Winter Blues

[kickingbug1]

    steve, if you can come down for the rendezvous in july you can also get in a couple of rounds of golf at the nearby golf course.   take care on the roads everyone.

[Steve Ullrich]

Good Morning Kickingbug - I have the rendezvous on the calendar.  I've been watching the thread and keeping track of developments.  I'd love to make the trip but will have to see how things play out. i.e. I have a nephew that just announced his engagement.  Hopefully the date they set won't create a conflict.  That would suck but the wedding would have to be the priority.  I hope I can make it.

    steve, if you can come down for the rendezvous in july you can also get in a couple of rounds of golf at the nearby golf course.   take care on the roads everyone.

[brackish]

Where do you like to ski? If you want to tempt fate on a really big mountain I'll comp you a day at Copper Mt. Come on up.

Have not heard of Sidney's. Where is it exactly? We plan on staying mostly in the Spanish VI's, Culebra and Vieques. Might hit the western end of the BVI, we will see.

We've been going to Winter Park primarily for a lodge we like.  The Timber House is a multi-generational family owned Europeon style lodge.  Ski in through a woods trail.  Kind of a beat up old place that doesn't have TV's, phones, locks on the doors, and doesn't allow electronic games, computers or cell phones to be used in public areas.  They feed you just this side of gourmet, treat you like family and evening entertainment is pleasant conversation and old Warren Miller ski movies.  Usually there are a few musically talented folks so piano, guitar and song are normal.  Not a place for those seeking glamour, glitz and nightlife but suits us fine.  The returning core guest group are also multigenerational families, so we see familiar faces from around the country each year.

My wife doesn't ski much anymore but she can always recruit a group of like minded folks to snowshoe the woods trails in the area.  I'm a blue/green guy more interested in self preservation than thrills and spills.

Thank you for your generous offer.  Not sure I can take advantage, but appreciated.  No plans yet this year.  Since the kids have left home and we are not forced into a spring break week, we generally go late March when the crowds have thinned and, hopefully, the snow has not. 

Sidney's Peace and Love is a family run open pavilion picnic table beach place that, to my knowledge, only has one item on the menu.  Lobster dinner.  It is to port when entering Little Harbour on Jost Van Dyke.  Mix your own at the honor bar.  When we were there we had four couples and two Endeavour 38 CC's and we rated Sidney's as our most fun overnight stop.  It was, however, a long time ago.

Spanish VI's, that's kind of a road less traveled?  Read about it and have been considering it.  I think an article summarizing the experience post charter is warranted.

[John J]

Hey sailors.  If you think winter is tough up North, try Florida for a change.  Only problem down here is the sore neck syndrome from checking out the lovely ships by the pool.

[Bob23]

Ah, John:
   My heart goes out to you. It must be hard on the neck! Maybe you could hire a lookout.
Bob23 in NJ....where the weak are killed and eaten!

[Tim Gardner]

Well, it's now official,  with the third 12"+ snowfall on its way to beautiful Smith Mountain Lake, VA, my "the lake is mine" season has been "Sailus Interruptus".  On Sunday, I will have to clear, once again, snow from the decks and cockpit of S'Go, the forlorn and sad 19, while risking a Whee Hoo Hoo into the water. I may just go below and take a cool nap before the super bowl. At least the lake doesn't freeze too thick (max a half inch) at her slip, so it won't hurt if I hit the ice.  To think, I secretly used to smile when I read about all ya'll above the MD line staring at the hard water all winter, but laugh I will no longer.

Cold in VA,  TG

[Bob23]

   Listening to the weather radio on the way home from work yesterday, I heard that NOAA issued a blizzard warning for my county (Ocean, NJ) for this weekend. COOL! High tides, high winds, lot's of snow. Does it get any better than this? Yeah, it does.
   Looks like a weekend of cross country skiing for me.  Here in the South of NJ, in the famous Pine Barrens, we have miles of trails to ski on. True, lately they (the authorities) have been cracking down on dirtbikes, but I don't ride no more anyway. Back to skiiing- you can go for miles and literally get lost.
   Spring is coming, but winter just won't let go yet!
Bob23-all stocked up with Rum and reading materials!

[brackish]

Take heart, particularly you mid Atlantic folks that are facing blizzard conditions one more time.  It is almost over.  In the woods behind my house are a dozen or so daffodils.  They have poked through the leaves and are standing, at this moment, approximately three inches tall.  That means that they will bloom in ten days to two weeks and that, for me, is the indicator that winter is over.  You cannot fool Mother Nature.

Much more reliable than Punxsutawney Phil, my daffodils have never taken any kickbacks from the winter garment manufacturers association.  There is a consensus on the Trailer Sailor site that Phil and his handlers have stooped to such trickery for their own personal gain.

Certainly this daffodil sighting is late.  In recent years they have poked through in early January, however, that was attributed to global warming.  I read yesterday that this far colder than average winter is also attributed to global warming.  I'm so confused............

