The Narrow Boats of England’s inland canal waterways have always captured my imagination.  To me these distinctive boats are a pinnacle of “form follows function” as they all look very similar being designed within a strict standard that will fit with the locks on the canal system throughout the UK.

A Narrow Boat must be under 7′ wide and most are kept to a maximum of 6′ 10″ and to a maximum length of 72′ and sometimes a bit smaller as there are some locks on the system that can not accommodate anything longer than 57′. Originally these boats were more like simple barges with horses pulling them along with a rope on a tow path.   With the development of compact steam engines,  many became self powered and ultimately converted to diesel engines. The canal system of the UK and the iconic narrow boats played a key role in the industrial revolution in England making it possible to cheaply move material throughout  the country before the development of the railway system.  As canal traffic became the standard way to transport heavy cargo, shipping prices dropped precipitously with the cost to move coal dropping by 75%.   However, by the mid 20th century the canal system was all but abandoned in favor of train transport.

While the decline was years in the making, the winter of 1962/63 sounded the final death knell of commercial canal traffic when the canals completely froze the system, locking traffic in place for three months.  Shippers made the final shift to the railroads and never turned back.  Even the trains struggled with the unusually cold and snowy winter but they got through. As you can imagine, it wasn’t long until much of the canal system fell into total disrepair.
As is so often a basic truth, if you don’t use it, you loose it.
Today the system is thriving, thanks to a small group of enthusiasts that campaigned to repair the waterway.  A particularly seminal moment in this reversal of fortune was the publication of the book Narrow Boat by L.T.C. Rolt, originally published in 1944.  The author, Tom Rolt, brought attention to the decaying system.  Many give credit to this book as being the catalyst that lead to the renewal of the canal system as it exists today.   This book is still in print, after all these years, providing evidence of the enduring importance of his words.

Here’s Tom on his beloved narrow boat, Cressy.  He toured what remained of the the then decrepit canal system and founded the Inland Waterway Association in 1946 with a friend, Robert Aickman.   This group remains a major force to this day in restoring and maintaining the canal system.   Robert Aickman aboard a narrow boat.  He was a successful author of what is described as “supernatural fiction” whatever that is.  Remarkably, today there is in the neighborhood of 4,700 miles of navigable waterways in the UK with some 2,500 miles of those waterways primarily accessible by narrow boat.   If you ever wonder about what can be accomplished by a single individual, consider the impact that both Rolt and Aickman had on what is now a thriving canal system with over 30,000 registered vessels in the UK alone.

I am focused on all of this, beyond the obvious is this is all about boats, because, as I announced in a recent post, Brenda and I are planning a holiday to the UK in April, beginning with the annual meeting of the Ocean Cruising Club in Wales (I wrote about our plans and a few other random thoughts in this post).  After that we plan to tour other areas and are considering renting a canal boat or should I say Narrow Boat.

The particular segment of the canal system that we are interested in is often described as the most popular one, crossing from England to Wales, the Llangollen Canal.   This area of the canal system, under 50 miles, offers spectacular scenery along with a number of remarkable aqueducts and tunnels and is quite manageable for a week long holiday.   When you think of the fact that this canal was built in the early 1800s, it’s an all the more impressive feat.

Perhaps the most amazing part of the journey on the Llangollen is the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, a specatular bit of Victorian engineering.   Named a world heritage site, it is lovingly maintained to this day.  Check out this short tour.  We’ve been watching a number of shows recently about the canal system and have particularly enjoyed a series highlighting various areas of the system, hosted by two British actors, Timothy West and his wife of 50 years Prunella Scales.  Sadly, Prunella has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and her condition plays into the touching narrative.  I urge you to view this 45 minute piece.Timothy West is a well know stage and film actor and, in addition to the above episode, made many others with his wife, covering other areas of the canals of Europe.   It’s an impressive list and the number of episodes alone highlights the historic importance of canals in the history of Europe.

Prunella Scales, is someone who you will probably remember as playing opposite John Cleese, in the television series, Faulty Towers or perhaps in Monty Python skits over the years.  Anyway, West and Scales, who clearly have a love of canals and Narrow Boats,  bring this wonderful lifestyle to life and I am hopeful that Brenda and I can find a way to fit a canal boat holiday into our trip in April.

Perhaps the most impressive part of all of this is how the rebirth of the now thriving canal system in the UK was catalyzed by one man and the publication of a book shortly after the end of WWII and how that has grown into a thriving economy that attracts boaters from around the world.  If the sheer number of videos on YouTube is any measure, the canals indeed mean a great deal to many people.

