Santa’s Elves were busy at work on Saturday sealing boxes, writing addresses, filling out customs forms, wrapping gifts and generally doing whatever it takes to get out over forty boxes to our Military personnel from Winthrop that are stationed all over World.
Taking time from their busy schedules were Brian Beattie, Carol and Bill McCurdy, Elaine Sullivan, Denise and Sean Delehanty, who currently have their son Michael serving with the Marines in Iraq and Steve and Helen Honan.
All were given a test to make sure they had neat, legible hand writing or they were sent to the tape application department. Even in the tape application department their was so minor criticism, but all in all they did an excellent job. Fair warning, just don’t get in line behind me at the Post Office on Monday morning.
Richard
[This is a writeup of a sailing trip I went on with my stepfather, Dick Siegel, a few months ago. He asked me to distribute it to sailing enthusiasts, and I thought some of our members might like to read it. He likes to hear from other sailors and can be reached at appecon@aol.com. - Steve Hain]
NANTUCKET, MARTHA’S VINEYARD & RETURN: A CLASSIC MASSACHUSETTS SAILBOAT CRUISE
By
Dick Siegel
Skipper, Sailboat Druid
Location: Aboard Druid, Padanarum Harbor, S. Dartmouth, MA. Date: 14 August 2007.
Dimly came the sound: incessant, repeating. It just would not go away. Then words. “Dick, the alarm clock is ringing.” My eyes opened. Stephen repeated the message.
It was 5:30 AM. Our three day sailboat cruise to Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard was about to get under way. Stephen is Stephen Hain, my stepson. He, I, and my friend Alan Schwadron had scheduled this trip months before. Alan is an experienced sailor who owns his own 26-foot Erickson sloop. Last year we sailed together on a nonstop circumnavigation of Cape Cod. Stephen also has some sailboat time. So the crew was competent and barring the unforeseen (which included equipment failure, navigation errors, freak bad weather, errant behavior by another boater and a catalog of other problems) we looked forward to a pleasant time on the waters of Buzzards Bay, Vineyard Sound and Nantucket Sound. We equally looked forward to some shore time on the islands.
Out of the bunk, into my shoes, and up on deck to start the engine, to cast off lines, and to get underway. I backed Druid[1] out of its berth and turned into Padanarum Harbor. We were under way.
Alan and Stephen soon came on deck and as we passed the breakwater entrance to the harbor I set the course at 120 degrees toward Woods Hole.[2] I hoped to reach it as close to 8:00 AM as possible because passage through Woods Hole at that time would provide an optimum ride on the outgoing tide. The tidal flow in the Sounds runs up to three knots an hour. If you catch it right you get a nice boost. If you catch it wrong your ride lasts forever.
We proceeded on the engine rather than sail because winds can be unreliable and timing to Woods Hole was important. I handed the wheel to Alan and went below to prepare breakfast. This turned out not to be so easy. The unforeseen arrived early.
Buzzards Bay is usually quiet in the morning. The standard pattern is light airs and calm seas until about 1:00 PM and rising winds thereafter. I planned to cook our first breakfast under way on the assumption this pattern would hold. It did not. We had about 15 knots of northerlies, which put it right over the side. This produces a rolling sea on the beam, which produces a rolling boat, which produces a rolling galley.
Druid does not have a gimbaling stove. Its galley has a fixed-in-place, two-burner alcohol stove and a gimbaling single burner. Gimbaling appliances are steady while the boat rolls and pitches. This permits cooking while underway in windy conditions and is a necessity on long passages. I had planned a nice breakfast of bacon and eggs and fresh coffee, the food to be prepared on the fixed stove.
Not to be deterred by a heavily rolling boat I filled the coffee pot with water and applied a match to the alcohol stove. No fire. The alcohol in the stove had evaporated. I disassembled the stove and filled the burners from a gallon container of alcohol, spilling a lot, which required me to clean it up to avoid a fire. Finally successful, I lit the stove and put on the coffee. At that instant the boat rolled heavily. The coffee pot turned over and soaked the burners with water, putting it out of commission.
