Happy Safe Boating Week!

I took this at the Sebago Open House on Saturday - this is clubmate John M's granddaughter getting ready to take some furry friends paddling, and our Canoe Committee chair made sure everyone was ready and safe for the trip! 

More pictures from the day here (although you've seen the cutest already): 

https://picasaweb.google.com/105942635735197164645/SebagoCanoeClubOpenHouse5182013

And more about Safe Boating Week Here:
http://www.safeboatingcampaign.com/

uh oh

pretty bad infestation there...

And here's this year's "Get 'Tooned Adults-Only No-Kids-Allowed Cocktail and Claymation" production. Penguins at 1:42, they spell out "NYICFF", the initials of the New York International Children's Film Festival (I don't think anyone would guess that out of context although people at the benefit were getting it by the "C"). Once again, great fun for a good cause. And yes, unfortunately that is my hand at 1:50, I barely finished the penguins in time and I was rushing to get the animation done!

More Fast Boats (plus schooner Arabella, and a duck)

I was feeling a bit wiped out at the end of the work day last night, so I decided to head home instead of going to Blue Drinks (hopefully there'll be another later in the summer). On my way home, though, I did loop by North Cove again, this time to see, and of course take some pictures of, the Atlantic Cup fleet (thank you Harry M. for cluing me in). A few of my favorite photos are down at the end of the writing. The big 3-masted vessel, btw, is NOT a Cup contender, that's the schooner Arabella. Not sure what she's doing in NYC but she's been here for a while (Update 5/20 - I finally found out, answer's in the comments). And the duck is a duck.

BTW, Icarus, #116, has a local connection - she belongs to the USMMA at King's Point! Go NY! 

The Atlantic Cup is an interesting 3-legged race. Two sailors on each boat and see, they stand next to each other on the dock with their arms around each other's shoulders and then they have their 2 adjacent legs tied together and...no, no, no, not really. Although that would be an interesting race too. This one's three distinctly different legs. 

From the Cup's website: "The first stage is a long offshore, double-handed leg from Charleston, South Carolina to New York City. The second stage is a sprint leg, also double-handed from New York to Newport, Rhode Island. The third and final stage will be a fully crewed inshore series raced over a weekend in Newport."  For more info, visit AtlanticCup.org. 

IDEC wasn't there but according to the website he's still here on standby - maybe Joyon decided to take some friends sailing or something, it was a very pretty evening and maybe it's fun for a singlehander to occasionally have other people on board.

Here are my favorites from last night's pictures - it was an excellent night for picture-taking, too, the late afternoon light is always pretty and when you get lucky enough to have a large black cloud that's passed by and is to the east, stuff just glows. Didn't actually storm this time as far as I know, but it sure looked dramatic!

BTW, I have again put all the text at the top, here, nothing more to read, so you can just click on the first picture to get the much nicer slideshow view. Enjoy!

Really Random: Blue Drinks, Separated at Birth, IDEC in Motion, The Village Penguins, and Sebago's annual Open House

1. Blue Drinks! 


D'oh! Once again this done snuck up on me, there's another New York City Watertrail Association Blue Drinks waterfront social evening on the barge at Pier 66 TONIGHT!  These are always fun - I don't know if I'm going to make it tonight as I'm an antisocial butterfly having a social butterfly week & last night's event (claymation yay!) ran late - but I did at least want to spread the word. 6 pm, $20  donation includes 1-year NYCWTA membership, one drink (doesn't HAVE to be blue) , and a tide wheel (nifty device and very useful for trip planning). Click here for more info. 


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2. Separated at Birth?

Pandabonium at Sweet Bluesette wants to know if IDEC is based on a Klingon Qlb'etlh-class Battlecruiser. Well, what do you think?

Image found on the Scifi-Meshes forum.

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3. IDEC in Motion:

When I posted some of my IDEC photos on Facebook, my friend Harry M. shared this video, which I loved. These guys have a way of looking like they're doing 15 kts when they're tied to a dock - seeing 'em in action is fantastic.

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4. Village Penguins:

As I mentioned briefly in the Blue Drinks piece, last night was the New York International Children's Film Festival's 3rd annual Get 'Tooned No-Kids-Allowed Cocktails and Claymation benefit. I haven't managed to do any stop-motion stuff on my own since the Origami Bunny Dance, but I have a great time going and joining the folks at the fabulous NYICFF for this annual fundraiser. The first year I made a seal, the second I made a tiger -- this year I got ambitious and made an entire flock of penguins! The theme was At the Disco so of course the penguins are dressed up and end up spelling out "NYICFF" Village People style. I was joking about going for quantity instead of quality this year but they actually came out pretty cute.

