Ashore On Fire Island

Tuesday morning, Will from Tugster and I ventured out to Fire Island to get a close-up view of Le Papillion, beached upon the sands of Saltaire. The 48' LOD Colvin "Pinky" schooner had run aground last Thursday while sailing from Baltimore to Harrington, Maine. We had hoped to witness an attempt to pull her free, but the high winds, rough seas, and poor visibility had other plans.

We parked at Robert Moses Beach and made the one-mile hike, east of the lighthouse to where she was beached. Fire Island is an interesting place: the 30-odd mile, barrier beach includes a national seashore, and many stretches are car-free from May through September. A handful of park rangers and off-season contractors were our only interruptions along the sandy service road.

Reaching the hamlet of Kismet, we cut over to the surf and continued east. Even without a grounded schooner, the beach had an inhospitable feel about it. Aside from the cold, windy, and wet conditions, visibility was poor, and Le Papillon did not come into view until we were nearly upon her. High tide and heavy seas kept us far back from the water; her green steel hull shrouded in fog and sea foam, was getting pounded by the surf.

As a teenager, did you ever take your parents' car while they were out of town? Me neither, but I've seen plenty of John Hughes movies. If you replace sports car with schooner, that seems to be what happened in this case. There is a lot of rumor and misinformation floating around, but it appears that while the owner of the vessel was in South America, his 19 year-old son and two friends decided to sail the boat north to Maine.   They narrowly avoided disaster from a light grounding at Absecon Inlet, New Jersey, before landing hard on Fire Island days later. There was no one keeping watch!

Le Papillon has sailed over 80,000 nautical miles, including a circumnavigation, and three passages to Europe.

There is no insurance coverage for this incident*.

As each day passes, her chances of being saved  grow dimmer.

Wikipedia: Fire Island

Tugster: Ashore

Tugster: Ashore 2

Saltaire38: Wreck of Le Papillon

Fire Island Lighthouse Society

* I am not sure whether the boat is uninsured, or if the policy did not cover this particular voyage.

Greenwich Boat Show

The 4th Annual Greenwich In-Water Boat Show is taking place this weekend at Beacon Point Marina in Cos Cob. This is a powerboat show consisting of nine regional dealers and the 16 boat manufacturers they represent. With the sun shining brightly early this morning, I decided to give summer a jump start by paying a visit.

While most shows in the region are held in the fall or winter, this one hopes to capitalize on the spring-fever  boat buyers have this time of year. There are no tents with booths selling electronics and fishing gear; it is the boats themselves that are the main attraction. Billing itself as a "show for serious buyers", the models are available to sea trial throughout the weekend. I know of no other show which offers this.

The show occupies three docks at Beacon Point, so I spent the morning hours kicking the tires (okay, fenders) and trying to familiarize myself with many of the new models. No matter how many boats you may  know about, there are always new ones you discover, and familiar ones which have been changed.

Getting acquainted with a boat, however, can take on many forms. For many of the visitors, sitting aboard seemed to be an important test. Steve Shabet of Darien, along with his son Matthew and daughter Sarah, felt  especially comfortable aboard a Grady White, while others aboard a Chris Craft seemed to already be thinking about summer days afloat.

While most boats at the show are in the 20-32 foot range, there were a few larger ones. I had a nice talk with Paul and Sharon Barton of Portland Boat Works aboard  a 36-foot Tiara they have for sale. This is their first year at the show and I made sure to take a tour of the cabin. Very nice!

Another boat that caught my eye was a World Cat 32. This is a catamaran with twin 300 hp outboards offered by Twin Hull Boats of Black Rock, CT. When an opening became available for a sea trial, I couldn't resist. We cast the lines, made our way down the Mianus River, underneath the bridge, and out into the Sound. Once past the Riverside Yacht Club, we opened her up! Stable and dry, this was the perfect boat for an early April excursion.

The Greenwich Boat Show runs through Sunday, April 3. Admission is free.

Greenwich Boat Show: website

Norwalk River Rowing

Spring comes early for the Norwalk River Rowing Association. Since the second week of March, the team has been practicing on the Norwalk River for their upcoming season which kicks off with the Greenwich Invitational on April 9.
Meanwhile, across the Sound, the first high school sailing regatta of the season was held in Port Jefferson last Saturday.
Yes, I know there is freezing rain in the forecast today, but spring is in the air. You just need to look in the right places.

Shelter Island Reporter: Cold Conditions for First Spring Regatta
Norwalk River Rowing Association: Website
Greenwich Time: Himes, Frantz to Faceoff at Greenwich Invitational
Maritime Rowing Club: Website

Orchard Beach Sand Reclamation

There has been a lot of work taking place this winter at Orchard Beach in the Bronx. The NYC Parks Department has partnered with the U.S. Corps of Engineers to replace lost sand and combat further beach erosion along this 1.1 mile city beach. Officially known as the Orchard Beach Shoreline Protection Project, it is the first time sand has been replenished here since 1964.

