Extra-time
Sunday morning was a time to Fall Back. I used the opportunity of the hour of extra-time to launch Kingfisher for a sail out to the Northeast Point of Bull Island. I was prepared to get wet
Something about the Day
There was an element to the morning after sunrise that was special – the fog obscuring Bull Island in the distance, a slight coolness, and the anticipation of a walk covering the entire beach from south to north end. After the group of twenty embarked on Caretta
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Late to the Bay
I left the preoccupations of home improvement, and the routine of dinner preparations behind, arriving at our landing to an uncommon August atmosphere. In fact it did not resemble August at all, despite heat and a familiar wind from the southwest. Humidity felt like it was on vacation
Nice Day for a Capsize
East wind forecast at 15-20 knots, and gusts to 25. Two hours after high tide. I can’t quite recall my last capsize – was it off of White Banks in 2007, or on the large Bird Bank shoal in Bulls Bay the same year? So five or six years – it was time
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Sandy Hook Surprise
Out on the road in Monmouth County (NJ), my father and I made the familiar trip into Red Bank and Marine Park on the Navesink River, my ancestral waters. My life began there – learning to sail, boat, and waterski; fishing for snappers and crabbing; and teaching sailing out of the Monmouth Boat Club. And
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Visitors
Outgoing tide and a beckoning south wind at 7:30 AM conspired to get me on the water. All the little details of rigging and sailing were just that – little, insignificant, compared to the outward movement through the creek. These were stirring conditions
In Common
What do Horsehead Creek and Cataloochee Creek share? The same as Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge (CRNWR) and Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) – both are areas with an international designation as UNESCO Biosphere Reserves, indicating natural and cultural resources of global significance. I found myself in both places
Down the Island 2013
It was a glorious morning when we embarked on our journey over to Bull Island for an all day hike, and a path I had not previously taken. Our hiking group of thirteen would disembark on the south end of Bull Island after our ferry journey south on the Intracoastal Waterway
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Dead End Road
Kingfisher had a major addition, or replacement, on this day – a new daggerboard. True, I felt nostalgia for the old board of fine mahogany, extensively weathered, cupped, gouged, oyster-impaled, repaired, sanded, and varnished over and over. The new board
Storm Education
Increased anxiety may often be triggered from past experience. The approach of Hurricane Sandy toward the New Jersey coast (home during my youth), the projection of it morphing into a Superstorm, and the prospect of the storm surge hitting on top of an astronomical high tide
Golden Moments
It was a somber atmosphere Saturday morning when I cast off before 9: gray skies and brown marsh, in stark contrast to the blue skies and golden marshes of my last sail, seemingly a long time ago. Water covered
Sparkling Surprises
The view at the deserted landing was spectacular: a low sun was blazing and reflecting off the moving water. It was blowing already from the northeast – small craft advisory, and Kingfisher is on the small end of qualifying in that category. Weather reports had quite a wide range, from 10-15 knots to 20-25 knots.
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