Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Windrider]

Same boat, some crew's eye view of that race:

 

[MaryJanet]

Same boat, some crew's eye view of that race:

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That's quite impressive! And scary. Did the lighter boats have to give up?

 

[Ribh]

This is not related to chickens at all, and I still don't have my new chickens yet to pay tax! I am working on it, though. Got the shade house area and the old coop cleared out ready to build the new one. Will be looking for three bantam pullets this summer.

I am a licensed captain (and female, I might add), but since boats are very expensive and I am poor, I mostly act as first mate on wealthier friends' boats. I have done the Transpac race multiple times (So Cal to Hawaii), spent 2 1/2 years cruising the South Pacific, and regularly had rich people hire me as part of a crew to bring their yachts back from Mexico (due to prevailing currents, everyone wants to sail to Mexico, but no one wants to do the "Baja Bash" bringing them back). Currently I run a university sailing program and try turn a bunch of landlubber students into sailors in eight weeks.

This pic is fun. I am regularly first mate on this boat for fun stuff. She is a heavy cruising sailboat, but we entered her in the Newport to Ensenada race one year on a lark. It is a handicapped race, so boats of all types compete, usually around 400 boats. We had no expectations, but that year was so stormy it was a shoo-in for all the heavy cruisers and we won and got a big ol' trophy! We even beat Dennis Connor the Amercia's Cup champion! This is us coming up on the finish line.

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My whole family are sailors but I like my boats under 16' & very, very fast. If they come with a trapeze all the better. The lack of fresh water & a dislike of salt water is only one reason I hate living aboard.

 

[Ribh]

I adore this little chicken.

Don't we all!

As do I... She's a cheeky little thing & rather spoiled but she is so whimsical & friendly I can never really be cross @ her.

 

[Ribh]

Try living on a sailboat! When all you have is 400 gallons of fresh water to get a six person crew across the Pacific from Panama to Tahiti, fresh water is only for drinking and cooking!

Granted, we did take long hot showers... it was just salt water, with a quick fresh water rinse at the end.

Oh, I have. I loathe living aboard boats. The salt gets into everything & I get crazy rashes. My brother has lived aboard his 50' cat with wife & 2 kiddlets for 30+ years; my parents cruised the east coast & the live aboard brother has done the pacific crossing several times bringing boats across for their new owners & the Sydney to Hobart once. A lack of fresh water is the least of it in many respects. I liked racing dingies but anything over 16 ' is not for me!

 

[bruceha2000]

Very impressive Windrider! What a lovely life you've lived so far, plenty more to come I hope. I sure wouldn't want to have been on one of the downwind sleds in that race.

 

[no fly zone]

Well, down one egg in the incubator. I forgot to candle them prior and turns out one had a hairline fracture and ruptured.

 

[no fly zone]

I was watching a large raccoon messing around by the chicken coop from my bedroom window. Too bad I couldn't open the window silently and lean out with the crossbow. Will have to check tomorrow to see if I have a clear line of sight from the corner of the front porch.

 

[Windrider]

That's quite impressive! And scary. Did the lighter boats have to give up?

Some of the smaller ones did. But even the big oceanic racers had to reduce sail so they wouldn't broach (we saw some broaches). We had up every stitch of canvas we could carry, though at one point we blew out our mizzen staysail (which we repaired and re-hoisted on the fly).

As we approached the finish line, Dennis Connor's big super sled, Young America, came from seaward of us with a fully beat up and drenched crew and their spinnaker in tatters flying from the masthead like a flag. At that point, we were cruising in the cockpit in our foulies calmly having breakfast coffee.

My whole family are sailors but I like my boats under 16' & very, very fast. If they come with a trapeze all the better. The lack of fresh water & a dislike of salt water is only one reason I hate living aboard.

I have been reading your thread with no hope of getting caught up, but I had a feeling we have a lot in common! I really am mostly a small boat sailor as well. The only boat I own is a 14' Laser. When I was a young college student, I was the only girl in my fleet racing them, and the sail area really was too much for a 130lbs sailor. It is not an old person's boat either, and now days I am having more trouble beating my students (though age and treachery beat youth and enthusiasm).

Did you ever sail one of those Aussie 18' skiffs? We American sailors look at those and think "only an Aussie would invent a boat that bonkers!"

Very impressive Windrider! What a lovely life you've lived so far, plenty more to come I hope. I sure wouldn't want to have been on one of the downwind sleds in that race.

Thanks! I may not be rich, but I have not ever had to have a desk job, either, unless you count my illustration work as a desk job.

 

[Ribh]

The only boat I own is a 14' Laser. When I was a young college student, I was the only girl in my fleet racing them, and the sail area really was too much for a 130lbs sailor.

Ah. A Laser had too much sail area for me. I was 5'5" & 7 stone when I was racing ~ which means I was too small & light for the 16 & 18 footers on Sydney Harbour too. I raced the old Scow Moths ~ the only girl in our club racing one. Ticked the blokes off in the light winds. But I have raced Cherubs, Fireballs, Flying 11s ~ I was crew for a skipper who had no experience with round hulls so we swam a lot.. My brother & I raced a friend's Fireball of Jibbon Beach in a Southerly. Between us we'd have been lucky to weigh 14 stone dripping wet [& we were] The wind was between 25 & 30 knots & we had so much white water on the reaches we had zero visibility & both of us hanging off the stern. It was a lovely sail. The old Sharpies are nearly as exciting as the 18 footers. We had a big fleet of them. They were very popular with the competitive sailors & we hosted the National Championships one year. Most exciting thing I've ever seen. They had no limit on the sail area so if you could rig it you could carry it. The 1st race a southerly buster came through & the fleet exploded. The masts splintered like spaghetti. All the sails blew out. Boats cartwheeled across the bay dragging crew in their trapeze harnesses behind them. It was a mess. They had to jerry rig extra pick up boats to fish everyone out of the drink.

The only time I enjoyed *cruising* we'd been up the Pittwater & came round Barrenjoey into a 25 + knot southerly. I thought it was lovely but my dad figured a seasick wife, 2 small boys & me was not a safe enough crew & turned back. I like my sailing mad, bad & dangerous...

Yeah, ok, Shad, paying tax...

Portia & Olivia.