David at Never Sea Land likes mermaids. A lot. I, too, liked this one. Had to share it. If you like mermaids, visit. Looks like a Pre Raphaelite painter, but I'm not sure who it might be. And what, exactly, is going on with the hair. I'm pretty sure there's a hidden image in there, looks like a tail and some small hooved feet just left of center. Anyone see more? Hazel?
Webb Chiles is currently undertaking his fifth circumnavigation, well, 4&3/4 if you want to get technical, but he doesn't and I won't, so fifth it is. The 3/4 one is definitely the one he is most known for, his cruise almost around the world, solo, in an 18' open Drascombe yawl named Chidiock Tichborne after the 16th century English poet. Actually two of the same boats, as he lost the first the first after being falslely imprisioned in Saudi Arabia, as a spy. A truly epic voyage, and a capable boat and sailor. This from Webb,"Chidiock Tichborne was a great boat, who did more than I had any right to expect, and was a pleasure to sail. My best day's runs in her were around 145 miles, and I often completed long passages only three or four days slower than boats more than twice her size".Webb is not only a sailor, he's also a writer and photographer and a very good at both. I find his writing elegant and lucid, lean and clear as glass. He is also very generous. Four of his books, numerous articles and photographs and poetry are all available on his website, which is also clean and elegant. Today Webb responded to my email queries and let me know that he's recently arrived back in the US, leaving his latest boat in Darwin but will be returning to it in January to resume his fifth. Circumnavigation. You can follow his wanderings in his Journal. Here is the poetry of Tichborne, which Webb read to those seeing him off at the beginning of his journey in the Drascombe.
Frank and Margaret are perhaps the ultimate Microcruisers. They have taken their little Wayfarer dinghy (15'10") to some places and on some cruises most folks wouldn't or couldn't do in a larger boat. Seemingly fearless, they have not been , but have believed that adequate preparation will see you through most eventualities. And so it has been for them. The first book I ever read about sailing adventures was Ocean Crossing Wayfarer and I was electrified by it. I am currently reading Margaret's book on dinghy cruising, with an eye to prepping the Daysailer I'm working on. I recommend it. To anyone sailing a small boat. Frank made some amazing voyages to Iceland and Norway as well as on the Atlantic Coast of the USA and elsewhere.You can find here a great video of the voyage from northern Scotland to Aalesund, Norway. I will warn you to turn down your volume as it's very loud. Margaret has also done phenomenal cruises on her own and together with Frank. A very interesting couple who have given great inspiration to the cruising community in general and dinghy cruisers specifically. Their achievement, together and individually, is immense. The top photo is not the Dye's boat but does show the kind of boom tent Frank and Margaret designed for the Wayfarer.
Around in Ten is a singlehanded circumnavigation race designed to challenge Serge Testa's record , stipulating that all boats must be 10' or under. Set to begin in 105 days, January 10, 2009, from Bermuda to Bermuda, with a westward route and passing through the Panama Canal. There are six racers entered, and apparently most are still building. Three well known boat designers are represented, John Selway, Bruce Roberts and John Welsford. The other three are building to their own design. I must say, they are all interesting designs. Only three have posted construction photos on the website. The image above is the boat Skippy, designed and being built by Gilbert Van Meel in Antwerp, Belguim. The race is the brainchild of Nick Dwyer, who is also the organiser, and he'll be providing a support boat and be transmitting coverage of the race on a regular basis. I actually like the idea of this race, but...I have a few reservations. Most, if not all, of these boats are not yet completed, far from it. Doesn't leave much time for fitting out and sea trials. And at least three of the designs are untested (the self designs), and actually, I don't know if the designer's boats have built and tested by others. If this thing actually goes off, I'll be watching. With interest. Please take a look and give me some feedback, whats your opinion? Are these guy's nuts, or simply very courageous, or burning with a desire to enter the record books. A ten foot boat can only intensify the hardships that Serge endured on his epic voyage, and are they truly viable for circumnavigation? What do you think? Heroic or (something else)? Nick is looking for sponsorship to help manage the effort, so...
