When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When in London same thing, only first look to the Right.

My HMS Victory watercolor sketch. This was Admiral Nelson's flagship from the The Battle of Trafalgar. She can be visited at the British Naval museum in Portsmouth.

     
     Reflecting on the return flight from a visit to the UK, it occurs to me how tenuous a relationship I have with signage. This topic is fresh in mind as exactly 20 hours ago as I write this not counting the time difference I was standing in a very long line with my wife and kids preparing to board a plane to Dubai when we should have been just ahead in the much shorter line to Atlanta, which from our vantage point appeared to be the same line.

     I was a few paces back from the family when our youngest daughter came and got me, asserting “Dad, we’re in the wrong line.” I scowled at the signage in that boarding area, having never been clear on exactly where we were supposed to be, and found myself wondering, “would that have happened in the States?” Our plane it turned out took it’s sweet time boarding so we would have been all right...probably, but as this was the latest in a series of events like this, I find myself trying to make sense of it. I wedged my suitcase in the regular turnstile at King’s Crossing instead of using the one clearly marked for luggage only a few feet away, and then there was the croissant in the toaster at the hotel despite the one and only sign on the table asking guests not to do it. It came out partially ignited, and since I’ll eat burned toast my wife assumed that was me dismissing authority. I argued that I have no issue with the lady who set out that lovely breakfast, but she scoffed.

     I must conclude that for some reason, under certain circumstances, (like breakfast) no matter how bold or clearly posted, I don’t see signs, or I filter them out somehow. That’s possibly due to a dyslexic compartmentalized brain, but on a wider view, it brings to mind the exercise in trying to span the gap between one’s perspective as a visitor and......that of Britain’s. I must say in London they made probably the most important concession for tourists by boldly painting the words “Look Right” on the street facing every the curb at every intersection. It might as well have said...

HEY,  AMERICANS! YOU’RE IN ENGLAND. WE’VE GROWN WEARY OF SCRAPING YOUR OVERFED CARCASSES OFF THE PAVEMENT, SO PLEASE BE SO GOOD AS TO LOOK TO THE RIGHT SO YOU MIGHT FINISH YOUR VISIT IN ONE PIECE.

I acknowledge the space problem, therefore adding something about texting would be problematic; and yes, in Italy and Germany they drive on the right hand side; still, I have to imagine my country racks that largest slice of grisly pie chart, but even so, its gratifying to see the steady decline of pedestrian fatalities possibly since records have been collected.

This must have been executed after a particularly bad weekend. No time for a stencil, the crews set out with a brush and a can of paint.

  
      So there’s the aspect of perspective. If you’re thoroughly used to something, so used to it that you may not even see the need for a sign. Is it possible for you to communicate with an outsider effectively? In other words, I’m proposing that in every case, the people who most need the signage, should be the ones to design it. So yes, tourists from Michigan can come to Florida and sit down with a guy from Berlin and a lady from San Paolo and work out our traffic signs. And maybe one of us could have a crack at making the roundabout signage in the UK a bit more helpful; for our own sake. But more interesting to me, is the subtext of signage. When a group posts a sign, they seek to not only instruct another party on some preferable behavior, they are making a declaration about themselves. This bodes well for Britain, because their signage conveys a collective gentility and expectation of adult behavior that the country depends on, not just plays lip service to. About a week into our trip Tracey and I began to notice signage that while not outrageously different than the States, is just....different. Things we just wouldn’t say over here. Exhibit A. This sign on the subway. Someone is sick, and you are cordially asked to help the person off the train so that they can better be attended to. Isn’t that lovely?

        
     I’m not sure we post this sign in New York. Of course, the transit authority of New York City doesn't want sick people on it's trains, but would they enlist the public's help getting them onto the platform? “Wait, you’re asking me to touch a person? Will there be hand sanitizer?” We’d probably say instead......call for assistance, or just go with a poster for a Broadway play. I think the subtext is collectively, from the many postings we encountered throughout the country, the British as whole still seem to trust each other. We saw signs that had what I would call, wiggle room, where you are told "go ahead, but please use your good judgement and moderation." That was a refreshing change.
   
I don’t think as individuals we have a similar peaceful coexistence with authority on this side of the Atlantic, or with each other. Here the thought goes, “we might get sued, so let’s remove all middle ground. Post a Stay Out sign. No, better yet, let’s go with a fence, and hang the sign on that.”

    Maybe it’s because the UK is really one big world heritage site, and they have no choice but to trust it’s citizens and visitors. The many cathedrals, castles and palaces have to be kept up, and to do it they need revenue, and to create revenue they need to grant access. This hit home on a visit to Alnwick Castle on the border near Scotland. As we made our way through the stately Italianate rooms full of historic art pieces and objects we began to perceive the personal items and family photos of the Duke of Northumbrian and his family. At some point it dawned on me that we were in a person’s home. There were cameras of course, and a few very officious attendants in the various state rooms. But still, we’re the public. We had our shoes on, and there’s a lot of us. I appreciated the open access we enjoyed to a staff person in one of the castles we visited; valuable objects and paintings surrounded us in the apartment within easy reach, but she was happy to say they had never had a problem, and inferred a greater concern over the threat of humidity or fire.

Anwick Castle and it's Lovely grounds. It dawned on me during our visit that no one in the U.K. has the least notion of what weeds are. Save your comments my British friends, you don't, that's why you invented vast expanses of perfect lawn and oh, I don't know... golf?

   
     It’s a definite balance. If you go to enough art museums you get trained to get a little antsy when someone noses in too close to a painting. It’s not tolerated in galleries I’ve visited in the States, as we found out in New York when my oldest daughter pointed at a detail in a painting (a horse no doubt). She was frightened by the gallerista, being unused to a stranger scolding her. We didn’t have any issues like that in Britain. The people we met were lovely, in fact the owner of the one B&B where we stayed at mentioned how well behaved our daughters were. I had just taken the last armload out to our car, and at that moment the two of them were in the back seat nose to nose screaming at each other.

Punting on the River Cam with my family and Tracey's niece Tess, her boy-friend Mat has the pole. "It's not so hard" Mat asserted, "the students at Cambridge do it blind drunk."

  
      My friend Paul Bevan Thomas warned me about the London crowds, and after one day I was already happy to escape to a quieter venue. Paul hails from the town of Chichester on the coast of Southern England near London, and he arranged to have his parents David and Mary pick me up at the train station after I had spent the day at Portsmouth harbor, visiting the British Naval Museum where Nelson’s flagship Victory is dry-docked. I have nothing insightful to say on the vessel beyond the obvious, that to say she is perfect. Every square inch of her to my eye, perfectly maintained. Okay two things: the chain pumps were really cool, made perfect sense, and the interpretive approach to the powder room was very well done. Here’s a sensitive spot, way down in the bottom of the ship below the water line, the gunner and his mates prepared the charges for the cannons. In the dark? No. With an open flame or a lantern? No, too dangerous obviously. There was a chamber situated in the powder room that reflected light through glass windows, but the chamber could not be accessed through the powder room, it had to be accessed from above using another space completely sealed off from the volatile gunpowder. That was cool, very simple and smart. I think I read that the powder rooms could also be flooded instantly if necessary.

The Admirals quarters with the table set for entertaining the officers. The table top would be fastened to the ceiling during battle, while the chairs, glassware and china would go safely down in the hold.