Not to be deterred I congratulated myself for having the foresight to install a gimbaling burner and turned to it to provide us something hot for breakfast. The burner is fueled by a small propane bottle. I turned the valve and applied a match. No fire. The propane bottle was empty. I had inadvertently left the valve open a hair when I installed the burner and the propane had escaped. Naturally, I had no spare bottle.
We had Cheerios and milk for breakfast.
Breakfast was a bust, but we did reach Woods Hole on time and which we proceeded through it into Vineyard Sound. We raised sail and set course for Nantucket Harbor - about a 35 mile run. It was now 8:30 AM.
The sail to Nantucket Harbor was a dream. We had the current, the wind came out of the north and the course was southeast. So we both sources of motive power. We also had a beautiful day, the temperature mild, a sky of picturesque cumulus clouds, other boats to admire and ferries to keep us company. We proceeded past Vineyard Haven and turned south toward Nantucket.
I prepared lunch around noon. Kraft cheese and turkey slices on whole wheat bread - which Alan immediately derided as cheese “product” sandwiches. Nevertheless, his quickly disappeared.
Nantucket Sound has lots of shoals, but none shallow enough to threaten a five-foot draft sailboat. But, I had prudently established buoys in the main shipping channel as waypoints for our GPS and we ticked them off as the hours went by.
We entered Nantucket Harbor about 4:00 PM, motoring along in company with a couple of ferries, one of which was carrying trucks loaded with building materials and trucks.
Building materials and trucks. This says something about Nantucket, doesn’t it!
A couple of twelve-meter racing sailboats swooped past. These boats may have been America’s Cup contenders: now they take people for a sailboat ride. This is not a put down. I’m sure it’s a thrill to be aboard one in a strong wind.
I called the mooring service and asked directions to our reserved mooring for the night. The service attendant answered promptly and gave us directions to its launch. We identified it, announced ourselves, and followed the launch to mooring 6B, our home away from home for the night.
Once on the mooring I went below for a nap while Alan and Stephen went ashore. They returned after an hour or so. We changed clothes and went ashore for dinner.
The launch ride was astonishing for the boats on view. Gorgeous yachts in the 150 to 200 foot class lined up one after the other. Nantucket has become a watering hole for the world’s beautiful people. How astonished the 1800s whaling generations would be to see this.
Nantucket is best described as “something else.” If the streets aren’t literally paved with gold they’re figuratively paved so. Nice shops, fancy people, a festive air. I particularly noticed the middle-age men: many of them had the look of people used to giving orders and being obeyed. They were probably corporate executives on holiday.
Stephen and Alan had reconnoitered restaurants on their first trip ashore and had heard that 68 Union, right up the street, was a first class place to dine. A couple of blocks stroll found us there. On the way in I asked a bystander to take a picture of the three of us with my new digital camera.[3] We posed and he shot, but he looked puzzled when he handed back the camera. As we entered the place I looked at it and saw I hadn’t turned it on. So much for the digital revolution.
An attractive (of course) hostess greeted us and led us to our table. The martini was first class, the wine the waiter recommended was first class, plus the food was superb.
When dinner over we left the restaurant. I went back to the boat. The youngsters (Alan and Stephen) stayed ashore for a while. I turned on the radio and found 107.5 FM, the Cape Cod classical music station. It mostly plays sweet familiar stuff, but once an evening it gets serious. I listened to Brahms 2nd piano concerto played all the way through and fell asleep a happy man. It had been a nice day.
Wednesday, August 15.
The northerly that wafted us along yesterday had strengthened to small craft advisory velocity - winds and gusts twenty-five to thirty-two miles per hour and swells up to seven feet high. We were headed to Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard, which, of course, is northwest from Nantucket. The wind direction was not quite on our nose, but its direction required we sail on a close reach, that is, about forty-five to sixty degrees off the wind. On this position, and with this much wind, the day promised a sustained pounding into moderately high swells.
After a proper breakfast of bacon and eggs, which I prepared while at the mooring this time, we cast off and headed out of the harbor. We did not raise sail in the harbor because it was crowded with boats. Given windy conditions and close proximity of others I would rather not have to contend with a sail.
