Chesapeake Sailing Club

February 2012

SCUTTLEBUTT

Newsletter of the Chesapeake Sailing Club

Calendar at a Glance
    Feb 25 - Winter party - Susan and Glenn Whaley host
    Mar 17 - Winter party - Margie and Joe Powers host
See the detailed Cruise Schedule

Commodore's Column
Mal Singerman, Tieve Owna

Email has kept Anne Marie and me, and other members of the club who are not in the area, in touch with the activities of the CSC in Annapolis. My regret at not being able to attend these gathering has been tempered by enjoyment of the mild weather, bright sunshine and total absence of snow in Florida.

An informal lunchtime gathering of the CSC Irregulars (Southeastern Florida Division), has been planned and organized by Joe and Margie Powers. The date is February 16th, and the place is the Cove Restaurant in Deerfield Beach. Anyone whose travels will have them in the area is most welcome to join our intrepid band.

As I write these notes, on January 29th, Anne Marie and I are enjoying the company of Dave and Lois Nance in Key West. Our plan is to return to Fort Lauderdale sometime in the first week of February. Since everyone on board Tieve Owna is a CSC member, we don't feel it is a very long stretch to regard our journey as a club cruise, thereby allowing us to fly the CSC burgee over the waters of the Hawk Channel. In his capacity as Cruise Captain, Dave Nance has carefully laid out the course and stops for our voyage, and I have been informed that he plans to submit a report of our adventures for the March news letter.

I hope that all the members are enjoying a happy and healthy winter season, wherever they find themselves. Anne Marie and I look forward to the beginning of the 2012 sailing season, and the resumption of CSC events on the water, with great anticipation.

Vice Commodore's Report
Joe Powers, Aquavit

Despite contrary indicators, such as daffodils and dandelions making an appearance, it is still winter in the Annapolis area. So there is still another month or more to finalize the spring lists for boat commissioning. Glenn and Susan Whaley will provide another opportunity to share plans and advice with the February dinner at their place. It will be an Italian night with Sue providing her delicious lasagna. It is scheduled for February 25th.

Joe and Margie Powers will be back from Florida for the March dinner. It will be on March 17th and will be corned beef and cabbage and trimmings.

The Southeastern conference of the CSC will hold a luncheon on February 16th at the Two Georges at the Cove Restaurant and Marina at noon. The restaurant is located at the intersection of the Intracoastal Waterway and Hillsboro Blvd in Deerfield Beach. (For the GPS dependent, the address is 1754 S.E. 3RD Court, Deerfield Beach). We encourage anyone in the area to attend.

Fleet Captain's Report
Dave Nance, Ariel

We are currently sailing the Keys with the Singerman's aboard Tieve Owna and may be out of WI-FI range at months end so here is my strange report. My report for February is a bit off beat, but as most of you are enjoying cold winter weather I thought that a story about sailing might be appropriate. I hope you enjoy this:

MUSIC IS A VEHICLE FOR DREAMS

Some time ago I wrote "Dreams, Memories and Music," an accounting of my daydreams while listening to music. In this random stream of consciousness of an old man, as Lois called it, I described very despairingly a voyage along the New Jersey coast by comparing it to the music of Ives, and saying that the coastline was punctuated with gaudy casinos and decaying houses. I got a lot of heat about this so here is a revision to the description of this part of the voyage.

The overnight sail along the coast from Cape May to New York City can be visualized as in a dream while listening to Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 4 in E flat major, the "Romantic" symphony. At just over an hour long, the music makes for a much faster trip than the normally twenty two hour sail.

The echoing horns that begin the first movement suggest the exhilaration felt on entering the ocean from the harbor at Cape May. The awareness of motion, the clarity of the air, the vividness of colors and the vastness of the sea is magnified like that of an adrenalin rush. The second movement describes a slow march, much like the repetition of the waves, the constant hourly position logging and plotting and course corrections to keep the boat well off shore to clear the land as it protrudes eastward into the Atlantic. The routine of a voyage is now established. The closing drum roll alerts the crew to make preparations for nightfall under sail.

Bruckner called the third movement a "hunting scherzo." Its opening horn calls that rapidly develop into a full blown brass fanfare is a great visualization of a beautiful sunset and preparations for the long and lonely overnight sail. Throughout the night we gaze at the stars and watch the direction and movements of ships and fishing trawlers on the radar and steer a course between the shore and the traffic separation lanes that extend between New York harbor, Cape May and Delaware Bay.

The final movement begins with a sense of foreboding. It is reminiscent of the anticipation as you approach the busy Sandy Hook and Ambrose Channels and the monitoring of radio frequencies to determine the positions and speed of the various ships and tows moving in these waterways. The echo's of the opening horn calls return but is contrasted with a lighter folksy theme suggesting that you are once again one person of many and are approaching landfall. The horn calls again blaze out triumphantly as you sail through the Verrazano Narrows and into New York Harbor. When the boat is safely moored the finale creates the excitement that is felt as you gaze across the Hudson to the Manhattan skyline.

Listen to this symphony all the way through. (It's seventy minuets long). Then dim the lights, turn up the volume, and dream.

As the composer Michael Torke said in his notes for "Bright Blue Water," music is a vehicle. For me it is a vehicle for reliving past voyages.

Cruise Report-

A Jolly January Junket
Glenn Whaley, Bay GyPSy

We tend to think of a junket as a congressional joy ride at our expense. But Mr. Webster says that it's also a banquet, feast, or outing. So we'll go with that. Because that's just what we did back on January 21st!

Twelve of us (that would be from the northern contingent of the CSC) gathered at Frank and Liz Cingels' home for a truly wondrous chicken noodle casserole and all the fixin's. Everyone contributed toward what turned out to be a grand feast, and had a totally wonderful time visiting, remembering great CSC events of last season, and looking forward to the coming fun of the 2012 season. By the way, besides the hosts, the dozen reveling CSC-ers was made up of Jim and Dona Force, Richard and Leslie Payne, Pat and Karen Valliant, Glenn and Sue Whaley, and guests Rick Denman and Patty Parrish. Rick is a long time Belvedere Yacht Club member and friend of several of us.

It was a 40's-ish day that Saturday, with the only snow of the winter season (so far!) on the ground, although it wasn't much as snow goes. It's been a really warm winter - as Januarys go, this one was right mild. The snow birds of Florida have nothing on us this year! (Well, okay, that might be pushing it a bit but you get the idea.) So the dozen of us have been sort of celebrating a whiff of spring that isn't all that far off, if you think about it the right way. There's still time for a couple more shore-side events before we break out the ol' sails, though. So let's set our Navplotters for the Whaleys for a Fabulous February Feast and continue the revelry.

Webmaster and Editor
Frank Cingel

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