      
      Visiting the Victory was great, there was a route planned for the public that wound its way along the gun decks to the Admiral’s quarters, from the quarter deck down to the ship’s bilge compartments, with knowledgeable servicemen and volunteers throughout to answer questions. I found myself mixed in with a large gaggle of primary school students so the going was slow, but I didn’t mind. Out on deck there’s a brass marker in the deck on the very spot where Admiral Nelson took the fatal bullet from a French sharp shooter, and one of the kids must of jabbed it with his shoe because I heard them yell in unison “TEACHA....HE STEPPED ON NELSON”S GRAVE!” They were much quieter below in the darkness of the or-lop where the Admiral breathed his last. There a large original painting sits of the final death scene, painted by the artist Arthur Devis. He wasn’t there for the battle, but joined the ships company off of England and did sketches of the surviving crew and officers who would be depicted around the Admiral in his last moments.

A small corner of the gun deck. Mess crews ate from tables hanging between the guns, and hung their hammocks there as well. All of the dishware and trays were made of wood. The ropes you see along the ceiling raise and lower the guns' port lids.

   
     Henry the Eighth’s flagship Mary Rose can be seen at the museum as well, or what’s left of her salvaged from the mud of Portsmouth harbor after 500 years. Actually it was the mud that preserved the ship, at least the half that sank down into it. Tons of amazing artifacts were hauled up from around the wreck; cannons, weapons, personal items, cutlery, tools, human remains, and even a dog’s skeleton is on display, and all of it gives a sense of what life was like for the people on board at the Battle of the Solent. The interpretive presentation again is very good, especially the background on the battle itself. As I understand it, Henry wanted his marriage annulled, Pope said no, and then Henry as we all know decided “let’s form a church we can work with.” The Pope’s offense must have dovetailed nicely with French ambitions, because a French fleet sailed out and made landfall at Portsmouth, where they met the English fleet in the narrow harbor inside the Isle of Wight.

Here you see the vent socks that moving air into the space at an exact humidity. The wreck was a treasure trove of artifacts, including hundreds of the fabled English longbows, the actual first ever found anywhere.

     The Mary Rose fired a broadside, came about to unleash another as the wind heeled her over. The newfangled lower gun ports were mistakenly left open, and she took on water, sinking the ship between both fleets, in full view of Portsmouth Harbor and the horrified King and Queen. A large engraving contemporaneous with the event called the Cowdray Engraving is projected on a screen, and the Mary Rose’s top mast is visible during the rest of the battle poking up from the water, men cling to the topmasts. A woman was giving a short talk and answering questions so I couldn’t help but ask, “This big battle with two fleets and hundreds of ships...all this happened right here off the dock of the Naval Museum?” It was hard to imagine it, or make the connection. It seemed too finite a space to host a naval battle. “The English wanted the battle confined" our guide explained, she went on to say the English removed the channel markers so the French would run aground and be bottled up at the entrance, instead of having room to bring their greater numbers and fire power to bare. It definitely worked. The French finally gave up and headed home their invasion plans thwarted.

Guns excavated from beneath the wreck. Notice they are breech loaders, an early experiment with naval gunnery.

        
     I wondered at them bringing up the remains of the Mary Rose’s hull though. It is interesting, what's left of it. No doubt it will or has yielded many clues to naval architecture of the period, from an expert’s perspective no doubt. They have for thirty years worked on removing the seawater from the wood while replacing it with a water soluble glycol mixture sprayed on to keep the cellulose in the wood from collapsing, which will happen when you pull up timbers from the sea bed after 500 years. It’s now in the drying out phase, and when that’s over she is hoped to be perfectly preserved for good. The wreck has been in the channel all this time, for hundreds of years fishermen would snag their nets on it and say “Oh, that’s the Mary Rose.” It was only until the advent of scuba gear that people became concerned over the prospect of real plundering, so efforts were made to miss-mark it on the charts until a real salvage effort could be launched in the late 70’s and 80’s.

The Mary Rose.

   
     Paul’s dad David knows this area pretty well, as it’s the cruising and racing grounds of the Itchenor Sailing Club where he sailed his Solent Sunbeam Argosy. The club has hosted a small fleet of these lovely wooden sailboats which were designed and built for club racing and cruising in the 1920’s by the marine designer Alfred Westmacott. David showed me a nice coffee table book,  The Brilliance of Sunbeams, A Celebration of the Classic Keel Boat, by Peter Nicholson. David’s Sunbeam V12, the Argosy, has it’s own chapter in the book, unfortunately it’s entitled Sunk, Found, Recovered. The chapter does not dwell too much on why she went over, except to say the conditions were appalling, with “35 knot winds and steep seas in which the Cowes Combined Clubs set the race on the Wednesday of Cowes Week 2000.”  When you set a race, you set a race. Anyway, after a dicey interlude in the water, David and his co-owner Paul Deeny were rescued, but then came the task of finding and trying to raise the boat. She sank with her sails fully set, so with the prevailing currents they estimated roughly where she was. They found her with the help of a trawler, who’s lines came up with the correct colored bottom paint, but I infer from the chapter that she wasn’t finished sailing around underwater. Finally they found her 28 meters deep, where divers were able to raise her with air bags. The laborious process of getting her up, drained, and ready for towing was no small affair, but finally they got Argosy back to Chichester where she could be raised on the ‘scrubbing trolley and pulled ashore.’ Of course her rigging and mast was a total loss, but other than scrapes and some inner work, she was restored with fair expediency. That’s a testament of the value these boats have to their owners and the locals there on the Solent who helped Mr. Bevan Thomas raise Argosy and set her to rights. I like that there was no cost/benefit analysis mentioned or calling the insurance company. The first call was get to a recovery effort rolling. That wasn’t just any boat out there, that was Solent Sunbeam number 12.

A rough watercolor sketch of the Solent Sunbeam Argosy.

  
      I had a great time with Mary and David, and my thanks goes out to them for a lovely dinner featuring a fish pie and homemade ice cream. The next day Mary showed me around town, we toured the amazing Chichester Cathedral, and the Roman Palace which features some stunning examples of mosaics from the Roman occupation of Britain. This complex was only excavated starting in the 1960‘s, and much of it still remains underground. You can see places where the plows of farmers gouged through the tile work. This area of England was on of the first places claimed by the Romans and given the proximity to the Solent Estuary it’s strategic importance is obvious. An invading army did not want to leave their boats out in the channel for any length of time. So this is a place where an average homeowner can set out to plant a tree or dig a garden pond, only to come up with an ancient artifact.

I could go on, but yes, let’s drop anchor here.

Here’s to all the nice folks in Britain who made our visit wonderful, Salute!


Brian

See those Loons headed North? Wait, where's that one going?

Greetings Folks,

     Long time no entry, as I’ve spent the last few months painting and working on a website to showcase artwork. I’ve struggled with it mightily. I feel like a beat up old sedan trying to take an on-ramp to a highway jammed with Ferrari’s. More than one person has raised the question, “Why not pay someone to do it?” A reasonable suggestion, but it wouldn’t work, mostly because I’m still trying to understand what the website needs to be, and I’ll be changing artwork in and out on a regular basis. Beyond that, there’s something to be said for taking on new directions to keep the old noggin limber.