Nantucket has a long breakwater just outside the harbor. We headed for calm water just behind it and raised sail. We shortened the mainsail (this is called reefing) to reduce its area and we unfurled just a tad of foresail. This proved to be good sail plan for the conditions we encountered.
With sails raised we entered the main harbor channel and headed out. A good-sized sailboat, about forty-five feet in length, came the other way with a man at the helm. We exchanged glances and smiles and I had a sudden thought, emotion rather, that he and I had communicated something to each other, sailor to sailor.
Oak Bluffs is thirty-two miles from Nantucket. Druid could normally sail this distance in about six hours. But large swells and headwinds with gusts over thirty miles per hour are not normal conditions. The wind and waves slowed it to three to four knots per hour. After a few hours I turned on the engine and we motor sailed the rest of the way.
Late in the afternoon we were abreast of Martha’s Vineyard off of West Chop, near the entrance to Vineyard Haven. We turned the boat toward the island’s eastern shore and pounded directly into the wind and swells. Sails aren’t much help in these conditions so we dropped them and turned Druid into a motor boat.
What followed was a wild ride into Oak Bluffs harbor. The boat smashed through the swells. Spray slammed over the top of the spray dodger right into my face. Lucky me, it just happened to be my turn at the wheel. I couldn’t quite pick out the entrance of Oak Bluffs Harbor, but then I saw a ferry moving along the shore. It turned toward shore and entered what was evidently the harbor’s entrance. I headed for that and after a time we were at the narrow harbor channel. Close to land the swells diminished, but the wind still blew strong on the nose.
Oak Bluffs has a small harbor and it’s a very popular destination for cruising boats. The solution is to raft boats alongside each other. Many moorings have a six-boat raft. I called the mooring service attendant who told me to find a raft with boats approximately the same size as ours. We located one, but nesting up to it was a real challenge. Winds were strong in the harbor. Boats were all over the place, and it’s necessary to approach your raft very slowly and carefully. This reduces headway and steering response. We failed two approaches and had to circle around for another try. Luckily, a man on one of the rafted boats we were approaching came to help us with our lines. This solved our problem. Help in need is help indeed.
With Druid secured we went ashore for dinner. Oak Bluff’s streets are not paved with gold. The town has some well-known, cute gingerbread houses, but otherwise the shore front is like an island Revere Beach. We went to dinner. Beer, not a martini. Fish and chips, not steak.
Stephen has a friend in Oak Bluffs who he called and visited. As night fell I went back to the boat, my usual practice, and was soon blissfully asleep.
Thursday, August 16.
The day brought another change in the weather. The winds were calm and the sky overcast. After another bacon and egg breakfast we retrieved out lines and started for home. Calm airs could not move the boat so we fired up the engine. Because we were not in a hurry Alan suggested we return to Padanarum by motoring along the Elizabeth Islands. This was a nice idea. I had never done this.
The Elizabeth Islands are private property. No Trespassing signs appear at about one mile intervals. Here and there you see a large house, but for the most part these islands are vacant.
About noon I went below to prepare lunch and noticed an unpleasant smell. The head’s holding tank safety valve had released some sewage into the cabin. Stupid me. I don’t cruise very often with other people and I hadn’t recently pumped out the holding tank. Alan and Stephen huddled in the cockpit while the skipper (who else?) cleaned up the mess. We skippers have all the fun.
We motored along past the Elizabeth islands; Naushon, Pasque and Nashawena. Past Tarpaulin Cove, past Robinsons Hole, and through Quicks Hole into Buzzards Bay. Right on schedule rose the Buzzards Bay breeze. We lifted sail and had a nice run back to Padanarum Harbor. My slip’s neighbor, Bill Greene, who was aboard Isabella, his unusual wooden schooner, welcomed us home.
The trip was a classic New England experience. Vehicle - a sailboat. Destination - Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. Weather conditions - variable. Time - high summer. Trouble - just enough to make life interesting, but nothing dangerous. Cuisine - ample and an outstanding dinner in Nantucket. Sailing challenge - moderately high winds made us call upon our experience to insure a safe and expeditious passage.
