San Diego: feather
San Diego: feather
A feather fell from an empty sky.
Usually GANNET is overflown by birds of one species or another. Sea gulls, cormorants, herons, terns, pelicans.
I was standing in the companionway after listening to Wichita State hang on against Ohio State and after sunset.
A few minutes earlier I had watched in dimming light the silhouette of a jet climbing from Lindbergh Field overtake and merge with that of a lower flying tern, separated by a thin veil of cloud and thousands of feet.
Terns are small, quick, darting birds that screech like a rusty hinge.
Hopes that I would spend what was a perfect Saturday, warm and sunny, installing a hatch or Treadmastering the cockpit were frustrated Friday by a substitute UPS driver who couldn’t figure out where the marina office is, and didn’t make much effort, such as stopping the truck and asking someone.
Hopefully--again--Monday.
An exchange of emails with DoryMan clarified my thinking about oars and I placed an order with NRS--Northwest River Supplies--for two 10’ carbon fiber oars, oarlocks and stands.
The best way to fit the oarlocks is a problem. All alternatives have some disadvantages. The stands will be easy to install, and to remove if they prove to be line catchers.
These orders, along with the one that wasn’t delivered on Friday, follow completion of the mast and boom order earlier in the week.
The mast and boom are the largest GANNET expense. They are costing about what I expected they would, but I wanted the order definite before proceeding.
I prefer being a sequential rather than a parallel machine.
I have not checked this morning, but last week WeatherTrack, WindAlert and WeatherMap+ showed gale winds circling the globe in the Southern Ocean. This was, of course, not one giant storm, but a succession of contiguous lows, with winds variously from north to southwest. No one storm was extreme, but 35 to 45 knot winds were almost everywhere.
What I find interesting is that the wave heights were routinely 20’ to 25’, 6 to 7.5 meters, in these winds.
Over the years I have seen such reports in similar winds on Lake Michigan, off New Zealand, and elsewhere, which are causing me to wonder if I have not significantly underestimated the height of waves I’ve experienced in much stronger wind.
Still I’d rather underestimate than over.
Hyperbole is anathema.
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Sunday, March 31, 2013