     Challenges are good, but designing a website is not for the feint of heart. When I hit a problem I go to the Mac forums, and searching the topics, you come across a written record of people in their most frustrated moments. There are those who know to post questions with the right attitude; namely-humility. They understand you can catch more flies with honey. Then there are those at the end of an all night struggle, who post questions with an air of outrage and general blame, as if the people who inhabit the forums (the ones who could possibly help them) are responsible for the internet being designed the way it is, and thus have some obligation for getting them out of whatever jam they’ve in. I don’t say this in a smug fashion. I’ve been that person, and could be again before my website is finished. The whole endeavor reminds me of customers that have come into Native Nurseries, the garden shop I have worked at for many years. If a middle aged person has spent their life avoiding any knowledge of perennial gardening, it’s not my obligation to make up for it on a busy Saturday afternoon.  Sometimes, we have no idea how much we don’t know. At least on that point, I’ve been schooled pretty well.

     Where this blog is concerned, I will try to do it a bit more often, but I will be moving it to the website, which by the way, is called The Weather Rail Studio, in keeping with the title of my blog. The address is theweatherrailstudio.com. This blog will be there, as it makes sense to have everything in one spot. The website will display a wider range of my artwork, and showcase new projects. I will have a little retail shop as well in the offing, to sell prints, cards and t-shirts, so look for that...in a year or so realistically. Truth is, I wouldn’t even be speaking of the website, but I had the opportunity to have artwork published in the sailing magazine Small Craft Advisor and I felt like I should mention it in my profile. I had hoped to have the website pretty much done by the time it went to print, but so many little snags, also I dropped my laptop. My thanks goes to my friend Gabi Mallen for advising me that I could order a new LCD screen and fix it myself...which I did! Thanks Gabi!

     Anyway, I put up my website on-line in the hopes of just my art school compadres offering biting criticisms, while it flew under the radar of anyone else. Except now the readers of Small Craft Advisor can scratch their heads at what I’m doing. (It’s not quite finished).
My thanks goes to Josh Colvin of Small Craft Advisor, for finding room for my stuff in the magazine-friends and family can go to West Marine and look for the May-June issue.

     Meanwhile, the 16th Annual Apalachicola Antique and Classic Boat Show just wrapped up. I entered my sailboat in the show, and convinced Jody to bring his daughter Vanessa’s newly completed Swan down as well. It didn’t take much convincing. I think Jody realized it was only fair to the share their beautiful work and help buoy the event, which it did and I’m not kidding. I say this  because Apalachicola has been good to us. We've made frequent use of their excellent boat ramp and local restaurants, so we at least owed them a few boats for their show.

Jody brought Swan, which I feature in a watercolor here....

And his blue tang, which I featured in this image here.....

      Vanessa took a break from her classes at U of F Veterinary school to attend the show and with her dad had a great time there on the corner of Water Street meeting people and discussing the building of Swan, which they finished in late 2012, and for their effort they hauled in a Best Home Build Award for their boat. You can peruse the building of the Swan in a blog Vanessa kept during the process by clicking here.

      My Sharpie Tramontana got Best in Show Sailboat, which I was elated over, if not a bit sheepish. My boat’s clearly a garage boat, unlike Swan which really a finely finished sailboat. I figured Tramontana would be useful to use as a comparison for the perfect boats, but none of them showed due to bad weather. We heard several more entries were expected. Maybe the judges liked some scuffs and gouges, which Trammy has a-plenty, but truthfully, I never saw them bend down and look at her underside. Suits me, I might have taken umbrage at that. I saw the judges laugh and say something about ‘epoxy’ (like what would these guys do without it.) A question I’ve often thought myself, as it hides all-or most crimes, like when the belt sander got away from me back towards the stern. Anyway, she has a real nice color scheme, I’m proud of that.

All in all the best part was meeting some really interesting people who stopped by. It’s fun to come into contact with complete strangers with whom you share an avid interest. This was maybe the first time I’ve ever had that experience so directly.

Me, Vanessa and Jody Walthall at the 16th Annual Apalachicola Antique and Classic Boat Show.

      Meanwhile as the boat show was going on a cold front was driving in from the west, and we heard about an unusual event happening at the St. Marks Wildlife Refuge. All the songbirds crossing the gulf were caught out over open water by a sturdy cold north wind. I hate to think how many annually don’t make it, but those who got to the marshes of St. Marks were too tired to fly anymore and were hunkering down on the ground. This phenomenon is called a ‘Fallout.’ Curious hikers were walking among the birds, and as we drove back home along the coast road we saw lots of indigo buntings flitting along the roadside. In fact, folks in Tallahassee have had some amazing feeder visitations, to the tune of a dozen or so buntings at a time, (a first that I’m aware of) plus blue and rose-breasted grosbeaks as well. Oh, and painted buntings too! Tonight we had the first rose-breasted grosbeak I have ever seen at our feeder at home, and I was struck by how large and striking they are. I’m always aware that what to us is an wonderful event, might indicate a real stressful time for the creatures we are observing. I think about stories of sailors looking up and seeing hundreds of songbirds in the rigging of their vessels at such times.

Male and female Rose-breasted Grosbeaks

      It’s been an odd late winter/spring in terms of weather. Our annual beach clean up had to be cancelled due to bad weather, and so have our other attempts at day-sails. We have another one coming up on the calendar, let’s keep our fingers crossed. We did get some good canoeing in among the marshes this winter, and I was struck by how many scores of shore-birds and ducks one can see if you take a moment to scan the horizon among the marshes. What seems like an empty space becomes very different with a good pair of binoculars. You realize there are hundreds of birds all around in the vast space...so exhilarating; especially to someone like me who grew up in Florida, but was never aware of this migration of birds that happens all over the state.

Oystercatchers on a bar. An odd name, yet sensible in that they spend lots of time on Oyster bars. Also the bill is the exact shape of the business end of an oyster-shucker. They don't eat oysters however.  That bill is used for foraging in the mud for tube worms and crustaceans. A funny thing about these shorebirds; they spend a lot of time at rest standing on one leg. Only they shift their weight so slightly that it looks like they are defying gravity. The middle bird is inaccurately depicted, but if I showed the leg straight up and down off to one side, it would look bizarre.

    Case in point, Jody likes to accompany a local ornithologist Paul Spitzer who comes down every winter to observe and monitor Loons that over-winter in the Gulf of Mexico. We see the birds while sailing; very large and striking they are, low in the water and frequently diving for fish. Their call is distinctive and a classic mainstay of Hollywood background sounds. (Often in a cowboy movie out in the desert). Paul Spitzer observed an interesting phenomenon and no doubt saw a lot of it this weekend. Paul takes up an observation point in the St. Marks Refuge and counts North-bound Loons. When the birds come over the land, many will abruptly turn about and head back out to sea. You can read a little about these aborted flights here in the Wakulla News. It’s a short read, and very interesting. Birds are amazingly intelligent.

I found it curious that an ornithologist would find value in observing from one point on the coast. Does he have figures for extrapolating the over all migration pattern along a wide area, or is it what Jody surmised.....St. Marks is on a major flyway and these animals have worn a groove of moving through this area, perhaps they’ve learned of safe spots all along the way to their breeding grounds along the Northern Atlantic coast? He does see hundreds of birds in a day, so it would make sense. Next winter I’ll try and tag along and maybe I’ll get that question answered.

One things for sure, it seems all these Rose-breasted Grosbeaks were off their normal flyway. I say that, but the guide books show this area as part of their normal route. It's just unusual how many we had this year. I wonder...next spring, will this happen again? We have some very bird-friendly neighborhoods here in Tallahassee, and the feeders are well stocked. You never know, word may spread!


Hey! I’m done. Let me raise my coffee cup to you. Salute! I appreciate you visiting.

Brian

Narcissism on a Mud Flat.

