a recipe

While boiling a pot of linguine saute garlic in olive oil then add sun dried tomatoes, capers and quartered artichoke hearts.  Sprinkle with freshly cracked black pepper and flakes of red pepper.   

When the leaves on the artichoke quarters start to curl spoon the mixture into a bowl and keep warm.  Deglaze the saute pan with white wine, a cup more or less (depending on how much you want to save for the chef).  Add lemon juice.  When wine/lemon juice is boiling add two dozen little neck clams.  As clams start to open add about a dozen shrimp - I like to peel off all the shell but the tails, slicing the shrimp all the way through while cleaning.

Drain linguine and put in white pasta dishes (it has to be white pasta dishes, it won't work otherwise).  Ring the dishes with the steamed clams.  Pile the steamed shrimp on top of the linguine, a big spoonful of the sun-dried tomatoes/capers/artichokes a little to the side.  Pour the wine/lemon juice/clam sauce on the linguine.  Enjoy.

Does that work, Dave??

steve

fired

The WEST system epoxy fired off very nicely this afternoon on day one of a two day epoxy project.  Today, a warm day that started out with a mist but then cleared for a sunny afternoon, involved completing the sanding of the bow sprint, rub rails, boomkin and rudder; drilling out the old screw holes with a quarter inch bit; using a rubber maul to tap quarter inch epoxy coated mahogany dowels into the freshly drilled holes for a solid hardwood finish.  Below is the bow sprit.  Tomorrow I'll cut the dowels flat with the surface, re-sand and then give the bare wood a clear coat of epoxy.

Speaking of woodwork, check out the very nice Pathfinder below that Greg is building in Mooi River, South Africa.  Greg sent the photo along with a request for information about the ballast I use for Spartina.  (Why is it that of all photos of Pathfinder builds that are sent to me, I find that the Pathfinder with the poorest finish and roughest woodwork is the one sitting out in my garage??)

From what I hear, Spartina has more ballast than most of the Pathfinders out there.  The centerboard is a steel plate that comes in at almost exactly 100 pounds.  Then on each side of the centerboard trunk, beneath the bunk flat, are two 15 pound dumbbells.  They sit on a hardwood panel and are held into place by a bit of line and a line cleat.

A little math says total ballast is 160 pounds, which seems just right for my kind of sailing whether day sailing or on a cruise with lots of gear aboard.  The dumbbells were originally bought because they were the cheapest way to buy lead, but their shape made them easy to fasten in place.  And there is still plenty of room in the space underneath the bunk flat for eight gallons of water, a tool kit, spare anchor, chain and rode.

When Greg asked about the ballast I had to go take a look to see how it was mounted.  It has been six years since I built Spartina and I've forgotten a lot of the details.  It was the same when Stuart of Dabbler Sails asked me about the goosenecks for the main and mizzen boom.  He's asked for some detailed information so he can properly cut the new set of sails for Spartina.  I had to do soem digging through a drawer of old paperwork to find out where I got the fittings.

They came from Bristol Bronze of Tiverton, R.I.  In the scan from the Bristol Bronze catalog above you can see the gooseneck for the main at top and the one for the mizzen just below.  Both sit on 5/8 inch tracks.  What I recall is that Roger, owner of Bristol Bronze, owns a couple of classic yachts and has made casts of the hardware on those boats that he now reproduces and sells.  It is top rate gear and I'm very happy with it.  There are a lot of words to describe his hardware - "classic", "solid", "well-made"....... "cheap" and "inexpensive" are not in that group.  I did spend more than a few bucks at Bristol Bronze, but it was a good investment.

Now that I've found the drawings, I'll take a couple of photographs of the goosenecks, make some measurements and forward all the information to Stuart at the sail loft.

After a good day's work little neck clams, shrimp, Mediterranean vegetables and linguini are on the menu for tonight.  And a nice dry chardonnay too.

steve

shadow catcher

I've received emails from several people today about "Short Nights of The Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Eward Curtis."  Curtis' work can easily be found on the internet, click here for a very nice slide show by the NY Times.  

This photograph from the slide show was made at Acoma, a fortress 7,000 feet above sea level in what was then the New Mexico Territory.   With veiled women gathering water from a calm pool, author Timothy Egan describes this as one of Curtis' most Edenic still-lifes.  Isn't it beautiful?

steve

The Man Who Sleeps on HIs Breath

I am reading "Short Nights of The Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Eward Curtis."  Curtis is of course known for the great documentary work he did in the early 1900's photographing the Native American people.

An adventurous spirit, he had his own way of connecting with people, regardless of their culture and language.  A chance meeting with two men lost on a mountain - one who founded the Audubon Society and the other a founding member of the National Geographic Society - opened up doors for Curtis to follow his passion for making photographs of cultures that were quickly disappearing.

Curtis, who had little education and was a self-taught photographer, earned several nicknames from the tribes he visited.  In the southwest the Hopi called him The Man Who Sleeps on His Breath.  He slept, they noticed, on a mattress he inflated at their camp.

