three swallows

There are 3 swallows circling me and the boat tonight as sundown turns into twilight. Their aerodynamic skills and chirping happiness make it possible to survive the no-see-ems that are biting.

Look to this day

'Look to this day,
For it is life,
For yesterday is but a dream,
And tomorrow is only a vision.

But today, well lived,
Makes every yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.'

~ Sanskriti proverb
Thanks to FictionDreamer

Sun lit masts

Winter sunrise

Igloo

snug

accumulation on the river

chez T

Clowning at T's

night snowstorm

rope locker

water reflects

wrapped up

Cocoons-ville

Hey, you know what? It's not that bad

pullman berth

crawl space under the shrinkwrap

Snow drift

K driving

S driving

P bowspriting lazily

Looking up

Sails up but motoring

S driving

cruising

S

smooch

lighthouse at Eastern approach to Norwalk Islands

dunked

sundown Norwalk Islands

homes on Norwalk Islands

camera face-off

heeling

...Honesty and transparency
make you vulnerable.
Be honest and transparent anyway.

What you spend years building may
be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

...Give the world the best
you have and you may get hurt.
Give the world your best anyway.

The world is full of conflict.
Choose peace of mind anyway.

by Mother Teresa

Great Captain's Island Light House near Greenwich, Ct

low wind

Sails

Sa-Kar-Tve-Lo

S and K making Natasha's Dance look very pretty

K piloting

S and S2 in the bow

S2 bowspritting his own way

S bowspritting

S piloting

S2 chilling

S1 pensively bow spritting

S and K being schmoopy

S2 in a serious moment

K and P

S "swimming"

Back home

on the hook

S bowspriting

Got that sepia thing goin' on

Memorial Day sailin'

Oh, yeah.

In the wind

Slow going

Hanging out on the anchor the next morning

C bowspriting

Decks a scramble of lines

Grin says it all

Sorridimi sempre! È il solo sorriso che mi venga dalla vita

Mazzini

Let's not get too close

New Rochelle

R casual

Nautical flavor

Receding light

Stark sun

J driving

deck awash

J on the bowsprit

J driving

S driving, J and J

other boat

S and P

sundown

J and P driving out to LIS

view forward

Lots of traffic

Deck a wash

J from the cabin

head in the clouds?

J and S wrestling the wheel

mains'l

mainsheet reduction pulleys

heeling is healing

sundown at the mooring

wind filled sails

practical navigation

from the bow pulpit

sails and clouds

from the mooring

M's favorite activity on a hot day

View of Mnhtn

words fail

the auteur

Sunset

M in person

jovial crew

M at the helm

M and crew

August

Barely steerage.

Smiles like this have launched 10k ships...

Grin

His name is ... Soren ...

For Dostoevsky, war is the rebellion of the people against the idea that reason guides everything. And thus, reason is the ultimate principle of guidance for neither history nor mankind.

M doesn't believe it...

clown or broil

regina dell mare

Olia at the main mast

unexpected passenger

Glorious Summer

Love the helmsman's grin...

"Love tyrannises all the ages; but youthful, virgin hearts derive a blessing from its blasts and rages, like fields in spring when storms arrive."
From Pushkin’s "Eugene Onegin"

Preparing to hoist the mizzen

From the bow

K's the helmsman

bow spritting

Est-ce que n'importe qui là parle dehors français?

Dominique and Michelle

We like this spot

Dusk

Altinai's song

Altinai's song

"Socialism, socialism - or death! That is my motto. What I care if genius on earth live in heaven when the crowd is wallowing in the dirt?... My heart bleeds and shudders when I view the crowd and its representatives... And that is life: to sit in the street in rags with an idiotic expression of face collecting farthings in the daytime to be spent on booze in the evening - and men see it and no one cares about it!" Vissarion Belinskii (in a letter to V.P. Botkin, from Polnoje sobranie sochinenii, XII, 1953-59)

Hands on deck

How come they have wind?

Girls and Marcello

Isn't it lunch time yet?!

Shucking clams

Good job!

Chief cook and her asst

Clam chowder, so good.

Rainy day party

Not scray but good cockpit canvas.

Not scray but sister vessels with their mizzen put to effective use

tiny bit of sailing being done

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." - A Einstein

Partay!

Frozen, wet but having fun...

Schematic

Cabin layout is slightly different that Scray but sail plan and hull are the same.

"The Reed Flute's Song" by Rumi

Listen to the story told by the reed,
of being separated.
"Since I was cut from the reedbed,
I have made this crying sound.
Anyone apart from someone he loves
understands what I say.
Anyone pulled from a source
longs to go back.
At any gathering I am there,
mingling in the laughing and grieving,
a friend to each, but few
will hear the secrets hidden
within the notes. No ears for that.
Body flowing out of spirit,
spirit up from body: no concealing
that mixing. But it's not given us
to see the soul. The reed flute
is fire, not wind. Be that empty."

Hear the love fire tangled
in the reed notes, as bewilderment
melts into wine. The reed is a friend
to all who want the fabric torn
and drawn away. The reed is hurt
and salve combining. Intimacy
and longing for intimacy, one
song. A disastrous surrender
and a fine love, together. The one
who secretly hears this is senseless.
A tongue has one customer, the ear.
A sugarcane flute has such effect
because it was able to make sugar
in the reedbed. The sound it makes
is for everyone. Days full of wanting,
let them go by without worrying
that they do. Stay where you are
inside such a pure, hollow note.
Every thirst gets satisfied except
that of these fish, they mystics,
who swim a vast ocean of grace
still somehow longing for it!
No one lives in that without
being nourished every day.
But if someone doesn't want to hear
the song of the flute,
it's best to cut conversation
short, say good-bye, and leave.

Desiderata

Max Ehrmann


Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann, Desiderata, Copyright 1952.

Reading List

Chronological order beginning in September (partial list):
* When I was Elena - Ellen Urbani Hiltebrand
* Peeling the Onion - Günter Grass
* Modern Italy: a Political History - Denis Mack Smith
* Snow - Orhan Pamuk
* In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs : A Memoir of Iran - Christopher de Bellaigue
* A Consise History of Russian Literature - Thaïs Lindstrom
* War and Peace - Lev Tolstoy
* Titian - Peter Humfrey