Terri's Posts - SeaKnots2024-03-28T21:45:40ZTerrihttp://seaknots.ning.com/profile/Terri28http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2518426186?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1http://seaknots.ning.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=2oadbwsdzbjh8&xn_auth=noSO, IF YOU WERE STUCK ON A DESERTED ISLAND FOR TWO YEARS............................tag:seaknots.ning.com,2010-03-28:900123:BlogPost:1287282010-03-28T19:30:00.000ZTerrihttp://seaknots.ning.com/profile/Terri28
AND YOU COULD HAVE THREE OTHER PEOPLE FOR COMPANY BESIDES YOUR SIGNIFICANT OTHER, WHO WOULD YOU CHOOSE?? I'LL HAVE TO PONDER THIS FOR A WHILE.
AND YOU COULD HAVE THREE OTHER PEOPLE FOR COMPANY BESIDES YOUR SIGNIFICANT OTHER, WHO WOULD YOU CHOOSE?? I'LL HAVE TO PONDER THIS FOR A WHILE.THE 100 THING CHALLENGE..... COULD YOU DO IT??? WOULD YOU EVER WANT TO??tag:seaknots.ning.com,2010-03-28:900123:BlogPost:1287242010-03-28T19:00:00.000ZTerrihttp://seaknots.ning.com/profile/Terri28
<p>Since joining Seaknots I've found that the one thing soon to be cruisers need to do is downsize....a lot. There is something cleansing when one purges stuff. I've found this to be true with each move I make. Downsizing from a 6000 sq. ft. house to an eight room to a 4 room. But as a former antique dealer I like nice things and it's not always easy to get rid of stuff, nor do I really want to. Then there's clothes, books and shoes...the list goes on. There currently is a trend started I think…</p>
<p>Since joining Seaknots I've found that the one thing soon to be cruisers need to do is downsize....a lot. There is something cleansing when one purges stuff. I've found this to be true with each move I make. Downsizing from a 6000 sq. ft. house to an eight room to a 4 room. But as a former antique dealer I like nice things and it's not always easy to get rid of stuff, nor do I really want to. Then there's clothes, books and shoes...the list goes on. There currently is a trend started I think by a blogger named Dave. After purging and getting rid of stuff he wasn't satisfied. So he decided he could only keep 100 things..thus the 100 Thing Challenge was born. From what I understand he doesn't count books, tools or other family members things. This is good, cause in lieu of tools, I'd choose shoes. Tools? I could live with three...hammer, philips head screwdriver & slotted. I'm good to go. If i can't bang the hell out of something or remove it.. it stays. So my question is.... Could you live with only 100 things?? I bet some of you already do. Read on.....................................</p>
<p>Reader John points us to his buddy Dave Bruno’s blog in which the intrepid blogger has decided to get rid of everything except for 100 things. After a major house cleaning and purge, <a href="http://guynameddave.typepad.com/stuckinstuff/2007/07/100-thing-chall.html"><font color="#CC3300">he just wasn’t satisfied</font></a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>It’s just that, in grand scheme of things, it does not seem like enough. We have a lot of stuff. And honestly, it is difficult to purge. What goes? That is a hard decision. But I have an idea. A spontaneous idea that might change my life forever. I’m calling it the 100 Thing Challenge. And I’m taking it. Here is how it goes.</p>
<p>I’m going to only keep 100 things. All the rest gets purged. Sold. Given away. Traded <img class="wp-smiley" alt=";-)" src="http://unclutterer.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif"/> Some how, all the other things will no longer remain in my possession.</p>
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<p>He’s blogging his progress on the “challenge” and it should be interesting to track his <a href="http://guynameddave.typepad.com/stuckinstuff/2007/08/update-1---100-.html"><font color="#CC3300">progress</font></a></p>2007 Carnegie Lecture - Dee Caffari - Dare, Dream, Discover, Inspire - First woman to solo around the world & the wrong waytag:seaknots.ning.com,2010-03-23:900123:BlogPost:1282492010-03-23T13:02:58.000ZTerrihttp://seaknots.ning.com/profile/Terri28
She had never solo sailed before! Awesome video, about 54 minutes long. She had done it once before with 17 crew.... yeah, that would be doable, 6 crew....maybe, 4 crew..you'd have to really talk me into it..right boat, skipper..possibly could be convinced. Solo... forget about it! Enjoy !!!!!