      Long time, no entry as I’ve been focused on painting, and for the first time I’m endeavoring to create a web site. It will feature my nautical and coastal portfolio including landscapes, nature/shorebird material, and a way folks can purchase commissioned pieces and/or printed and original pieces. My art school chums have been doing their best to help in this endeavor, and their patience is appreciated. It’s been a challenge, particularly concerning decisions around exactly how one presents oneself. The pages and categories I’ve created have quickly gobbled up my artwork, and it points out the need for more work! 
    
     It’s finally cooled off and thanks heavens for that. Haven’t done much sailing in the last month or so due to the kids being back in school and life in general, but I have availed myself to Jody’s early morning canoe initiative by joining him on a few Sunday outings. Paddling along in the waning darkness, fishing rod leaning forward in the bow, a thought came to me from many years ago when my buddy Ali and I were wrapping up our second Everglades Wilderness Waterway canoe trip. With the canoe pulled away from the ramp, and all our camping gear strewn around, we took a stroll around the marina in Flamingo to stretch our legs, waiting for my Dad to come get us from Miami Springs. A gentlemen who seemed to have time on his hands as well engaged us in conversation, and he must have gone on a while, because I remember thinking “we got a talker.” Anyway, he relayed a story that has stuck in my head ever since, and there in the marshes of St. Marks on Florida’s Big Bend, it came back to me with some relevance. I’ll call his story, The Master of Hell’s Bay. He may have actually said 'Wizard,' but either way.

     Hells Bay is a lake in the mangroves of the Everglades National Park, a few miles on the right before you reach the headquarters at Flamingo. It can only be reached by a narrow canoe trail, twisting through the overhanging mangroves, about half a day’s paddle, till it suddenly opens up into the shallow expanse of a small lake. A pavilion sits in the middle of the open water where one can pitch a tent to hide from the mosquitoes, and of course they provide a porta-potty and a neat log book guests can sign, at least all that was there back in 1983. I should check to see if it still exists after the last few hurricanes. Anyway, it was the first canoe/camping trip I ever did with my friend Kent Reetz. There we were, two high schoolers, on our own, the smell of freedom, Off, and the aroma of rotting mangrove leaves made for a heady brew. I remember us trying to fish the perimeter of the bay, casting between the tangled mangrove roots hoping for a snook waiting in ambush, but before long Kent and I gave up. We agreed the bay was much too shallow and the water too warm and stagnant to be home to anything worth fishing for.
    
     But, according to this talkative stranger, the ‘Master of Hell’s Bay’ knew better. He was an old man who had the only angle on how to fish the place. He was very sneaky, never letting anyone follow to learn his method. It was his secret alone. The theory was, he would wait at the opening of one of the creeks that lead in and out of the bay, and when the tide was coming in, he’d lure a big snook who’d be there ready to catch whatever was moving through the opening. No one knew where he set up for sure, but apparently he would often return to the marina with his limit on snook. I think my mouth was hanging open at the hearing of this tale, as the memory of that place swirled in my head, along with thoughts of what might have been back when we were sixteen. Funny, there’s nothing revolutionary about fishing a creek opening on a rising or falling tide, that’s what you’re supposed to do. But the idea of an old man paddling a canoe for hours to get to into Hells Bay of all places, with it’s limpid water, shallow muck bottom, and a robust insect air defense, only to return with his limit on snook, is a grain of sand I can't get out of my proverbial clam shell.

     Well, I think we’re too far North on the Big Bend of Florida for snook fishing, but we do have Redfish, and they have of mystique all their own. So let me cut to the chase. I want to be the same guy. The ‘Master’ guy. And, as most everyone called a ‘Master’ is typically an old man, I figure I have time to get there. If Jody and I keep paddling around the marshes, were bound to stumble upon a couple reds eventually, if just by accident. Maybe old sick ones? And really, it occurs to me that it’s not necessary to be a great fisherman anyway. I just have to create the illusion of being a good fisherman, and of course I’ll need a mouthy guy who hangs out around the ramp at St. Marks to help spread the legend of my exploits. It would help if there was a nearby oyster and beer joint or even better, a bait shop frequented by old men who sit around a spitoon reading the paper, but unfortunately St. Marks is a Wildlife Refuge and there’ll be no such thing.

     I guess it’s gonna fall to me and this blog. Perhaps I should start laying in the narrative now, so in a couple decades from now it may will have taken root. Let’s see.....it would help if we actually caught some redfish, instead of the same two Spanish mackerel we keep encountering. Jody mentioned maybe hiring a guide. But as a master, that doesn’t seem right; listening to a guide. Perhaps if I pretend there was no exchange of money, and I would have fished exactly where he told me to anyway, I could square it with myself. That could work.

     But wait a minute, that won’t work. The Master ignored all the obvious, sensible places a guide would take you to around Flamingo. He made his name by fishing in as confounding a spot as you would hope to avoid. So I need to put some time into finding a similar place around here. Google earth will help with that I suppose. A dank mud flat, as far up one of these nameless marshes as we can push, completely exposed at low tide, as devoid of any angulatory potential as possible, and there we will set up shop, and not give up till we discover the secrets of that place. Just like the Master did in Hells Bay. And if one of the secrets of this secluded marsh includes a footpath that leads to a section of Highway 98 where the guy sells fish out of the back of his truck, then we can cut the time frame to achieving 'Master' status substantially.

Hells Bay Master Fishing Technique Theory #4. Stately Southern manners and a courtly demeanor seldom go amiss.

         For the time being I guess we’ll have to go at it honestly, using good old-fashioned jumper cables and a car bat.....I mean a rod and reel, and in this effort I promise to report any success. So far we've been concentrating around the oyster bars as the tides move in and out, like all the other anglers do, but so far without success. I had one nice hook up way up a marsh creek where the water was moving through a constriction in the reeds. It was exactly where I'd be hanging out if I was a redfish, but I had no leader on my jig and he broke me off. Seeing the many photos of people catching redfish in every outdoor magazine and sporting good store bulletin board would seemingly get on my nerves, but no. I have a sailboat, and none of those people in the photos are fishing from sailboats, so maybe there's some kind of handicap there. Plus they have pretty young women along in bikinis typically, so maybe that's an added attraction to redfish. Whatever the case, it's beneath a master of saltwater fishing to have anxiety over almost never catching any fish. So I'll hold it together, and let you know when things turn around. Because, according to my legend, it's clearly going to turn around.

     I have more to discuss, but again, I've resolved to shorten my posts. It comes to my attention there are people actually reading my blog. My closest friends report trouble pushing through my posts, but not their parents! So, to Sally and Jose, let me say welcome, and from the rail I raise my coffee mug to you. Salute!


Brian

My Daughter Emma--5th grade, was not going to allow Pops to hog all the fun of drawing mermaids, so enjoy her handy- work. Obviously the pet fish is some species other than a snook.

To Blue Skies...May They Someday Return.

      Ahhh. As the summer comes to a close the days grow shorter and the air grows crisp and cool with the trees showing their first hints of color. No wait. I’m in Florida! The air is not crisp and cool, it’s warm and so sodden with moisture there’s little difference between the rain falling and the water vapor rising. The rains have been relentless for almost three months now, surely enough time for an entirely new species of mushroom to evolve. The July rainfall in Tallahassee was almost 8” above the norm, and as of late August it is still raining. When I hear thunderstorms at day break I know we’re in for it. The storms sit over the warm water on the coast waiting to rush inland like a race horse at the gate.

