Means of Seeing what the eye brings

The night of the 30th had Atmosphere in the harbour. On New Year’s Eve, the harbour hosted the stays’l schooner Westward. The Stad Amsterdam anchored in Soper’s Hole on the evening of the 1st.
Got out sailing yesterday as well. James & Tracy, George & Cathy, and i borrowed a Colgate 26 for the day. Got out for a swim at Benuire Bay on Norman Island, then over to the Willy T for lunch. Eating lunch, looked to see the Stad coming into the Bight to anchor for the night! Plenty of opportunities to view this great ship lately! After lunch (and well-rummed), we sailed back to West End on a long glorious reach into the sunset. Not quite the excitement of the spinnaker run we’d been hoping for, but a great sail home nonetheless.
My next planned-for sailing adventure is another circumnavigation of Frenchman’s Cay in the Dink (this time going the opposite direction), or a run around Steele Point to Smuggler’s… Can’t wait!

Sailed the Dink all over on December 31. Joined Tracy & James, Paul & Diana, and Jim & Diane for a la-di-da dinner at the Harbourview in Fat Hogs Bay. Afterwards, went out to Trellis Bay for their annual New Year’s Eve festivites. Fireworks at midnight, bandstands, dj’s, dancing, and rum. Three huge steel globes full of fire, one suspended from a crane way over the beach, the other two set on poles in the water, all welded and cut into cool dancing people shapes, cast weird and wild shadows. Kinda a Burning Man vibe. Ran into Tom, and asked, “Hey, guess what i saw out sailing this afternoon?” His reply came as a wild scream of excitement, “The Stad Amsterdam!”. All us tall-ship alumnus are pretty amped about there being such great scenery on the water lately.
Crashed at Carl’s in Towers that night, and woke up inside a jug of Bloody Mary, watching a wild parade as (seemingly) all the great ships, barques, brigantines, and three-masted topsail schooners in the BVI all came up or down the channel. Surreal!
Been some really trippy boats around. Traditional or not, it’s a great show.

New Year’s Eve! What a day… just back in from a GREAT sail in the Dink. Circumnavigated Frenchman’s Cay. Took just under three hours, but the time went by so fast! Damn, i love the feeling of being out there, 1/2 a mile from land, thumping along over 4′ waves, steering by the wind and the distant hills of St. John.
Sailors waved, and powerboaters stopped to ask if i was alright. Alright? Incredible! The best boat i saw was a ship. Literally. Running down out of Soper’s Hole, i had just sheeted in for the reach around the west end of the Cay, when i shifted position and saw the Stad Amsterdam rounding the point in the opposite direction, about 100′ away. Wow. Just wow. Cappy Tom’s stories of crossing the Atlantic aboard the Stad now have a whole new (real) context. What a sight! Of course, i promptly gybed around and paralleled her course awhile to better take in the view.
For those who care, she was setting the fore course, upper and lower foretops, upper and lower maintops, main t’gants’l, mizzen topmast stays’l, and inner and outer jibs. This is only the second proper “ship” i’ve ever seen first-hand, and the first under sail.
Learned firsthand the great utility of the gunter rig this afternoon as well; to make the passage under the Frenchman’s Cay bridge, i headed up, dropped the topmast, mast, and boom into a bundle on the gun’l, braced the tiller to port with my foot, and paddled merrily to starboard under the bridge. Past the bridge (and downwind of it), i carefully stood, restepped the mast, sent up the topmast, and ran off to complete the circumnavigation. Ah, what once looked too complex and un-neccessary has been explained through usage. What else in life may well work that way?

…that i thought i’d probably never hear again, or at least not anytime soon. What would have happened if i had been here to answer, instead of out sailing the Dink? Weirdness, weirdness… Bless you, little answering machine. Curse you too. Somebody erase that message before i start listening to it again. and again.
Happy New Year, everyone!