She had never solo sailed before! Awesome video, about 54 minutes long. She had done it once before with 17 crew.... yeah, that would be doable, 6 crew....maybe, 4 crew..you'd have to really talk me into it..right boat, skipper..possibly could be convinced. Solo... forget about it! Enjoy !!!!!LOOK OUT NOW, MAMA'S RUN OFF TO SEA & Other interesting articles, sites for sailing womentag:seaknots.ning.com,2010-03-11:900123:BlogPost:1273812010-03-11T22:00:00.000ZTerrihttp://seaknots.ning.com/profile/Terri28
<p>Lately I've been reading alot about women who are captains of vessels, hoping one day to be one of them. Here's an interesting story about five of them. <strong>Look Out Now, Mama’s Run Off To Sea!<br></br></strong><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong>Meet five women and the sailboats they captain<br></br></strong><i>by Alice Snively<br></br><br></br></i>What do you mean Mama’s run off to sea?<br></br><br></br>Just that. And she’s only one of a growing number of women who are…</font></p>
<p>Lately I've been reading alot about women who are captains of vessels, hoping one day to be one of them. Here's an interesting story about five of them. <strong>Look Out Now, Mama’s Run Off To Sea!<br/></strong><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><strong>Meet five women and the sailboats they captain<br/></strong><i>by Alice Snively<br/><br/></i>What do you mean Mama’s run off to sea?<br/><br/>Just that. And she’s only one of a growing number of women who are taking up the sea as a profession. Don’t conjure up images of a dining room server on a giant cruise ship. These women are not the marine equivalent of airline stewardess. Women captains on Chesapeake Bay in the 21st century are an intrepid group of sailors.<br/><br/>Captain Mary Ann Albright proved the stuff that sisterhood is made of when, on her maiden voyage, she sailed up the Atlantic coast into a storm. “I was stuck in that 50-knot gale for 12 hours, and my radar was knocked out.”<br/><br/>Was she scared? “No,” she said. “It was tense, but I wasn’t scared. I’ve never really been scared.”<br/><br/>Fear doesn’t seem to be a common emotion among these waterwomen. Most say they don’t have time to be afraid; when trouble comes, they’re busy working through it. Intense training coupled with thousands of sea miles traveled under constantly changing conditions enable them to handle the unforeseen.<br/><br/><b>A Different Kind of Pioneer Woman<br/></b>Today’s women captains didn’t appear out of the misty seas of history. Washed out, albeit slowly, by American independence was the myth that women brought back luck to working boats. From the 1800s into the early 20th century, pioneering women headed west; others pioneered marine trades here on Chesapeake Bay.<br/><br/>No longer were the wives of Bay watermen relegated to the shore, cleaning and mongering great yields of crabs, oysters and fish. Wives, and daughters began to accompany the men on their boats, crabbing and tonging, hauling in the catches, cleaning, sorting and working as general crew. These small family enterprises were the springboard for even larger roles for women, including captain.<br/><br/>Romantic paintings and photographs of beautiful sailing cargo schooners disguise the hardships pioneering women captains faced. Imagine managing a large crew; sailing in foul weather with no radar, depth finder or GPS; feeding the crew from a galley with no electric refrigeration or modern cooking range; handling the business end of hauling cargo, from loading and unloading and keeping financial account of everything. There was no place for daintiness on these magnificent vessels, and quick, correct reaction to changing conditions required sure knowledge of the Bay’s fickle ways.<br/><br/>Calvert County’s Susie Langley Brinsfield was the first woman to obtain a skipper’s license for a three-masted schooner in the Baltimore District. She became captain of the schooner Josephine Wingate.<br/><br/></font></p>
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<tr><td><font color="#2A7AB4" size="1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><i>‘I’ve sailed to lots of places, but there is no better place to teach and sail than on Chesapeake Bay,’ says Mary Ann Albright, who captains a 46-foot Morgan Round the World sailboat.</i></font></td>
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<font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">Born in 1878 in St. Mary’s County, she began sailing in 1929. Her career hauling freight even took her beyond the Bay to the West Indies. By the end of the 1930s, other forms of transportation and food preservation made the schooner trade obsolete. The T.J. Ward was her last boat; she gave up sailing in 1942, but she outlived three husbands (also Bay captains) to live to the age of 97.<br/><br/>Another captain, Gertrude Edwards Biscoe, worked side by side with her captain husband Clarence Biscoe — whom she married in 1913 — sailing pungy schooners to transport cargo on Chesapeake Bay. After World War I, as the economy began to slide, she and her husband quit the hauling business. In 1925 they settled on Carthagena Creek near Solomons and ran fishing parties, crabbed and tonged oysters. Gertrude Biscoe died in 1987.<br/><br/>By the time of these captains’ deaths, revolutions in technology, the economy and the women’s liberation movement had written tickets in the marine profession for a new generation of women. In the new century, they form a sisterhood that encompasses not just Chesapeake Bay but nearly all the world’s waterways.<br/><br/>Then as now, they make serious sacrifices to work the Bay and the seas beyond, and they take risks that most women and men prefer to avoid. Why they do this is the natural question, to which there is no simple answer. To find answers, meet five of this sisterhood spanning three generations.<br/><br/><b>Fox Hunting to Foam Jumping<br/></b>Septuagenarian grandmother Mary Ann Albright of Westminster captains a 46-foot Morgan Round the World sailboat.<br/><br/>The New York native had lots of sea time growing up, helping her Portuguese father on his deep-sea fishing boat. Becoming a captain was not, however, part of her plan.<br/><br/>Horses brought Albright to Chesapeake Bay. As a young woman, she concentrated on marriage and family and raised racing and fox-hunting horses. She and her husband bought a farm in Howard County to further their horse business.<br/><br/></font><table border="1" cellspacing="2" width="64" align="right">
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<tr><td><font color="#2A7AB4" size="1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">Working for a yacht delivery company, Captain Dale Norley, here with her dog Tonka, recently returned from delivering a 48-foot catamaran from Captetown, South Africa, to Trinidad.</font></td>
