providence journal Friday morning. It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that it was not a good day for sailing in open water.



According to news accounts the 45 foot sailing vessel Moonshine departed East Greenwich, RI with four aboard on Friday morning, the 19th. By evening, their sails were shredded in an icy gale and the engine was disabled in 12 foot seas. According to the Providence Journal, with the wind blowing 30 to 40 knots and heavy snow falling, the Coast Guard launched a 47 foot rescue boat from Pt. Judith at 7:45 pm along with a search and rescue helicopter from Cape Cod. The search went on for hours until the vessel was located at 1:00 am about seven miles south of Block Island with the aid of flares, an EPRIB, and 911 mobile phone calls picked up on Long Island. The Coast Guard towed the Moonshine toward Montauk, N.Y. for nearly seven hours, where a Coast Guard lifeboat from Long Island took over the tow brought it to the harbor about 9:00 am Saturday morning.

The skipper's mother later told the Providence journal that her son said his father and their two sailing companions had gotten seasick. She said, “It was so rough, they didn’t have the strength to help him.”




BOSTON - (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Anthony Figueroa) The sailing vessel Moonshine is pictured at the dock at Coast Guard Station Montauk, N.Y., Saturday, Dec. 20, 2008. The Coast Guard rescued the four-person crew when they were caught in an off-shore storm that shredded their sails.

These guys were fortunate that a tragedy was averted. One comment that I saw on the sailnet forum said anyone of average intelligence would have known it was not a good day to go sailing. You can draw your own conclusions.

90 days to the first day of spring!

I talked to my Dad last night and he said "The best thing about the first day of winter is that there are only 90 days to the first day of spring!" I stopped by Cove Haven Marina and Stanley's Boatyard in Barrington this morning to take a few winter photos. I found an old wood express cruiser, Restless tucked in the back of the yard at Cove Haven. She looks sad now, but you can imagine her past glory.





Keep Warm,
Chuck

Watching the waterfront from the comfort of my computer room.

I'm sitting at my computer in Barrington, RI on a brisk December Sunday watching the Northeast Marine Pilots head out of Newport harbor, to meet an incoming ship no doubt, via the webcam at the top of the Newport Hyatt.

It's time for me to stop goofing off and go buy a Christmas tree.

Keep warm,
Chuck

APHRODITE commuter yacht

APHRODITE was built by the Purdy Boat Company and launched in May of 1937 for Wall Street financier John Hay (Jock) Whitney of Manhasset, Long Island. She is a sleek and elegant 74-foot "Commuter Yacht", and was originally used to transport Mr. Whitney from his boat house on Long Island Sound thru the East River to his Wall Street office. After Pearl Harbor, APHRODITE was offered to the government for war service and she was commissioned in April 1942 as a Coast Guard auxiliary vessel (CGR-557). In the fall of 2003 a complete restoration was started at Brooklin Boat Yard bringing her back to her original appearance and updating her ship's systems up to today's standards. You can read about the restoration, and view photos of her undwerway here. I photographed APHRODITE while she was tied up at Fort Adams, near the Museum of Yachting at Newport, RI in July 2008. APHRODITE is also featured in the November/December issue of Classic Yachting Magazine where several paintings by Robert Webber are published. She is a stunning sight!

Classic Yacht Magazine

A gorgeous resource with photos and stories about classic sail and motor yachts as well as smaller classics. Browse the current issue and archives here.

Classic Yacht is a free online magazine dedicated to beautiful, capable yachts and their colorful owners. Lovers of great boats, power, sail, old or new, fiberglass or not, large and small, will discover stories to fuel their dreams and enrich your time time on the water, and lift your spirits during those necessary interludes ashore until you can get back on the water.

Classic Yachts is available either in PDF format or using zegapi which dynamically displays high quality print-like materials online. Using a sophisticated and natural page flipping web interface, zegapi is changing the way people interact with digital publications.

New URL for NOAA charts online

I was looking for charts online and there is a new URL for online access to up-to-date coastal charts. Check it out.
http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/OnLineViewer.html

Newport RI WebCAMs

Longing for a peak at Narragansett bay? Check out these webcams. Still images update about every 5 seconds. Results will be best during daylight, there's not much visibility at night.

Webcam #1 looking North West toward Rose Island and the Newport Pell Bridge. http://www.riyachting.com/webcam-hyatt-cam-one-large.html


Sample image: The blurred light in the foreground is the high speed ferry headed north toward the Pell Bridge.

Webcam #2 looking South West toward the entrance of Narragansett Bay with Fort Adams shown on the left. http://www.riyachting.com/webcam-hyatt-cam-two-large.html The Hyatt is the sponsor of webcams 1 & 2, which are are on the roof of the Hyatt in Newport.



Webcam #3 points East North East toward the Lower Thames Street area of Newport and the inner harbor. http://www.riyachting.com/webcam-museum-cam-three-large.html The Museum of Yachting is the sponsor of this webcam.