     To think a month or so ago we were standing on the Columbia Ice Field just south of Jasper in Alberta, Canada. It was cool, not cold (I wore shorts). Tracey’s plans for our family summer trip included visits to the Glacier parks in both Canada and the US, and wouldn’t you know, we met some Florida Boat people on the bus ride back from Logan Pass; Dave and Connie McBride. They were on a side excursion while sailing up the East Coast on a Bolger Sharpie. These folks have some real sailing and boat building chops and you can read about them in a blog Connie maintains called Simply Sailing. She also has articles featured in Small Craft Advisor including an issue from last year.

Here's the Prince of Wales Hotel from the walking trail that begins behind the Park Visitor Center. We got up to the saddle and back down just before it was too dark to see the trail.

     If anyone is looking for a nice mid-summer trip I highly recommend exploring the Glacier parks on both sides of the border; just do it soon. Most of the remaining Glaciers were in the form of hanging valleys-the small upper decks of the mountain ridges, and their melt water seasonally has the rivers and streams running full tilt. I read there's maybe another thirty years or so before they are no more.

     Be sure to book a room at the Prince of Wales Hotel located in Waterton Lakes, part of Canada’s National Park System. During the period when the railroad barons were connecting the rails through the mountains, they built a string of lovely big hotels to encourage tourism. Now here’s a place where a hiker might wear knickers and stockings, and not look out of place; lovely old seasoned wood everywhere, six floors of it, resplendent in it’s dark creaky abundance. We had the topmost floor, right underneath the peak, and it reminded the girls of Hogwarts in one respect; semi-hidden staircases.

     The place has authenticity that just feels right. No TV’s, no wifi, and you better be okay with stairs, as the only elevator is for the bell hops. It sits lakeside, and our balcony door opened to this astounding view.

       Tracey was warned to keep the windows and door shut, as unpredictable gusts come through the valley and will leave the room in an disheveled mess. I dared it to happen, but, it must be the wrong time of year. The place had a charming, worn feel to it, like a weathered old sea boat. I sensed it’s a place someone who is used to staying in four and five star hotels might pass by. But of course it was five stars in it’s time.

                                         I ran across my favorite western bird, the American Dipper. If I'm not mistaken this 
                                         is our only aquatic songbird. These characters brave swift icy rivers to hunt for small 
                                         fish and insects among submerged rocks and logs. This individual I suppose was resting 
                                         and warming up after a morning spent foraging in the glacial runoff.  

     Back home in July we got in a nice afternoon sail in with my Mom and an old family friend Mary Claire Dant who resides in Naples Florida. Jody and I took them to Dickerson Bay as the beach there is excellent and mostly deserted. The wind checked out permanently in the morning so it was a motoring day, but in the wildlife category the trip was a knockout. I’ve never seen the Bay so active. The water was alive with rays scooting every which way under the hull and often breaching in huge splashes! We saw sea turtles, jellies, and a family of dolphins who accompanied us throughout the afternoon. These were some very large individuals, and they made a show of jumping, along with a baby who must have been less than a year old, still nursing I presume.

     At the beach we sat comfortably under a sun shade and enjoyed the group of birds gathered behind us. This included willets, terns, and a new sighting for this beach...marbled godwits! Further down were the unmistakable oystercatchers who preferred to keep their distance. Clouds began building just north of the ramp and in only twenty minutes brewed into a full thunderstorm with the tops arching way over to the south above our heads. This is the first time I have had that happen although one expects it every summer. The sea breeze usually pushes these forming thunderstorms just inland, and that could be said of this storm. We were even able to break down the masts and sails and button everything up for the road home before the rain really kicked in. It was an amazing days considering the only wind we had was in our face provided by the thunderstorm.

     I resolved to shorten my posts, so I declare the end of this one. We hope to sail again soon, although life returns its normal pace with our kids returning to school. But they are always happy to have me out of the house on a Sunday so perhaps we will go again soon. If anything interesting happens....I’ll post. Till then, keep your hand on the rail and your sunscreen well applied.

Salute!

Brian

Sorry, I had to close with one good shot of the Prince of Wales Hotel.

    

Dwelling On an Afternoon Sail

     The reason I started this blog, well a couple reasons. One, I don’t get out as much I’d like, so it’s a way to be on the water without being on the water. I believe I'm not alone in that. It’s possible to have something you hold dear in mind and how best to put it? There’s dwelling on something you care about, but with sailing and many other pursuits, you can dwell in it. Another reason; I thought if I linked the two interests; art and sailing, the two might augment each other. To that end, I’m trying to improve my use of water colors to a level where I can be free, have fun and have it resemble what I want it to look like. Anyway, thinking about what landscapes and water-scapes can be, my mind goes to those amazing Nineteenth Century artists. Consider Winslow Homer’s Gulf Stream...I remember gazing at that piece for long stretches. A small reproduction must have hung in a classroom I was stuck in way back when. It is such a mesmerizing image; atmospheric, highly narrative, strongly mythical; and...what a painting. It must have astonished the first gallery patrons to see it. Granted, there’s only one Turner or Winslow Homer, but one can aspire.

     But, returning to reality. I'm beginning to like my treatment of light on water, and my skies are coming along. That’s half the battle right there, maybe more than half. The boats are hit and miss, as are the sails, but I'll keep at it. I've just switched to some lovely super thick water color paper so I hope that will be the end of all that pigment guttering in the troughs of buckling paper.

This simple water color sketch I love love love!  Hopefully more will be on the way of similar style.

     Before last weekend it had been two months since we were last out, and around here that’s too long to leave a boat out in a barn unchecked, even with three tarps over it. The tarps were necessary as our hens liked to rummage through the dry pine-straw under the boat kicking up a ton of dust. I walked by the boat day after day on my way to collect eggs, failing to notice the spreading moisture stain in the plastic weave of the tarp. It wasn’t until our cat Maya took to sitting on the bow pawing at the area that I connected the dots. Situational awareness is a very important facet of seamanship and I’m not happy to be out-shown by my cat, but where it pertains to rat perception she does have an advantage. Removing the first layer revealed a nest, thankfully devoid of pinkies, but littered with......rat litter.  Disgusting. Luckily it had the courtesy to nest below the tarp but above my inner layer of plastic, instead of say, in one of my stern lockers. Hopefully Maya will keep a sharp eye out because the rodent did get away, and that makes me nervous. I’ve already replaced a wiring harness in my truck due to varmits, and from now on when I park in the pole barn the hood stays open.

     I tried that approach with the sailboat; that is, leaving the tarp folded open on the stern so Maya could sneak in and chase off the vermin, but I neglected to consider the hens, who love nothing more than to find a place away from their colleagues to lay eggs in privacy. When one of the hens went missing, it never occurred to me to check the boat, and when I finally pulled back the tarp, my what a lovely surprise that was. There was no simply cleaning the boat. I had to strip the paint in the cockpit and hit it with a couple new layers of enamel in the area where she expired. My sympathy for the hen’s plight was roughly equaled by my disgust and indignation, especially as her ordeal was over and mine had just begun. The damn hens were always so busy. Poor thing, she could find her way in well enough, too bad she didn’t lift the same flap with her head to escape.

     Anyway, all the hens are gone now. We grew weary of them wrecking the vegetable garden and pilfering birdseed, but now that I have solved that problem it has indirectly pointed to another. The presence of a hen house brought scavengers. Not raccoons or foxes, our dogs keep them away, but a helpful presence in the form of a rat snake. They don’t call them rat snakes for nothing I assume. Sure, more than a few eggs went down the snake’s gullet, but when I surprised him one day neatly tucked into a fold in the boat’s tarp, it didn’t bother me a bit. “You can stay right there buddy,” I told my little friend. “Have all the eggs you want, but please live up to your name and wriggle a perimeter around boat once in a while.”