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<font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">But Albright never got far from the water. In 1970, she bought a 10-foot day sailing boat for her five children and enjoyed it so much that she progressed to ever-larger boats. Once she began sailing Chesapeake Bay, she was so smitten that she gave up horses to devote her time to the water.<br/><br/>If anything could have scared her out of the water, it might have been that first trip sailing her boat back from the Caribbean. Twelve hours without radar in a 50-knot gale didn’t faze her. <br/><br/>Between that stormy rite of passage and her 50-ton master’s license, which she earned in the early 1980s, Albright studied at Annapolis Sailing School and worked with Louise Burke, long-time head of the U.S. Naval Academy sailing program, as well as with Womanship sailing school. <br/><br/>“I wanted to get my license because I wanted to teach,” she said. That she did, working as a teacher with Womanship, where she was featured in an ESPN special about that school. In addition to teaching on Chesapeake Bay, she’s done chartered teaching out of Key Biscayne in Florida and on the West Coast.<br/><br/>She’s also captained boat deliveries, which “take away any land ties you have if you do them for a living,” she said.<br/><br/>On one of those trips, she recalls, “I thought I was heading straight for some big rocks, but I couldn’t find them on any chart. It was dark, and all I could see were these shapes that looked like rocks.” It turned out they were partially submerged submarines coming out of New London, Connecticut. “That was strange, very strange,” she said.<br/><br/>Since the death of her husband last year, Albright spends more time on her boat at Maryland Yacht Club where she is a past sail fleet captain and current member of the board of governors. She has resumed private teaching and taught at the club’s Junior Sail Fleet Camp last month.<br/><br/>Walking her dogs up the dock as we talked, she took a long look around the boat basin and woods and marsh surrounding it. “I’ve sailed to lots of places,” she said, “but there is no better place to teach and sail than on Chesapeake Bay.”<br/><br/><b>Into the Doldrums<br/></b>To write a story like this, you’ve got to catch up with some very mobile women. Captain Dale Norley returned June 16 from delivering a 48-foot catamaran from Captetown, South Africa, to Trinidad. She’d planned to bring the boat up to Rock Hall, but the owners decided they wanted to keep it in Trinidad for the season. The altered plans were conveyed to her after she was underway, so she had to change course. “That put us in the doldrums for 10 days in very hot weather,” Norley said.<br/><br/>That was just one more minor bother. Her diary puts perspective on the challenges of that 5,743-nautical-mile voyage.<br/><br/>“The watermaker, plumbing and electrical challenges, water in the fuel, the autopilot replacement project, the spinnaker sock incident, the s</font><table border="1" cellspacing="2" width="64" align="left">
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<tr><td><font color="#2A7AB4" size="1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">Not only do Brest’s schooners, Woodwind and Woodwind II (above), carry paying passengers, the ships often compete and have won the Annnapolis-to-Norfolk race an unprecedented three times.</font></td>
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<font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">mashed finger … the trek across the never ending ITCZ.” <br/><br/>For landed readers, the Intertropical Convergence Zone, or ITCZ, is the doldrums, the common term for an area of low barometric pressure lying in the equatorial belt between the trade-wind regions of the northern and southern hemispheres. Winds in ITCZ are either very light or absent, and the weather is sultry hot. The size and character of the zone varies from year to year and season to season. This is no area for sailboat racing, and it’s understandable that this term is commonly used to describe depression.<br/><br/>Note that Norley’s nautical-mile voyage was longer than a familiar statute-mile trip of 5,743 miles. The statute mile is 5,280 feet while the nautical mile is 6,076 feet. The difference carries over to wind speed. One knot of wind speed is equal to one nautical mile, amounting to a harder wind than measured in miles-per-hour weather reports.<br/><br/>“I’m still recovering,” Norley said when we talked, noting continued bouts of vertigo and muscle fatigue. “After two months at sea, you expect this. It takes me five or six days to get over it.”<br/><br/>Like most sailors who’ve been a long time on the water, favorite foods and drink were the first things on the captain’s mind when she arrived home. “I wanted a bunch of mimosas and fresh fruit salad,” she said, “and that’s what I got.”<br/><br/>Norley’s name will be familiar to readers of the sailing magazine Latitudes and Attitudes, where she writes the boat-of-the-month reviews. But Norley is a woman of many talents who has worked in several professions. She took a degree in English from the University of Pennsylvania and also holds degrees in journalism and early childhood development. During her first career, in publishing, she married and had two children. She also studied with the American Institute of Gemology, was certified, became a jeweler. And, like Albright, she grew up with horses and still enjoys fox hunting.<br/><br/>Ultimately the sea became her great love and her workplace as a delivery captain. She says the sea is in her blood. The Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, native grew up sailing Chesapeake Bay with her family. <br/><br/>In 2000, Norley attended captain’s school, earning her 100-ton master’s license. Since then, she’s racked up 80,000 incident-free nautical miles. <br/><br/>Now she works primarily with Echo Yacht Deliveries based in Newport, Rhode Island. “They offer the jobs, and I decide if I want them or not,” she said. Most of the time, she also gets to choose her crew.<br/><br/></font><table border="1" cellspacing="2" width="64" align="right">
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<tr><td><font color="#2A7AB4" size="1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">Camille Vickers began her working life as a professional ballet dancer, and for years ran her own ballet school until retiring to Chesapeake Bay, where she is a sailing instructor, briefing captain and delivery and charter captain.</font></td>
