An Early Morning Metaphysical Experience

The alarm goes off at 05:30.  The sun isn't up yet, but the sky is light., and the water is dead calm - it's a mirror.
I jump out of bed and throw on my groady sweats.   The crab pots are on the fantail - I prepped them yesterday afternoon.  I get down into the dinghy and Jane lowers them down to me.
And I start the outboard and head toward our Sacred Spot - the one that has yielded so many crabs in years past.  I veer to avoid the other boats - everyone else is sleeping, and our old Sears Gamefisher outboard is noisy.
As I motor along, skimming on a mirror, the sun clears the horizon and floods the world with golden light.  I promise you, there is nothing like being on the water at dawn!
I return to Eolian, the pots set, and I make Jane and I some lattes, and we watch the harbor slowly awake...

An Early Morning Metaphysical Experience

It's Spring In The Skagit Valley

When traveling between our log home on Camano Island and Anacortes, we pass thru the Skagit Valley. Why would I be talking to you about our commute route?

Well, because this:

What better way to shed the winter blahs than to gaze upon 100 acres of daffodils? OK, I'm not a farmer, so my estimate of the field size is "unofficial", but it is huge.  And it is one of many, all filled with a riot of daffodils, and they're all screaming, "WaHOO! It's SPRING!"

And then, just when the daffs are about spent, and the fields begin to take on a bronze hue, it's time for the tulips!

Again, I'm no farmer, and it changes from year to year, but I think there must be more than twice as much acreage devoted to tulips as there is to daffs.

Because there are more of them, and because they come in so many different colors, the fields full of tulips are stunning.  And the farmers seemingly plant them so that adjacent colors spark off of each other.

Like for any crop, good farming practice demands crop rotation.  And this year, the fields next to the road our route takes us on are being devoted to other things, so all the tulip fields are pretty far in the distance, making for crummy pictures.  And for copyright reasons, I won't snag some of the gorgeous pictures out there...  but I will make it easy for you to see them:  Just click here.

If you are in the area, things are at their peak right now.  Avoid the crowds and drive up here Thursday or Friday...

Skagit valley comes to Eolian

It's Spring In The Skagit Valley

That magical time

Here in Seattle it has rained for the last five days.   And yes, we are accustomed to this.   Everyone makes fun of us having 20 different words for 'rain'. 

But the next few days are going to be a magical time.  The temps are forecasted to be in the 80's - we expect to be sunny and warm.

Tonite, here at anchor in Port Madison, we are treated to a harbinger.  Late in the evening, the clouds parted and the sun peeked out underneath them, illuminating the world with a magical, golden light.  And here at the far western end of the timezone, so far north that we are within shouting distance of Canada, and within a few days of the summer solstice, it is still light enough to read outside at 10 PM.

Life is good, and it is only going to get better!

Port Madison, 9:45 PM

That magical time

A sixty foot tree

(From 2010, when the lites were new)

Every year, the Marina sponsors a Christmas lighting contest. This year, we put up our 125' strand of deep blue LED's (2 - 50' strands and 1 - 25' strand) as usual, running from the bowsprit, to the top of the mainmast, roughly paralleling the triatic stay to the top of the mizzenmast, and then down to the end of the mizzen boom. But this year, the winds have been horrific. At this moment, we have one segment (however many LED's it takes to add up to 120 volts) that is just plain out and two more segments that drift in and out of illumination, depending on wind and rain.

But it is this Christmas tree over on F dock that should win the prize. It's hard enough getting our simple display of lites up - I wonder how he does it?

A sixty foot tree

Sunset moment

Last night here in Seattle was a spectacular summer evening, complete with a glorious sunset. Several of my Facebook friends posted pictures, taken at slightly different times and from different vantage points. It was an interesting impromptu and unorganized study. This panorama was our contribution, taken from Port Madison, later in the twilight. (As always, you can click on pictures to see the full-sized versions.)

And in keeping with the astronomical nature of this post, several sources are telling me that we could have an auroral display that reaches into the middle tier of states on the nights of the 14th and 15th. Might be a good time to stay up late...

Sunset moment

Reflections on reflections

Way back in 2010, I wrote about the wonderful moving patterns that sunlight makes on the overhead when conditions are right.  One of the key words there is "moving".  At that time, I had no way to show the movement of the patterns... now I do.  Here are a couple of very short videos:

This morning, when I was making that second video, I first thought that the phenomenon could only occur in the morning or evening, when the sun angle is low.  (I know that it can't happen at the dock, because things are much too crowded for the sun to reach the water to reflect inside.)

But isn't it true that if the water is moving, there will almost always be a surface that is correctly oriented to reflect light onto the overhead?  I think it must be so.  So it should be possible to see the moving patterns at any time of day if there is sun, the boat is oriented more or less broadside to it, and the water is gently moving.

I think.

Reflections on reflections

True confessions

The weather is unarguably worse in the depths of winter.

Nevertheless, it is now, here in the season of Woebegone (when every day is 10° below normal) when I feel my personal lack of vitamin D most strongly.

Angela on s/v Ghost captured this on Monday

And yet.  And yet, this is also Rainbow Season - when rain showers and sunbreaks alternate quickly and frequently;  so much so that rainbows are common.  Rainbows are a symbol of promise, of hope.  

So my confession?  I am mightily affected by a powerful longing for real spring to arrive.  I try to keep a positive outlook.  Oh, I try. 

And I long for it to be warm enough to make leaving the dock and anchoring out not an ordeal.

Soon now, I think.

