September 13, 2010
This weekend has been the Tall Ships festival here at Dana. tall ships refers to the big multiple mast big ships. These are restorations of old ships or new replicas of famous old ships. 7 of them have sailed into our harbor for this festival celebrating the big old ships.
The local Ocean institute here at Dana is the permanent home of 2 of them, the Spirit Of Dana, and Pilgrim, which is a replica of the ship that Richard Dana sailed on from Boston to So Cal back in 1833. His story is so very well told in a book “Two years before the Mast” . Please read it, everyone will love it. He was a Harvard graduate who wanted to see what it was like working on a sailing ship so he signed on as a deck hand, and saw (and wrote) first hand exactly what it was like. It sounds like a very hard life. (He later became a lawyer and spent his career working for better conditions for the sailors on these kinds of ships.)
Some of these other ships came from all over for this festival.. They came into our harbor the other night in a big parade, and tied up to the wharf and we all could come on and see them up close. It is amazing to me how complicated they are. They have 100s of lines, all looking the same, and tied up all in a row along both side rails, and each has a very specific purpose for rigging the sails. It was also amazing to see the crew climbed aloft to rig the sails. Looks hard enough in a calm bay, impossible in a storm, but they did. Many times a day. Up and down, every time the captain or first mate gave an order for adjusting the trim of the sails.
All along the shre has been an arts fair sort of places with booths for selling everything from art and jewelry and fake pirate tattoos to hot dogs and of course kettle corn. What did we ever do before the kettle corn booth?
One of the music performers was a folk singer doing old songs from that period, 1700-1800s old stuff. One thing he had that was very cool was a funny little wooden puppet man with jointed arms and legs tied on with string and controlled by a stick. The puppet’s feet were just above a thin piece of wood that the guy would thump and make the puppet dance and it looked all the world like Irish tap at Kenzie does. It was so neat. I filmed some of it and will try to post it on you tube, . I recall that my uncle Jack made something like this once , I guess he was up at some high camp and there was a big storm that kept them in the hut all week so he carved this funny little guy that danced.
People can volunteer to be on the crew of the Pilgrim and spend every Saturday cleaning and painting and repairing and then get a chance once a year to go on a 2 week cruise on this boat. I am going to do it. Sounds like a grand adventure!
Posted by kyle williams.
September 12, 2010
My buddy Jim Frankenfield came to visit me here on the visit. Jim and I go way back. He has been living in Oregon for many years, but he used to live in Utah and we climbed a lot together back in the day. He is a hard core mountaineer, pulling off very hard climbs solo “ at night because the snow was safer then.” One of the highlights of my climbing life was with Jim, climbing the north arete of Mt Ellingwood in the Wind River range. It is a spectacular high angle rock route, very clea... Continue reading...
Posted by kyle williams.
September 9, 2010
hello, please notice on the right side of this page that you can register to follow this blog through an application called networkedblogs. If you happen to be logged into facebook when you click the link it will set up to post my updates on your wall. cool eh? you can also subscribe to an RSS newsfeed of this blog by clicking the other link . Continue reading...
Posted by kyle williams.
September 9, 2010
I am sailing with Jim Frankefield this week, we are at anchor in newport. life is good Continue reading...
Posted by kyle williams.
September 7, 2010
It was a idyllic scene. Big cliffs surrounding a sandy beach, Waves lapping on the beach, big cliffs, picnickers picking and nicking, people jogging with dogs, Kids were sliding down a steep sand hill on boogie boards as I pulled in and dropped anchor last night. The day had been pretty quiet, very light winds, and I didn’t make it to Newport like I thought I might, but Emerald Bay seemed just right. Emerald Bay is about 7 miles north of Dana, (about halfway to Newport) a small bay prote... Continue reading...
Posted by kyle williams.
September 5, 2010
What was so bad? I sailed out and I sailed back. That is the problem. I intended to NOT sail back! I left Dana with the intent to got to Newport and spend a few days there, but after 5 hours of sailing in the fog I ended back at Dana!
It was foggy all morning and I sailed for 5 hours without seeing much. Every few minutes I blew on a fog horn, sort of like that South African zuzu-vela soccer thing to let everyone know I was there. Funny though, in all that open nothingness I did come prett... Continue reading...
Posted by kyle williams.
September 4, 2010
It has been a bit cooler here on the water this week. There has been a thick fog roll in as the cooler air flows across the water. It burns off by noon but is thick and cool in the mornings. Visibility less than a mile or so. No problem with bumping into anything, but navigation is by the compass and dead reckoning, or the GPS. It can be a bit freaky when you can’t see anything in any direction!
I got my new additional solar panel installed and it seems to be working great. The 2 panels ... Continue reading...
Posted by kyle williams.
September 2, 2010
today I came ashore and helped a buddy move to a new house. (OK, yes he is a boat buddy, but he has a house and wife who hates boats...) after that I got my solar panel working, seems there was a very elusive short in the wiring, found it and all fixed (I hope). I drove to Costa Mesa today (about 15 miles up the coast) to pick up a cool new stainless steel post/support thing I had made to install another new solar panel. This will be a rigid panel that will mount on the transom (back end) of th... Continue reading...
Posted by kyle williams.
August 31, 2010
One of my goals from the very start is to be able to sail in and out of my slip without the need of the motor. This is pretty tough because my slip is located at the back of a very long narrow channel with many twists and turns to get here. The wind is usually dead on your nose as you come along, requiring many tacks and turns into the wind. It is also complicated by the fact that the play beach and learners dinghy dock is along the way so the channel is usually congested with paddles board... Continue reading...
Posted by kyle williams.
August 30, 2010
Projects
I wonder where the day goes. When my dad retired he commented that he is so busy now he wonders how he ever had time for a job!
Besides the everyday tasks of “living” on a simple boat where everything is done in some old fashioned (ie “Slow” ) way, It seems there is a never ending list (and growing every day..) of projects to do on the boat. The boat was in good repair when I bought it but there are upgrades and improvements that I want to do to make it more comfortable, ... Continue reading...
Posted by kyle williams.
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