For me, the chance to visit the UK and spend time aboard a boat, now that would be very special indeed.  Oh yeah, there’s one rub, we have to find someone to come along with us as Brenda’s freaking out about those pesky locks and don’t get her started about those scary aqueducts……and long dark tunnels. So, will we go?  As Brenda once said, “Bob and the dog, ever hopeful.” 

Way back in the 40s, Rolt and Aickman had hope when they had the bold idea of reviving the entire canal system.  Me, my hope is a lot less ambitious.  All I want to do is to go for a boat ride.

That’s me!  Fingers crossed and, oh yes, the power of hope.

My memories of my Grandfather Wallace, on my father’s side, are faint as he died when I was very young.  I do have one memory of him with my grandmother and parents in their kitchen but that’s about it.  

He became a successful business man, publisher of a trade magazine in the building trade, American Artisan, which is long gone.   I expect this photo predates that part of his life. My father did not speak much of his childhood but I do recall hearing that his parents, Wallace (Wally) and my Grandmother, Wilhelmina (Willy) Wilhelm, a good German Girl, ran a pretty tight ship and were stern with their boys, my father and his two brothers.

My memories of my Grandfather, such as they are, were mostly formed by what I heard after he was gone.  I guess that most of my memories were formed by the “things” that he surrounded himself with.  The stuff that he left behind.  When I was a bit older, I would sneak up to the attic, to gaze longingly at his enormous stash of fishing gear that was stored in a special climate controlled room.   Part of the allure for me was that I wasn’t really supposed to be up there in the first place but I did it anyway, and it was, surely, the most amazing place that I had ever been.

The room, tucked away in the corner of the walk-up attic, was lined with all sorts of outdoor gear, everything from winter jackets (find more info), snow shoes and all manner of fishing gear.  My Grandfather was a fisherman and a hunter but a fisherman first, and not one who’d “beat the water” with casting gear but a firm believer that the only proper way to catch a fish was with a rod and fly. 

And, for proper fishing gear, THE place he shopped was Orvis and Family legend had it that my Grandfather had one of nearly everything that Orvis sold, and I believed it.   I was entranced by what I saw in that secret room and imagined what it must have been like for my grandparents to trek deep into the wilderness, wading out in a cold running stream,  looking for the big one that I imagined never got away.  

Recently, I have been sorting through boxes of old family photos that Brenda and I have taken over the last forty years, and have come upon some real gems, some of which have appeared in recent posts.   I am nearing the end of the boxes of photos and today I came upon a small envelope with some remarkable pictures. Tiny black and white photos of my Grandparents taken while they were on several of their legendary wilderness fishing trips in the 1920s and later in the 40s, in Maine and Canada including Newfoundland.

Prior to today’s remarkable find, the only photo that I had of my grandfather, was this one, that I keep on my desk of him dressed as I always imagined he must have been when he was out exploring the wilderness.  There he is wearing his waders for trout fishing in a river and I can still remember how they smelled when I handled the old rubber in that forbidden place. 

I also have this photo of me and my late dad fishing on what I believe is a reservoir near our home, at the time, in Fairfield CT.   I’m not sure if Dad really enjoyed fishing so perhaps he was just doing his “good daddy” thing.  I wish I remembered that day.  I am sure it was awesome. So, back to the travels of  my grandparents, Wally and Willy.   Over the years I heard bits and pieces of the many trips that they took to Maine and Canada to fish and hunt but  mostly to fish. 

I can only imagine what it must have been like to head out into the wild back in the early part of the 20th century and it was surely very primitive by today’s standards.  Legend has it that on one of their visits to Newfoundland, my grandmother was confronted by a bull moose that towered over her head.  I remember her as being pretty tough so I expect that she stood her ground, no doubt, having been told that to run away was a decidedly bad idea. 

They were really on their own, guide or not.  No cell phones or GPS transponders with little red “help” buttons to push if you got into trouble back then.  Cars were even a fairly new thing and most transportation in the back country, at that time, was certainly by horse.  This photo was captioned on the back in neat printing as “Lori Pond Maine”.   I couldn’t find it on a map.Here they are, fording a stream, clearly in the same area, labeled  “Katahadin Maine” which I learned is the highest mountain in the state.  Located in the remote center of the state and I can only imagine how tough it was to get there in 1922 when this photo was taken as it was years prior to the interstate highway system. 

