Summer Wildlife and the Grain Moon

This evening I saw lots of wildlife, mostly on my run through the mangroves and over the Goodland Bridge. Sightings included my most favorite summer visitors, black skimmers, a bunch of mangrove bats, a black crowned night heron flying over head, the typical osprey, a raccoon, tarpon and jacks in the snooklight aquarium, and of course little green herons all about the finger dock.
After my run I got back to the marina to catch this picture of the moon... of course the picture doesn't do near the justice of the beauty that was seen. Earlier and closer to the horizon, the moon was an incredible sight to see... I ran screaming (in my head) as I was attacked by ferocious mosquitoes while i was attempting to get this picture... ouch.
a night shot... you can only imagine how still i tried to be... such great mosquito bait i was ;)
click on the pic to see in more detail :)

The virtuous life of Buddhism

Visited the World Peace Temple in Glen Spey, NY for a beautiful Buddhist retreat weekend.
The temple was beautiful.
As you are looking at the front of the temple, within the glass wall windows, the Peace Cafe is on the left and the shop is on the right. the windows slide open to let the beautiful winds flow in. based as a square, the temple rises up as on octagon.
Within the copula, the wheel of Dharma...


I wish I'd captured more pictures of the beauty of this place...

It just might be...

I know I probably shouldn't say it on a sailing blog...
but,
It just might be my most favorite place to be...


Hiking in the White Mountains...
Two days and 24ish miles later, three more peaks bagged....
Top left pic is Bondcliff from Bond Mtn. all the rest are general White Mountain views from Bond Mtn. the bottom right includes Mt. Washington.

Hurricane prep...

Working on getting Athena ready for any potential hurricanes... It's much "nicer" to prepare for hurricanes when not under the pressure of an oncoming storm.
Her sails are down, dodger off, more dock/piling lines, and chaffing gear... the chaffing gear isn't quite set just yet, but, where getting there i think... the chaffing gear is reinforced white tubing where the dock lines go through the line leaders. rubbing up against the line leaders can deteriorate the line quickly... also put all the bumpers on the dock side of the boat, and tied the kayak and dinghy to the boat as well.
she looks pretty bare now.

One of my favorite tools...

The heat cutter... When one needs to cut line and keep it from fraying, it's perfect for the job. Must stay away from those non-friendly smoky fumes... probably not the Earth friendliest... Unfortunately, no matter how we try, we will always have some sort of footprint on this Earth. size really is what matters ;p

Wicked High Tide

Wicked high tide at the marina. Some seasons have higher tides than others, then add a nice full moon onto that... wow. usually high tide is about 12 inches below top of dock, but this day, it was maybe 8 inches below top of dock! The dock walk through mangroves are full of water...

New "library"...

New bookcase for the marina "library" where everyone shares books and magazines. I've borrowed a few books from the library :) and donated too ;)

Crock Pot

Cooking on the sailboat in a crock pot... My used crock pot from Goodwill for $7.99 ;)
an effort to keep the footprint small, buy used stuff!
Saves money too...