All in all we had a good time and we honed our sailing skills a bit. Who can ask for anything more?
[1] Druid is my fifth sailboat. I usually change the name of my new boats to Beautiful Dreamer because it communicates well over the marine radio and because I like it. However, Druid connotes an age in years that very much applies to me, so I decided to keep it even though my origins are distinctly not Celtic.
[2] Woods Hole is a passage between Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound. It’s called a hole because it is a narrow waterway between two bodies of land. There are four holes that provide passage between individual islands of the Elizabeth Island chain and these two bodies of water.
[3] Those who know me will be shocked; shocked to hear I now have a digital camera. How this came to be is another story.
Bored? Try this!
http://www.biertijd.com/mediaplayer/?itemid=4262
yesterday morning just before I went up to town hall to speak at the
Veterans Day Service. I had written a short speech about what Veterans
Day means to me . . . . after I read my speech, I read Gabe’s part
about Melissa and the effect that an eleven year old girl can have on a
soldier in Iraq. Melissa(actually Marissa) is a middle school student
who come in twice a week as part of the Twenty First Century
afterschool program to help me pack the boxes that I ship to our
soldiers in Iraq. It was very moving!
you so much for that package. I took the flashlight, batteries, socks,
and soap. Most of us infantry folk don’t have it as good as the POGs
do so those items were very important. I’m impressed with the
diversity of items in that package. You knew just what we needed. I
loved the letters I got. I especially liked the letter the young lady
wrote to me. She said everyday after the pledge of allegiance, her
teacher tells them about the young men who are fighting for America in
Iraq and Afghanistan. I forgot what we were fighting for. Everyday I
get up so I can do a few patrols. I do patrols because I’m told to.
That letter reminded me why we do patrols, why we fight, and why we do
what we do. I think her name was Melissa if I remember correctly.
Tell her that her letter meant a lot. Speaking of letters, I read
yours as well. So thanks for everything. Thank you for serving the
country as a soldier and thank you for continuing to serve our country.
Town of Winthrop Veterans Day Services
Sunday, November 11, 2007 11:00am
In front of the Town Hall
The Town of Winthrop Veterans Day services will take place this Sunday, November 11 at 11:00 am. Everyone is encouraged to attend and honor those who have defended our country in war time and in peace time. Take a few minutes out of your busy schedule and join with other members of the community as we thank our Veterans. Explain to your children the importance of Veterans Day and share with them the traditions that make this day so important. Take time to thank a Veteran!
Veterans are asked to meet up at the American Legion Hall on Hermon Street starting at 10:30 am where we will prepare to march up to the World War Memorial a little before 11:00 am
Coffee and donuts will be served in the American Legion Hall (behind Town Hall) following the services.
Thank You,
Richard Honan
how are you? i got the packages you sent me and the guys and i loved
them. we all thank you for your support. its hard being away from home
but when you get something in the mail it makes your day. iam not much
older than you guys iam only 19 and i have been threw 2 wars already
ihave been to afghanastan and now iraq. you guys keep doing what your
doin stay out of trouble and stay in school you can do anything. i hope
when i come home i can see you and thank you in person thank you again
bye.
Daughter Christine(she’s now working for dad) hands me the phone. I ask who is on the phone. She says,”It’s an Anthony calling from Iraq”. It’s Barbara’s(my ninety six year old mother’s caretaker) nephew Anthony calling to thank me for the packages that I’ve been sending him.
He’s a combat engineer with the Army. Anthony is from Revere and he likes the Army. He said it keeps him out of trouble. The package to Anthony was mailed Saturday, October 13th at noon and arrived today Wednesday, the 17th. I asked him to send an e-mail this afternoon to the Middle School students, Frankie, Ashley and Melissa who packed the box. They will be in this afternoon to pack a couple of new boxes along with the letters that I told them to write for the soldiers.
Needless to say, it was very, very interesting getting a phone call from Iraq.
Richard
Toys for the Troops
Winthrop’s American Legion Post 146 would like to reach out to any Winthrop resident currently serving in the U. S. Military and thank them for their Dedication and Service.