Perhaps they took a train from New York or took the long drive up route 1.  It’s hard to imagine them making the trip on their own as cars of that era were pretty primitive with running boards and brass headlamps.  One way or the other, it must have been a days long journey from their home in Fairfield CT.In his later years, I heard that my grandfather flew to fish in the Pacific Northwest to fish for salmon but back in the 1920s this was the sort of plane that was used commercially and I doubt that there were many airports, if any at all, in that part of Maine.   Well, this photo isn’t actually a commercial airplane and has nothing to do with my grandparents but I love the image and all that it conjures up.  You’ll get the point that air travel wasn’t quite the same then as today.  Not sure what this photo is all about but it’s labeled as “Maine Woods 1922”.  Yep, looks like the woods.  I wonder if they ever visited when there was snow on the ground.  Perhaps the trails were to rough for wheels so this was the only way to carry their camping gear. 
Roughing it or not, this photo, taken that same year, shows grandfather looking right at home in the backwoods, especially for a city guy.   Adventuring of the sort that they did was probably not all that common at that time. 
My grandmother was no shrinking violet.  And here she is “packing”.  Notice the sidearm.  I wonder if that was before or after her encounter with that moose?  Of course, as you’d expect for a proper rusticator, a skirt, appropriately below the knee, of course. Wally packed too.   It’s photo was taken some years later, in 1937, again in Newfoundland.  And, of course, complete with his ever present cigarette. And out by the cookhouse in Newfoundland in 1940.  I would imagine that they flew there as I can’t imagine having the time to get there by train, car or ship. 
My grandmother did plenty of fishing in those years too.   I remember her as pretty stern but with a great smile.   When she was much older and saw me she’d say in a high pitched voice with a jaunty lilt, “little lamb, little lamb, little lamb chop, chop” and poke me in the ribs.   I loved that. And, our Willy could handle a gun as well as a rod and reel.   Love the feather in her hat. Looks like lunchtime with their guide.  In those areas I doubt it was a good idea to go it alone.   And, I expect that there was plenty of critters, large and small, that “went bump in the night” to keep an eye out for. I’d love to know the story behind this moment.  Willy could fish with the best of them it seems although she never spoke of it with me. 
This photo, labeled only as “Maine” appears to be some sort of ferry.  Imagine being out in a remote area and wearing a tie and hat these days?   Heck, I even get comments at our yacht club when I show up in a bow tie. 
This photo carried an interesting caption on the back, “Dashing Youth, Wrecked City, Canada”.  I tried but couldn’t find any reference to such an event in the 20s when I guess the photo was taken. 
Along the way they did the tourist thing.  This was taken along the Mohawk Trail in western MA.   The name comes from it’s origins as a trade route for native Americans.   Some of the photos show my grandfather in what looks like really remote areas, like this one on a rocky riverbank, also from the early 20s.   I guess that is an Atlantic Salmon.   Come to think of it, all the photos look pretty remote. Legend has it that in his later years he had a standing order from a guide in the Pacific Northwest to contact him when the salmon were running and he’d hop on a plane and fly out.  In those days that was a very long way as planes didn’t have nearly the range of today’s jets and had to stop every few hundred miles for fuel as they made their way from coast to coast, across the continent.   

I never knew much about my grandfather and although my grandmother was with us until after Brenda and I were married, I still don’t know much about their earlier years.  However, their memory lives on, if perhaps more in my imagination, as I conjure up the adventures that they must have had as they fished and hunted in the wilderness, areas that seem impossibly remote even by by today’s adventure travel standards. 

I expect that it was the allure of fishing pristine streams and rivers and the promise of catching that big one, that drew my grandfather to the remote north country.   

And he, I expect, like me so many years later, was surely drawn to all the wonderful fishing gear, as he dreamed of the promise of what he’d catch and the big ones that, it seems, didn’t get a way.   Particularly the lures that he said, I am told, were designed to “catch more fisherman than fish”.   In his case, I expect that it was the other way around. 

I wish I’d been there with him.   Now, that would have been awesome.   And even though I wasn’t, discovering these photos has brought us just a bit closer after all these years.  

 

When we were planning our first trip south of the BVIs a few years ago, we found it very difficult to get good information about the more southern areas of the Caribbean.  Most of what I could find in the sailing magazines and online, was focused on the American and British Virgin Islands, so popular with the charter set on holiday.   Chartering in those areas is fun but cruisers generally head further south.  This lack of good information was a real problem for us, and finding information about the islands of Antigua and south, the area that had been described to me as “where the real Caribbean begins” was tough to find.

As I consider plans for spending next winter in the Caribbean, the 2019/20 season, I have been thinking about some of the favorite places that we have visited, those harbors and Islands that stood out in our travels, and thought it would be fun to share some thoughts about the spots we particularly enjoyed.