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<font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">The mid-50s, divorced grandmother was a California live-aboard for 13 years, but she recently moved to Pennsylvania to be near her aging mother. Her boat, a 45-foot Hardin ketch named Estimated Prophet, is docked at Georgetown on the Sassafrass River for easy access when she has free time to sail between deliveries, most of which return her to the Bay.<br/><br/>After some summer fun, Captain Norley will deliver a 56-foot Sundeer sailboat from Barcelona, Spain, across to the Bay and up to Oxford in September.<br/><br/>“That ought to be a good trip,” she said. “I love this life.”<br/><br/><b>Woodwinds Play the Bay<br/></b>If you know Annapolis or if you’ve seen Wedding Crashers, you know the schooner Woodwind — or its double Woodwind II.<br/><br/>Woodwind II, a 74-foot commercial pleasure schooner docking at the downtown Marriott Hotel, was featured in the film as Christopher Walken’s private sailing yacht.<br/><br/>In real life, at the helm of Woodwind is likely to be “five-foot-nothing-and-proud-of-it” Captain Jennifer Brest.<br/><br/>How did a 35-year-old Connecticut Yankee come to be master of a pair of 74-foot wooden beauties?<br/><br/>Back in 1992 when Brest’s parents, Ken and Ellen Kaye, were planning their retirement from school teaching in Connecticut, she suggested they get “a really big boat and sail around the world.” Hers was an avid sailing family, so the idea wasn’t far-fetched. After much research, they decided to have a boat specially built to offer as charter for people to experience sailing in a safe and comfortable yet exciting environment.<br/><br/>Annapolis, the Kayes concluded, was the place to launch their venture. Their new schooner was commissioned in 1993 and certified for 48 passengers. Thus was born Woodwind Charters. Brest finished college, including a semester at sea on a 125-foot vessel, and crewed on Woodwind. In 1996, she earned her captain’s license and joined the family business full-time. Her husband Dan joined the business in 1998, about the same time as the second schooner, Woodwind II. Woodwind Charters offers day sails, overnight and some extended sails.<br/><br/>“This job is all about the people,” Brest said. “I want to get people so fond of sailing that they want to keep doing it. We encourage passengers to help steer, raise sails, to participate hands-on with the sailing of the boat. Of course, not all people do; some just want to relax and enjoy.”<br/><br/>Brest loves a good adventure, too. Imagine you’re at the helm in a race with some 30 other schooners, trying to be first from Annapolis to Norfolk and sailing right into a weather front heaving 35-knot winds and pounding waves directly at your bow.<br/><br/>“That happened to us last year during the annual schooner race,” she said. “It was so wild, some of the crew and passengers were getting sick. Despite our efforts, the boat was literally going nowhere. It’s called ‘bashing your brains to windward.’”<br/><br/>They were only 30 miles from the end, but concerned for crew and passengers, she turned the boat to head for safety. “Suddenly, we were really flying,” on what’s called a broad reach, with the wind perpendicular to the boat. “Why not use that tactic,” she said, “try to beam reach across and down the Bay? We did, and it worked.”<br/><br/>It worked so well that Woodwind won the race, way ahead of the next nearest schooner; several others indeed dropped out of that race. Brest has done 12 of the schooner races, and Woodwind has been overall winner three times, more than any other boat.<br/><br/>“Every cruise, however ordinary it might seem, really isn’t,” she said. Whether it’s weather, equipment or people, there is a challenge. “And I enjoy every one of those challenges.”<br/><br/>Brest calls on three other women plus a number of men for crew, but she’s tickled when leading an all-women crew. “I enjoy the reactions of people,” she said. “I particularly like having groups like Girl Scouts aboard with our all-women crew. It’s a way of reinforcing their potential for achievement,” she said. “We are changing perceptions of what it takes to make a big boat go.”<br/><br/></font><table border="1" cellspacing="2" width="64" align="left">
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<tr><td><font color="#2A7AB4" size="1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><i>Vickers’ Pearson 365 ketch, Dancing Lady.</i></font></td>
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<font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b>Dancing with Waves<br/></b>Captain Camille Vickers dreamed of becoming a professional ballet dancer, and she studied diligently toward that end. But she made a compromise with dance that would lead her to Chesapeake Bay and a life dancing on the waves.<br/><br/>Competition in professional ballet was too intense and, she said, “cutthroat. I just wanted to dance.” So she married, moved to Vermont, bore two children and opened a ballet school, which grew to an average enrollment of 400 students. She and her husband enjoyed vacation sailing on Lake Champlain, the Hudson River, New England waters and eventually the Virgin Islands. When they divorced, Vickers began to formulate a new life plan.<br/><br/>“My goal was to sell the school, retire by the year 2000 and then go to sea,” she said. “I so love sailing, the freedom, the release from stress, the excitement. I knew that was what I wanted.”<br/><br/>In January of 2000, the 50-something grandmother did in fact sell her school. By October she had found the right boat, a Pearson 365 ketch she named Dancing Lady.<br/><br/>Launching her new career, Vickers started educating herself. She became an American Sailing Association certified instructor in August of 2001. From there she went on to earn her 50-ton master’s license, taking her certificate from Sea School in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, along with her sailing and towing endorsement and other specialty certifications.<br/><br/>On the water, Vickers has filled an array of different roles, including racing crew, sailing instructor, briefing captain and delivery and charter captain, which brings us to another peril of a woman’s life on the sea.<br/><br/>Like all these woman captains, Vickers endures the gender challenge. Over time, all agree, as their competence becomes better known, most of their male counterparts come to respect them and work well with them. But first, they’ve got to navigate around doubt.<br/><br/>During one delivery Vickers crewed, a storm caused a crack near the top of the mast. In making repairs, the crack had to be sanded. “The captain and first mate each took a turn to go up. It was difficult and tiring,” she said. “But when I suggested it was my turn to go, they refused to let me. I tried to convince them that I was fully competent for that activity, but the captain stood firm. I was, however, good enough to mend their sails.”