Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
U2 SHOW FOXBOROUGH MASS
On Assignment Williamstown MA
Certainly one of my highlights since my arrival back to the states this summer, is last nights show. U2 has been around for a very long time and still puts on an energetic display. The stage itself should be featured on Modern Marvels. It's transport is 40 semi's and requires 3 days to set up. Apparently the band has two identical stages in order to prevent the tour from getting gummed up. A really wonderful time was had by all.
Capt Chris
PS: You can click the link and check out the 30 plus pics I took at the show. Two videos even!
http://picasaweb.google.com/christian.allaire/U2?feat=directlink
Certainly one of my highlights since my arrival back to the states this summer, is last nights show. U2 has been around for a very long time and still puts on an energetic display. The stage itself should be featured on Modern Marvels. It's transport is 40 semi's and requires 3 days to set up. Apparently the band has two identical stages in order to prevent the tour from getting gummed up. A really wonderful time was had by all.
Capt Chris
PS: You can click the link and check out the 30 plus pics I took at the show. Two videos even!
http://picasaweb.google.com/christian.allaire/U2?feat=directlink
Thursday, September 17, 2009
A Keynote Presentation/A Story
On Assignment in Williamstown Ma
I've been utilizing my time boning up on my technical skills in preparation for entering school in a year. So in that vain, I put together this presentation. Enjoy!
Capt Chris
I've been utilizing my time boning up on my technical skills in preparation for entering school in a year. So in that vain, I put together this presentation. Enjoy!
Capt Chris
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Th Fall-The Itch
On Assignment Williamstown Ma
Fall in the northeast of the United States is upon us. The trees are changing colors with each passing moment, the nights are chilly and the days are being brisk. The sequence of pictures is of Williamstown Mass, the beautiful small town I've been lounging in for the past couple of months. I took these photo's on my daily trip into the center of town. I drive through the center of a valley, along a stream that winds its way to god knows where.
I also have the joy of running throughout the country roads of the Berkshires. But the itch has arrived and I'm ramping up to scratch said itch. What am I talking about?
Well, when I left Grenada in early July I was good and ready to take a break from boat life. I had sickened of the routine and longed to go home. But the other day I surfed on over to Adamo's blog to do some research on routing back to America as Mike, Sue and Phillip had done the jaunt last year. Well I started to get all kinds of excited about the prospect of returning to Christa and making her sing.
So my flight back to Grenada remains at October 26th. I've started ordering some parts and focusing on my plan for returning. I have a some projects to complete in Grenada before I can splash Christa. A number one is the replacement of at least the two upper shroud chainplates that I fear may be weak. All six chainplates need replacing and I've ordered custom fabricated chainplates. But the difficulty of accessing the 4 lower shroud chainplate backing bolts make replacement of those much more difficult. I will defer the lowers until I get to Naples. If the upper chainplates were to giveway the whole mast would tumble. If I lose one of the lowers, I don't think the mast would tumble, especially since I have running backstays. So that is my rational and I'm sticking to it!
I still am marveling at the lack of hurricane activity in the Atlantic. I guess I picked the wrong year to hunker down in Puerto Rico. Should have swapped years! But that would require peering into the future, which to my knowledge no one has been able to do.
Capt Chris
Fall in the northeast of the United States is upon us. The trees are changing colors with each passing moment, the nights are chilly and the days are being brisk. The sequence of pictures is of Williamstown Mass, the beautiful small town I've been lounging in for the past couple of months. I took these photo's on my daily trip into the center of town. I drive through the center of a valley, along a stream that winds its way to god knows where.
I also have the joy of running throughout the country roads of the Berkshires. But the itch has arrived and I'm ramping up to scratch said itch. What am I talking about?
Well, when I left Grenada in early July I was good and ready to take a break from boat life. I had sickened of the routine and longed to go home. But the other day I surfed on over to Adamo's blog to do some research on routing back to America as Mike, Sue and Phillip had done the jaunt last year. Well I started to get all kinds of excited about the prospect of returning to Christa and making her sing.
So my flight back to Grenada remains at October 26th. I've started ordering some parts and focusing on my plan for returning. I have a some projects to complete in Grenada before I can splash Christa. A number one is the replacement of at least the two upper shroud chainplates that I fear may be weak. All six chainplates need replacing and I've ordered custom fabricated chainplates. But the difficulty of accessing the 4 lower shroud chainplate backing bolts make replacement of those much more difficult. I will defer the lowers until I get to Naples. If the upper chainplates were to giveway the whole mast would tumble. If I lose one of the lowers, I don't think the mast would tumble, especially since I have running backstays. So that is my rational and I'm sticking to it!
I still am marveling at the lack of hurricane activity in the Atlantic. I guess I picked the wrong year to hunker down in Puerto Rico. Should have swapped years! But that would require peering into the future, which to my knowledge no one has been able to do.
