Our Second Anniversary

It is the 110th blog post since our first two years ago. In that time, we crafted 110 entries, roughly one post per week (the stats include the semi-dormant six month period following the Baby Salt's birth), generating 15,000 visits.

Thank you for your support

Learn to Sail in One Night: $25

On Friday, June 6, Miramar Yacht Club is offering its "Learn to Sail in One Night" class to non-members. The class is condensed to only the basics of what's needed to know how to sail. The veteran instructors will cover:
sailing nomenclature, parts of a sail, apparent wind, Bernoulli Principle, points of sail, luffing, sail trim, slowing and stopping a sailboat, sailing again after a stop, tacking, jibing, general rules of the road, red-right-return, anchoring, docking and a few knots. Whew!

And they are offering a free sail the class runs from 8:00pm - 10:30 p.m. and cost $25, which includes materials, refreshments and we'll mention the free sail again.

To make a reservation or get information please call 718-743-5823 or e-mail sail@miramaryc.com.

Boerum Hill's Babbling Buckets

Last March, we told you about a large scale sailboat model in the front yard of a large, red brick townhouse on Dean Street, between Smith and Nevins Street. The same house, we noticed had recently installed fountain constructed of large white plastic buckets (five gallons?).

The installation is sizable; at least five feet high and six feet in diameter. Its round pyramid shape is very well proportioned to the large brick yard. As you approach it, the sound of water trickling into a tub increases in volume to when you are in front of it, that is the dominant sound you hear on that Brooklyn block.

We love it and can't wait to see the next installation.

A Late Start to the Season

On Saturday, May 24 there were a number of empty slips sat alongside boats being worked on and not yet sailed. We saw a number of boats that had just been launched with the owners making last minute arrangements to get ship shape for the season. Typically, at this point on the calendar most local sailors have been in the water for a few weeks. The strange weather this May has stalled, but not killed the start to the season.

The 2008 Sailing Season has Commenced

The 2008 sailing season has commenced.

While my 76-year old father, Pappa Salt, has been sailing in the very cold and rainy Midwest for over a month, our season started yesterday. Typically, we'd take a few weeks to prep the boat, ensuring that she was sanded, varnished, well cleaned, polished and painted (both below the waterline and the bootstripe). This year was different, a combination of family obligations, parenting Baby Salt (who's almost one year old) and work limited my boat prep schedule to one weekend. And it wasn't really even a weekend, I had a free weekend day to get the boat prepped and one day to get her in.

Thankfully, our boat is very heavily built, in decent shape and we've been slowly upgrading some of the more critical components, combined with the fact that she's a fairly low-maintenance boat, enabled us to do a good enough job to get her in the water for the season. In one afternoon, we applied two coats of Micron CSC bottom paint. Its supposed to be multi-season (the rep said we could get two to three seasons use), and at $200 a gallon, were planning for this to be the last bottom paint job for a few seasons. We also had a few prominent stains on the hull, which we removed. Other than that and a mild washing of the hull, we didn't do anything other than check the rigging to ensure that it was fine -- which it is.

Yesterday, we headed down to the bay and dropped her into the water, stepped mast, rigged the boat in under three hours, leaving us enough time for a little sail. Which we did. Life was perfect that afternoon.

Becoming a first-time father in June of 2007 didn't leave me with much time to sail, so we are trying to figure out a way that we can add more sailing into the mix, while, at the same time, being fair to Mrs. Salt in terms of weekend baby duties. So that is what we need to figure out this year. I expect in a few years that this issue will subside, because Baby Salt will be sailing with us. As I know some readers have expressed interest in balancing a marriage, sailing and a newborn, we'll do our best to tell you how this works.