Meanwhile, back at the boat…

/ Sherry Galey / 4 Comments

Most boats come with a list of projects that need to be taken care of before setting sail. In the last week, we’ve managed to check a few key items off the “to do” list.  It probably took more time to run around Miami and Fort Lauderdale to pick up the parts than to do the actual installations, but then Bob is pretty adept at this stuff!

1. The cowling on the dorade was replaced. The red and white cowling you see in the picture covers the dorade, which is a vent in a boat that allows air to come in and ventilate the boat but doesn’t let water come in. The cowling catches the air and directs it into the boat through the dorade.

2. The ground tackle was replaced. You need good ground tackle (anchors, chains and rode) so that on a windy night you wake up in the same place you go to sleep in.  (Bob and I  had a few sleepless nights on our last boat with wind gusting to 45 knots worrying that our anchor would not hold. It did, thankfully.) The new boat came with a 22 pound anchor, which we replaced with a 35 pound Manson Supreme anchor for greater holding power.

We also bought 100 feet of new 5/16 chain and we have additional rope rode attached to the chain should we need to anchor in deeper water. Chain allows you to set the anchor closer to the boat than you could with just rope rode, since it is heavier. This becomes critical in a crowded anchorage where a smaller swing angle allows more boats to occupy the same space. Also, when cruising in southern waters, anchor chain cannot be cut by sharp coral the way rope can be. It is the preferred anchor system of most experienced cruisers (thanks Pat and Alex!) Our second anchor is a Fortress and will be used mostly if we have to anchor in a soft bottom because it works better than the Manson in muddy conditions. In a storm we would probably use both anchors just to be safe.
Manson
Fortress
3. A new thermostat was installed in our refrigerator.
4. We’re sorting and organizing the filters and the spare parts for the diesel engine and the generator to see if we need anything else.
This is by no means the end of it, but it feels like a good start.

Shooting at night

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I headed out last night to see if I could capture the look and feel of Coconut Grove after dark with my camera. To me, it’s all about action, light and intense contrast. So instead of trying to freeze motion, as you normally do in photos in order to get a sharp result, I set out to emphasize the feeling of movement through purposely blurring some parts of the image.

In downtown Coconut Grove, the streets are always crowded with people at night, so I felt quite comfortable walking around by myself. Since I was carrying a tripod to steady the camera during the long exposures I had to use, I figured I could use it as a weapon if necessary. 🙂

I set myself up at a busy intersection and started experimenting with shutter speeds. I managed to get some decent light trails, which complemented the neon lighting on the restaurant. The photo above used a three-second exposure.

Then I decided to try blurring people strolling along Cocowalk while keeping the rest of the photo in focus. So I moved my camera setup, figured out the best aperture and starting firing off shots at different shutter speeds — some of people coming towards me and some of people walking away. When they saw me, many seemed concerned they were getting in the way of my photo of Cocowalk…little did they know that they were my subjects too!

It took me a while to pin down the exposure that would give me the effect I was looking for. Too long and the people were too blurry and unrecognizable. The shutter speed used in the photo below was 1/6 of a second.

I might have preferred the subjects here to be a wee bit more blurry, but overall it was my favorite shot because it seemed to tell a little story. I like the contrast between the young women who are moving and blurred and the skateboarder who is still and in focus, and who seems to be watching them with some degree of appreciation.

Artists of the wind

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A sailor is an artist whose medium is the wind.  Webb Chiles

I grabbed this shot of the Canadian team as they whooshed by our sailboat in the Dinner Key mooring field. It was taken two years ago on our last cruise from Stuart to the Florida Keys.

It was early and I had just woken up. I emerged bleary-eyed and caffeine-deprived from the cabin to the cockpit, thinking about pancakes. Its a good thing I was fully clothed though, because all of a sudden scores of racing dinghies surrounded us, and they were very, very close.

These skilled sailors — artists of the wind — sliced their way through the corridors between the moored sailboats at top speed without hitting anybody. They were heading out into Biscayne Bay to compete in the Star Class race of the Bacardi Cup during Miami Sailing Week, an annual event.

As they flew by, many called out good morning. I managed to regain my senses quickly enough to pick up my camera and get some shots while calling out to wish them good luck in the race (especially the Canadians!).

Memories of that day came flooding back when we heard that several of the tanned and strapping men that have been staying here at the Commodore Inn had won places in the Star Class race in this year’s cup.

Here’s one of the winners Mateusz Kusznierewicz of Poland posing with Maggie, manager of the inn. She is a real sailing nut and a sponsor of most of the sailing regattas that occur every year from November through May. She maintains a hall of fame in her office with pictures of regatta participants and their trophies.

Here are winners Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Dominik Zycki of Poland in action taken by sailing photographer Onne van der Wal. What a shot!

Of slips and sails and clipper ships….

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Today, our sailboat rests comfortably in a slip in Dinner Key Marina, right behind Miami City Hall, which was the old Pan American Airport.

Our slip, circled. Dinner Key, one of the biggest wet slip facilities in the U.S. has 582 slips, only a few more than the Nepean Sailing Club in Ottawa!

In 1930, Pan Am started a flying boat service to Latin America. The U.S. Government dredged the first channel in history especially for aircraft. Over 100,000 visitors a month came to see the giant flying clippers.

Dinner Key got its name because Pan Am travelers enjoyed a picnic here before setting off for the Bahamas and Cuba. Flights cost $35 in those days.

This became one of the world’s largest airports and the main hub for air traffic between North and South America.

The City Hall has been preserved as an art deco showpiece.

After the technological advances of the Second World War and the construction of suitable airports in South America made seaplanes largely obsolete, Pan Am transferred its operations back to  Miami International Airport.

One of Pan Am’s hangars was used for many years as an exhibition hall and auditorium —the Dinner Key Auditorium. It was recently renamed the Coconut Grove Convention Center. (This was the site of the March 1, 1969 incident in which Jim Morrison of the Doors was arrested for lewd behaviour.)

Today, Dinner Key is used primarily as a marina. Three of Pan Am’s original four hangars remain in use for boat storage.

A visit to a boating megastore

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Bob shops the largest marine electronics department in the world.

No matter how well equipped a new sailboat is, there’s always something it needs…

So off we went to Fort Lauderdale — boating capital of the world — to the new West Marine megastore and Sailorman. On our list were two new anchors, anchor chain and rode, electronic charts for the GPS, a pelican hook to replace a broken one, a new cowling for a dorade and a couple of pet life jackets.

At 50,000 square feet, the West Marine superstore is the largest boating supply store in the United States and possibly the world — five times the size of its standard retail outlets. The superstore carries 35,000 products and you can order many thousands more from its catalogue.

It was a little overwhelming. Think Ottawa’s new Ikea store. After asking for some help, we were directed to the office of cruising specialist Pam Wall, a feisty little woman single-hander with several circumnavigations “under her keel.” Based on our needs, Pam made some helpful suggestions and offered us a nice discount on anything we buy for the boat this month.

The anchor we wanted (a 35 pound Manson Supreme) is very popular and out of stock in most stores. We were able to snag the last one they had thanks to Pam. We also picked up a Fortress as our secondary anchor and we have 120 feet of 5/16″ chain on order. They had the electronic charts we required for Florida and the Bahamas too.

A block away from West Marine is Sailorman, a well-known marine store specializing in new and used boat equipment. We got great service at Sailorman too. They were able to repair a broken pelican hook, which saved us some cash. Both stores welcome dogs.

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