Aerial Shots


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Two years ago this month I was cleaning the bottom when Peter happened by. He had this odd looking set-up… a big box kite with a hand held crank on the kite string fixed to a homeade spool that was mounted to a pvc frame he wore around his neck. The kite lifted his camera, which was also hard wired to a control box mounted on the frame so he could see it as he maneuvered the kite into position! I was working furiously to beat the tide, so I didn’t have time to chat, but he took several shots and before he left , he promised to e-mail some pictures. I scrawled my address in the sand and he took a photo. I never heard back from him. It turns out, the photo of the address was unreadable. Then two years later, after the hurricane, he happened to come down to my neighbors house where we ran into each other again. After a good laugh, he re-copied my e-mail again and sent me these nice shots.

I hope to entice him to go out with us soon and get some more aerials of the boat under sail. I am still trying to get a good “money shot” of the boat for my charter brochure. He has made a beautiful calendar with photos of local stuff. They have them down at Ford’s bookshop down at shops of Sea Island.


Hurricane Irma

Friday PM 4:30.
We are at the head of Jones Creek, with six hooks set. There is no room to swing, so I have a mambo sized danforth set as primary to the NorthEast with the bow oriented in that direction. NorthEast is the most exposed fetch here, with wind from that direction now at about 20 Kts. If the storm stays on track to the west of us the wind should veer on around to the East. That would be the Manson Supreme taking over. It is a back breaking mambo too. I may never see these anchors again in this mud. To the north I have my working plow set, right in the axis of the creek current, which is not too bad up here. The other good thing is the hill behind us, to the South and South West, and I have two fortresses and another danforth spread out there with lots of chain. I am trying to leave enough slack to allow the boat to pivot with the gusts so that there is no broadside load. Hopefully that will work out. Problem is there is not unlimited scope due to the width of the creek, and the surge also has to be taken into account. I guess the biggest concern is floating trees and debris, though that should be minimum problem here compared to other spots. All other things considered this seems like the best plan.

Y’all say a prayer for the Spirit of St Simons (and everybody else too, while you are at it) Even if you aren’t a Christian, say a prayer anyway.

If the storm comes and it is very bad we are leaving. There is nothing more to do I reckon. I will go out there in the morning and make a few adjustments, then we will decide whether to leave or not. We are packed, pretty much. My camera must’ve got wet. This pic was taken with my phone on the row back to the dock.

When you’ve done all you can do, that is all you can do, so there is no more need to worry about it.
I like what John Masefield said:

Dust to dust and die we must
so let us all be merry!
Let us drink the cocktail down,
and let us eat the cherry!…

Blue and slapping run the waves
ebbing out or flowing
Let us go to life! or graves,
but let’s at least be going

EDIT:
We rode it out fine. I still think I would prefer to have a monster bridle, and single rode setup, with lots of chafing gear and one big manson supreme or similar, probably in tandem with a kellet of some kind, lots of heavy chain and good snubbers. problem is finding a good protected spot with no sharp objects nearby that also has the sea room you need to swing, preferably with little current. I am still looking. I will definitely take off the mainsail next time also. Broadside loads are huge, even with everything else stripped. We got lucky (again).