We visited many terrific islands and harbors in the last two years, so from time to time, I’ll be writing about the ones that we particularly enjoyed and share what makes them special to us.

When I make the run from the US, I generally plan on making landfall in Antigua and it is from there that we make our way south before heading north and back to the US.

As I asked around for advice on “favorite places” Bequia, in the Grenadines came up, over an over, as a must visit spot.  And while going there is always fun, it was recommended that we head there for the Easter Regatta, three days or racing an special events.   FYI, in 2019, the Bequia Regatta will take place from April 18th to the 22nd.

It’s a very popular event with locals and cruisers a like with visitors coming from all over to enjoy all that’s going on and for many, to participate in the races.  Boats of all shapes and sizes join in the three days of racing and parties.  Some came under their own power and some on the decks of inter-island freighters. This regatta draws from nearby islands, including a number of Carriacou sloops, those beautiful traditional, beach built sloops like Exodus, the last boat of it’s type launched in 2013.  It’s quite a sight to see her racing around the course with her cousins. Exodus was the subject of a full length movie about her building and the history of the design.  Here’s a short trailer for the movie.  Check it out.  If that inspires you to watch the full movie, here you go. Get a glass of rum, sit down and enjoy the show. Others came from the US like this lovely schooner Heron.  She summers in Maine, chartering out of Rockport.   Brenda and I will be in Maine this summer and plan on spending time in Rockport ourselves.  Perhaps we’ll see her.  Her captain and owner also built her and he did a great job.   Want to learn more about her?  Follow this link to her home page.  She’s really beautiful. While Heron is a classic design, she’s only a few years old.  Other classics participate in the regatta as well as other events in the Caribbean, such as the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta, held in late April in Antigua.  One particular beauty that was there last winter was Ma Jong, built in the 1950s.  I found this particular shot of her on the Easter Regatta home page.  She’s a beautiful and very powerful boat.  Her home port is Vineyard Haven on Martha’s Vineyard where she was restored to her present glory.  I wrote about her last winter.  There are some good sized one design fleets in the regatta, like these vintage J24 sloops.  This colorful shot is also from the regatta site. And, of course, there are the local Bequia sloops, built and raced on the island.  You don’t have to be there during the regatta to enjoy the fun as they tack around the harbor.  The local youth are out sailing these boats nearly every day, regatta or not.   The youth clubhouse, oddly in a bar, is jammed with burgees brought by visitors over the years including this well used one from the Essex Yacht Club, my home club.  Along with boat building on the islands the history of fine craftsman goes way back including a tradition of model boats.  These are fun to see and watch being built.   I wrote about these models in this post last winter. If you followed the link above, you’ll find this photo a bit repetitive as that post also included discussion about the new dink chaps we had built.  Anyway, we had some great work done on the dink. Pandora’s varnish below was freshened too. There’s plenty to do ashore during the regatta including all manner of competitions.  Everything from musical chairs on stage to threading the needle, yes threading sewing needles.  Brenda competed and won, with a little help from a local and no doubt mortified, young man.   They were both good sports.

Brenda’s favorite event was “crying for nothing” where contestants are judged on their ability to conjure tears and a sobbing cry on command.  I believe that our two year old granddaughter Tori would do quite well in that event. Checking into Bequia is easy if more expensive than the French islands.  Just about all of the islands from St Vincent, south through the Grenadines, to just north of Grenada, are all part of the same jurisdiction.

There’s a very good public landing at the head of the harbor and it can be busy during the regatta.  The harbor is large with many moorings but, even during the regatta, there’s plenty of space to anchor.   Nobody seems concerned about dinks speeding around the harbor so even getting back to your boat if it’s far out in the harbor is a fast trip.  The harbor is well protected from any surge except in the outermost area. Everything about the harbor is colorful including the ferry boats from St Vincent. With all manner of local boats pulled up on the beach. We enjoy checking out local eateries and there are plenty to choose from, convenient from the walkway ringing the southern side of the harbor.  I have used this shot before.  To me, it perfectly evokes the image from the much loved classic book, The Wind in the Willows, when Ratty famously says, “Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” Well, there you have it, Bequia, one of our favorite harbors and the Easter Regatta, one of our favorite events.  This a place that you should include on your itinerary if you’re headed to the Caribbean.  You won’t be disappointed.  

For more information on customs and immigration check out this official government link.  Another good source of up to date information on clearing into the island and other useful information about visiting, check out Noonsite.com.

It’s worth nothing that while there is a problem with crime in nearby St Vincent, we found Bequia to be friendly and safe and didn’t hear of any particular problems from other cruisers.  With regards to your dink, it’s recommended that you keep it locked up when ashore and out of the water and locked up at night.  Good advice for just about any area in the Caribbean.

