219 – Page 6 – Hove to off Swan Point

Yet another semi-rainy weekend

Down to Sjogin yesterday for the usual. Again a Saturday morning spitting rain out of the SSE, blowing 20 or so. Not too cool but raw enough for a fire. Noisy below with the chop raised in the basin. Plenty of water too.

Shop scraps
Prime dry Jersey White Cedar makes fine kindling. Off cuts from the Quest planking job.

Comfort food
Classic Saturday morning ritual. Finished going through John Stilgoe’s Shallow Water Dictionary. It’s a slim book that ranges over the meanings and origins of “estuary” english.

Quest
Speaking of Quest, the Xynole deck covering is on and the hull’s been faired. Expect paint soon.

Sjogin
Plenty of water, plenty of wind and in between showers. Not a very pretty day.

Irene Tansy dancing back and forth on her mooring.

Happy Brant
High water in Stockton Lake last Friday. The Brant seem to like the easy in and out.

Hole
Something interesting in the shop at Beatons. It’s a new bottom plank with a hole for the propeller shaft for the Bunker and Ellis picnic boat Cats Whiskers.

A milestone just occurred for us.

We’ve been here at Ourhouse for twenty years this past October 14th. A pleasant score indeed. A party was in order, pics of which are below. We’re very fortunate and were glad to share with friends and family. Thanks all. More pics on the Ourhouse page

My Julia
Julia chatting on the porch. Cool enough for a fire with the doors and windows open.

Our good friend Cheryl at the mantel.

Julia and Annie sharing a story.

Happy Dave, a twenty year veteran of parties at Ourhouse.

Sjogin’s out….

Annual haul out and makeover is later than usual. And also as usual we have been visited by a series of highs with lots of dry NE winds. (My favorite breeze.) I’m going to try to pull Sjogin in July next year. I’ll keep her out for her usual few weeks and relaunch in mid August, with her available for days such as these (summer boat traffic willing).

Here are a few pics from the last week or so:

August 24th, last heave to of the Summer. Went into the rigging dock after this sail and pulled the mast.

Just hauled
Fresh from the water. The crew at Beaton’s will wash off a long season of growth. Not too many barnacles this year.

Back in my favorite spot. I even have old man stairs. What luxury.

Water access
The Bay remains close. (Sometimes too close.). I’ll try to launch her right there.

The view of the bay from my spot in the shed. Usually a breeze either way.

Tom Beaton stopped by with news of Saturday’s final A-Cat race at Seaside Park. Raven won the season by only three points. Another Beaton built boat rules the A-Cat season.

Russ, Jake Julia and others at North End
My third visit this season; still working on the amortization of my season badge. The usually smiling Jake, Julia and Mary in there somewhere. Fine day with no Sjogin visit. Back at it tomorrow after work.

Old photos of the neighborhood

taken by aerial costal survey planes in 1920 and 1933. The images were taken from the Coastal and Hydraulics Lab website.

1920
Stockton Lake in 1920. Ourhouse wasn’t built until 1946 (just like me). The site is just to the right of the center of the photo.

1933
Getting crowded. Not the large diamond shaped white area just below the center. That’s all filled marsh, as is most of the beach area, site of the current baseball fields.

Larger copies of these and other photos can be seen at the web site or on our Flickr site.

Some change, huh?

Another Friday morning sail.

This is getting to be a habit. Nice day with an eventual Easterly about 4 to 6kts. Another sparkling day on the Bay.

Easy sailing. Hove to on Starboard tack with a lee bow tide. Nice slow ride from under Swan Point over to MYC. Sat on the deck in the shade of the jib while Sjogin took care of herself.

Gear failure!
Oh no; another .29 piece of tarred marline is needed to re-seize the jib block.

At ease
All this and hove to.

Quest progress; two more planks hung.

Barberry, daylillies and strange webs. Foggy morning yesterday.

Wet web
Wet web. Note the curve from the weight of the dew.

Full
No more room; annuals have filled in nicely.

More tomorrow.

Or Monday

We went for a sail last Sunday morning

with Kent Mountford, up from Maryland for a visit. Out for a couple of hours, delightful conditions, traffic not too bad. Had several nice pauses along the marsh. Lots of bird life; Osprey’s are becoming so wonderfully common.

Kent
Skipper Kent at the helm.

Julia and Serena
Julia enjoying having Serena in view. Really. First time I’ve seen her out this season. Hopefully Charlotte will return to the Bay soon. It’d be nice to see them match race.

Serena
Grace under sail. The perfect gentlemen’s day sailor.

