Archive for the 'Captain Harold' Category
Captain Margie and I wrote an article for the American Sailing Association October 2011 Newsletter;
Featured Charter Destination
An Easygoing Exploration of Biscayne Bay
By USCG/ASA Captains Margie and Harold Ochstein
On the southeast edge of Florida at the foot of the modern, vibrant city of Miami lies Biscayne Bay. Sailing down the bay is your entryway into Biscayne National Park and the Florida Keys, a 170-mile chain of islands stretching off to the south and southwest of mainland Florida. The calm, pristine waters of the bay are protected from the ocean by the coral reefs and the island chain beginning with Key Biscayne. These are a few of our favorite spots; but wherever you go, the water is clear, the wildlife is abundant and the pace is relaxed.
Key Biscayne
Your journey into Biscayne Bay begins once you pass under the MacArthur Causeway. The waterfront high-rises of Miami are close by on your right and Key Biscayne with its marinas and anchorages appears on your left. You can anchor off the west side of Key Biscayne for a comfortable night in the prevailing easterlies. At the south end of Key Biscayne you will find No Name Harbor located in Bill Baggs State Park.
This is a very popular spot for cruisers waiting to cross the Gulfstream to the Bahamas. During the day tie to the seawall, or anchor in the harbor overnight. Chat with sailors from around the world, invite them aboard for a sundowner and share your stories. After walking along the park’s nature trails, take a tour of the working lighthouse built in 1825. Spend some time at the beach on the Atlantic Ocean side of the island, then stop for a drink or have dinner at the Boaters Grill. Read the rest of the article
I can’t help but enjoy what two scouts from Minnesota had to say about our last trip of the summer season;
Dear Captain Harold,
Thank you for being my captain on the Morning dance sailboat. I really liked swimming with the mako sharks and snorkeling at the reef.I liked the Led Zepplin music you let us play on our boat. This was my favorite scout trip ever. this was a great way to end my summer. Thanks from Troop 173 from the land of the ice and snow,
Luke
Dear Captain Harold, Captain Margie and Crew Guide Dana,
Thank you for letting our troop stay on your boat, it was extremely nice of you. I really enjoyed the experience of Seabase, but my favorite was the snorkeling at Sombrero Reef. It was amazing that I got to see a whole bunch of fish and coral that I thought I might not see on this trip. It was a great experience and I am going to remember this for a really long time.
Korey
Hello, Harold and Margie,
We find hard to believe that two months have elapsed since we spent a challenging week with you aboard Island Dreamer! Our travel and education with you impacted our lives significantly. So enriching was our time in theFlorida Keys that we want to make that area a part of our lives for at least several months – maybe more – each year.
Our initial plan in “signing on” for sailing instruction with you was for Herb to obtain ASA certification and for Betty to become a more knowledgeable first mate. Within several days of hands-on experience and your non-threatening methods, though, we realized that both of us should attempt certification. We both ended our week with basic ASA certifications for Keelboat Sailing 101 and Coastal Cruising 103; and Herb, for Bareboat Chartering 104. Your attention to both the overview and the details of every aspect of our trip more than met our expectations.
Here are some of the surprises we experienced:
· Your warm and friendly demeanor while living aboard a 41’ sailboat as a married couple and as ASA-certified captains-instructors; the duality of your knowledge, skills and demeanor was so helpful to us as a couple in planning our future sailboating direction.
· An itinerary flexible to weather and training opportunities.
· The diversity in sailing, anchoring and on-shore experiences: South Beach, Boca Chita, Key Elliott, No Name Island, Biscayne Bay, Key Largo.
· Discovering the differences and similarities between your 20’ boat Kermit and your 41’ Island Dreamer.
· Enjoying meals that were not only healthy as we had requested but also deliciously interpreted by Margie’s inventiveness and cooking skills.
· Adaptability to cabin compactness for more than a weekend.
· Watching a school of dolphins frolic alongside the bow when we were in the Keys.
· Reading a posted sign on one of the islands that manatees were a protected species – and then sighting a manatee in the water just a few feet from us.
· Herb’s discovery that, even though he thought he was fairly knowledgeable because of his Navy nuke-sub experience, he didn’t “know squat” about personal sailing!
· Betty’s discovery that previous “heeling” experiences were not so exciting as they were indicators of limited experience to avoid them.
Overall, we are still benefiting from our time with you. We have had opportunities to apply new skills to sailing our own 28’ S-2; we now know which nautical and safety devices are important to have on board. Herb has retrofitted a chart plotter, compass and depth finder to make a nav board for our cockpit; and has provided, as you suggested, a movable tether coupled to a D-ring harness to protect Betty and calm her fear of the water.
We are looking forward to renting a boat in the Keys as well as someday bringing our own boat to that area for extended periods!