Now you can see why Bequia is one of Brenda’s and my favorite places.  I’ll be writing about other favorites in the coming weeks and months, so stay tuned.

Oh yeah, if you’ve signed up to get notifications when I post and aren’t getting them, you’re not alone.  I have had difficulty with that function, I think it was the Russians, but Chris’s girlfriend Melody fixed it over the holidays so if you’d like to get a “ping” when I post, and I hope you do, sign up on the home page and then you’ll know.

Ok, perhaps the title of this post doesn’t exactly flow off the tongue.  Let me explain.

For the last six years my cruiser friend George and I have been putting on an event in Essex CT at the Essex Yacht Club, with the goal of offering what George would refer to as an opportunity to bring together a group of “like minded people”, folks that enjoy being on the water.  Every June we have put on a two to three day event that includes a series of talks about cruising on small boats in partnership with The Seven Seas Cruising Association, SSCA.

This year, with all of that free time I have on my hands, I thought that I’d try something new and likely more complex.  Silly me.   Free time you ask?  Did I mention that Pandora is on the hard and I am stuck in this Arctic place for the ENTIRE winter?

Well, here I am and as I write this it’s -1 degree F outside so at least I can think about sailing to warmer waters.   However, if doing an event with one group wasn’t complicated enough, how about organizing an event with three?    Along with my membership in SSCA, I am also a member of the Salty Dawg Sailing Association, SDSA and am a fairly new member of the Ocean Cruising Club, OCC.  That’s three groups with complimentary missions so three it is.

At the risk of someone taking issue with my description of what these groups are all about, here’s how I see their missions.

SSCA is the group that years ago brought me and Brenda into the fold of cruising and living aboard for extended periods.  Simply stated the group celebrates the cruising lifestyle.  A simple mission and a group loaded with many folks like our friends Bill and Maureen on Kalunamoo and the Melinda and her late husband Harry of Sea Schell, that nurtured me and Brenda along the way on our first winter heading south on the Intra Coastal Waterway, ICW.

Of course, there were many more SSCA members, as we made our way south, that held out hands as we adjusted to life afloat during that first eight month run south in 2012.  Maureen and Melinda, were so great and went out of their way to make Brenda feel special for her birthday that first year.   That’s Bill in the background waiting for his piece of chocolate cake. The Salty Dawg Sailing Association, a group that in only a few short years became the organizers of what is now the largest rally to the Caribbean from the US East Coast.   SDSA, is dedicated to educating sailors and their crew to prepare for the rigors of offshore sailing and they do a wonderful job at it.   It’s very exciting to be part of the nearly week long events in Hampton VA as skippers and crew from nearly 100 boats attend seminars, have parties and get ready to head south.

For the last two years, I have held the position of Port Captain for the rally in  Antigua and let me tell you, it’s been a wonderful experience.  Along with the fun I’ve had with the folks headed to Antigua, I have also made some great friends on that island.  Antigua isn’t the only landfall for the group and some boats opt to go to the BVIs or the Bahamas, but I’m biased and feel that Antigua is THE PLACE to make landfall in the Caribbean.  I wrote quite a few posts about Antigua but perhaps this recent post best sums up the fun we had when the fleet arrived in November.   I can not stress enough how supportive everyone in Antigua has been to our rally.

The third group that is involved in this year’s event is the Ocean Cruising Club, a group that I joined just over a year ago when I was in Antigua.  They celebrate blue water sailing and to join you must complete at least one ocean passage of a minimum of 1,000 miles, and you have to do it in a boat that’s less than 70 long.  No 3,000 passenger cruise ship rides for their members!

Just for fun, I wrote about my joining the group last winter in this post along with a bit about the wonder of sitting on Pandora’s bow and ringing in the New Year, complete with fireworks, in historic Nelson’s Dockyard.  OCC is out of the UK and has around 2,500 members worldwide, making them one of the largest groups of it’s kind.

As a side note, Brenda and I were trying to decide where in Europe to go in the spring and hearing about the annual meeting of OCC, to be held in Wales, clinched the deal.   So, we’re headed to the UK for a few weeks in early April.  We plan on covering a lot of ground in England, Wales and Scotland while are there so it will be great to get some local knowledge from the folks at the Wales event.  So far, they have been amazingly supportive and we are getting very excited about the trip.

