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
Thursday, September 17, 2009
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
Friday, August 14, 2009
Just Livin....but Livin Well
On Assignment in the United States
Williamstown Ma
I've surely fallen behind in my documentation project. So many adventures have occurred since I departed my sister's house nearly two weeks ago. I spent a full week in NYC visiting my brother, sister in law and niece Annie. I then headed north aboard Amtrak to upstate NY, near the Finger Lakes, to spend four days with Brad Finegan, a childhood buddy of mine. An adventure worthy of blogging about in it's own right. So much to write about and I don't believe I'll report chronologically, nor pack all into one post.
First off, lets check in with my borrowed ride. The use of the Hummer has been a pleasant surprise. Lets not forget that for more than a year I have pretty much gone without such controversial conveniences such as a vehicle. Although now that I think about it, I did have the car while in Puerto Rico last summer. But my friends Amy and Mike are generous in the extreme, and so is my buddy John for that matter. But they have loaned me the use of the H1 during my two month plus stay here in the Berkshires of Massachusetts.
I've really got it made. I'm staying in a beautiful guest house, deep in the woods, with all the critters of nature. The nights are cool and the mountains silent. While dining in the evening on the deck we've seen a momma bear and her cub twice, cautiously stroll into a field foraging. It's amazing to watch through the spotting scope perched on a tri-pod. Wait there is more.
I am in yoga ville. I was pressed into yoga last summer while visiting here in the Berkshires and loved it. Surely this is one of the best side benefits of being retired. I've gone three times since arrival and one of those days was a full 3 hour session. It is a crushingly good work out. Amazingly enough, I can already see the post 40 bod transforming. Two months at 3 times per week, coupled with my running regime should whoop me right into shape.
As I mentioned before, I should be here in Mass until mid October. I'm still shaping up what a daily routine may look like for the kid, aside from the yoga. I hope to help out my friends in anyway I can to pay back the generosity. This weekend I'm baby sitting for John. He has a 115LBS black lab named Brick. Brick is a little more than a year old and has more energy than a hydrogen bomb. When he steps on your foot, you know it. Last night I had to put him in his cage for management purposes. That drooping face as seen through the cage nearly killed me. If Brick wasn't a dog, I'd say he's the man.
Please check my Picas Photo album as I am updating as I go along. I apologize to the folks who have been following the blog for the sailing aspect. What can I say, this is my life and I always adjust as necessary.
Later
Capt Chris
PS: I still check in with the National Hurricane Center homepage several times a day. But now I just get off that I'm not in the path of the yellow blobs of doom!
Friday, August 7, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