I wasn't convinced there was a problem till I poked a bump in the tarp under Maya's watchful eye, then the bump started moving with Maya in pursuit.

.

     We finally got in a nice sail last weekend. This has been one of those summers so far with nice thunderstorm formation over land in the afternoons, which translates to a decent sea breeze at the coast as the air updrafts twenty miles or so inland. This was a two boat sail and as often happens we cast around for willing participants for an outing. The prospect of sitting in a motionless shallow with the mid-day Florida sun beating down dissuades a few friends who might otherwise participate, since there’s no guarantee there will be a sail-able sea breeze at the exact spot where we are, but Sunday worked out nicely. The wind was steady, the water a gentle chop, with temperatures perfect for a swim.

     We made our way out of the canal at the St. Marks Lighthouse and with favorable winds from the South-east we set our course for a wide shallow sandy area a couple miles to the south. My chart shows this as a large random shape with the word ‘sand’ off to the side. It’s shallow enough at low tide to be inaccessible to boat traffic, so folks will often anchor out there over-night with their hulls resting on the bottom.

Lunch over the 'Sand.'

     Tramontana is a long skinny two-masted sharpie. It can be soloed, but I haven’t had lots of practice doing it, as I get out so seldom and it’s usually a nice way to spend time with friends and family. It’s recently occurred to me that the boat I have, is not the boat I thought I was building when I came under the spell of Reuel Parker. I say spell with no reservation. I ruined the bindings of two copies of The Sharpie Book simply by having them open in hand for too long during the time that “the desire to build a boat filled my sky and I could think of nothing else.”

     Parker states that the Ohio sharpie is good for carrying 1000 pounds of camping gear. I can attest to that, since we load beyond that every camping trip by a few hundred pounds. But then he mentions his Ohio Sharpie carried “seven or eight people comfortably and still performed well.” Possibly the folks in the Keys back in the 1970’s were a skinny lot, so I won’t quibble with him on that point, but I’m struggling with what to do with even a few passengers in my boat. Tramontana is a 20 footer, so it’s not like we’re trying to cram 6 guys in a ’65 Fiat 500, but when I gaze over at Jody sailing with guests in the Swan; a 12 foot day-sailer with amble beam and tidy bench seats, I marvel at how design variations make up for pronounced differences in size.

    His crew sits sideways on bench seats facing inward, they’re in a comfortable place to man the  main sheet or simply idle for a bit, but either way they don’t interfere with sailing operations. My guests usually sit across thwarts that stretch the narrow beam of the boat, or they can perch on the coamings. Jody can sail by himself easily, but with two masts I presently require help sailing this sharpie, or I need people out of the way so I can do it. Problem is, there’s no ‘out of the way’ with this design, and with two separate masts and two sheets controlling the sails, plus the tiller, why not involve your passengers? It’s a wonderful moment for folks who have never sailed, to feel the thrust of the wind on the sail and the gurgle of the water down her side as she picks up speed. But on a day where the wind builds in the afternoon, things can get a little dicey.  No one better be sitting on ropes, and folks may need to jump out of the way or be ready to flash from one side to the other when we tack, and it helps if they don’t mind me using their heads as a railing when I jump to the bow to brail up the fore sail. So far no one has caught a knee in the back or had fingers stepped on, so I’d like to see this situation in the right way before that happens. I would include “before we experience a capsize,” but it’s already too late for that.
   
   All this means it’s best to have folks on board who know how to sail, or at least don’t mind all the bustle involved. I’ve been reluctant to bark orders at my passengers, because why should anyone who comes along at my invitation put up with that?  So I believe I’ll build two low narrow Adirondike style chairs that go along either side of the centerboard trunk to get lubbers low and out of the way of the sails and sheets. And, I should say, I'm willing to entertain the possibility that the space inside the boat is not as much the problem as the space between my ears. But whatever it is, more time on the water will settle this question I'm sure.

      I included these two sketches from my files for comparison. The top is Tramontana, clearly a longer boat, lots of room for gear, but on the bottom Swan holds her own for sensible comfort and simplicity.

     Hmmmm..... eight people. I think those must have been salty, fun loving free spirits. Actually I can see it; Buffett’s A1A coming out of an 8-track, maybe the bow bumping up against a square grouper, oh...and Captain Parker having a really good handle on things. So to him I raise my coffee mug. It’s 8:30 on a Sunday morning in late June. A storm is slowly making it’s way over the Big Bend, and it’s time to walk up to get the paper with an umbrella and Maya. She likes to go on walks perched on my shoulder....so from the Rail.....enjoy your Summer people!

Brian

What possible use can I make of this information?

Crossing the Bay. I like to let a friend pilot, so I can jump to whatever response the boat calls for; bailing included.

    “Have you thought about how you’ll handle a knock over?” This question was posed by my friend Walt during our latest Barrier Island Clean Up on Little St. George. Walt’s very soft spoken; a bit hard to hear from the other side of the fire with the wind churning through the pines overhead. Jody brought out the radio after dinner, and we listened to a forecast that sounded nothing like the one from a day or so earlier. We were expecting fortuitous winds for going out, and returning from St. George Island later in the weekend. NOAA waited till we were safely out of the channel before revising their outlook. Now it looked as if the challenge would be how and when would we get safely off the Island. This was a Thursday evening. A front was to hit harder than anticipated the next day, then Saturday the winds were to build steadily through the afternoon till it reached twenty knots in the afternoon and stronger on Sunday.

    We had no sooner reached our campsite, cooked dinner and settled ourselves in, before it became necessary to focus on going home. The problem was my 19 foot Sharpie, Tramontana. The other two boats, Jody’s Drascomb Dabbler and Walt’s Gaff Sloop, were not the issue. Hence Walt’s line of questioning concerning my boat and her crew. My response was a listing of some floatation amendments I had devised since my last knockdown. I’ve capsized before. Let’s just say we all have our stories and I’ll leave it at that. My stance on being knocked over, is that it shouldn’t happen. It shouldn’t happen in Apalachicola Bay on a day we decide it’s safe enough to sail and I’m focused on staying upright. Currently I see a knockdown as a black box scenario.

    I say this because despite Walt’s wise and methodical exploration of how it all works, righting the boat and bailing in rough conditions, I don’t see where it’s feasible. Not in my boat, not when there’s a respectable swell and semi-ugly chop. We'd be out on the waves bobbing up and down next to the boat, probably it’s cold because that’s when we do these trips. Hopefully my stern hatch and bulkheads are closed so the aft compartments aren’t filling with water. I’d have to pick apart my hitches to the spars so I can lower the sails and hopefully raise her up with her masts in place. We discussed having to reach under the coamings and clear away and dump weighty items that are snagged in my tied off gear.  We’d have to somehow bring her around and orient the bow to the waves, not sure how that would work. Then comes standing on the centerboard trying to rock her up, and if that does happen, then there’s getting in with her listing this way and that, no stability whatsoever, more like a soda bottle than a boat, and finally bailing desperately while the swells and chop roll over the boat as pretty as you please.