We would like your help in gathering names and addresses of Winthrop residents currently serving in the Military. Whether serving in war torn Iraq, Europe, the Far East, or the United States. We would like to acknowledge those serving in the military with a holiday or Christmas gift from the residents of Winthrop.
The Legion would like names of not only individuals, but also those military personnel that are married with families. The information that we need is a current address, where are they serving, martital status and if married, number of children.
Please foreward Name, Rank, Address, Maritial Status and number of children to:
Richard Honan
c/o Honan Sign
66 Crest Ave.
Winthop, MA 02152
Sox win
Pats Win
Olympic Trials
A bunch local sailors and friends are competing at the Olympic trials in Newport and Southern California.
Star
Tufts Alum Mark Mendelblatt with gold medal crew Magnus are in first. Szabo and his boss Gold Medalist Mark Reynolds are 2 & 3.
After a pretty bad first day, Andy Horton & Brad Nichol (Newport, Sunapee) are in 6th.
CPYC’s own Karl Anderson and Ed Morey and Fotis Boliakis (Westport, CT) and Mike Nichol (Sunapee) have their work cut out for them.
SKUD
Nick Scandone with Marblehead’s Maureen McKinnon Tucker lead the way.
470
Guest Frostbiter Stu McNay with Graham Biehl lead the way.
Finn
CPYC Frostbiters Kenneth Luczynski and Bill Upthegrove have their work cut out for them.
– the blogmaster
Congestion grows, wastes a week each year
The nation’s drivers languished in traffic delays for a total of 4.2 billion hours in 2005, up from the previous year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Drivers waste nearly an entire work week each year sitting in traffic on the way to and from their jobs, according to a national study released Tuesday.
The nation’s drivers languished in traffic delays for a total of 4.2 billion hours in 2005, up from 4 billion the year before, according to the Texas Traffic Institute’s urban mobility report. That’s about 38 hours per driver.
Anybody commute to work by boat?
I wish that I could — or perhaps go to work in my bunny slippers :-D.
– blogmaster
For an online phenomenon, a very :-) 25th anniversary
19-Sep-82 11:44 Scott E Fahlman :-)
From: Scott E Fahlman
I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers:
:-)
Read it sideways. Actually, it is probably more economical to mark
things that are NOT jokes, given current trends. For this, use
:-(
more about emoticons
enjoy
:-D
– blogmaster
CPYC’s Tomas Hornos and Enrique Quintero are the 2007 Snipe WORLD CHAMPIONS
See Serge’s photos of a beautiful and windy Star race on Long Island Sound
Sonar Worlds start next week in Marblehead. Lots of CPYC members and frostbiters participating in the event.
And if you’re interested, you can watch the regatta online.
– blogmaster
here are a couple of amusing videos which live under the WTF category….
they’re safe to watch at work….
although you may fall off of your chair laughing, so maybe they’re not so safe.
Tonight’s lecture about the “Building of the William & Anthony” with Brother Steve and myself will take place at the National Park Service Orientation building on Derby Street in Salem at 7:30 pm. This building is directly after Pickering Wharf, on the right or water side on Derby Street.
Hope to see you there!
Steve and Richard Honan
September first and excellent day for exploring Belle Isle Marsh with your grandsons, Ben and Chris, your son in law, Mike, your dog Rugs and favorite brother, Stephan. We left Donovans Beach under clear skies, temps in the mid seventies, and an incoming 11′3″ high tide at 2:50 pm. It was a great day with a lot of paddling, some swimming, brother Steve trying to catch some Striped Bass and a climb to the top of the observation tower. We stopped in to the Beachmont Yacht Club where we enjoyed their hospitality with a couple of Bud Lights and a ginger ale for the boys. It was a great day!!
Had a nice visit last night with a young, twenty one year old Marine named Michael Delehanty. He stopped at my house with his family so I could say goodbye. He flies out this morning for North Carolina to join up with the rest of his unit from the Second Marine Division as they begin the long journey to Iraq.