Part of the three day event will be held in clubhouse of the Royal Welsh Yacht Club.  Among their claims to fame is that their clubhouse, located in a castle no less, is the oldest clubhouse of any yacht club in the world, originally built in 1283.  However, the club isn’t nearly that old.  Heck, it’s practically brand new as it was only founded in 1847.   Ok, perhaps the place doesn’t look quite the same these days as in this etching below, but it’s still in a castle, which is awesome, for sure.  I couldn’t come up with any decent photos so you’ll have to wait till April.  I wonder if they serve mead in the bar?  Hmm…There wasn’t much yachting going on in the 13th century, more like sailing around and pillaging, I expect.  One way or the other, it will be fun to visit a club that can say, with a straight face, “our home is a castle.”  

These three groups share a common bond as cruisers who love to spend time on the water but their missions are unique and very complimentary.  Happily, all three, along with the Essex Yacht Club have agreed to be involved.

George and I are pretty excited about this event, scheduled to run for three days, beginning with a rendezvous of members of the clubs in nearby Hamburg Cove, about a mile north of Essex.  This is a beautiful perfectly protected harbor and as if that’s not enough, it’s fresh water, something that we cruisers don’t see much of.

Hamburg cove is filled with moorings.  Most of the moorings are only used on weekends, when the hordes show up, but if you visit during the week you will be virtually alone in a beautiful spot.

I don’t seem to have any shots of the harbor, that I can find at least, but this shot taken by my friend Liz shows the Onrust, a reproduction of Adrian Block’s boat, the one that he cruised the area with back in the “olden days”.  I expect that the members of the RWYC would remind you that Block was late in the game, nearly 400 years after the first buildings of the castle where there clubhouse is located was first built,  Anyway, here’s the Onrust on the river just outside of Hamburg cove.  The river is very scenic.  Just a bit farther up the river is Selden Creek, a really narrow and beautiful, cut off of the river.  It can be tough to get over the bar at the entrance but once but once you are inside, it’s plenty deep and stunning.  You can anchor fore and aft if you tie up to a spot on the bank.  There’s an iron ring cemented into a cliff on the bank.  This was our first Pandora, a SAGA 43 tied up there, way back in 2007.As tempting as it may be to climb up the rock and jump into the water, don’t do it as it’s private property.  Years ago, our son Rob broke the rules.  Don’t tell anyone. He and a friend jumped off of the “private” rock. What goes up, must come down.
So, first we will have a rendezvous in Hamburg Cove with those who are attending the event at the Essex Yacht Club.

Then off for the one mile run to the Essex Yacht Club and the village of Essex, the home to the CT River Museum ,where the Onrust is berthed these days.  She’s available for cruises on the river through the CT River Museum, also a great place to visit.   I wrote about her in this post when she first arrived in the area.  She’s beautifully built and worth seeing. Essex Harbor is quite large and while there are lots of moorings for rent, there is also plenty of room to anchor on the far side of the river.   This shot, from the air, is compliments of the CT River Museum. It’s a beautiful harbor, especially in the early morning.  Fresh water here too.
There’s plenty to do in Essex, after hours.  A particularly popular spot is the bar in the Griswold Inn, known locally as simply, The Gris.  It’s one of the oldest,  or perhaps the oldest, pubs in the country, operating continuously since 1776.My favorite event, held every Monday night at the Gris, is sea chanteys performed by the group the Jovial Crew.  They always pack the house with a very colorful mix of locals and visitors.  If you join in the rowdy fun, you’ll see  folks wearing everything from foul weather gear, to suits and even an occasional kilt, complete with waxed mustache.   Trust me, it’s way more crowded and interesting than this shot suggests, and totally worth it. And, let’s not forget the Essex Yacht Club, where the event will be held, with Pandora conveniently out in front in this shot.  The agenda is coming along nicely and will include a program on weather routing by Chris Parker of Marine Weather Center, who’s flying up from FL to speak to us.  He will talk about changes in weather forecasting and weather routing as well as some information about passages to the Caribbean.   Here’s Chris at a past event when he spoke at the museum.   Yes, that’s a reproduction of a really early submarine, the Turtle.  It lives at the CT River Museum. We’ll also have talks about cruising in Maine, the Bahamas and the Caribbean.  All with a bent toward blue water sailing.

My friend, editor and publisher of Blue Water Sailing Magazine, George Day will also lead a number of round tables with experts on preparing for blue water sailing and passage making.

The plan is also to have a number of boats on display for boarding on the club bulkhead so that attendees can see, first hand, boats that are well fitted out for ocean voyaging.  It will be fun to compare notes with the folks that are out there doing it.

