It's the Cat's Pyjamas!

One could emulate much of the boating experience by putting on slickers, standing under a running shower, and flushing twenties down the toilet. Well not really. It is the truly great days where one feels that incredible bliss playing with the wind and the waves that make it all worthwhile. There is so much to enjoy in good company far away from distracting "civilization".

Naturally, the boat is only skippered by pure professionals. The clothing pin designates the skipper... well I think.

BEvERages keep the crew well lubricated as we enjoy a wonderful day in 1997. Shawn McCloy, Ken Caron and friend are about to round Small Point en-route to a late floating lunch around Seguin Island.

The cockpit has been augmented by a yawning Allison Halleck. The dinghy is secured in the davits and we're tooling at about 8 knots on a broad reach.

En-route to the Basin, I managed to snap this shot. We're about to hit a lobster pot. Luckily it didn't wrap itself around a saildrive. Instead, the Spurrs cutters bit a piece of the polyurethane out of the buoy and that was it. Naturally I had a heart attack but refrained from biting any heads off. Must have been that jummy lunch.

In 1998 I manage to capture Jackie Rosenblum and a passing sea gull in perfect synchronicity.

Here is Vinal Haven harbor near midnight in 1998 when I had the pleasure of cruising with my mother. This picture was taken with a 1980s Minox 35 GT, possibly the best low light 35mm camera in the world. To my knowledge it is the only camera that automagically compensates for reciprocity error... perfect exposures at night with no need for hand-release, bracketing, etc. I have even used it to act as a "release meter" when I was taking some night shots with another 35mm camera.

Back to the trip... the next day we made for Rockland to pick up dear Shoma. While the sea was glassy when I took this picture, the next day featured sustained 25 knot winds that blew into our teeth. Tacking back and forth we reached up to 14 knots of speed... until we hit a lobster pot and slowed to 7 knots. That was pretty scary since there was a lot of pressure on the rig and whatever the lobster pot had gotten snagged on. Two turns later and we were free. In the meantime, the short choppy seas had disabled our GPS and what should have been a short cruise took 6 hours.