Good Bye to Bounty

Tall ship Bounty was lost in Hurricane Sandy off the coast of Cape Hatteras today.  While there are many unanswered questions why she sailed into one of the largest storms we've seen on the Atlantic in years, thoughts now must go out to the 2 missing crew (including the Captain) and their families.

"Bounty was commissioned by the MGM film studio for the 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty. This vessel was built to the original ship's drawings from files in the British Admiralty archives, and in the traditional manner in a shipyard in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Length was doubled and tonnage was increased.

Bounty was scheduled to be burned at the end of the film, however Marlon Brando threatened to walk off the set in protest, so MGM kept the vessel in service. After filming and a worldwide promotional tour, MGM berthed the ship in St. Petersburg, Florida as a permanent tourist attraction, where she stayed until the mid-1980s. In 1986 Ted Turner acquired the MGM film library and Bounty with it. The ship was used for promotional and entertaining activities, and was used during the filming of Treasure Island with Charlton Heston in 1989.

In 1993, Turner donated the ship to the Fall River Chamber Foundation, which established the Tall Ship Bounty Foundation to operate the ship as an educational venture. In February 2001 Bounty was purchased from the Foundation by the HMS Bounty Organization LLC."

Exploits Out!

Single digit temperatures today and double digit wind made for a cool haul out.  For the most part everything went OK.  There was a brief moment of excitement when I discovered that the travel lift strap was around the keel.  Thankfully I noticed before the boat was too far out of the water and we were able to secure it properly.  It went on the cradle the best yet!

I rented a pressure washer to clean the bottoms, which turned out to be very popular with the Skippers of Silver Seas and Bella Rosa.  Makes short work of a potentially dirty job.  I have a few more hours of work to prep the boat for winter.  Nice to have her safely on the hard!

Giving Thanks for Another Successful Season

Sail #36: 08/10/12 - 10.4 nm

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Weekend, which started with a hike to High Head on Saturday, Thanksgiving supper on Sunday and we finished it off with the last sail of the season on Monday.

The weather hasn't been the greatest lately after an absolutely fantastic summer.  Thanksgiving Monday was coolish, windy and intermittent rain.  We charged out of the bay at 6.5 - 7 knots and turned towards Bayhead, where the sun appeared to shining.  Sadly, it wasn't to be.  The conditions worsened, and we just "weren't into it".

It was nice to get the boat out one last time, but it is becoming apparent that there is very little sailing after mid September on the Strait.  However the past 4 months have been nothing short of fantastic.  Another successful race season, the memorable cruise to the Bras D'or Lake and many fun day sails with some old friends and many new faces.