I also expect that we’ll be visited by the United States Coast Guard, that’s if the government shutdown ever ends and they start getting paid again.   The plan is to stage a live search and rescue demonstration with a J-Hawk chopper along with a visit by one of their cutters.  This is a shot of one of their choppers that I took up at the USCG station on Cape Cod.  Brenda and I were given a tour a few years ago.   What an awesome machine, and one that I never hope to get plucked out of the water by.  I wrote about our visit in this post. Well, there’s still more in the planning stages but George and I are really excited about how things shaping up so stay tuned to learn more.

Oh yeah, we’ll have some great meals at EYC and Chef Michael is known as one of the best chefs at any club on Long Island Sound.

One way or the other, if you enjoy blue water passage making or dream about doing it yourself one day, you should mark your calendar for June 21st to 23rd at the Essex Yacht Club.  It’s going to be great.

As George has often said, what’s better than being in the midst of a group of “like minded” people who love cruising and that’s exactly what we plan.

Like minded people who enjoy sailing on the ocean blue.

 

 

When I was young, my parents took us to upstate NY in the Adirondacks each summer for a two week vacation.  In all the years we visited, and it was for as many summers as I can remember, it was always to the same spot, Lake Clear, just north of Saranac Lake.

I have wonderful vivid memories of those summer breaks, fishing, sailing on an old Sunfish and time spent watersking for hours each day.  I also remember the daily trips to a local gas station with my dad to fill up the fuel tanks for the boat.  Wow, but that boat, that we dubbed the “super pig” used gas.

When Brenda and I were newly married, we too took our time at Lake Clear and even considered buying a cottage, balking at what seemed like an unfathomably high cost of $50,000 for lakefront property in the late 70s.

While we had not yet begun to focus on sailing, I felt a strong pull to the water.

The cottage that we rented belonged to the Lathrops who were second generation owners of the property.  The cottage was impossibly quaint if a bit rough around the edges.  I seem to recall bringing our own vacuum to tidy up a bit when we arrived.    During those years, Brenda played the guitar.  Sadly, not these days but she has recently taken up the ukulele.   Fingers crossed that she will catch that bug again. I fell in love with the traditional boats of the area.  Perhaps the most iconic boat design of the region is the Guide Boat, so named because it was used for hunting and fishing by “sports” who visited the region by train from NYC to “rusticate”, beginning in the years after the close of the Civil War.  These boats were crewed by the builders themselves, who spent winters building the boats and summers taking visitors on guided hunting and fishing trips.   Guide boats are known for being easy to row and for being able to carry a lot of gear and as they had to as often it was a hunter, guide and any game that they may have bagged.

Windslow Homer spent time in the area too and painted this iconic image of a guide and his “sport”.   However, this may not actually be a guideboat but you get the general idea.I got the bug to have one of these beautiful boats but couldn’t afford to buy a “real” one.  Instead, I found someone who was offering a “bare hull” in Kevlar which I finished with walnut decks and cane seats.  I even carved out oars to pretty exact specs.   This is one sweet boat to row and very light. The hull and fitting design were taken off of the lines of a particular boat “Ghost”, built by H.D Grant.   The original boat is now in the collection of the Adirondack Museum, renamed the Adirondack Experience.

Plans for the boat, which I purchased from the museum, are now available from, oddly, Mystic Seaport.  The 16′ boat has beautiful lines and with her 8′ overlapping oars, is a dream to row.   It is said that a traditional guide boat is the fastest rowing boat you can find without a sliding seat.  The boat Ghost itself and museum are located on Blue Mountain Lake.  It’s a really great place to visit and has examples of many boats that plied the waters of the many lakes that dot the area.

Here’s are some of the sheets of the plans that I purchased. The plans even specify details down to the oarlocks which I was able to purchase from a foundry that had duplicated the design to be true to the original.  This design of boats has been remarkably popular for over 100 years and there are still boats being constructed using the exact same techniques and materials.  These boats are very tough to make as the materials are impossibly thin to keep the weight of the boats to a minimum given the need to portage, or hand carry, from one lake to the next.  There were many hotels dotting the lakes that featured guideboats for hire, complete with guides.We had many wonderful times heading out on picnics on the lake and nearby St Regis Lake.   Wow, what a dish.  Nice boat too. St Regis Lake was and is still today, home to many of the “Great Camps” where wealthy city dwellers would spend time “rusticating” in somewhat less than rustic conditions.

One of the most famous is the camp, Top Ridge, was built by Marjorie Merriweather Post, which she called a “rustic retreat”.  While the lake is home to many “camps”, hers was the most lavish, featuring nearly 70 buildings, including a Russian dacha.  She collected Russian art and her connection to the country was her third husband that served as the ambassador to the Soviet Union for a time.