One hundred and fifty three pounds of Marine, six pounds over my fighting weight of one hundred and forty seven. This is Michael’s second trip to the Middle East, the first time was on the helicopter assault ship, the IwoJima. I kept Michael stocked with care packages filled with treats, newspapers and letters from home.
His short note to me upon his arrival home last Spring summarized my whole effort for staying in touch with these young kids . . . . . . . it felt good to be remembered.
Another one that I wrote too was, Michael’s uncle, Gunny Sgt. Dennis Ranahan. He just returned from Iraq two weeks ago. Hopefully I’ll get to meet him in another week or so when he comes to visit his sister, Michael’s mother Denise.
Naturally, any tool for getting rid of bugs in your program is called a ‘debugger’.
Mundanely enough, the corresponding tool for putting bugs into your program is called a ‘programmer.’
i resemble that remark
–blogmaster
Rhodes 19 Gold Cup
Cottage Park Yacht Club, Winthrop, MA
1. 1705. Peter Costa and Donna Hansen
2. 1992. Hatch Brown and Mike Gahan
3. Dave Hickey and family
Photos by Rugs Honan
Rubber Ducky regatta.
Cottage Park Yacht Club, Winthrop, MA
1. The yellow one.
2. Another yellow one.
DSQ. One with big feathers.
Star Masters at Larchmont Yacht Club
2. Peter Costa and John Economides
4. Gary MacDonald and Greg Gahlinger
– the blogmaster
The blog is back from our august vacation, and the inbox is overflowing with good content.
Lots of good sailing and fun in the sun. Hopefully you were out too (instead of sitting in front of your computer anxiously awaiting blog.cpyc.org entries)
– the blogmaster
JFK Regatta
Stars, 2 races. Broad Sound.
8163. Ryan Staszko, Jack Donahue. 3 points
8245. Joe Zambella, Greg Dolan. 7 points
7621. Peter Costa, Mike Hodess. 7 points
Star Fleet Championship
Best 8 races
8245. Joe Zambella, Greg Dolan. 19 points.
7793. Tomas Hornos, Luis Hornos. 21 points.
8052. Stephen Braverman, Jim Mullane, 27 points.
Other news:
When it goes up into the mid nineties over the next couple of days
and you start longing for some cooler weather, be careful what you
wish for . . . . .
When the only ice won’t be in your Pina Colada(or Mudslide)!
When your longing for the high temperature to rise up out of the teens. When a stroll on the beach is slowed down by the frozen sea slush and ice floes.
When temperatures at sunrise are single digits.
When you don’t even have to put the beer in the cooler to keep it cold. When you wonder how long you will survive if you fall in the water.
Just cause you can’t afford to go to Florida, you still take your regular 6:00 AM morning swim in the ocean in a blizzard just like it’s July 9th.
….cause it won’t be long, the back to school sales have begun!
After Bob had passed away, I pondered what I might say about one of my best friends. What was he to me? Maybe a story about an experience that we shared. The idea of using the dictionary popped into my head. And there it was, on page 238, of the Webster’s dictionary, “friend” : pal, schoolmate, companion, brother, buddy and classmate. Bob and I had been all of those and more, he was someone who would share the last of his Kelly’s onion rings or french fries, someone who on a hot day would give you one of their last two icy cold Bud Lites. I know as a friend he would have warned me about the ill effects of drinking Mudslides. I guess we could have been brothers . . . . . . . . . I don’t know if he would have been a Honan or I would have been a Sheppard. I guess we’ll have to save that debate for another time.
Then I remembered reading the story in this months CPYC Windjammer. Sue Hardy and I wrote about sailing and exploring the waterways and marshes of the Belle Isle Creek. It reminded me of the fist time that I had attempted that journey up Belle Isle Creek. Bob and I had launched two of my newly built 8′00″ Nutshell sailing prams and sailed from the Cottage Park Yacht Club, along Court Road down to the Belle Isle Bridge. I’ll tell you, in Bobby’s C&C 34 sailboat, we had sailed much more dangerous journeys, with high winds and large seas, but this trip had “special adventure” written all over it.