Clean
Finally stopped relying on heavy rains and actually scrubbed her from stem to stern. Looks good enough to get by for a few more weeks before her annual haul and refit.

Catboat
If you squint and pretend the houses are dunes, the photo could have been taken in 1908.

High Summer; Margueritas last Sunday.

Happy Summer all.

Took off today to shake off the dust of Toronto

I was there Sunday through Wednesday on an audit. Glad to have such a perfect day for the occasion.

Went out on Sjogin early, leaving around eight. Comfortable 4 to 8 kt breeze out of the ENE. Bright sun through a bit of cirrus. Home by 11:00 and up to the beach to sit with Julia for a while and now on the porch. Feeling markedly better.

Ready to go this morning. Needed to shove off into the ENE breeze, then raised the main and jib.

Sparkling morning for a sail. Not too much traffic; was back before the usual suspects woke up.

Weldon and Goddard having a gam below on Rozinante. Re-reading L. Francis Herreshoff’s The Compleat Cruiser. Looks like we have a bit more room on Sjogin.

My prospect today for a few hours. Visit number two. Badge amortization down to $30.00 per visit.

Sunrise
Sunrise this Thursday. Happy to be home.

Color garden
Annuals putting on a good show this year.

Luminous morning
Luminous. Last week at a cloudy sunrise.

Summer’s here

and our beds are showing their best. Day lillies are coming into their own and the last of the climbing roses are dropping petals. A true Rose Walk.

Petals
Literally. It’s a very light pink variety climbing rose. It was here when we moved in almost 20 years ago. Struggles with the shade but blooms reliably.

Day Lilies starting
Common Day lillies and Clematis ?. Roses just done.

Stella
Stella D’Oro Day Lillies enjoying their moments

Kousa
Good show from the Kousa this year; starting to fade now. The white plank in the lower left is a boom crotch; washed up at Beatons years ago. It supports one of the lower limbs. One of these days I’ll elevate it but some floatsam works for now.

Astible
Astilbe, Heavenly Bamboo, Greenleaf Holly, Kousa and a new Begonia. View from the couch in the TV room.

Library view
And early last weekend. The Astilbe will be in bloom for a few weeks.

Sjogin pics soon but not from this weekend. Bit too breezy to go down and watch the first start for Spyder. Went out early Saturday though but left the camera home. Just as well as I missed my landing for the first time in a while. Had to back the jib, fall off and jibe. Good practice.

Later.

On Barnegat Bay

yesterday morning. Went out from 9:30 or so, back by noon. Had my first encounter with the afternoon “hot dogs”; seems they wake around 11:00 and then go forth to go round and round and round the Bay.

Still, there was a nice southerly tending to a sea breeze, about 4 to 6 kts. You could feel the heat building but enough of an air to cool you off. Managed to catch the start of an E-Sloop race on the Bay south of Swan Point. Video later (maybe.)

There’s progress on Quest, it’s A-Cat season and I went to the beach. (Noteworthy for my usual absence.) Pics follow:

Quest
Progress on Quest; planking continues. I saw a pile of nice cedar flitches in front of the shop last week. The best will be for Quest.

They’ll never look better. Ghost and Lightning waiting for battle.

Fine morning, coolish breeze. Too warm for the usual fire; finally.

Slick
Hove to off the marsh near Reedy Creek, waiting for the E-Sloop race. Note the slick as Sjogin crabs her way to weather.

Elevenses…..just right.

Watching the race from my easy chair as it continues hove to on the Starboard tack. With a good breeze, the severe degradation of sail shape does no harm.

Master E-Sloop skipper Peter Wright sails by to say hi.

Bang!
Clean start for the fleet. This was the Runnie Colie E-Scow regatta; The BBYRA season starts on the 21st.

I just may try to sail down for the A-Cat start; Bay Head and Manasquan co-host the first race of the ten regatta season. Last time I tried there was 0 air that morning. Nice tactical breeze this morning.

Finally, evidence of my first beach visit this year:
One...
and counting.

Julia
And Julia at the edge as always.

A guest is expecting

After work yesterday I did a bit of clean-up, pulling up the spent Virginia and Spanish Bluebells. As I bent over near the Epimedium under the kitchen window a female Mallard flew off inches from my head. Some thrill!

Weeding tools
The Mallard’s nest is in the Epimedium to the right of the bucket.

Eggs!
After my heart rate returned to normal I noticed these lovelies.

Mom's watching
Mom returned in a few minutes, watching from the roof.

Back on duty
You’ll have to take my word for it but there’s a duck in there. No idea how long she’s been sitting on eggs so we may find little ones in a week or so.