Mizzen sail cozy

                                                                                                   Here it is! The installed mizzen sail cover.  I am so pleased with how it turned out. If you will remember it was on my to do list #3. After more cursing at the sewing machine - and adjustment of every possible knob and moveable part - here it is! 

In process:



First on my living room floor  -




Then the great zipper installation.. not as scary as I expected! I went on to sew in two additional zippers on the leading edge.

Next up: Mainsail cover! 

Standing Rigging

Finally. New standing rigging on the main mast, and new roller furler installed.

All safe on the post tropical cyclone Irene front

SE 24 gusting to 37mph (20 gusting to 32knots)

Force 7: (31-38mph, 27-33kn) Sea heaps up. Some foam from breaking waves is blown into streaks along wind directiong. Moderate amounts of airborne spray.

East 19 gusting to 26 knots per NOAA

Being a nautically minded individual I think in knots - you know nautical miles per hour. For full disclosure one nautical mile = 1.15 statute miles - but more importantly 1 nautical mile is equal to 1 minute of latitude - which makes it a very handy tool when plotting on a chart. So - my rant -  why does NOAA list wind speed in mph and km/h ? why not knots? Many (most? all?) of the people listening to NOAA weather broadcasts are on the seas - and so thinking in knots... but instead start saying to themselves...well this wind speed looks like Force 5 - let me convert Beaufort to mph to see if my estimate agrees with NOAA...  wouldn't everyone just be happier thinking in knots? So - the wind speed in the title has been converted to knots - but I would propose that NOAA was under-estimating the wind speed as witnessed in this video. 

Watching and Waiting

E 20 gusting to 23mph per NOAA.

Good morning Irene

Occasional heavy showers overnight. 

Currently: 

Wind: East 12mph 

Barometer: 29.74"

We took Ballantine for a walk between showers - now everyone is ready for a quiet day of reading and warm beverages aboard Kairos!