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5. Last but definitely not least - Sebago Canoe Club's annual Open House is this coming Saturday! The club will be open from 10 am to 4 pm and there will be public boating all day long. We'll have kayaking, canoeing and sailboat rides; the trips will mostly on the Paerdegat Basin although the kayak trips may go take a look at the bay, depending on conditions and the ability of all the participants in any given group. The forecast looks lovely, partly sunny, high of 72, and light winds, should be a fine day on and by the water. You need to be able to swim (don't need to be Mark Spitz, we have lifejackets but you should basically be comfortable with being in water), but no boating experience is necessary, all equipment provided, just be ready for fun and dress to get wet. Mostly people don't fall in but you WILL get a wet backside in a kayak or a Sunfish, that's just how they are. We're on Paerdegat Avenue North in Canarsie. For full details, visit www.sebagocanoeclub.org.  

IDEC - A Baker's Dozen of a BIG FAST BOAT.

Here is the IDEC, waiting at North Cove. Isn't she something? Main regret from photo session - I got very tongue-tied when M. Joyon came up on deck, maybe if I had shouted out "Good luck!" he would have waved at me, and what a terrific picture that would have made! Ah well. Beyond that, for once in my bloggerheic (ha ha ha) life, I have nothing  to add. Click on the first picture and view in the slide-show set-up. Enjoy. 

IDEC arrives in NYC - Francis Joyon would like his record back, s'il vous plaît

As usual, click on the picture for a better view.

The singlehanded Trans-Atlantic speed record, that is. It was his from 2005-2008. He's here to try to get it back - and by sheer luck, I happened to catch his arrival.

Yes, it's another one from my Statue series taken at the Waterfront Museum on Sunday afternoon. Not the best picture I've ever taken but I suspected this boat was one of those fabulous ocean-going speed machines when I spotted it and I figured this one was likely to be in town for something interesting -- when this kind of boat appears in NY Harbor, it's generally for one of two reasons: a race, or a record attempt. I tossed this out on Facebook yesterday asking if anyone knew who she was and why she was here. Dan K, a trimaran man himself, immediately named the vessel as the racing trimaran IDEC. I remember enough of my high-school French to pick out the answer to the "why" half of the question without resorting to Google translate - IDEC is single-handed by Francis Joyon and yes, he's here to try to get back the single-handed Trans-Atlantic crossing record that he'd gotten in 2005 and then lost to Thomas Coville aboard the even BIGGER trimaran Sodeb'O in 2008 (story from that day here).

IDEC is supposed to be waiting for her weather window at North Cove Marina (although Capt. Michelle, one of my friends from my schooner-crew days, mentioned that Joyon was going to anchor out last night due to high winds making getting a boat with a 60' beam in through the can't-be-much-wider entrance to that marina too dicey to try). I will have to take my camera to work tomorrow and see if I can get some better shots - to this day I'm still regretting the fact that I didn't happen to have a camera along the day I was lucky enough to visit Sodeb'O when she was awaiting her crossing. She was actually waiting at the Gateway Marina in Dead Horse Bay, just outside the Marine Park bridge that spans the mouth of Jamaica Bay.

I hadn't heard about the attempt, I just happened to take my surfski out for an afternoon spin on a quiet day and as the marina came into view, I spotted this enormous beast towering over the rest of the sailboats there. Had to go see. I was able to paddle right up to her, too, between her hulls and everything. Amazing, but only recorded in my own memory! View from the sidewalk around North Cove may not be quite as unique as that kayak's-eye view, but it's always fun to see these things up close. Hope to have more to share before too long! 

And another Statue from Red Hook picture -

A jam-packed Schooner Adirondack by the Statue of Liberty, taken a couple of hours before the sunset picture, same location (Red Hook, outside the Waterfront Museum, where I ended up going to see Moby Dick Rehearsed after the combination of high winds in the forecast and a rainy-day-popcorn-related thumb injury caused me to scratch all boating plans for the day).  For yesterday's winds, gusting into the low 30's, they went with one jib and a reefed main. They must have been having a blast out there! :D

Tonight's Sunset

 

Taken at the Waterfront Museum in Red Hook.