Minke ? ! ? ! ? What kind of decent, self-respecting whale names their offspring Minke? I'll tell ya, some a them cetaceans belong in a pelagic ghetto somewheres . . .
The LARCH
The above website provides more info about these little guys, BTW the Japanese are now targeting them because they are so abundant. SOme people just pillage and plunder. The only thing that kept the little Minkes so safe from the whalers , was their size. They only get about 30 feet, the finbacks get about 90 ft and look like a small serpentine jetliner.
Better see em soon, Im afraid that some dietary thing that makes whalemeat a staple for a country of over 100 million people is going to result in the little buggers becoming extinct.
Sunday, July 17, 12 noon. Fog very thick, looks like itll burn off and be sunny because there are erie spots of almost blinding fog as we sit by the window and look out at the bay. We can have a perfectly clear day above the fog but, because the water is so cold the temp inversions cause a fog to ascend and lock everything in with thick banks of "cotton fog" Going out in fogs like this make you rely totally on your radar, a confidence I have not yet fully bought into. The radar, will automatically switch frequencies to get rid of all the fog noise but , by doing so, it loses descromination power. Its effective range is radically diminished and we lose waypoints because the chartplotter uses input fromeither visual or radar points to provide an accurate map. Anyway, there are a bunch of ships due in today and I dont wanna be in their way in a fog.
SunJuly 23, fog burning off and a lovely day in store. We shall tank up (At near 3 bucks a gallon) and go to St Johns for a nice dinner and then a sunset trip back. Hopefully the weather will hold off as theres a cold front coming in and some heavy seas expected tomorrow. No big deal since well be lee of the shore wind, and theres not much room for big waves to develop. Im more concerned with fogs since theres been a sudden interest in cigarette boats in the Bay and these guys are like BMW drivers, totally self centered a*holes. They will drve in the fog at top speeds and never know whether their chart plotters can keep "real time" data equal to their speeds.
We had a guy beach his "Donzi" in a rocky point. He tore his twin lower sections out. (He didnt have a skeg). The Canadian Coast Guard gave him a citation for piloting in a fashion that was generally unsafe. Talk about understatement. Be home by 8 or 9, if farmerboy isnt back on line, call the cops
fog was a bitch coming home, even radar was shooting clutter from water vapor. What was normally a 2 hour trip took us almost 3.5. Boat never got up at all so it felt like we were draggin ass all the way back. We did hear some whales around Black Harbour, really spooky in the dying light with a thick fog , boat whistles and fog horns, and then a clear set of sprays. Our neighbors , who went with us are inlanders from New Hampster. They were a bit concerned about the deep, and I was telling them about the large Passamaquoddy squids that are about as big as a person but with very large tentacles , so dont lean over the gunwales too much , never know if a flock of squids about.
You're back! I was worried... and I didn't even think of squids...
Man o Man I just found this thread. I hope you are doing well and taking care. I'll feel better when you are back to shore. I'll keep a light on. GB
Im on shore, we had to can our Newfie Lans aux Meadows trip because of the screwed up boat work. (which will be done again in a week) we just take day hops out into the Bay or the ocean. Some days we just sits around the camp andgo hiking or sketching. The idea is just to get the hell away from the everyday and do the same stuff just in another place.
osso, the squids was a joke . I was just teasin our neighbors. They like fishing in the bright sunlite but get freaked in the water in a fog. We keep the cabin lights dim just so we can see any slight light out front or side. There are a few points with spars that mark shallow rock shoals that we have to traverse. Radar only picks these spars up at the last 100 ft or so because the signal is pitched so high that it doesnt shoot into the fog but a half mile and small items with reflecting paddles need some better sizing to discriminate better. The hardest problem was mooring. I couldnt find my mooring bouy in the thick fog so I tied up at the town dock and called for a ride from our other neighbor. Its supposed to rain for 2 days so Ill just run down to the dock and bring the boat back tomorrow . Weve had some really crappy weather this year, not violent, just a lot of fogs and a few two day rains.
It dawned on me after I typed that that you were goofing...
<still reading along, not enjoying the fog>
Sometimes, when we dont have a schedule to keep, or a tide to reckon, we will sit out there in a deep fog and watch the light just play . Fogs arent a uniformly thick mass of schmutz. They have grades of opacity that goes from a deep grey green in which even sounds are muffled by the heavy air, all the way up to a light airy fog like when youre in a jet just about to bust through the last bit of cloud top and into the sun. In that case the sounds suddenly pick up and were able to hear hih pitched gull calls and double pitch bell bouys. The disquieting thing is to be in a fog, engines off, and hearing splashing of something large. Youre 25 miles or more from shore, and something like a buick being plopped in the water just happens to starboard, from the sound of it, its less than a few 10s of meters away. Its exciting to realize that there are some huge lifeforms out there , but, I goota say, its a bit unnerving as well.
A kraken,or a Mosasaur. Either one and my pants are brown.
squid
this was probably the squid looking for farmerman
"giant squid from glovers harbour, newfoundland"
"them newfies have big squids"
Tule fog can kill cars, here in California, and I'm pretty afraid of it. But I love driving through the redwooded mountains as I approach the Humboldt County coast, with coastal fog infiltrating with misty fog feet. There isn't much traffic on that road, only road, trees, sky.. and as I drive I become confused in a way, if the fog is wafting or I am - a lovely ride, especially with a cd I like as loud as I like.
Tule fogs bring out the insane drivers in the valley. I once had a colleague drive to a meeting in Bakersfield. We were gonna fly from Stockton but we were locked in, SO, we drove on 99 I believe. This idiot was driving at 70 in fog that was a combination of fog and burning straw. It reeked. It was in the early holiday season and I could see (there were four of us) dead in a grizzly pile up. SO Ihad to take over. We were late but safe. California valley fogs are like the thick portion of the coastal fogs in the bay. The bay fog smells better also. Its a heavy dose of really thick sea air.
A tule fog is crappy water vapor and wet rice straw smoldering fire
Hamburger, is that calamari or whAT?
Okay I'm back this evening from my sail up the North Sea in the square-rigger Christian Radich.
Close-hauled for two days into a Force 6-7 wind it was uncomfortable for a while, and no food could be eaten by yours truly. (although I more than made up for this on other days)
Overall had a marvellous time. Thanks for opportunity to post on your seafaring thread, Farmerman, hopw you don't mind, I'm sure you don't, and more nautically-minded people will see it that way, I feel.
BTW in Cherbourg I saw the Chesapeake schooner Pride of Baltimore- a very pretty ship, out of many others which caught the eye.
McT
McTag wrote:BTW in Cherbourg I saw the Chesapeake schooner Pride of Baltimore- a very pretty ship, out of many others which caught the eye.
McT
I suppose most people already know I am geographically challenged, so would you mind telling me where Cherbourg is????? I was born in Baltimore and live about 30 minutes away now, but I like to hear about the Pride of Baltimore II.
Cherbourg in on the Norman penninsula . . . here, i'll go get you a map . . .