<br/><br/>Vickers got acquainted with Chesapeake Bay through friends who had moved to Pasadena. “I fell in love with the Bay,” she said. “Last year I made the decision to move down here from Vermont.” Whenever she could grab time, she scouted the area for housing and for work.<br/><br/>Recently returned from St. Thomas as charter and briefing captain, she reported on the progress of her plan. “I’ve bought a lovely little condominium in Annapolis,” she said. “I’ll be working primarily as a charter instructor with Let’s Go Cruising and Ocean Sailing Academy.”<br/><br/>Vickers ranked her new job as “doubly good” because the academy also has a location in St. Thomas. With a son in Philadelphia and a daughter in St. Thomas, she said, “this will allow me to be near both of them at different times of the year and to sail the Bay as well. Life just doesn’t get much better than this.”<br/><br/><b>Captaining a Flotilla<br/></b>As owners of Haven Charters in Rock Hall, captain Jacki Appleton Fife, and her husband Dave, satisfy two loves: sailing and working with people. They’re in their third year of managing a flotilla of 21 boats ranging from 30 to 42 feet.<br/><br/>For Fife, Rock Hall is a return to home territory. “My father runs a sailing school in North E<img border="0" align="right" src="http://www.bayweekly.com/year05/issuexiii30/picsxiii30/lead6.jpg" width="144" height="109"/>ast, Maryland, so I sailed Chesapeake Bay my growing-up years,” she said. On the Bay, she sailed in local, all-women racing regattas; then, she spent several years in the Caribbean, honing her sailing skills. Eventually, she earned a U.S. Sailing School Certificate and certification as an open-water diver. Both Fifes hold 100-ton master’s license. <br/><br/>The combination of captaining and diving has introduced Fife to drama under as well as on the water. While delivering a boat from Miami to Antigua, she got her first up-close look at sharks — who were also looking at her.<br/><br/>“The delivery itself was a dream,” she said. The owners of the boat had no required timeline for the boat’s arrival, so she and her husband sailed for a month, visiting 11 islands, and she got in a lot of diving. “During one dive, I was met by several sharks. It was a total surprise, and it was really scary,” she said, “until I realized they weren’t interested in me for lunch.”<br/><br/>These weren’t little sharks, either. “They were about 30 feet long,” she said. “They circled around, inspected me, then swam off a little way. But they kept an eye on me the whole time — and you can bet I kept an eye on them.”<br/><br/>Haven Charters called Fife to use her sea skills in a new way, providing people with a pleasant sailing experience that also will bring back good memories of Chesapeake Bay. “I was a travel agent after all,” Jacki said. “For me, it’s all about people — people and sailboats.”<br/><br/>The Fifes don’t own the boats they charter. The vessels are owned by a number of people who let them for charter when they’re not sailing. Running crewed and bareboat charters is part of their business, but not all. They also offer sailing lessons at their location and through her father’s school. Dave is an ordained minister. So, Jacki says, “we also do weddings, averaging about six a year.” They call on two larger boats for weddings, corporate events and parties.<br/><br/>The 30-something captain and her husband have no children yet, so they’re not tied to one place. That’s a good thing because they also have a Caribbean operation. Chartering is seasonal; when it’s winter here on the Bay, they take working vacations. Every year, they captain a flotilla of boats for a week of sailing in the British Virgin Islands.<br/><br/>“There are people who really want to sail the islands but are reluctant, for any number of reasons, to go solo the first time,” Fife said. “We offer them a way to do the sailing and learn their way around.”<br/><br/></font><table border="1" cellspacing="2" width="64" align="left">
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<tr><td><font color="#2A7AB4" size="1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">Captain Jacki Appleton Fife manages a flotilla of 21 boats ranging from 30 to 42 feet as owner of Haven Charters in Rock Hall.</font></td>
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<font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">Fife also gets plenty of sailing time, because she and her husband captain and crew most of their chartered trips. All together, she’s thriving on her life of adventure.<br/><br/><b>Tried, Tough and True<br/></b>Many more women than these make their living on the water. Others are captains of pilot boats, tug boats, water taxis, excursion boats and fishing boats.<br/><br/>Earning their captain’s licenses demands hundreds of hours of underway time as well as diligent study to master navigation, safety, repair and maintenance of all types of equipment, maritime law, communication, emergency medical and survival techniques.<br/><br/>They sacrifice family, good hair and manicured nails. They deal with Mother Nature’s whims. After long voyages, they suffer vertigo and muscle fatigue. They do without ice, and most of the time they eat on the run. They go without sleep and showers. Theirs is not a pretty business in many ways. They do it because it satisfies an irresistible desire to be on the water. <br/><br/>“Still the sunsets beckon us out on deck,” reads an excerpt from Captain Norley’s diary. “We have cheered at the blush of the rain as it moves across the water … have laughed together and enjoyed the solitude of standing alone in the cockpit watching for shooting stars.”<br/><br/></font><table border="0" cellspacing="2" width="512" bgcolor="#E0FFFF">
<tbody><tr><td><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b><font size="3"><img border="0" align="left" src="http://www.bayweekly.com/year05/issuexiii30/picsxiii30/lead_author.jpg" width="62" height="72"/>About the Author<br/></font></b></font><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><br/>Sailor, journalist and grandmother, Alice Snively lives with her husband aboard the 43-foot Columbia Cherokee II, berthed at the Maryland Yacht Club in Pasadena — when not out sailing.<br/></font></td>
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<p></p>NAUTICAL SUPERSTITIONS AND FOLKLORE - Feel free to add more!tag:seaknots.ning.com,2010-02-18:900123:BlogPost:1256172010-02-18T14:00:00.000ZTerrihttp://seaknots.ning.com/profile/Terri28
. A figurehead in the form of a naked woman, perched on the bow, calms the sea and her open eyes will guide it to safety .A naked woman on board was thought to be good luck. (guess they were hoping to get lucky)<br></br>This is the reason for naked figureheads. (on Bowsprit)
