BeachWeb_April

Well - it's EARLY April, now, and not many things have not 'happened-yet' (but they will, we can assure you of that!

This is a '_Foiling Moth_' - one of the boats (about 20-25 or so) of them in a National Championship in "Key Largo" (part of the
_Florida_Keys_)... - We drove down there to see them race. They ride of (hydro)foils, and we'd read about them, seen pictures
in magazines, seen them on "_You_Tube_" (just plug in the phrase: "foiling moth" in the search box), but we'd never actually
seen a real boat, much less a bunch of them or a regatta. They literally come out of the water and they are both fast and exciting
to watch. The boats we have, called 'Europe Dinghies' (and a picture of them below) have a common ancestor about 20-30 years
ago, with these 'foiling moths'. The sticker you see on the boat above ("11th hour racing") is an environmental group out of New
England that sponsors this series of regattas...

These boats have to lay on their side(s) on the dry-earth because they draw 'about' 4-5 feet with their foils installed in the hull.
That means to launch - you put the boat in the water on it's side, - carry it out until you're in four or five feet of water, right
the boat and sail-away... - sound wet (and maybe cold in some climates?) - yup - right again! OH _ and you can see the wind
(or lack thereof) in the background - this was a 3-day regatta (with a fourth for practice)... but the day we were there, on a
Saturday, was the only day they had enough wind to race. They did seven races, and that was 'it'.!

just one of the VERY CRITICAL "mechanical systems" on these boats - and located RIGHT ON the bow (so when you crash into someone,
this thing gets 'toasted') - and - OH, it's ALL STAINLESS STEEL - so that means both EXPENSIVE and Heavy (like if it comes loose from
the boat it will SINK!...

Just PART of the 'control-center' on these boats... - does this look both Complicated and EXPENSIVE, yup! - in this case
looks are NOT deceiving, they are real...

However one of the things that DID HAPPEN is that we 'borrowed' a mini-van, pulling a boat-trailer from some family in Vancouver....
We illegally imported same to the USA back in late February... As we had spent a weekend (back in mid-March) with our boats in Key Largo
(watching some racing), and went to put our boats back-up this weekend, Ms. May came up with the brilliant idea to take a picture
of the old / full-size rig and newer mirco (mini? milli?) rig?

A very good friend / relative sent this picture which I think is an exceedingly good picture of another good friend / relative...

found this cycle-path administrator - he was collecting funds for the use of the cycle-path!

and found this 'Flower of the Day' recently at a "Big Box Store"...

Today, is actually the last day of March, but amazingly enough a LOT HAPPENED today:

1.) Boat Trailer Maintenance
2.) Boat Trailer spare-tire-covers made (from Top Gun Cloth) and installed
3.) MANY Boat Trailer 'platens' (wooden things to keep trailer from sinking in soft sand) made
4.) tie-downs consolidated in a single bag
5.) boat covers re-installed, ordered cloth to make NEW boat covers
6.) shop cleaned-up / re-organized, a LOT of things 'thrown-away'! (five garbage bags!)
7.) Irrigation installed in front of pottery-studio
8.) new gaskets in garden-hose-extension
9.) a LOT MORE things thrown-out / away - a LOT of weeds pulled
10.) LOTs of trolley-tires re-inflated to correct pressure.
11.) we updated this web-page and turned-it-on one day early (this is actually the April page, and we 'turned-it-on' on 30 March!)

Mr. Panda-Bear's web-page: http://www.vikingasia.org/BeachWeb/PandaBear/PB.html