Dave and Mindy Bolduc are exemplars of microcruising. They have a website devoted to microcruising and do quite a bit of it themselves. Little Cruiser, a Matt Layden design, also built by him, top two photos, they own and have cruised to the Bahamas from their native NC. at least 7 times. Swamp Thing, a much smaller design, they now own and are restoring, if I've got it right. They have an update on their restoration and other interesting bits here. They also are the conduit for Matt' plans if you want to build a Paradox. Their website is the main portal to Laydens work and has great links, cruises they've done, study plans, sketches,news and forums.
I'm working on something else but I thought in the meantime you might enjoy these. Denmark, Peer Bruun, designer. Quote "The Megin dinghy is basically a scaled down model of Skuldelev 1 (and look at the video there), one of the shipwrecks found in the Roskilde fjord in Denmark. The Skuldelev 1 has a pair of planks in the bottom set at an angle to the lateral line of the vessel, called Meginhufer. They create a step running parallel to the keel. In this step the water travels faster reducing the wave system around the hull. " You can find more here by going to links, dinghies, Megin. Or click the title above for the Danish.
Whoa. Creed O'Hanlon of the Ethnic Catamaran Co. sent me a heads up on a possible new development in the evolution of seasteading and it's two (at least) divergent paths. Google has filed a patent application for databarges, to house the immense supercomputers needed to run its global search engines. Apparently there are huge energy costs associated with cooling these things, and the idea is to harness wave energy for electricity and use seawater for cooling. They would set up as far as 7 miles out to sea. Not mentioned by google is the fact that at sea they would be effectively "offshore" with all the implications of that status. Theoretically they could become a sovereign nation. What are the tax implications, and what about privacy law? Of course this is very difficult to achieve and has been tried in the past many times, almost always failing. Almost always. Then there is "Sealand" . Or is there ? Refer to Creed's recent four part discussion at his blog A Tiki in Thailand. I also recommend reading the comment left there by Michael Schacht of Proafile. My title links to the original Times article. And there's much more here... Any thoughts?
Hiroshi Sugimoto is a sublime and even ecstatic artist. Buddhist inspired or informed, very silent and quiet, empty but always pointing or at least hinting at other possibilities, other worlds. He's on the leading edge of art today. His work, for me at least, does what great art should do, invites us to explore our intellect and imagination. I've always felt his photos as keys, stimulants for the imagination. They are so quiet and empty, as much about what is not there as what is. This series is called "Seascapes" and here is what the artist has to say:
Elf apparently has her new topsail, judging from these pictures I recently recieved from Rick. The Crab Feast took place last weekend but I haven't heard with what results and wasn't able to go. Nor can I make it this weekend to a work party in Maryland to get her ready for the fall. Maybe you can.? Here's Rick ...
Jose finally went in Tuesday morning and Jasper and I went down to fire up the new diesel. She started on the second pop, but eventually would die . Repeatedly. We suspected air in the fuel line and tracked back to the source of the problem, a compression fitting coming off the fuel tank had split almost it's entire length. Diesel all over. Amazing that the engine ran at all. Well, it's simple enough to fix and we need to replace some old pitcock valves with ball valves in the fuel line anyway. Were heading back down to North East either tomorrow or over the weekend, a couple of hours of work, an hour or so to begin breaking in the new diesel and then, with some wind, a sail.
I don't really read Portuguese, so I don't know what this blog is addressing, completely. I do know he(or she) is posting really interesting photo's of what appear to be traditional or traditionally inspired workboats from Brasil. Even if you have no Portuguese it's worth a look, there are some magnificent boats there. Maybe Peter Mirow (of ARPEX) could help.
That's the blurb and there's some really interesting conversation between Scott and Reuel on Scott's blog. It's good. Scott is a boatbuilder himself, an adventurer with a personal exploration of the Caribbean in a kayak under his belt and the author of several books on kayak exploration of his native Mississippi, the Caribbean, and general rants about culture and disaffection with modern life. Look.
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