<p align="left">2. Swallows seen at sea are a good sign, as are dolphins swimming with the ship.</p>
<p align="left">3. Tattoos and piercing are said to ward off evil spirits<br></br><em>for sailors to wear gold hoop earrings was…</em></p>
. A figurehead in the form of a naked woman, perched on the bow, calms the sea and her open eyes will guide it to safety .A naked woman on board was thought to be good luck. (guess they were hoping to get lucky)<br/>This is the reason for naked figureheads. (on Bowsprit)
<p align="left">2. Swallows seen at sea are a good sign, as are dolphins swimming with the ship.</p>
<p align="left">3. Tattoos and piercing are said to ward off evil spirits<br/><em>for sailors to wear gold hoop earrings was good luck</em></p>
<p align="left">4. It's good luck to spit in the ocean before you sail.</p>
<p align="left">5. Coins thrown into the sea as a boat leaves port is a small toll to <span id="lw_1266501815_13" class="yshortcuts">Neptune</span>, the sea god, for a safe voyage,</p>
<p align="left">6. <span id="lw_1266501815_14" class="yshortcuts">Horseshoes</span> on a ship’s mast will turn away a storm.</p>
<p align="left">7. Cats brought luck. If a <span style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #0066cc 1px dashed; BACKGROUND: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; CURSOR: hand" id="lw_1266501815_15" class="yshortcuts">ship's cat</span> came to a sailor, it meant good luck.</p>
<p align="left">8.A child to be born on a ship was good luck (probably not for the child)<br/>* this is where the term "<a href="http://www.caribbean-pirates.com/nautical_glossary.php#SS1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="lw_1266501815_16" class="yshortcuts">Son Of A Gun</span></a>" comes from</p>
<p align="left">9. St. Elmo's fire is the discharge of static electricity from points on a ship, such as masts and spars. According to some superstitious <span style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #0066cc 1px dashed; CURSOR: hand" id="lw_1266501815_17" class="yshortcuts">sea stories</span>, if one flame appears, it means bad weather is coming. If two flames appear, it means the weather will be clear.</p>
<p align="left">10. Pouring wine on the deck will bring good luck on a long voyage.</p>
<p align="left"></p>
<p align="center"><strong><font size="5">Bad Luck</font></strong></p>
<p align="left">1. Women onboard a ship distract the crew and place it in peril.(probably true)</p>
<p align="left">2. CUT NEITHER NAILS NOR HAIR AT SEA. <em>Cuttings of nail and hair were offerings to Prosperine, the Roman Goddess of the infernal regions, and it would make Neptune angry to have offerings to somebody else made in his domain. Doing so would bring bad luck.</em></p>
<p align="left">3. It is unlucky to start a cruise on Friday.<br/><em>This is the day Christ was crucified on</em>.</p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><em>*The reluctance of seamen to sail on a Friday reached such epic proportions, that in the 1800s the British Government decided to take strong measures to prove the fallacy of the superstition. They laid the keel of a new vessel on Friday, selected her crew on a Friday, launched her on a Friday and named her HMS Friday. They then placed her in command of one Captain James Friday and sent her to sea for the first time on a Friday. The scheme worked well, and had only one drawback ... neither ship nor crew was ever heard from again. <strong>HMS Friday is an urban legend</strong> and believed to be false</em></font></p>
<p align="left">4. Never start a voyage on the first Monday in April. <br/><em>This is the day that Cain slew Able</em>.</p>
<p align="left"><br/>5. Avoid people with red hair when going to the ship to begin a journey.<br/><em>Red heads bring bad luck to a ship</em>, which can be averted if you speak to the red-head before they speak to you.</p>
<p align="left">6. Whistling - One widespread and universal superstition forbids whistling in the wheelhouse or anywhere onboard for that matter. <em>Whistling onboard will raise a gale, hence "whistling up a storm".</em></p>
<p align="left">7. Scottish Fisherman, landing a left boot rather than a fish is considered the ultimate in bad luck. Whenever a left boot showed up in the catch inside a trawling net, fishermen would instantly spit on it before tossing it back into the water. On the other hand, those same Scots considered the right boot to be a sign of good fortune. Coming up with a right boot in the net was looked upon as favorable and the boot would be fastened to the mast in the belief that it would bring good fortune to the <span id="lw_1266501815_18" class="yshortcuts">fishing expedition</span></p>
<p align="left">8. It is bad luck to name a ship for an engaged woman <em><br/>this will make the ship jealous</em>.</p>
<p align="left">9. Sailors believed that if a cat licked its fur against the grain it meant a hailstorm was coming; if it sneezed, rain was on the way; and if it was frisky, the wind would soon blow.<br/></p>
<p align="left">10. Killing a swallow, albatross, gull or dolphin will bring bad luck.<br/><em>Seabirds are thought to carry the souls of dead sailors</em></p>
<p align="left">11. Priests are not lucky to have on a ship. <br/><em>They dress in black and perform funeral services.</em></p>
<p align="left">12. NAME CHANGE<br/>It’s bad luck to change the name of a boat. but if you have to: write the soon-to-be-exorcised name on a piece of paper, fold the paper, and place it in a small cardboard or wooden box. Burn the box. Scoop up the ashes and throw them into the sea on an outgoing tide. If you live on a lake, do it at night and only during a new moon. River dwellers should send the ashes downstream.</p>
<p align="left">13. Sailors believed cats could start storms with the magic stored in their tails so they always kept them well fed and contented</p>
<p align="left">14. A rabbit or salmon found on board the boat was one of the stranger nautical superstitions, and would have prevented a fisherman from sailing that day.</p>
<p align="left">15. Pigs<br/>Atlantic seamen in the West Indies had a bizarre superstition related to swine. Pigs themselves were held at great respect because they possessed cloven hooves just like the devil and the pig was the signature animal for the Great Earth Goddess who controlled the winds. As a result, these fishermen never spoke the word "pig" out loud, instead referring to the animal by such safe nicknames as Curly-Tail and Turf-Rooter. It was believed that mentioning the word "pig" would result in strong winds. Actually killing a pig on board the ship would result in a full scale storm.</p>
<p align="left">16. When the clothes of a dead sailor are worn by another sailor during the same voyage, misfortune will befall the entire ship</p>