I can still vividly recall seeing a plane at the nearby Adirondack Airport that my dad, an airplane buff, told me was hers as she still used the camp for vacationing and lavish entertaining when my family visited Lake Clear in the early years.    This is a photo of what was probably the plane I saw so many years ago as it’s the one that she used traveled in when she visited Top Ridge.  I’d guess that my father knew it was her plane because her name was right on the bow, “Merriweather.”While there was eventually there was a service road to the estate, during Post’s ownership all materials and visitors arrived by water, landing at this magnificent boathouse.  The largest building for the estate, above the boathouse, featured what was, at the time, the largest piece of plate glass in the area, offering a beautiful view of the lake. Following her death in 1973, she willed the compound to NY State that used it as a retreat for a number of years.  During that period it was open to the public so Brenda and I visited.  The state eventually sold the property to the flamboyant Roger Jakubowski, who had made millions selling hotdogs in the NY City area.

This article in Adirondack Life gives some interesting information about him, the property and it’s furnishings.  When we visited the estate, prior to his ownership, the main cabin was open for visitors and I recall many of the furnishings mentioned in the article.  This photo of the great room in the main building, is out of a wonderful book, Great Camps of the Adirondacks, that chronicles the history of these remarkable “camps”, er, estates.   It’s no longer in print but used copies are available at a very reasonable price on Amazon. Anyway, the estate is now owned by Hartlan Crow, a developer from Texas, who has substantially restored the camp.

Marjorie wealth was as a result of being the owner of General Foods and she was for a long time,  the wealthiest women in the country.  She became wealthy the old fashioned way, at the tender age of 27 she inherited the Postum Cereal Company, the predecessor to the company we’ve all heard of today.

The lake is also the home of a class of a very unique gaff rigged sloops, the Idem class.  Originally designed for the St Regis Yacht Club in 1899, the fleet consisted of a dozen boats.  How about this for a serious looking group of owners?Here’s a shot of them racing in 1900. Those same boats racing 100 years later. This is one we saw when Brenda and I visited the lake in our guideboat. One of the original dozen that were built is now on display in the Adirondack Museum with all of the others lovingly maintained and still kept on the lake.  In 2004 a new boat was built to the class so that now, once again, there are a dozen boats on the lake that race together.

As you can imagine, a great deal of work and care goes into keeping these boats in top shape more than 100 years after they were launched.  There is one shop in particular, Nik and Sons, that specializes in keeping these beauties on the water.  Here’s a shot of Idem Elfmere getting all new fastenings, 3000 in all.  When Post married for the second time, it was to E.F. Hutton and subsequently she and Hutton were the owners of Sea Cloud, built in Germany and launched in 1931.   When launched she was the largest privately owned yacht in the world.  We spied Sea Cloud in Bequia last winter, now a boutique cruise ship,  having many lives since being sold by Post in 1955,Post was also the builder and first owner of Mar-a-Lago, now owned by our current president, Trump, if somehow you missed his tweet reminding you.

Anyway, back to Lake Clear.  We took our guideboat up to St Regis and passed Topridge but by that time it was in private hands.  We portaged to nearby ponds and often stopped for a break at this spot, a huge rock just breaking the surface of Bear Pond.   This shot must have been from when we only had little Rob.  I recall that the water had a strange blue-green color and was impossibly clear. Anyway, visiting Lake Clear was a big part of my early years as well as when Brenda and I were newly married.   We spent many hours around the proverbial campfire at the Lathrop’s cabin nearby, first with just Rob and then Chris too. The four of us went on outings in the Guideboat.  And sat on the dock.  In our early years together, we rented a cabin with my parents.  This is them on the top of Whiteface mountain.  My mom is now nearly 90 and my dad’s been gone for about 5 years.  He was a great guy and I think about him every day and still miss him terribly.  Personally, I think he should have been given more time for “good behavior”. Not sure what this was all about but there were lots of shenanigans while the Osborn clan was visiting.
These days I am still very much a boat lover and spend as much time afloat as I can but then you already know that.  Today we spend more of our time on salt water with the sweet kind which is limited to our time on the CT River near our home.

However, is was those early days spending time on the sweet waters of the lakes of the Adirondacks and Lake Clear that ingrained, in me, a love of being on the water.

I sometimes wonder what life would have been like if Brenda and I had taken the plunge and purchased a camp.  While it would surely not have been a “great camp” it would have been terrific, never the less, all those years ago.

Who knows.  But, either way, it’s worked out pretty well.  Sweet, I’d say.  Yes, very sweet.