     We went through these steps one by one, and with each mental image I became more and more skeptical. I realize capsizing trials are done by folks who take small boats offshore, I just read about two fellas in Woodenboat Magazine who did so in preparation for sailing a small boat 90 miles out to Ft. Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas, but as currently configured Tramontana is not rigged for such adventures. Thinking on it further, I doubt that I could keep her nose up enough to even bail at all, despite Walt’s assurance that in such conditions I represent the world’s best designed pump, namely, a frightened sailor and a five gallon bucket. Frightened or not, I think I’d be effective for about a half hour before I was utterly exhausted. Anyway, as the discussion wore on, I think Walt became skeptical as well, and finally we decided the best and safest course would be to pluck me and my unlucky mate, either Jimmy or Seth, off the Tramontana to await a salvage operation later on my own time.

    Funny, the whole thing mirrors a discussion we had with Laslo a few seasons back pertaining to rattlesnakes. About a mile and half down the beach picking trash I decided I should warn him about the abundance of rattlesnakes. I was being sincere, there often are high populations of Eastern Diamondbacks on our southern coastal barrier islands, this is a fact. I wasn’t trying to scare Laslo for my own entertainment, I’m really fascinated by these creatures and I believe they need stricter protection, or will someday, owing to the fact that in the South rattlesnakes are killed on sight, hence possibly the difference with barrier islands. Rattlesnakes don’t need a lot of calories to live, and there’s no one on barrier islands to kill them. Anyway, we said something like, “watch out, there’s lots of rattlesnakes out here; they’re very dangerous, etc.” Jody and I didn’t put too fine a point on it, except to mention their exceptional ability to camouflage. They blend in so well you might reach an inch from a rattlesnake’s snout to lift a bottle and not realize it’s there, and that’s when you’re watching out for one. Laslo stood silent for a moment digesting this (I could see the wheels turning.....how to watch out for something dangerous you basically can’t watch out for), then he blurted out in his wonderful Hungarian accent, “Vhy did you tell me this? Vhat possible use can I make of this information?”

      I’ve done lots of wildlife illustrations for a biologist in Tallahassee named Dr. Bruce Means who is the world’s premier authority on the eastern Diamondback, I think I have a few out-take EDB sketches form many many years back, maybe I’ll see if I can located one. Oh, and I should mention an Eastern Diamondback probably wouldn’t strike even if you did reach down in front of it. In my experience EDB’s have to be provoked before they become aggressive. They want no quarrel with a beast as large as a human, we’re not on the menu, and they prefer to avoid an encounter, hence the unbelievable camouflage. That’s been my experience with them.

It turns out I did not have an old illustration to share, so I ground this one out. EDB's are hard to depict, so let's call this a study. Yes, it's a baby.

     Anyway, having Walt Donaldson along to discuss such matters was a nice feature of this trip. It was like having a direct line to a sailing forum as we visited various topics. One of the things I liked about building and learning to sail a small boat is that there’s a proper way to do things, in the pursuit of sailing generally, and for each individual design and sailing rig. Walt is someone who has a background in sailing broad and deep enough to put all the questions I ponder out loud in their proper context. It’s not always that there’s one correct answer for every question, but there’s a context with which to view it.

    I paraphrased something my friend Kent said about my boat after he and I traversed some hair-raising swells between St. George and Dog Island. It went something like, “When the NOAA issues a small craft advisory, they have in mind boats way larger and more seaworthy than yours.” When I recounted this around the fire Walt’s response was interesting, and I’ll paraphrase again. “If a small craft advisory is going to keep you off the water, then you need to ask yourself if you should be sailing in the first place.” I like both statements, and I don't think they're in opposition. The takeaway for me is, I need to get my boat more seaworthy. I freaked out the day we were shooting down between the swells looking up at those wave crests. I knew if any of those had broken over us, I’d have had no answer for it. We’d have made a lovely debris field on the incoming tide. I’ll be thinking of some solutions this year, and hopefully get closer to Walt’s sentiments. It will most likely involve compartments for my gear that will displace the water that I would otherwise have to bail out.

Here's a depiction of us between Dog Island and St. George. It was likely the swells were compounding between the two Islands, they were very steep with deep troughs. I didn't like it one bit. Kent theorized a few hundred yards in from the cut things would have been much smoother.

     As it went we were still able to haul in a respectable amount of beach trash on Friday, leaving about a dozen contractor bags worth at the Marshall Field House midway along the length of Little St. George Island. The State folks who administer the Apalachicola Estuarine Research Reserve come out and and retrieve the trash in their boats. We raised sail to make our way home across Apalachicola Bay in a moderate swell but a fairly dense fog. Walt in his Joan of Arc reefed his mainsail in the most curious fashion, I never saw it up close as I fumbled our start by fidgeting with my mainsail rig, but finally he let us pass and I could see his gaff spar down low on the mast with his main billowed out over the water. At first I was afraid he was dragging his sail and was possibly in trouble, but of course that was wrong. From a distance Joan of Arc took on the look of a felucca with a lateen rig. Walt wasn’t finished helping us it turned out, as he had to radio us we were sailing in the wrong direction-off to the west towards St. Vincent Island instead of East to the bridge. My pride would have me disbelieve we were quite that off course, but all the same I was bracing for some ribbing when we hit the ramp. Again Walt was the paradigm of nautical compassion and simply recounted a tale from his past similar to my blunder. (Not Walt’s mistake but one that involved him I should clarify). Jody however, I expect will just sit on this comedic ammo till the timing is just right.

I was curious to see in other images that Walt's gaff spar is, or nearly is, as tall as his mast.

Okay.....time to look back over this post and see if I can dig out punctuation and grammatical errors. Better yet, let’s let Tracey have a look at it. I'm ready for a re-fill. Here’s to you! Ciao.

It occurred to me I have yet to include a map. This trip we did not camp at West Pass; instead we camped further east at the Marshall Field House with the permission of the Florida DNR as a group conducting a beach clean up.

    

About that anchor.........

                                                                 West Pass Take 2
                                                                          April 5th, 2008 
   
      The wind was blowing at the Sabal palms next to the boat ramp in Apalachicola and I wasn't the only one to notice it. The fronds were whipping back and forth in a manner that depending on your point of view as a sailor, (and the size of your boat) was encouraging or ominous. After loading and launching Jody paused, took one last look at those palms before we shoved off and said with a resigned sigh, “I guess we’re going now.” This would lead me to scratch Jody’s name in the latter column, but other than some rolling swells, the bay turned out to be reasonable that day. I regretted my decision to go with only one sail, and before long Jody and Timothy shook the reef out of their main in the Oystercatcher.

Oystercatcher with her loose footed main sail billowed way out. 
I'm not sure what Jody was doing with the sail at this moment.

     We made the point of West Pass after the 9 mile crossing of Apalachicola Bay and anchored much in the same manner as before and this time I did my best to put things to right and gauge the distances correctly. I lashed the four horse outboard a friend had lent us to the centerboard truck, low and to the center, and came to shore with a line to tie off and stake above the high tide mark. In turned out this was to be a heavy weather weekend, and as the sun set a bank of heavy grey clouds moved in, the leading edge of a large scattered front that moved over us the whole weekend.

    It’s natural to wonder why we would go out into bad weather, so let me mount a brief defense. None of us are free wheeling adventurers untethered to jobs and family. We look forward to barrier island camping all year and the discussions and preparations begins weeks ahead. Add to the mix often vague weather forecasts that never definitively slam the door on our plans to the extent that you can say, “so much for that trip boys, better luck next year.” Plus these guys are experienced campers; Jody is usually turning things over in his head two, three steps ahead of events and typically has a solution in mind before it’s called for. Timothy has a life time of diverse technical occupations to draw from, and Ali--he’s the most lateral thinking of any person I have ever known. Ali likes comfort and efficiency and no matter what situation we get ourselves into he usually finds it. So with that, bad weather is typically not a deal breaker, and in fact often lends a trip an element of fun and excitement. I should also add that I love storms and find them beautifully compelling. Provided I’m not on the water.