I admire Curtis for his photography, for the pursuit of his dream and for the richness of the visual record he left behind.  Might we all follow our dreams and leave something behind.

I will think of that nickname and smile when I lay down to sleep on my inflatable mattress aboard Spartina.

steve

Shallowbag Bay

The waterfront in Manteo on Roanoke Island, where we hope to visit on the fall cruise.  Heading home now after a very enjoyable three days on Hatteras.

steve

behind the counter

at the Dancing Turtle coffee shop...


A beautiful day with a light sw breeze and glassy calm water on Pamlico Sound.

steve

through the window

island life

Down to Hatteras for a few days of work.  Sunny, warm and very peaceful.  It is not easy to get to the island.  My jeep bottomed out a couple of times driving in the deep ruts through the sand where the road has been washed out.  Most restaurants are closed.  The docks are quiet, the beaches empty.

steve

leftovers

Sanding of the rub rails and bow sprint is done, though I may go over it with some smaller grit paper before coating with clear epoxy.  There are a  couple of nice dings here and there.  I'll mix some sawdust from the appropriate type of wood - either douglas fir or african mahogany - with epoxy to fill the scars.  

A neighbor is coming over to help with the leftover oysters, which won't be left for long.

steve

sandpaper and seasides

"Gorman's Jumbo" oyster, wild caught* on Hungars Creek on the eastern shore.  More about that in a minute.

The paint scraper drew first blood this morning before I even had it out of the packaging.  Sure, there was a warning to watch out for the sharp blade, but I did not realize that the blade was sharp on all four side.  A few choice words and a couple of bandages and I was back to work.

The paint scraper worked perfectly, peeling off the seven or so coats of varnish, the same coats of varnish that were clogging up the 60 grit sandpaper in no time yesterday.  Today I scraped the rub rails on the starboard side, then sanded down the epoxy to get to the bare wood.  I'll do the port side tomorrow.  I've never liked sanding, but found it much easier with ribbons of varnish already laying on the driveway.

I felt so good about the progress that I expanded my winter goals.  I removed all the deck hardware, with no. 8 to no. 12 silicone screws coming out of the deck very easily - a testament to the benefit of bedding the screws with silicone sealant when I put them in years ago.

I've decided to take the deck cleats, above right, which are really too small to serve as deck cleats, and use them for the halyards.  Those larger cleats, five inch long with an open base, were originally intended for the halyards.  But as I approached completing Spartina's build I, uh, well, ran out of money.  So the halyard cleats became deck cleats for dock lines, and smaller (cheaper) closed-base cleats were bought for the halyards.  I'll rectify that this winter.

As for the oysters, it was a nice fall day with a hard frost in the morning, clear skies and a comfortable warmth from the sun in the afternoon.  A perfect day for my friend Dave's (see his blog here) Baydog Oysters.  So I drive to see my shellfish dealer Chuck at Uncle Chuck's Seafood at the Virginia Beach Farmer's Market (facebookers can find his page under "Uncle Chuck's Seafood).  He's got a pint of shucked standard oysters waiting for me.  But I always pick up some oysters in the shell to add to the shucked or just for an afternoon snack.  I ask for six Sewansecott's out of Willis Wharf, farm raised oysters from beds just inside the barrier islands.  So salty and sweet they taste like the ocean.  Chuck said he doesn't feel like counting out six oysters, so how about a dozen for the price of six.  Well...ok, I can deal with that.

But then he starts talking about Gorman's Jumbo oysters out of Hungar's Creek on the bayside of the eastern shore.  He was getting them in bags of a hundred, but they were so big it was hard to lift the bag.  Now he's getting them 50 count, a heavy but reasonable bag to carry.  I'm fine with what I got already, so I say thanks very much and head out the door.  "Ah, hell" I hear him say and he comes running out with a handful of the jumbos.  "Just wanted you to give them a try" he says with a smile.

I remember it was just a few years ago that Chuck was thrilled to offer six different brands of oyster from Chesapeake Bay. ( There really is only one kind of oyster here, Crassotrea virginica, but that same oyster raised in different waters - seaside, bay, river, salty, brackish, etc - develops a different taste and texture, so each oyster farmer gives it a "brand" name.)  Now his menu has a full page of oysters and you gotta love the names....Chincoteague Salts, Sewansecott's, Cantwell's Cocktails, Butterfats, Misty Points, Peninula Forbiddens and RRO's to name a few.  There is Chuck's oyster "menu" above.  Yes, there is one open spot on the page, but he jabbed his finger at that and said "I've got some comin' from Mobjack Bay that will go there."

So a good day of work on the boat, and dinner came out great.  Thanks, Chuck, for the oysters.  And thanks Baydog for the recipe.

*as for the "wild caught", every time I see that phrase I picture a waterman running across the an oyster reef wearing his white rubber boots called Wanchese slippers, chasing a "wild" oyster..... but I don't think it really happens that way.....

steve