Like many of Long Island Sound's larger parks, the beach here is not natural. Built in the 1930's, sand was brought in from Sandy Hook, N.J. and Rockaway Beach, N.Y. to create this crescent shaped city beach. Over time, the sand has eroded, exposing the more natural, rocky shoreline below.

Earlier this month, the City Of New York released a comprehensive waterfront plan entitled Vision 2020. According to the report, the goal establishes a set of actions for

"realizing our waterfront and waterways as a world-class destination, a globally competitive port, and a rich and vital natural resource that draws all New Yorkers to its edge and onto the water.

The Action Agenda includes 130 specific, high-priority projects that demonstrate the City’s commitment to investing in the transformation of the waterfront."

This sand reclamation project at Orchard Beach is one of the projects listed in the report.

So far, so good!

Waterfront Action Agenda: Vision 2020

NYC Parks Dept: Orchard Beach Shoreline Protection Project

Soundbounder: Extremes IV

Soundbounder: Pelham Bay Park

Soundbounder: Orchard Beach Lagoon

Wolf Larsen

Sometimes when snowflakes are falling and the winds are howling, I find myself thinking about Wolf Larsen. No, not the antagonistic character from the Jack London novel Sea Wolf, but instead a former fishing rig of the same name, anchored in the Price's Bend section of Northport Harbor. Brutal and cynical, yet also highly intelligent, she is appropriately named.

I first saw Wolf Larsen several summers ago while anchored here waiting for an August storm to pass. Her outriggers and design stood apart from the cabin cruisers and sailboats surrounding her. There was no activity aboard, and it appeared that there hadn't been any in a long time. Cormorants and herons had assumed ownership with two large nests atop the pilot house. 

Returning here again (by land) in early December, the other boats were long gone, but not Wolf Larsen. There she was, still moored, with her bow pointing into the northwest winds as some early season snowflakes blew around. Was she spending her entire winter at Prices Bend? I don't know.

I do know that when I arrived at Hobart Beach on a blustery March day, I saw her again. Still standing proud, attached to her mooring, a little bit tired, but not for show.

Sometimes it seems as if every harbor has a few of these: an owner with a dream, and not much else. There may  be grandiose plans of Caribbean travel and carefree days afloat, but in the end, divorce, layoffs, and all the other complications of life get in the way.

Old boats require money and time. We often can provide one: rarely can we offer both.

 When times are good, we have the money but wish we had the time. Then times turn bad and we have the time, but the money and the dream are all gone.

Al Bennett Pier

Al Bennett Pier, Bridgeport; March 2010

CT Coastal Access Guide: Seaside Park
Map

Norwottuck Rail Trail

 

When I look at the Connecticut River north of Hartford, I have to sometimes remind myself this is the same river where Carina spends her winter months. While I am well acquainted with the river's path from the Quebec border to Saybrook Point, I don't instinctively connect-the-dots for these agricultural and mill towns  scattered along its bank in western Massachusetts.

Northampton is approximately 75 miles north of the Sound, as the crow flies. The river however, follows a more twisted and indirect path, adding perhaps 40 miles to its flow towards Long Island Sound. If one were to paddle this portion of the river, you would spend a significant amount of time heading east and west, in order to travel south.

Thankfully, I hadn't arrived here by river-raft or canoe; I was staying at my sister's house just a few minutes away. One day last month, while she was still asleep, I took an early morning walk along the Norwottuck Rail Trail, which includes this 1879 bridge.  The ten mile, former railroad line connects the city of Northampton with Amherst, MA. According to the website, it is one of the "most popular facilities in the Pioneer Valley".

Old bridges make old noises! The frozen wood planks atop the cold steel made a sort of cracking bang with each step that echoed off the ice flow. Several times I had stopped for a moment to take in the silence, before quickly moving on. Silence may be golden, but it was cold out, and I don't like standing still.  

When I reached the east side of the bridge, I could see farm fields and the encroaching sprawl on the whitewashed horizon. It was then that I realized I had passed through here before.

Returning from Vermont last summer, I had taken a slower, more indirect route through this obscure stretch of river valley. Steering clear of the interstate, I meandered southward on county roads through tobacco farms  and vegetable fields. With the windows wide open and my bare foot on the dash, I had stopped at a small store for a seltzer and a phone call.

 It was now clear to me that the same store was directly in front of me.

It's strange how people and places of little significance can reappear later in life, under completely different circumstances. A negative streak intersects with a previous, unrelated positive path. The good times and the bad get all tangled together - interwoven is too orderly a word.

This trip to Northampton didn't have the carefree feel of that late summer drive. I was passing through town on a much more serious matter. This time, the glass was half-empty and there was no way to make it half-full. The farmhouses and colonials no longer boasted an aura of riverside, orderly bliss.  Instead, I looked out at the clapboard, and wondered about the modern day turmoils taking place inside the facade. 

Norwottuck Rail Trail: website

Northampton MA: Map

Bruce Springsteen: The River

Johnny Cash: Turn Your Back On Your Family, You Aint No Good