    So by nightfall we were snug at our campsite gathered under a rain shelter while our boats rode at anchor in the channel. A moderate rain slanted in on heavy gusts, and we turned in after one last anchor check to settle down until the next anchor check. Later, at around at midnight, we were greeted by the sight of my sharpie sideways to the waves rocking violently with her tall masts arcing to an alarming degree.  Bob’s thirty pounds or so of outboard was lashed to the leeward side of the centerboard trunk and that made things worse. With a little more wind she looked sure to go over. It was deeply unsettling to watch. We agreed there was nothing for it but to cast off the shore line, and let her swing around on her anchor line bow to the waves and tide. It meant a swim to retrieve her but that was preferable to another beach salvage operation like before. Jody’s Drascomb by contrast was riding comfortably at anchor behaving well with it’s little stub of a mast and it’s high free board.

      I settled in for an uneasy sleep, where I dreamt I was at a marina in Ft. Lauderdale surrounded by curious onlookers and old salts watching me salvage my sunken boat and offering advice. At four thirty I ventured out for another check. There was Jody’s Oystercatcher still riding the waves exactly as he left her, and there was my boat, gone. Tramontana had decided to up anchor and go on a little cruise in the middle of the stormy night, and that’s all there was to say about it. Except for the reason she did this; I found or was given an anchor with a ring that slides up and down the shaft and since it was the one I always used, I went ahead and used it. I understand this is a fisherman’s anchor, on account of the ring slides up to the flukes making it convenient to pluck the flukes out of the bottom and find a better spot to fish. Jody upon hearing my news said, “I wondered about that anchor.” But, looking back, maybe I didn’t have enough chain on it, maybe it dragged and couldn’t reset in that deep channel, or maybe it was just one of those things.

    No bad dreams at this point. No sleep at all, just utter shock and incredulity. We discussed various scenarios which I continued turning over in my head long into the night. With an incoming tide I decided the likely possibility was she had blown over against St. Vincent Island, or maybe out towards Indian Pass, but then there was a slight possibility one of those big shrimpers could PT 109 her, a result too horrific to imagine. Then another jolt of panic flushed through me as the thought that maybe her line came loose at the cleat, and she wasn’t dragging anchor at all, but was free wheeling in the wind liable to end up God knows where. I was becoming irrational, but I still knew she hadn’t gone out into the Gulf on account of an incoming tide.

    Jody awoke early feeling refreshed and said “I slept great, for once you didn’t snore.” Walking up and down the beach in the early dawn light there was no sight of her, or of anything through the low light and fog. Ali met me walking back from my search and asked “Where’s your boat? I thought you got up early and went for a sail?” Pining over my coffee I refused to imagine any but the most tragic outcomes of this affair. “All that money, all that time to build this boat, my dream of having something to sail and explore in, Bob’s outboard motor...all down the crapper.” Also there was the realization, “That’s it, Tracey will never put up with me building another boat. I’m done.” It felt like a flowering branch of my life was just sheared off in one night. Awful.

     I stood up to retrieve the radio, and nervously went over what I was to tell the Authorities, (something like, "there's a derelict vessel hazarding boat traffic in Apalachicola Bay"). I pressed the transmit button and at the same moment I heard Ali’s voice from down the beach.

Hey! I found her!

    There she was, way off in the hazy distance, sitting over St. Vincent Bar, the place where all the oystermen line up their skiffs to harvest oysters. She had dragged her anchor, skipping it along the bottom till finally it hit something solid (oysters). She looked like a feint ghost out in the fog. After a few happy tears and breakfast we sailed out in the Oystercatcher to get her. She was perfect. Amazingly there was hardly any rain water in either boat, and a styrofoam cup one of us had jammed in her mast partner was there just as we left it.

Tramontana riding at anchor over St. Vincent Bar at max. telephoto. St. Vincent Island looms in the background.

     Feeling elated we all headed back to the beach, and the four of us rolled both boats up on the beach after considerable effort. I think we used the trunk of an old palm tree as a roller. The weather radio assured us the heavy stuff had not yet even begun, and neither Jody nor I had the stomach for more anchor watch drama. My wife’s friends called the house to warn her of bad weather on the way and I heard the message a day or so later on my cell. Tracey wanted us to come in and find a hotel room, but there was no leaving even if we wanted to. As before our camp site was tucked up against the first row of steep dunes and chatting over lunch someone noticed a ghost crab emerge from it’s burrow, almost an arms length from where we were sitting. It took a look at us, then quickly began sealing up the entrance of it’s tunnel with sand. Before the last bit of the tunnel was closed I swear it stuck it’s claw out one last time and gave us the middle finger but perhaps that’s my memory embellishing a bit.

My rendering of the storm on the beach. All the flying debris impressed upon us the need for a concerted beach clean up,  a great excuse future beach camping. The lines you see on the sand is railroad vine.
This is a living beach if there ever was one.

     The storm hit with a violent blast that filled the air with flying debris and tore out the grommets of Timothy’s rainfly. Ali’s simple technique of folding a tarp over his tent like a taco then turning the fold to the storm worked the best--simple and economical of effort. After the wind the rain set in for the remainder of the day and we spent the time enjoying the spectacle of a storm out on the end of a barrier Island. A big shrimper spent some time in the channel later in the day and we watched his fishing technique, noticing how the big boat swayed this way and that as the huge outriggers dropped out wide to spread the shrimp nets. Scores of gulls surrounded the boat at all times.

    Lightening struck the beach across the way over on St. Vincent Island and that was startling to say the least. That prompted discussions of lightening’s effect on sailboats, how much danger we were in, and why we were not dead already given all the metal tent poles surrounding us. I pondered this question for years. Specifically, if you’re camping out in the open on a beach, is it better to shove a long steel rod in the ground a few hundred feet away on top of a dune to attract lightening or would that be more dangerous? I finally got a really good answer to that specific question by listening to the Podcast “Stuff You Should Know.” If you have a little while it’s a fascinating analysis of what lightening is and what you’re actually seeing when lightening strikes, a topic still surrounded by lots of confusion. As Floridians it’s pertinent as we do live in the world’s lightening capital.

    The storm continued throughout the weekend and only abated after we completed the crossing back across the Bay in twenty-five mile an hour winds, a harrowing experience in a sailboat with only a foot or so of free board above the water. Upon our return we surveyed a sailboat which had been blown off it’s trailer while parked under the bridge across from the ramp. My wife saw on the news that several houses along the coast had suffered damage, which can be attributed to those initial first gusts. The sail back was worth a post of it’s own so I’ll touch on it next time I think, couched in a discussion of safety and maybe survivability.  I hope this is the last anchoring mishap I’ll ever have to report, I’ve replaced that particular anchor with a proper version, and to it I have attached an ample length of chain to keep the flukes down on the bottom. Folks have laughed at how heavy my anchor and chain is compared to the boat. That's okay.......
So for now let me say goodbye from the rail and clink my coffee cup to yours.

Salute.

I caught up with my lack of sleep during our rain in. What beats sitting under a tarp in the rain?

Standing over a fire with a puny umbrella in the rain.