For the next few weeks, I’ll be sailing down the East Coast. We’re starting inland at Lake Champlain and will first navigate a series of 20 locks to get out into the Hudson.
We’ll have our masts stepped up near New York City, where we’ll sail out the harbor, then back into Chesepeake Bay and into the intra-coastal water way … and then as far as we can get before time runs out.
Our boat is a “sloop rigged catch” which means a double masted ship with a single jib in front. It also has a “bilge keel” which is an unusual configuration of two keels sticking out from the side. One advantage is that if the tide runs off from under you, the boat will remain upright. Â For example:
http://www.bhasoftware.com/atlanta/BilgeKeel.JPG
The boat is a Westerly 33″ Ketch named “Borka” (which if you pronounce the “r” in a soft rolling way, is the diminutive of Boris though the origin of the name is different. I’ll write about that later)
Tim Nulty is our captain. Crew is Louisa Bukiet and Lindsay (who was visiting Tim from England when he offered her to hop aboard) and me.
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I’ll write more soon, but in the meanwhile, you should read about two fascinating sailing misadventures:
- To Cuba (almost) by Outrigger Sailing Canoe by Tim Anderson (and while that post is down, you can see the scope of Tim’s other sailing adventures.)
- Hypothermia / Brink of Death by Moxie Marlinspike