Sail plan: New Year’s Eve 2011-2012

Plan:

We leave Friday, as early as possible.  I’ll try to get things together tomorrow as much as I can,  so we’re ready to go.  I see us leaving no later than 1pm, but earlier is better. Weather throughout (Thu thru Sun) seems to be mild: highs in the 50s, Lows above freezing, winds below 15 kts.  With low winds and decend days, I’m for sailing to St. Michaels as in past years. We can anchor out at the Wye River (very close to St. Michaels) Friday night to have a night in the “wilderness”.

Thursday/Thu. Night: Looks like the chilliest  and (at night) the wndiest of days. Temperature in the high 40s (mid-30s at night).  Y’all are welcome (encouraged!) to come on Thursday, get settled in, stowe everything, get used to things, and get ready for Friday. We plan on going to the German restaurant next door for dinner and drinks, then sleep and get ready to leave on Friday.

Friday/Fri. Night: Forecast to be warm (highs in the 50s) and nearly windless (5-10Kts out of the S will put us in a reach). Plan is to motor/sail to the Wye river, about 6 hours underway if we maintain speed by motor-sailing.  Cook and eat/drink aboard on Friday night.  Winds may pick up Friday night (forecast to peak at 15kts) but we should be at a protected anchorage.

Saturday/Saturday night: Forecast highs near 50, NW winds 5-10kts. Plan to motor (not far enough to sail) to St. Michaels. About 2 hours underway. General debauchery ensues.  We can take the dingy to shore, or we can leave the dingy home (will speed us up along the way) and try to dock alongside the museum.

Sunday: Forecast for SW winds 5-10 Kts will put us in broad reach or a run to cross the bay.  S winds will also bring mild temps with highs in mid-50s. Plan on again about 6 hours underway to get back home.<

Overall, based on wind speed, direction, and expected point of sail, I do not expect anything more than a booze cruise.

To Do:

• Get Diesel
• Get Gasoline (For generator)
• Splash dinghy
• laundry
• clean boat

Shopping/Food

• Sandwiches/lunch: Friday, Saturday, Sunday
  • bread
  • cold cuts
  • cheese
  • tomato
  • veg
• Snacks
  • Chips
  • pita bread
  • Salsa
  • hummus
  • Nuts
  • cheese
  • Cookies
  • clementines and other fruits
  • Pop Corn (already have)
• Dinner: Friday, Saturday
  • Salmon or shrimp (Friday)
  • Rice or Vegetables
  • Stew? (Saturday)
  • Hoppin’ John  (Saturday night/Sunday noo)
• Breakfast (Saturday, Sunday)
  • Cereal
  • Milk
  • Eggs/bacon?
  • oatmeal and maple syrup (already have)
• Drinks
  • Beer: some still in Keg, need extra (cans)
  • rum: already have
  • Crown Royal (add)
  • Bourbon (add)
  • hot chocolate (have mix; need more milk)
    • have godiva liquor
  • Spiced cider (need cider)
    • Have rum
  • tonic, mixers (add)
  • Tea (add)
  • Coffee (add)

Weather info

at ANZ532: http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?zoneid=ANZ532

at St. Michaels:http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=Saint+Michaels&state=MD&site=PHI&textField1=38.7884&textField2=-76.2222&e=0

Thai Kitchen menu

Menu for Thai Kitchen in Edgewater (across from steakhouse).

Thai_Kitchen_Menu

 

Laundry time

Peeps keep asking me how I do my laundry. Voila!

Toys toys everywhere

Starting to play with two things.

1. WordPress for android, whence I’m posting this.
2. SPOT satellite tracker. You can maybe find me here: HTTP://clickmick.com/spot

More to come via android I’m sure

Y

Image is Spot on his perch by the epirb just inside the companionwaym

Selby Sub Shoppe menu

I keep losing this so I scanned in a copy.

selby_sub_shoppe_menu

Big in Japan… day 1: Ueno

Part One: making way

Most important thing to know:  ANA has free beer.

Here I was, sippin’ my beer and gettin’ ready to eat, sandwiched in the middle seat of ANA’s  cattle-class, when the nice asian lady to my left drops her fork.  Of course the only humane thing to do would be to offer my silverware, especially since I was planning on chopsticks anyway.  After a bit of a confusing conversation, it turns out that the asian lady is from Singapore and is not very good at using chopsticks.  Cultural lesson #1.

Also noteworthy is that or the several toddlers/kids in the coach, the only one to ever made a noise was the American.

Train system so far mostly straightforward.  If you can decode a DNA sequence, you can probably decipher the Tokyo train map.  Luckily, talk  here English good.  Street maps on the other hand are another story.

Regular maps are pretty straight-forward.  ”You are here” type maps on the street, however, seem to be oriented so that the top of the map is where you are looking, sort of like a navigation GPS.  Then there’s the helpful hotel maps.  The Japanese must understand the confusion we non-Japanese must feel, what with our small brains and big mouths, and feel they must simplify these maps. (American hotels do the same.)  In doing so, they often omit such bewildering data such as street names, and that the map is oriented so that North is the bottom-left corner.  No bother, really… street maps are mostly useless anyway.  Sure, they look impressive with all the street names and district names in nice readable roman characters, but that helps not at all because the actual signposts are only in japanese characters.  Luckily, everyone help vary.

Part Two: ashore

The odd thing so far has been the side streets.  These are alley-sized, but are in fact actual streets and appear on the maps as such, complete with names and sometimes two-way car traffic.  Most traffic on these is pedestrian and bicycle, or was last night.  It’s a bit weird to go from the main streets with traffic and taxis and hubbub and just turn a corner and end up in a street that’s mostly pedestrian and bicycle.  Still hubbub but no (or very few) cars.

People complain about the hotel rooms here, but it’s not much smaller than the W in NYC.  The bar was a bit of a surprise:  the entire outfit was about 10×30, and had a total of 7 or 8 barstools.  But it did have an impressive selection of whiskies and bourbons (most strangely: George Dickel and 2 varieties of Ardbeg), and basic pub fare:  Haggis and miso soup.

The only other patrons were a couple from New Zealand.  I’m sure there are japanese people here somewhere.  I’ll look for some today.

More more recipes

I need a better place to keep these…

chicken and 40+ garlic cloves, with a bit of asian in it:  http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/featured-recipe-chicken-garlic-and-soy-stew/

Forget about the steak, focus on the vietnamese chimichuri: http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/22/featured-recipe-grilled-skirt-steak-with-vietnamese-chimichurri/

Soba Noodle Salad with possibilities: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/dining/231mrex.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&ref=dining&adxnnlx=1254067367-nYYvD9mkxmYBjen10nNMQg

more recipes

http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=11789.0

http://vegetarian.about.com/od/maindishentreerecipes/r/pinepotatocurry.htm

dihydrooroidin: antifouling panacea?

From TJD:

dihydrooroidin http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ibiod.2008.08.009

• appears to be completely non-toxic to critters larger than bacteria (& toxic across many classes of bacteria)
• disrupts bacterial biofilms (demonstrated to attract ‘macrofouling’ organisms: barnacles, etc.)
• Oh, yeah, it’s derived from a fairly common marine sponge. Scientists noticed that this one species never seemed to get infected when others around it did. Next question: how do you know when a sponge is sick?

interesting addition to the hybrid market

not much info on this yet but looks very promissing for a retrofit of an existing boat

http://steyr-motors.com/products/pdf/hybrid.pdf