For as long as we had lived in neighboring Winthrop, we had never explored this little part of our world. Sometimes it’s amazing what catches the fancy of two grown men. It was like we were children again, like Tom sawyer and Huck Finn off to exploring the wilds of Belle Isle Marsh. We sailed to the bridge where we dropped our sails and masts. From there we allowed the incoming tide to carry us under the bridge and into the marsh, where we raised our sails again to continue our adventure.
The day was a perfect match for the two of us, sunny and bright with a little Easterly wind to push us along on our journey. We sailed our two small prams, El Sueno de Abuela, “Grandmothers Dream”, and R&R (Robert and Richard?) into dead end channels and open bays. We shared this day as two good friends share an ice cream sundae.
It’s a magical place up there. You have no idea that you’re in urban East Boston, next to a large international airport. It feels more like the Everglades in southern Florida
We sailed most of the afternoon meandering small channels, finally making it all the way up to Bennington Street. We then turned around and sailed back to he Beachmont Yacht Club. We dropped our sails and walked up the gangway to the small bar that sat overlooking the marsh, where we sat celebrated our epic journey and shared a couple of cold Bud Lites.
From the raised deck of the club house, we sat there and savored the day and enjoyed our beers. We could look out toward the Belle Isle Bridge and see Winthrop and retrace our travels. Now as I sit here and treasure the moments that made that day so special, I now look back and again retrace the journey of not only that day, but of all of the good times I shared with Bob. I know that I am one lucky guy to have had a friend like him.
A couple of weeks ago, I launched and Christened two new boats with the help of Father Don Milligan of Saint John’s Episcopal Church. He read a little verse that I liked very much. I had included this verse in a short note that I sent to Bob and Janis just before he passed away.
There are sailing ships, wood ships and ships that sail the sea, but the best ships are friend ships, may they always be.
Richard D. Honan
Some photos from the recent Fathers Day launching and christening of our two Indian Girl canoes. A fine gathering of family and friends totaling over one hundred made for a great party. My ninety six year old mother wondered why I make such a big fuss out of everything. The weather couldn’t have been better with temps in the mid-eighties and a steady Southwesterly breeze to keep it from getting too hot. We took a few moments to reflect on those fathers who were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan who couldn’t be with there families today. Father Milligan of Saint John’s Episcopal did the blessing with Kevin McCarthy of the Boston Fire Department playing a few traditional favorites on the the pipes.
there’s sure alot of activity around the club this month, I just checked out the the current events board!
Star
Saturday June 9th, 2 races.
Americas Cup
Alinghi vs New Zealand. June 23rd.
Marshall Brown Secretary’s Cup
Stars
11 boats, 3 races
1. Joe Zambella & Dan Vannoni, 10 points
2. Stephen Braverman & Serge Leonidov, 11 points
3. Gary MacDonald & Greg Gahlinger, 14 points
4. Karl Anderson & Ed Morey, 16 points
5. Peter Costa & Ted Lavery, 17 points
America’s cup — New Zealand up 3-0 in the best of 5 series. good footage on Versus.com
– the blogmaster
Americas Cup Louis Vuitton Finals
race1 just started.
Versus.com (formerly OLN). Channel 48 on my comcast.
Stars start saturday with the Marshall Brown Secretary’s Cup at CPYC.
Looking forward to getting back into the boat.
The cleaning of the Veterans plaques in preparation for Memorial day
has been postponed due to the rain, until next Saturday, May 26th,
8:00 am - 11:00 am.
Any Questions,
Please contact
Richard Honan
(w)
617-846-5972
(h)
617-846-6796
Enclosed are photos of myself and U.S. Army Col. Frank McGinn. Col. McGinn was a recipient of my care packages while he was Garrison Commander of FOB Speicher in Iraq. I had never met him, I got his address through his father, whom is a member of the yacht club. Last night we met at the yacht club for the first time since his return from Iraq. We exchanged stories about our experiences serving overseas and shared a few beers.
He brought me a boonie hat and a Unit medallion. In civilian life, Col. McGinn is an arson inspector with the State Police. He is still active National Guard reserves and leads a sixteen hundred man brigade.