I hope.

True confessions

Beautiful sunrise this morning

Three things coincided to make this possible:

• Our neighbor happens to be gone this morning, leaving us with a clear view to the East
• The days are getting shorter and shorter. This means that sunrise happens when I am awake and sufficiently caffeinated to see and recognize a worthy scene
• We are sitting around on the boat this morning, waiting for news that Erica's labor has started.  (Did I mention that Ken & Erica are going to have a second baby?  No?  Sorry.  We are hoping that things are easier this time.)  No news yet...

Beautiful sunrise this morning

The loom

Those of you in snow country know what I am going to talk about.

When it snows heavily at night, the sky actually lights up.  Because the air is filled with white snowflakes any light present at the ground is reflected back from the sky... it literally makes it look like the sky is glowing.

Post apocalyptic?

I took this Tuesday nite when it was snowing heavily in Seattle.  You'll have to trust me that it was snowing; the long exposure blurred out the flakes.  So use your imagination to fill the air with snowflakes - but I did get the loom.  It is tinted reddish because the lites up in the parking lot (a quarter mile away...) are sodium vapor lites that have that nasty orange tint that does so much for your healthy skin tone.

Since we already have your imagination running, add the hiss of snowflakes on the deck above.  Too bad those Christmas lites are all put away...

The loom

iPhone App Recommendation #3

Ever wanted to make 3D pictures?  Now you can, with your iPhone, using the "3D Camera" app.

The app can produce stereo pairs, which you view by letting your eyes relax and staring off into the distance, blending the left and right images into a third image which will appear between them (yes, it's a skill which takes some practice).   It helps if you pick out a prominent feature in both images and concentrate on overlaying that feature in the center.  When you get it, everything magically snaps into place!

If you have a pair of those red/blue glasses, the app can also produce both color and grayscale red/blue anaglyphs.  Finally, it can also produce an animated gif of the left and right images which gives depth cues by rapidly alternating between them.

OK, now let's see some great stereo pictures of boat interiors and anchorages!

iPhone App Recommendation #3

iPhone App Recommendation #2

All of you iPhone-equipped sailors out there, listen up. (And you non-sailors too!)

I know I have already recommended one iPhone app to you, and therefore I am probably exceeding my annual allotment of these, but I just can't *not* post about this one.

Have you ever wanted to take a picture of a scene, but found that you just can't get it all in? I know this has happened to sailors - we frequently have spectacular horizon-spanning sunsets to capture. You may even have looked into software that lets you tie individual images together into a panorama. But all of the solutions require a lot of tedious work, defining points of correspondence in each of the images that work to match up the images. You could easily spend hours making one. 

Have I got the answer for you! The app is called AutoStitch Panorama, and it costs an amazing $2.99. Here's how it works:

• You take a series of pictures from the same point. there must be some overlap between them.
• You tell AutoStitch to use them.

That's it!

AutoStitch then takes care of, completely automatically:

• Arranging the pictures in the correct places in the final image (in other words, there is no need to specify the pictures in any particular order to AutoStitch)
• Finding points of correspondence between the pictures
• Distorts/undistorts the individual images as necessary
• Corrects exposures in the pictures (this one is especially important, since some pictures will likely be taken into the light and others with the light at your back)
• Blends the adjusted pictures into a final panorama.

(Sorry about the post in the middle of the picture)

The results are amazing. Compare this with my earlier effort (which was so tedious that I never repeated it).  All pictures displayed on this blog are thumbnails; this is definitely one which you will want to click on to see the original, full-sized version.

iPhone App Recommendation #2

Guitars and boats

Guitars and boats go together pretty well, don't they?



Found this on Boat Bits

Guitars and boats

Finally.

Delayed post from Saturday, 7/3

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We are in Montague Harbor. Summer has knocked on the door. It is late in the day and the sun is shining at a shallow angle, glancing off the water and making a light show on the ceiling of the cabin. What you can't see in this picture is that the pattern is constantly rippling, changing.

And, tonight, I can finally declare that I have reached an important mental state: VACATION. Yes, it has been nearly a week since we left Seattle, but perhaps that says how tightly wound I had become (I think Jane would agree with that assessment).

We had a wonderful sail over here from Ganges. After using the engine to get out of the harbor, directly upwind, we made a left turn and unfurled the sails into a spectacular reach, making 6.5 kt. As we made it thru Captain's Passage, the wind fell off, and our speed dropped correspondingly, but finally, finally, that was OK with me. I checked with myself - I was at peace - I felt no urge to meet some self-imposed schedule. So we kept sailing at falling speeds. We sailed the entire way into Montague Harbor, only starting the engine to do the harbor maneuvering to deploy the anchor.

We had planned to visit the restaurant at the marina tonite, but it turns out that reservations are required, and this is Canada Day weekend... So we enjoyed happy hour on the deck with a view that cannot be topped from any restaurant on shore.

Finally.

Boat Pano

Some years back, in March of 2002, I fooled around with some image stitching software and produced this 360° panorama of Eolian's interior.

Of note in it are a view of the back wall of the nav station before I got it refinished, and the *ugly* companionway closure that preceded the one I built. But other than that, the interior refurbishment was essentially completed by the time the pano was made.

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Time and technology march on.  Twelve years down the road from the picture above, everyone has a camera capable of taking much better panoramic photos in their pocket - no exotic image stitching software required:

Boat Pano

Luke...

*pooosh* ... *peeesh* ... I am your father...



(reflection of anchor platform of m/v Tereña)

Luke...