Messing About In Sailboats

The Arctic Vortex? Discuss

I I took this screen grab from earth wind map. I believe the arctic vortex is the low pressure system about 3/4s of the way up the screen, which appears to be breaking up as a long blue squiggle. All I can say is a bloody cold as it feels here in NJ, it's nothing compared to the orange bit. [UPDATE} Jist read this Wikipedia post which explians that: 1. The Squiggly blue thing is the Polar Vortext 2. It's so bloody cold 'cos the the jet stream is meandering South. Read more →

Weather Map

I am probably one of a zillion to blog this site - earth wind map - but I find this obsessively fascinating. From what I can tell, the site processes GRIBS from NOAA, overlaid onto an interactive globe to create a model of surface winds. It's mesmerizing especially during big storm activity. Read more →

RYC - Aerial View

Sandy's Devastation Part 3 - Three (nearly) Lucky Escapes

So what happened to Cadence? I got very lucky. As you can see below, Cadence is still upright on stands. I am not exactly sure what happened but I think, the boat to port washed up from the dock as the storm came in and jammed in against her side. The boat to starboard fell off her stands as the water retreated and pinned Cadence from the other side. I was told by Joel, my contractor, that he found with only two stands and put six additional ones back. There is damage but I think (hope) it's superficial. The second near escape, is my old boat fka Messing About, now Genesis. She was on the dock but as you can in this shot washed up on to the deck 4-5 feet above and stuck there with a dock tied to her starbaoard and a boat tied to her port. Five... Read more →

Sandy's Devastation Part 2

I spent a lot of last night and this morning trying to find out what had happened at Morgan Marina, where my boat, Cadence was hauled out and on the hard. Given her location, I assumed she would be safe. Morgan is up Cheesequake Creek, a small river off the Southwest of Raritan Bay. The marina is about half a mile from the Bay past two bridges: One, the Rte 35 road bridge where Rte 35 acts as a seawall except under the bridge. The other is a low rail road bridge. To the East is a very large wetland, presumably plenty of place for the water to go. The South is Garden State Parkway. To the immediate North are Brown's and Lockwoods' marinas and yards. There is a dock holding 50-80 boats and a large yard about 4 feet about the water level with 100 or so boats on... Read more →