Of Mooncursers and other Spun yarns

Of Mooncursers and other Spun yarns
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Saturday, February 12, 2011

WolfTrap South


This is a preview of video that will be posted of Our adventure of going south from Virginia to the Bahamas and Florida keys.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Take a Ride On a Steam Side wheeler


We are taking a ride on a steam Side wheel ferry boat. The narration is a bit hoky but it was done for elementary school children, so just overlook it. The experience is great. A ride on the Hudson river in company with steamships, tugs and a few small boats as well as kayaks and a sailing canoe that are about the on boats they are not steam powered.
This reminds me of cruising on the Tolchester. A ferry from Baltimore to Tolchester on the Maryland eastern shore. We went over there to the beach and amusement park.
On another occasion I remember fishing with my father at seven foot knoll, a shallow oyster bed out in the Chesapeake Bay. It was late at night and the Tolchester came close by. She was lit up all over and people danced in her saloon and foredeck while refrains of a sweetly sung song to an instrumental tune wafted across the silent water. In a short time two sailboats sailing side by side on a beat to windward heeling slightly moved slowly toward the east. Their running lights lit them in an eerie glow. I had sailed on sailing sharpies but these were fine small sailing sloops and it was at that moment I fell into a life long love.
At about age nineteen I took a young lady aboard the Tolchester on a midnight cruise. We cruised down the Bay and returned to Baltimore just after sunup. We drank, ate and danced the whole night.
In the hustle and bustle of the Baltimore water front we walked wobbly kneed down the gang plank.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Fort Lauderdale Speed Boat Race

This video is a race we watched while anchored at Las Olas Bridge in Fort
Lauderdale Florida.  We had stopped here before going to the Abacos.  I put this in here because I am still working on a video from Great Bridge South.
I started taping this from on top the bridge. Across the waterway they had set up a barge and places along the docks for paid spectators. What I am saying here is said in the video but with a lot less detail. I began taping the race and a surly looking fellow walked up and said you can't tape this race because it's syndicated. I wasn't sure what that meant but remembered the Bowery Boys in the Saturday movies as a kid calling the mob the syndicate.  I was sure this guy was one of them as he had on a pinstriped suit in the daytime in South Florida.  I stopped taping until he turned and walked away. I began taping again.  A policeman walked up and told me the same thing.  I left and went down on the grass that I thought was private property  and began taping. Two Cops come up on Motorcycles and told me to leave. I suggested that I was on private property.  I was informed I was not.  I walked over to a break water in front of a house and continued on. In a moment the lady came out of the house and asked what the heck I thought I was doing?  I told her, Videotaping that speed boat race.   Git, was her reply. I did!  I went down onto the bow of my boat and began recording looking through the underside of the bridge.  A police man standing on the bridge scowled at me.  In a few minutes a police boat pulled up and anchored in front of me blocking my view.  I threw one of my anchors out off the bow and pulled my boat over from behind the police boat while still being attached to the mooring buoy.  The policeman got on his radio and talked for a long time.   I tried to listen to what was being said but he turned his radio down. I thought they might send a boat to board me.  I called the Coast Guard on the radio and the told me that as long as I was tied to a city buoy they could do nothing but that they would call the police on my behalf.   I was not bothered further. I taped the rest of the race. About a week later we were in a good position to watch the Christmas Boat parade.  Now let me tell you something. They really do it up big.