<p align="left">17. If the ships cat approached a sailor and then went away, it was bad luck.</p>
<p align="left">18. To see rats leaving a ship is bad luck</p>
<p align="left">19. To name the boat with a word ending in "a" is bad luck</p>
<p align="left">20. A black “sea bag” is bad luck for a seaman.<br/></p>
<p align="center">------------------------------------------------------------------------</p>
<p align="center"><strong><font size="5">Death</font></strong></p>
<p align="left">1. It is said that a ship’s bell that rings without human aid is an omen of death.</p>
<p align="left">2. Disaster will follow if you step onto a boat with your Left Foot first. <br/><br/>3. A stone thrown from a vessel putting out to sea ensures she will never return.</p>
<p align="left">4. If a cat was thrown overboard, a storm and very bad luck and maybe death would follow.</p>
<p align="left">5. The word "drown" can never be spoken at sea or it may summon up the actual event</p>
<p align="left">6. A shark following the ship is a sign of inevitable death</p>
<p align="left">7. Manta rays, also known as devilfish or <span id="lw_1266501815_19" class="yshortcuts">sea devils</span>, were feared as much as sharks, for sailors believed these <span id="lw_1266501815_20" class="yshortcuts">sea creatures</span> could attach themselves to a ship’s anchor and drag her under the waves to <span style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #0066cc 1px dashed; CURSOR: hand" id="lw_1266501815_21" class="yshortcuts">Davy Jones’ Locker</span>.</p>
<p align="center">------------------------------------------------------------------------</p>
<p align="left">If a woman sees a robin flying overhead on Valentine's Day, it means she will marry a sailor. If she sees a sparrow, she will marry a poor man and be very happy. If she sees a goldfinch, she will marry a millionaire.</p>Splice the Main Brace --- Bits of interesting stufftag:seaknots.ning.com,2010-01-23:900123:BlogPost:1225312010-01-23T11:47:22.000ZTerrihttp://seaknots.ning.com/profile/Terri28
Splice the mainbrace<br />
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />
Jump to: navigation, search<br />
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Splicing the mainbrace aboard HMS Wren during World War IISplice the mainbrace is an order given aboard naval vessels to issue the crew with a drink. Originally an order for one of the most difficult emergency repair jobs aboard a sailing ship, it became a euphemism for authorized celebratory drinking afterward, and then the name of an order to grant the crew an extra ration of rum or grog.<br />
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Braces are the…
Splice the mainbrace<br />
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />
Jump to: navigation, search<br />
<br />
Splicing the mainbrace aboard HMS Wren during World War IISplice the mainbrace is an order given aboard naval vessels to issue the crew with a drink. Originally an order for one of the most difficult emergency repair jobs aboard a sailing ship, it became a euphemism for authorized celebratory drinking afterward, and then the name of an order to grant the crew an extra ration of rum or grog.<br />
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Braces are the lines which control the angle of the yards. On the first rate men-o-war, the mainbrace was the largest and heaviest of all the running rigging; the mainbrace on HMS Victory was 5 inches (13 cm) in diameter.[1] Gunners commonly aimed for the ship's rigging during naval battles, with the mainbrace being the prime target. If the mainbrace was shot away, it was usually necessary to repair it during the engagement; the ship was unmanoeuvrable without it and would have to stay on the same tack. Even repairing it after the battle was a difficult job; the mainbrace ran through blocks, so it could not be repaired with a short splice or a knot. Splicing in a large run of hemp was strenuous work, and generally the ship's best Able Seamen were chosen to carry out the task under the supervision of the Bosun (Boatswain).[1] On completion of the task, it was customary for the men to be rewarded with an extra ration of rum. The Bosun would take a sip from the ration of each of the men he had selected for task. Eventually the order "Splice the mainbrace" came to mean that the crew would receive an extra ration of rum, and was issued on special occasions: after victory in battle, the change of a monarch, a royal birth, a royal wedding or an inspection of the fleet.[2] In cases where the whole fleet was to receive the signal, it would be run up with a lift of flags or signalled by semaphore.[3]<br />
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A ration of rum a day was standard issue in the Royal Navy until 1970,[4] when concerns over crew members operating machinery under the influence led to the rum ration being abolished.[5] Restrictions were placed on those who could "Splice the mainbrace": any man or officer over the age of 20 who desired to take it received an extra issue of one-eighth of a pint of rum. Lemonade was issued those who did not wish for the rum. The rum was mixed with water to make grog for all ratings below Petty Officer. Only ratings marked "G" (for Grog) in the ship's books could draw rum, grog or lemonade when the main brace was spliced and no payment in lieu was available. Those under 20 were marked "U.A." (for under age) in the ship's book; they were similarly barred from drawing the daily rum ration. "T" stood for Temperance. The issue of rum to Wardroom and Gunroom officers was stopped in 1881 and ended for Warrant officers in 1918; splicing the mainbrace was the only time that officers could be issued with rum.[1]<br />
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Other navies abolished the grog allowance far earlier (the United States Navy after the American Civil War),[6] but the order persisted, allowing the crew to take another drink in place of rum or grog; in 1845 it is recorded as being substituted for the more rowdy "Crossing the Line" ceremony.[7] The Royal New Zealand Navy was the last navy to issue junior and senior ratings a daily tot of rum, issuing its last daily rum ration on 1 March 1990. Nowadays, the Canadian Navy is more generous with the allowances, allowing crew members to take 87.5 millilitres (3.08 imp fl oz; 2.96 US fl oz) of spirits compared with the 62.5 millilitres (2.20 imp fl oz; 2.11 US fl oz) allowed by the Royal Navy, although the Royal Navy does make allowance for paucity of supplies, permitting two 350 millilitres (12 imp fl oz; 12 US fl oz) cans of beer may be issued if commercial spirits are not available.[8][9]<br />
