Scattered Thoughts . . .

Today was another stunningly beautiful day. We expected the rains from the remnants of the tropical storm (named "Bill" according to Sheila) to cause problems for much longer than we experienced. Fortunately, this storm hit us through the night and left us with a beautiful day today. Last night, however, was brutal!  We had high winds and heavy rains while the winds blowing across the lake and toward our house caused a bit of a rise in lake elevation on our side of the lake like a mini-storm surge. The lake completely covered our beach and even made its way up a few steps toward the lawn.  This storm reminded me of terrible storms on the waterfront of Long Island when I was growing up. I laid in bed worrying about the power, the roof and the boats while wondering what the high winds were blowing away from our deck and yard. This house is sort of like a houseboat as it is perched out over the lake so the house was also making many unusual sounds as it was battered by

As I wrote in a previous blog post, we had quite a few guests the other day and some beautiful weather for this busy day.  Although I actually shot more than a thousand photos that day, here are a few photos... not necessarily the best... but a quick selection which is representative of the day nevertheless.   Early morning was beautiful... we quietly paddled the lake in our kayaks as the morning mist rose from the lake and the rising sun burned through the night mountain fog.  By mid-morning, the lake was a little windy (and thus slightly cool) but that made for some nice sailing. Lukey actually had a chance to sail for the first time and he enjoyed it immensely! Until now he only got to play on the boat as it sat on its dolly on the back lawn. He actually seemed more at ease in the fast-moving, leaning sailboat than while in a slow-moving, stable kayak. I have some video footage of both this first sailing experience and the early morning kayaking but compiling a video will

We had a very busy day on Wednesday with a visit from Sheila's family. Everyone had a really good time in some magnificent weather on the lake especially the kids.  I'll venture to say that the weather we had yesterday was the most beautiful weather we have experienced in a very long time... perhaps the best ever while at the lake!  It was sunny and clear... it was warm... the lake was calm... the water was clean and warm... it was a perfect day for all water activities and we all took advantage of that by starting our morning at 6am by paddling on the misty morning lake. Sheila had Kenzie in her kayak while I had Lukey in my kayak. Nan and Pop caught up with us on the lake within a few minutes.  When we arrived back at the house, we made some french toast with fresh strawberries. About the same time that we finished cleaning up breakfast, Sheila's brother arrived with his kids. By lunchtime, Liza had joined us as well.   The day was spent kayaking, sailing, swimmin

Seven seconds... That is all the time that elapsed between the first shot posted here which shows Adam a little bit bored and the second shot which shows Adam hiking over to keep the sailboat from capsizing... seven quick seconds.  Things change quickly on the water but when you are sailing such a small, light and nimble boat such as the Minifish, these quick changes require fast thinking and quick action to avoid heeling over and ending up in the water. We had a week of some pretty wild sailing conditions. The wind would be calm and then within seconds the wind would whip up suddenly creating white caps on the lake. The wind would gust to well over 30 knots from a sustained wind of only 12 knots... then the wind would instantly change direction by up to 90 degrees! Some of this quick thinking and fast action involved knowing how to duck in an instant as the wind suddenly gusted and changed direction, slamming the boom over to the other side of the boat, narrowly missing your hea

Our little picnic area on Lake Groton... I wanted to write about this last night but just could not find the energy to do so.  I did, however, manage to post a link late last night on my Facebook page to a small album of photos from our visit to Lake Groton last week.  So, now I will also post that link here and write a little about this latest visit to Lake Groton... First, here is the link to the album...   Lake Groton - 15 Aug 2013. Our original plan was to head back to Groton on Adam's birthday...  August 14th.  Well, the weather didn't cooperate so we postponed the short trip by a day.  Unfortunately, because we postponed the trip, nobody was able to join us.  We still enjoyed ourselves but it was a little disappointing that nobody could make it for Adam's birthday celebration. Putting that disappointment aside, the weather was awesome!  It was a little chilly when the sun was behind the scattered clouds, but the sun was very warm (actually, it was HOT at tim

A small splash for the girls, but I was hit from behind by the wave that caused this splash!  I was down low in the rocks... We enjoy being out on the water, kayaking and sailing, whenever the weather is cooperative.  This environment, however, has always made me nervous whenever using any of my cameras.  Just a little bit of splashed water can ruin a camera.  If it is salt water, that is even worse!  The corrosive properties of salt water will completely destroy the electronics of today's digital cameras. We were at the beach a few years ago, visiting family on Long Island, and I managed to damage one of my cameras.  Sheila and I were out on a jetty shooting some photos of the kids.  We managed to get some nice shots but suddenly, out of nowhere, a large wave crashed down onto the jetty soaking all of us and my camera gear.  Not only did my camera get very wet, but it was covered in corrosive salt water.  Not a good thing.  Salt water is like a deadly virus...  not only doe

My sailing video is finally produced and published online! This video was a long time coming and required a lot of work over the past few months.  I will write more about the challenges I faced in producing this video in the next few days.  These challenges ranged from difficulty getting the sailboat ready to video workstation problems.  More on that will be coming soon. In the meantime, I would like to present my sailing video.   I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!