U-Boat in Red Hook

New York's waterways are full of surprises: Sludgie the whale, and sharks are among the unique sea creatures spotted; and we've read about dead bodies in the East River and seen sailboats along the Gowanus Canal. Today's find was no exception. Birthed in the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal lies what appears to be a submarine.

We're very thin on facts regarding this diver. Perhaps its part of George Bush's war on terror. Or perhaps it is birthed in Brooklyn as a means to close the border. We're just not sure.

Update:

Our friends at Gowanus Lounge just ran a post with the history of the sub. It is the USS Growler, and it has been looking for a home for a little while.

Gowanus Canal Boat Yard?

Along the Gowanus Canal, on the hard behind the Tom Ottterness studio, lies a 20-something foot sloop. While not the first sailboat we've seen along the Gowanus, this is much more peculiar because a crane was needed to pull her out of the water. From our vantage point, we could see that the boat is fully rigged with a mainsail and a relatively new outboard. She appeared to have decent bottom paint. We know the boat has been out of the water for at least six months.

In the water is what appears to be a Boston Whaler. It is conceivable that this Whaler is used to commute and for pleasure or even a run to Fairway.

Perhaps Otterness knows the story of the boats.

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

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.

Photo of the Day: Brooklyn Bridge

Sailing In Floyd Bennett Field

In our efforts to show the diversity of sailors in the County of Kings, we move on shore, to Floyd Bennett Field where a group thrill seekers gathers for some land-based sailing. Blokart sailing (or cart sailing), uses a single sail to propel a compact, lightweight cart that propels along the ground. Blokarts have been recorded at speeds as high as 57 MPH and we're told they are fairly simple to sail -- even for novices.

At Floyd Bennet field, Blokarting is championed by the New York State Blokart Sailing Club. They are a friendly group -- we say that because a few summers back, we were asked a member about the Blokart and he offered to let us take her for a ride. Like morons, we declined.

This is a great alternative for those who have the sailing but, but perhaps can't swim or get seasick very easily.

Photo of the Day

Winter in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. Its amazing how many boats are still in the water.

New York Boat Show This Weekend

While you may be freezing your butt off, its never too early to think about summer. This weekend at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, the New York National Boat Show comes to town. While its mainly for powerboaters (aka stinkboaters), the may have one or two sailcraft in the house.

Adult tickets are $15 and you can order online.