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Permission to issue the order to splice the mainbrace is heavily restricted - the Royal Navy allows only the Queen or the Admiralty Board to do so;[9] the Canadian Navy permits the Queen, the Governor General of Canada or the Chief of the Defence Staff to issue it.[8] When the Mediterranean fleet received the order from the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VIII) in 1932 it was the first time it had happened since 1918; it was accompanied by the order to "Mend and make clothes", another archaic signal which grants the crew a half-day holiday.[10] Ships in most of the victorious fleets received the order at the end of the Second World War;[11] one ship received the order while still under attack.[3] It was also ordered on the day of Queen Elizabeth's coronation in 1953. Nowadays, the order is somewhat more freely given (the Queen issued it after reviewing the fleet off Portsmouth in 2002).[12]<br />
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The USS Barb[13], a skipper on combat patrols in WWII, during the boat's 7th and 8th missions in 1944, did in fact announce on the 1 MC "Splice the Mainbrace" after each successful attack and sinking of a Japanese ship. On the Barb's 7th combat patrol, the skipper promised the sinking of 5 ships. The Barb's crew delivered. After each sinking the Skipper had a special cake made and each sailor was granted a shot of rot gut whiskey. On the 8th patrol, the Skipper was able to sneak 24 cases of beer aboard which was distributed after each of the Barb's successful attacks. So the order, "Splice the Mainbrace," was still popular with some of the U.S. Navy's submarine fleet during WWII.<br />
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[edit] NotesSixteen Bells To Ring In The New Yeartag:seaknots.ning.com,2009-12-19:900123:BlogPost:1185102009-12-19T21:45:49.000ZTerrihttp://seaknots.ning.com/profile/Terri28
The practice of ringing bells at sea is as old as the bells themselves. On board ship it is important to observe some form of timekeeping to facilitate the smooth running of the ship. As clocks or watches were, at best, expensive and so out of the reach of the ordinary sailor, time was measured by using a sand glass.<br />
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It was left to one of the ship's boys or midshipmen to be responsible for turning the glass. The most common form came with a running time of half an hour. As periods of duty were…
The practice of ringing bells at sea is as old as the bells themselves. On board ship it is important to observe some form of timekeeping to facilitate the smooth running of the ship. As clocks or watches were, at best, expensive and so out of the reach of the ordinary sailor, time was measured by using a sand glass.<br />
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It was left to one of the ship's boys or midshipmen to be responsible for turning the glass. The most common form came with a running time of half an hour. As periods of duty were split up into four-hour watches, it quickly became the custom to sound the ship's bell every time the sand glass was turned.<br />
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In order to tell the time from the bell, noon, 4pm, 8pm, midnight, etc. were marked by the ringing of eight bells. Every half hour thereafter was marked by the ringing of one bell, with an additional ring for each subsequent half hour. Therefore 12:30 was marked with one bell, 1 o'clock by two rings, and so on, until eight bells were sounded after the four-hour period. Are you confused yet?<br />
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It was also custom that on the change of watch, when eight bells were sounded, and of course provided everything was in order, to shout, "Eight bells and all is well!"<br />
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Once a year, sixteen bells were rung to mark the end of an old year and the beginning of a new. Usually the oldest person on board was given the task of ringing out the old while the youngest person on board was allowed to ring in the new.<br />
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From With a Pinch of Salt: A collection of nautical expressions and other stories by Captain Nick Bates, Sheridan House 2006Novemeber 15th...last day to sail....mid 60's...very light winds ...but good enuf for sailing fiends.......tag:seaknots.ning.com,2009-11-15:900123:BlogPost:1152202009-11-15T23:00:00.000ZTerrihttp://seaknots.ning.com/profile/Terri28
So after making appointment for Tuesday to be hauled out we figured one more sail! Even double checked and made sure getting hauled on Tues. at 2 pm. Call Bob for the last sail. Planning on removing sails and batteries off Twizzled after a short sail today. We all get there, stop into office to talk about shrinkwrapping and make sure they will be hauling on tues. as Norine taking a half day from work. Secretary informs us...boat is out already!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We said, who ok'd…
So after making appointment for Tuesday to be hauled out we figured one more sail! Even double checked and made sure getting hauled on Tues. at 2 pm. Call Bob for the last sail. Planning on removing sails and batteries off Twizzled after a short sail today. We all get there, stop into office to talk about shrinkwrapping and make sure they will be hauling on tues. as Norine taking a half day from work. Secretary informs us...boat is out already!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We said, who ok'd this?????????????? No phone call, nada!!!!!! Secretary gave us the "i'm only the messenger" and she said but they have stuff to offload. 63 mile drive, planning on sailing...very Twizzled sailorette's!!!! So I said..we didn't bring ladder, you better find us a ladder somewhere!! Soooooo...we go to boat, take of sails, offload cushions...waiting on the batteries...the marina can do that when we come Tues. for the outboard. Deranged. And too rub salt in the wounds...owner walks by and looks up at us trying to derig boat and yell's up.. "what's taking you so long?" Somehow I think if there were 4 testicles on the foredeck instead of ovaries he wouldn't have dared made that remark! So we'll be sending the other half of winter storage fee that was due before haulout...when it's convienent for US!!!! So we finished offloading boat..stuck poor Bob on the glovebox (head/shoulders in back seat on cushions/sails..torso in front..sorta) in between us and went to dinner harborside and watched the other sailboats. hmpfh!!!!!!! Glad Twizzled going to Boston in the Spring! And to add to the day...slammed my knee on the spin. pole ...swollen and walking like Peg Leg Pete the Pirate! mortrin and bag o frozen peas as I type! Twizzled, Twizzled, Twizzled... :-)