First, an update, Maserati, skippered by Giovanni Soldini, is ahead of the transatlantic record set by Mari Cha IV.
Mother’s day, touches us all. Motherhood is also one of those issues that men in a man’s world don’t quite know how to deal with. Reluctant to acknowledge the place of women, while realizing that motherhood is essential to life and existence, never mind nurturing.
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY
A closing note about the America’s Cup event in Newport, Rhode Island in June 2012.
PROVIDENCE – A committee to take charge of the many arrangements needed for the America’s Cup World Series regatta slated for Newport next year was formally established Thursday when Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee signed an executive order creating the panel, to be chaired by Brad Read, executive director of Sail Newport.
“The America’s Cup World Series races have great potential to bring job creation and revenue to Rhode Island,” Chafee said. “Newport has long, strong ties to the America’s Cup and these races renew that historic connection. The host committee established today, led by renowned sailor Brad Read, will help to coordinate important preparation efforts to ensure that this exciting event is thoroughly successful.”
Joining the governor at the Statehouse signing ceremony were Read, Russell Coutts, CEO of Oracle Racing, current America’s Cup champion that will defend the title in finals set for San Francisco in 2013, and Richard Worth, chairman and CEO of the America’s Cup Event Authority.
The America’s Cup World Series Host Committee will serve as the state’s principal entity for coordinating the races and affiliated events. The local committee will coordinate marketing, business outreach, public support, event logistics, traffic, public safety and public infrastructure preparations.
The panel will consist of at least 23 members, yet to be named, including representatives of: Aquidneck Island towns; the Newport County Chamber of Commerce; the convention and visitors bureaus based in Providence and in Newport; various state departments; the commercial shipping industry; and the marine industry.
The races, featuring high-tech AC45 wing-sailed catamarans, are scheduled for June 23-July 1 in Newport Harbor and will comprise the final event of the first World Series circuit, established to ocean racing during America’s Cup off years.
The local committee will coordinate marketing, business outreach, public support, event logistics, traffic, public safety and public infrastructure preparations. State officials have estimated the event will generate $72 million in new spending and create 400 jobs.
I have a passion for sailing, I don’t think that is a secret. It is a time consuming sport, leaving little for other pursuits. I really found shotguns later in life, I have almost always owned a gun, but never took the time to understand the sport of guns. I was introduced to shotgun sports by Jimmy Gublemann, with whom I attended St. George’s School, where we played hockey and sailed, continuing ever since. Jimmy can make anything fun.
We are the same age, we are grandparents to two grandchildren each, and have the same aches and pains like anyone else our age; including failing eyesight. Shooting is 99% eyes; hence our scores have adjusted about equally; worse than we remember.
Today, I spent a great relaxing day shooting clay targets with Jimmy, his son Bingo, and a group of sailors. November’s weather has been kind to us in the Northeast, today was no exception with the temperature above 60 and blue skies and high clouds.
This was my first opportunity to have almost everyone missing my daughter, Isabelle) united for a photograph and a meal. We are grandparents twice in a year, to Luc And Felix.
The next photo is for my wife,
We are grandparents for the second time this year. Luc was born exactly six months to the day earlier. We knew Felix was due to arrive soon. But as with much of life, not as predicted. Mother and boy are healthy and happy. We missed the occasion but hope to see everyone soon. I cannot wait to see and photograph the newest addition to the family.
Father’s Day day trip. The de Cordova Museum to see the sculpture of Ursula von Rydingsvard. Along the way we met the pair of british bull dogs, a fascinating catalpa tree. as far from boats as we could be in one day.
Mother’s day, when we pause to recognize mothers, who bore and nurtured us. Motherhood is a concept the is fundamental and essential to any society.
Men are the leaders in most cultures; yet we are all born of women. Those societies in which women are relegated to a secondary position, wrestle with these beliefs and do not know how to reconcile the essential place of a mother. It is curious how difficult a simple idea can be for so many.
My posts are usually not so personal; but if we put life in perspective, what touches my life most profoundly? Is it the America’s Cup? The Six Meter World Championship? Or is it friends and family? I am hoping the questions begs the answer. Florence, niece to my wife, is finishing a year at Harvard before returning to Paris, came for the day with her parents, children, and uncle.
After a whirlwind tour of “Chateau-sur-mer”, “Marble House”, “Rosecliff “, “The Breakers”, and “The Elms” ( all properties of the Preservation Society of Newport County) marvels of American interpretations of European architecture. We returned home for a late lunch of cold lobster and red wine and of course conversation. Florence’s children were very patient with all of us, given that our topics of talk might not have been their first choice.
Here is an article sent to me by Lee Reichart after the earlier post.
Mar 29, 11:09 AM EDT
Baltic Sea letter in a bottle found 24 years later
MOSCOW (AP) — Nearly a quarter-century after a German boy tossed a message in a bottle off a ship in the Baltic Sea, he’s received an answer.
A 13-year-old Russian, Daniil Korotkikh, was walking with his parents on a beach when he saw something glittering lying in the sand.
“I saw that bottle and it looked interesting,” Korotkikh told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “It looked like a German beer bottle with a ceramic plug, and there was a message inside.”
His father, who knows schoolboy German, translated the letter, carefully wrapped in cellophane and sealed by a medical bandage.
It said: “My name is Frank, and I’m five years old. My dad and I are traveling on a ship to Denmark. If you find this letter, please write back to me, and I will write back to you.”
The letter, dated 1987, included an address in the town of Coesfeld.
The boy in the letter, Frank Uesbeck, is now 29. His parents still live at the letter’s address.
“At first I didn’t believe it,” Uesbeck told the AP about getting the response from Korotkikh. In fact, he barely remembered the trip at all; his father actually wrote the letter.
The Russian boy and the German man met each other earlier this month via an Internet video link.
Korotkikh showed Uesbeck the bottle where he found the message and the letter that he put in a frame.
The Russian boy said he does not believe that the bottle actually spent 24 years in the sea: “It would not have survived in the water all that time,” he said.
He believes it had been hidden under the sand where he found it – on the Curonian Spit, a 100-kilometer (60-mile) stretch of sand in Lithuania and Russia.
In the web chat earlier this month, Uesbek gave Korotkikh his new address to write to and promised to write back when he receives his letter.
“He’ll definitely get another letter from me,” the 29-year-old said.
Uesbeck was especially thrilled that he was able to have a positive impact on a life of a young person far away from Germany.
“It’s really a wonderful story,” he said. “And who knows? Perhaps one day we will actually be able to arrange a meeting in person.”
A few years ago I put a message in a bottle. A bottle that I had found on the beach. I wrote a simple message; one with my name and address. I corked the bottle and threw it into the water off Newport. Nine months later I had an answer. The bottle had washed up on a beach in the Bahamas; found by a family from Jamestown on vacation there.
I am still amazed by the whole event.
