ws lirakis – Page 91 – stephenlirakis.com

AROUND THE WORLD IN 78 DAYS

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Replay arrivée François Gabart (2) by VendeeGlobeTV
The boat did not break, It was a good fast design, the weather routing was clearly brilliant.

7 DAYS OF COLD

The cold is persisting, even shallow salt water is freezing. Shallow ponds are already in use for skating. If there is a compensation for the cold it would be the simple joy of skating on a pond. I cannot think of another at the moment.

GIANT SQUID

Having grown up with the legend of Jacques Cousteau, the Marianas Trench, Stories of Giant Squid And Sperm Whales, I cannot wait to see the footage on the discovery channel on Jan 27, 2013.
I did see a piece of a giant squid in the ocean in 1968. The presumption was that it must have been torn up by a sperm whale. We were sailing and I did not have an opportunity to grab my camera.

ARCTIC MIST

Arctic Mist or frost fog is nature’s way of indicating just how cold it is. I haven’t seen it on Narragansett bay for more than 15 years.

ICE DAY

If yesterday qualified as a snow day today qualifies as an ice day.

Maserati (volvo 70)has rounded Cape Horn and on her way to San Francisco, ahead of Gitana’s record. (90′ cat)

I have included a photograph of “Coronet” when she first arrived in Newport; well before the restoration began.

SNOW DAY

The snow started around 3 pm yesterday here, It stopped at about 11 pm, given that I had plans for today I thought I would shovel and be done with it. There was not a breath of air and quite warm. No sooner did I finish than it snowed another two inches which I shoveled again this morning, at which point the wind had come up and the temperature was 20 degrees, with sun.

The forecast is for more snow at the end of the week.

INAUGURATION DAY

For his 60th birthday in Bristol RI Irivng Johnson climbed the mast of his boat and did a hand stand on the top.
Giovanni Soldini on board “Maserati” is at Cape Horn in his attempt to set a new record for the course of New York to San Francisco.

We cannot ignore Martin Luther King Day and the inauguration of Barak Obama for his second term, We are full of hope.

FOOTBALL SUNDAY AND TOURO SYNAGOGUE

If you are the least bit interested in sports, you are watching television, unless of course you have tickets to the GAME. Who will play two weeks from now? We will know by tonight.

Today I visited the Touro Synagogue, I have not been for a very long time. The Synagogue has undergone significant restoration since then. Restoration is always a difficult path. It is so easy to make the restoration too new. The patina from years of use, has it’s own story to tell and can be easily lost in the process. Touro is no exception. Carpet covers the original floor; but it needs to be protected. It is unlikely I will ever see it again. Twenty some layers of paint covered the interior. It was stripped and a choice was made about the color it would be re-painted. The color that George Washington would have seen when he visited in 1790.

SHEEP ON THE BAY

The sun is shining and the weather is relatively mild; and it’s blowing a gale out of the southwest. On the cool side but otherwise what a day for sailing.

RACING HIS SHADOW

While the days are getting longer; the sun is still low in the southern sky making the shadows long.