[Salty19]

Tim-

And to think...VA is pretty mild compared to further north. It's really a nice place to live weatherwise (all 4 seasons).
Well, 'cept for up in the Blue Ridge mountains.  I'm sure they are no picnic during January. But gorgeous the other 3 seasons.  Got stuck up at Mt Pisgah once on a motorcycle in a bad storm (hail/rain).  Pretty unforgiving place even in the summer when storms roll in.

Bob-Ahh the NJ Barren Sands.  Used to go to a shooting club down in that area with my Dad when I was a boy.  He would shoot skeet, I would pick up used shells and be a general nuisance around the clubhouse. But I did respect things and didn't get in the way at the range itself.

12" expected today through tomorrow.  Should be fun for the kids.

[ka8uet]

Currehntly 19F on the shores of Sandusky Bay.  Supposed to be 9 in Toledo tonight, but probably warmer here.  Mother Erie looks after us even when she's iced over.  We're not supposed to get any more snow until Tuesday into Wednesday.  Don't know yet how much we're going to get, but all that we have now will still be here.  We have drifts all over the place, but it was reported that we got 4" Friday night.  Not near as much as people got to the south of us.  They aren't used to dealing with that stuff down there.  Can't ski or skate any more, so solve the blues by getting on various fora, yachtworld, etc., and watching the snow sparkle in the sun.  And glancing out the window at the boat snuggled into her snow drift. :-)

[curtisv]

[...] It's a mountain lion/puma/couger/panther (all the same animal) killing whatever it is they kill.[...]

So what do you think I did? And what would you do?

Don't know what you did but mountain lions very rarely attack grown people.  Little kids, yes.  Women, occasionally.  Full grown men, very rarely if at all.

If it was a black bear that's another story.  Worry if it has a cub, otherwise don't worry.  A brown bear, then definitely worry.

Where we lived in CT recently the town had the highest black bear sightings in the state one year, 43.  All were sightings of the same bear.  One of our neighbors got a good photo.  No worries as it was a female with no cubs and a bit shy of people.  Apparently some cats were missing, though that could also be hawks.  Most common casualty was bird feeders.  (Hell of a big squirrel out there).

Have been backpacking in VA and saw fresh brown bear tracks in the snow in spring (looked too big to be black bear).  Ran into the tracks at a trail intersection.  Didn't see the bear but definitely went the opposite way that the bear was going and kept quiet for a bit.

Curtis

[Salty19]

Curtis-  Yep, I've seen quite a few black bears at my camp in WV.  Never had one actually come up to the camp, but it's a wild area and they are probably afraid of humans here.  They have all fled the area when they realized I was closeby. Never saw any cubs..thankfully.   

But mountains lions..I don't trust 'em!  Cats are courageous, cunning and sneak up on their victims. You'll never hear them coming.  And man when they kill something it's viscious! Orf at least it sounds that way! 

Starting to see signs of spring...no flowers yet (still snow on the ground), but hey it's starting to melt a little! 

[kickingbug1]

    spring is arround the corner. thats good and bad. good-----i can get outside, bad-----have to think about mowing my grass, good------can chase the three year old granddaughter arround the yard (freshly mowed)  bad----lose the solitude of winter, good-----i can keep the cars clean, bad-----i have lots of warm weather projects on the table, good------I CAN SAIL, bad------i think with the spring melt and the coming flooding at carlyle (closed ramps and no docks) i wont sail as much as i want. but--------much closer to the RENDEZVOUS

[John J]

Lookin' forward to puttin my boat in too at Hazlett ramp on Carlyle this summer at the rendezvous.  The icebergs in the lake will all
be melted by then.  See you all in July.

John J

[curtisv]

But mountains lions..I don't trust 'em!  Cats are courageous, cunning and sneak up on their victims. You'll never hear them coming.  And man when they kill something it's viscious! Orf at least it sounds that way!

I've done a little day hiking in CA in the Cupertino foothills and the top of the Santa Cruz mountains where mountain loins are alegedly common, though I've never seen one.  The origin of the name of the town Los Gatos ("the cats" in spanish) is related to them.  According to the locals, children have been attacked and grown women who were on the smallish side, but otherwise no adults.

The CA state website says "Mountain lion attacks on humans are rare. There have been only 16 verified mountain lion attacks on humans in California since 1890, six of them fatal. The last documented attack occurred in January, 2007, in Humboldt County." (http://www.dfg.ca.gov/news/issues/lion/lion_faq.html) but another web site indicates that the only fatality of a middle age male was a cyclist who had no head or neck bites and therefore is thought to have been a case where the mountain lion scavenged a heart attack victum.

There is a good web site with statistics.  http://tchester.org/sgm/lists/lion_attacks.html#stats.  Total for US and Canada is 73, 10 fatal, from 1991 to 2003.

Its pretty rare and mostly children and women.  Hiking in mountain loin coutry is probably a lot safer than driving in Boston, or urban NJ, or LA freeways.  Now those are some viscous animals.

Nice puddy tat.  We're way off topic.

Curtis