Col. McGinn will be the principle speaker at the Town of Winthrop’s Memorial Day Ceremony Monday May 28th.
Richard
P.S. I currently have ten men and women (eight from Winthrop) serving in Iraq that receive letters and packages from me every month. If you would like to brighten one these Army soldiers or Marines day, contact me and I’ll see that you get a name, address and a little background.
| John B. Nugent May 1, 2007 |
|
RANDOLPH, VT— John B. Nugent, 91, formerly of Braintree, died April 30, 2007 |
not sure if you’ve been following the
2007 Americas Cup
While you’re at it, add us to your RSS reader too.
– the blogmaster
Tuesday is the big Google Search day for Seth Godin
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/04/magic_coinciden.html
Why do we care? Well, we don’t really! but cool (and somewhat scary) to be able to find out.
This of course got me on a tangent, wondering which day got the highest traffic on our beloved cpyc.org.
And the winner is….. Monday!!!!
Scores? Rug’s and Tally’s wit? Search Engine spiders? People procrastinating on a monday morning before beginning their real work? Me checking if anyone other than me has updated the site? Me checking to see if we paid our hosting bill?
I might actually be able to find out if i really wanted to know.
Of course, this blog (i know i’ve mentioned it before) gets my day started every morning with a chuckle.
– blogmaster
Someone’s put up a Web site that publishes advertising photos of fast food
read all about it from the Globe’s Brainiac
Not surprising….
Warning: you may not want to view this while eating…
Next thing they’ll tell us is that models wear makeup. sheesh.
– the blogmaster
Brother Bill along with his daughter, Robin and his son, Sean arrived at the shop bright and early Saturday morning. All three were eager to begin construction of the boat to be named “Honcho”,in memory of Curt Harrison. Although the three of them had spent considerable time on the water sailing, none of them of them had ever constructed a boat. They didn’t have a clue of what they were in for, and neither did I. First they had to listen to some of my enhanced stories or recollections of sailing with Curt and Gene. Then they had to listen to some enhanced stories of my time growing up with my brothers, the yacht club or the time I spent in the military. The entire weekend was to be filled with my brother Bill and I telling Sean and Robin many more stories.
Finally after several more enhanced stories, I got down to explaining the basics of lapstrake boatbuilding. The object was to plank the entire hull in two days. I had never done six planks in two days even with my experienced boatbuilding partner, brother Stephan. I was crazy to even attempt it, but I wanted to give them a chance to be responsible for building as much of the hull as possible. That way, when Robin and Sean come to the christening and launching on Fathers Day, they will be able to paddle around in a boat named after their grandfather, that they helped build.
Both Sean and Robin listened intently(or pretended) to the process of building a lapstrake boat.
It wasn’t long before we had measured and scribed the first two planks. Here I was explaining how we connect two pieces of plywood together using a scarf.
By a little after ten am we already had the first two planks, called the garboard planks, cut, fitted and fastened to the hull. We has to work reasonably fast as the epoxy that was holding the planks in place had to set up or harden before we could begin fitting the next two planks.
This is brother Bill and I scribing a line along a lofting batten.
There were even a few jokes at the expense of anyone who wasn’t there.
The building crew . . . . . Sean Honan, Brother Bill Honan and my favorite godchild, Robin Honan
And speaking of the usual suspects, we were visited by Frank Buckley, who took time out from the horse track and sailing legend Pudge Lally, along with my grand daughter Anna, dropped in to check on the progress of both boats. Frank and I were reminiscing about sailing in the early sixties up in Marblehead during Race Week and being photographed for Sports Illustrated. We were the kings of the hill.
IC Nationals
Congrats to Jim Bowers and Sarah Hitchcock for finishing 2nd out of 45 boats in this year’s Interclub nationals at Manhasset Bay Yacht Club.
We had 9 races in 5-12 knots on Saturday, while Sunday was a blowout.
Winthrop had 11 teams compete in the event with 7 finishing in the top 20.
– blogmaster
My five year old grandson Christopher says, “This is what it looks like when God is talking to the people”.
