a tall ship tour

greg and i visited three tall ships this afternoon (in the misty rain which never let up). the first we toured was the u.s. coast guard eagle, second was oosterschelde out of rotterdam, and the third was the pride of baltimore ii.

the eagle was the largest to walk through. half the crew was busy in the galley and the other half were in their dress blues ready to answer questions. 

the eagle was originally a german training ship before and during world war ii and was afterwards taken by the u.s. as war reparations. she was commissioned into the u.s. coast guard as the eagle in may of 1946 and sailed from bremerhaven, germany to new london, connecticut (through a hurricane, so the story goes . . you can read more about it on wikipedia). the red, white and blue racing stripes were added to the hull when the ship was prepared to be a host ship in operation sail 1976.

the shaggy fringe on the standing rigging near where they come in contact with the sails are called baggywrinkle and are made from old lines, providing a softer wearing surface so the sails don't chafe.

finishing up in the galley . . 

i spoke with the young servicemember standing here how they hoist the sails. she said a leader calls heave, and the others call ho as they pull. her favorite part, she added, was to be up the mast, in the rigging. later, i thought to ask her what she needed to do in the rigging as the sails went up, but i couldn't find her. 

the information posters scattered about the ship mentioned that the servicemembers learned celestial navigation with a sextant. i always thought that would be interesting to learn.

heading down the gangplank for the next ship . .

the oosterschelde, which had been a cargo ship and is now a touring ship.

we actually have a similar painting at the house that my mom and dad bought many years ago . . 

okay, the last ship, the pride of baltimore ii . . she's indirectly named after a baltimore built topsail schooner chasseur which participated in the war of 1812, sailed by privateer thomas boyle.

you can read more about the pride of baltimore here.

heading home we passed two servicemembers from the eagle . . 

and you can't see it, but a misty rain was still wafting about . . 

you can see all three ships sailing in the parade in this video . . first would be oosterschelde, followed by eagle, and then the pride of baltimore.

coop shift and pantry clean up

 

greg and i were out early for a 9:30 am shift at the coop today. we went to different places in brooklyn for a bite to eat before work. i chose a cafe for a croissant and cappuccino and greg chose the bagel shop for a bagel with cream cheese and coffee.

it was another work shift of stocking frozen foods, bottled and canned drinks, snack foods, cans of beans and pasta. in the last 20 minutes we also worked together stocking paper towels, toilet tissue and kleenex boxes. it was a fun two and three quarter hours (though i did get a little antsy and bored as usual at the two hour mark). afterwards, we did our shopping.

heading to the car after the shift and a shop!

back at home . . i sent morgan photos of the kitchen clean up that has been long overdue. 

i finally was motivated today as now that we're shopping at the coop again, we buy olives, nuts and dried fruit in bulk, and the pantry was messy with dirty jars and some empty jars.

ah! now i can find things again.

the parade of tall ships

 

on the way to see the tall ships . . 

security!

here they come . . 

pilot #1 led the parade . . (i love the call of the ship's horn)

greg said, imagine a hundred of them (british ships) anchored off of sandy hook, ready to attack (in 1776 when the battle of new york took place). 

many of the ships were playing music . . 

not all of the ships were warships . . here's the south street seaport museum ship, and the hudson clearwater sloop also sailed, but was turned away from the parade by the coast guard for hoisting their banner promoting the clean water act, climate solutions, indigenous rights and racial justice. a little beacon blog shares the story of what happened. in the past, the clearwater sloop has sailed in the bicentennial 1976 tall ship parade and the 1986 rededication of the statue of liberty parade.

i love the firefighter boats . . 

ships calling to each other while passing in the daylight . . 

tree damage from yesterday's storm . . 

so many trees were lost . .

heading home . .

selling flags at the corner . .

debris from the storm. we lost a tree in front, but fortunately not in the back.

korrina's sweet wash the cat, not enjoying the firework explosions coming from outside.

good night!

hot weather, a card game, and a summer storm

 

greg went out to the museum of modern art today, chanda went to work and i sorted through outfits i'm considering wearing to morgan and harley's wedding. the pants i shopped for at the fancy store with greg ended up not fitting so i'm kind of back to square one. but i ordered a shirt that i'm hoping will go with a pair of pants i already have . . we shall see.

it's been incredibly hot . . so hot that when i stepped outside the other day, i was met with a wall of hot air that reminded me of southern california. it was sufficiently hot and sufficiently dry that i was transported back to my aunt's house on canoga avenue in woodlawn hills . . to when i would step out from the bedroom's sliding glass door onto the hot cement surrounding the inground pool. the sunlight was blinding, the water was sparkling blue and very inviting, and my feet burned from the hot pavement. i would always get blisters. they were lazy days of lying in the sun, floating on the water, and getting stung on the back of my knee by a giant wasp. they were summer days in between college days. i miss the people in the periphery of those days . . my aunt and uncle, my mom and dad . . mixed in with the smell of the pepper trees and the eucalyptus trees.

all of that swam in my head as i stepped into the courtyard from the back door on the ground floor with  two bags of laundry. one hundred degrees. thirty seven celsius. today was the same, except i didn't go out in it. i stayed in the cooler air from the heat pump we have. it's a welcome respite and i can get things done but it'll be nice to open up the windows again . . one of these days.

we played round six of may i this evening. chanda is leading with 20 points (much to her surprise), greg has 155 points and i'm last with 245 points. ah well!

as we were playing, we heard the wind begin to howl and something seemed to be rolling around up on the roof. the trees bent as we've never seen them bend before and the wind increased so that it felt like the whole apartment building would take off like the house in the wizard of oz. the rain pelted down and we could hear someone exclaim when the lightning flashed. and then it quieted down again. i've never been in a tornado, but that is what i imagine it might be like.

the sky glowed afterwards . . yellow, pink, purple and blue.

korrina put up a photo on her instagram story. she had been at work still. such striking colors in the sky!

i posted several days between june twelfth to the twenty fourth.