Capt Chris
Monday, September 14, 2009
5th Generation iPod
Currently on Assignment in Williamstown MA
I am a diciple of Apple products. Each time I make an informal comparision to another like product, the other like product invariably comes up short. Most of the time far short. The only exception to this being I chose a Blackberry over the iPhone, but part of this was due to my revulvsion for AT&T. AT&T cannot support the capabilities of the iPhone. But that is another story. Example #2 is my recent 30 trial of Apple iWorks09 which is Apple's run at Microsoft Office. I have to say, again it is superior. Since I'm entering school in a year, I've been making an effort to brush up on my technology skills, which will be critical to my success as a student. I also purchased Snow Lepard the latest MAC OS X operating system. Innovative and lightening fast. Each time I try another Apple product I'm pretty much dazzled.
So when Apple unveiled the latest iPod Nano, I convulsed and bought. From the sailing point of view, the gizmo now can shoot video which will be very convienent to point and shoot with a moments notice. But another, perhaps most important thing for me is it now has an FM radio. Why would I be excited? Well since I also love my Sirius Sat Radio, which has an FM transmitter, I can now tune up the iPod to 88.1 FM and listen to Sirius via the iPod. On Christa I have an iPod docking station made by Bose, so now I don't have to have speaker wire connected to the docking station. I can now lay down up on the bow with iPod headphones on and listen to Sirius Radio. Jazzed? You bet!
Capt Chris
PS: Don't forget to leave comments! Love those comments!
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Thursday, September 3, 2009
The People are What's Important
On assignment in Williamstown MA
Case in point. One of my delights is meeting interesting people from all walks of life. I am a homebody and if I were to settle, for example, into a life of suburban routine I likely would meet few new aquatainces. I generally have my peeps and I like to stick with them, seeking the familiar groove of expectation. This is not to imply that I'm meeting scores of people, but I clearly bump into new people. Having the gregarious gene, I unintentionally propel my entire personality quite readily. I usually find conversation forthcoming.
Most people I meet are fine and nice people. Every once in a while you just meet someone with a pizzaze that grabs hold of you. And so it is with Sam, pictured above. I met Sam at a yoga class and we subsequently had some vittles. Sam is chock full of adventure and I was delighted to hear all about it!
Capt Chris
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Satori in the Perfect Storm
Satori in Perfect Storm
On Assignment in Williamstown MA
As some may know, I came to own Christa, a 1975 Westsail32 due to my experiences while stationed at Point Judith Rhode Island during the famed Perfect Storm. Back in the day it was known, simply as the Halloween Storm of 91. I came across this video, of Satori, also a 1975 Westsail32, shot from one of the old H-3 Pelicans. Really good stuff. The seas are magnificent and the boats performance is equally magnificent. The key to remember in my opinion, is Satori was not in distress. She was technically "hove to," but really from the video, you can see she is fore-reaching just a little bit. Notice how squared away the decks are. Everything lashed down, including the mainsail and boom to the boom gallows.
The crew was in the grips of fear, which is perfectly understandable. I can only imagine how exhausted and fatigued the crew must be. The desire to get out of that situation could overwhelm the saltiest of dogs.
If you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it. Really fast read and tells an interesting story.
Enjoy!
Capt Chris
On Assignment in Williamstown MA
As some may know, I came to own Christa, a 1975 Westsail32 due to my experiences while stationed at Point Judith Rhode Island during the famed Perfect Storm. Back in the day it was known, simply as the Halloween Storm of 91. I came across this video, of Satori, also a 1975 Westsail32, shot from one of the old H-3 Pelicans. Really good stuff. The seas are magnificent and the boats performance is equally magnificent. The key to remember in my opinion, is Satori was not in distress. She was technically "hove to," but really from the video, you can see she is fore-reaching just a little bit. Notice how squared away the decks are. Everything lashed down, including the mainsail and boom to the boom gallows.
The crew was in the grips of fear, which is perfectly understandable. I can only imagine how exhausted and fatigued the crew must be. The desire to get out of that situation could overwhelm the saltiest of dogs.
If you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it. Really fast read and tells an interesting story.
Enjoy!
Capt Chris
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Alive and Doin Fine!
On Assignment in Williamstown Ma
Fear not, Capt Chris (me) is landlocked well inland, but really enjoying myself. For such a simple life, for a guy who has no job, I seem to have a day crammed full. Each night I am plume tired and sleep soundly.
This weekend past, mys sister and I attended a show, James Taylor, Sheryl Crow and Yo Yo Ma at Tanglewood in the Berkshire. It was great, but cold to my taste. Most days are spent exercising, hiking, eating, reading and running. Really can't beat that.
However, that old faithful yearning for life afloat has now entered my brain. It is my fate. So my timeline is still to return to Grenada on October 26th and prepare Christa to splash.
I plan on setting sail in early November, bound for Naples Florida. I know many blog readers have lost interest due to current shorebound ways. After all, most readers are shorebound themselves and who wants to read about another shorebound chump. But this chump will put to sea in the not far distant future. So please stay tuned!
Capt Chris
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