With warmest wishes for your continued success -
Herb and Betty Crimp
March ‘11
Our Friends Captain Jean and Captain Jeff will be sailing the Greek islands this summer in a 51 Beneteau. This comfortable sailboat will be a grat home for each couple that joins them. Margie and I are jealous that we will miss going on this trip, it’s our high season doing charters with the Boy Scouts. What a great opportunity to see a beautiful part of the world and learn a little more about sailing at the same time.
Time to relax and chat about the sites we have seen in the islands
We are able to spend some of our time when we are not sailing the Keys in our anchorage in downtown Miami. Lately we have enjoyed a free concert downtown with the Spin Doctors (I am showing my age) and have seen some really great authors speak at the Miami Book Fair.
During some of our longer cruises we spent several weeks in downtown Manhattan at the 79th st Boat Basin and over a month in Nassau harbor. Cruising remote tropical islands is great, but being “downtown” allows you to visit some great museums, see a play or go to a concert. Most city’s grew up around the waterfront giving you great accessibility to services and public transportation. You have the comforts of your home to go back to at night and the convenience of not having to park your car. In Manhattan it was $15 a night for a mooring bouy with a 24 hour guarded dinghy dock. Pretty hard to beat!
Spin Doctors preforming in Miami
City lights in bayfront park
One of our guests from last year shot this, at the end you can see the “catch of the day”.
One of the great things about cruising is the day to day freedom to go and do what you want to do. You quickly learn that to enjoy those carefree days you have to choose whether today you will head out on a nice downwind run, stay in the harbor, or tuck yourself and your boat in a mangrove canal in preparation for a passing front or tropical system. The key to making those decisions and the root source for weather information is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s forecasting. There are many places that take NOAA’s data and repackage it, some with great insight, but the 1st place I look each morning is NOAA.gov.
On of the critical skills that Margie and I teach couples that join us on for our cruising classes is finding and applying today’s weather forecast to our days activities. It is an inexact science and having different viewpoints when big systems are coming is great. There is some really wonderful computer modeling out there but, and this is a big caveat, you still need to be able to interpret it to for your area with the knowelege that things can change. Getting different viewpoints is a big part of the interpretive process.
Back to NOAA, I was reading a post this morning from Dr. Jeff Masters of Weather Underground, he is visiting the national hurricane center this week as a new tropical system (Tomas) ramps up in the Atlantic;
Since this is such a large increase in intensity from what was forecast–Tomas was not supposed to have 60 mph winds for another 24 hours–this necessitates issuance of a special advisory package. A full set of forecast maps, a marine advisory, wind probability forecast, and a discussion just went out to the world. While all this was occurring, several phone calls to Barbados, St. Lucia, and Martinique were made, alerting the islands to the fact that a Hurricane Warning may be required with the 11pm advisory tonight. NHC has both French speaking and Spanish speaking meteorologists on staff that can coordinate with the islands that don’t have English as their main language. I listened in on a 5-minute conversation in French between the weather service in Martinique and NHC meteorologist Mike Tichacek, as they discussed when Martinique may want to issue a Hurricane Warning.
What a great job our government does in providing this information and making it available to the world. Sometimes it’s hard when you get your tax bill to immediately appreciate all that we get, Noaa is one of the unsung heroes in the US.
Josh surprised Purdy with a sunset sail with us in Florida bay, then the big surprise was when he asked for her hand in Marriage.
A happy couple enjoying dinner at sunset in Everglades National Park
With the romantic setting of a calmwater sail, a beautiful ring and a bottle of champagne she had no choice but to say yes. Afterwards we served them a fresh fish and lobster dinner with chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. I did not do nearly as good a job when I proposed to Margie 33 years ago!
It does not get any better than this!
Join Captain Jeff and Captain Jean on their Skye 51′ on a 2 week passage from Florida to the Virgin Islands. The boat is a true blue water cruiser with 7′ draft equipped and the latest in marine electronics. You will be able to experience a real open ocean passage with two captains who are both also ASA sailing instructors. What a great way experience an ocean crossing, learning how to stand watches, navigate and do weather route planning all while under sail.
Having this kind of experience can answer the question of whether you want to cross an ocean in your own boat. If you are thinking of buying a liveaboard sailboat to liveaboard and cruise on, this passage can help you decide what kind of boat you really need. You can contact Jeff and Jean directly and learn more about the trip at offshore sail training.
Open Ocean Sail Training with Jeff and Jean
They will be leaving in the middle of November, I think its really going to be a fun trip, to bad Margie and I can’t come!
After a very rainy day when the upper end of tropical storm Paula moved eastward (the storm was over Cuba) cool dry air has moved in. It’s time to turn off the A/C and enjoy one of my favorite times of the year. I was reading the forecast discussion on NOAA’s website this morning and came across this;
THE RADAR REFLECTIVITY ANIMATIONS ALSO ILLUSTRATE AUTUMN BIRD MIGRATION WITH SPLENDOR. THE 25-30 DBZ ECHOES SUGGEST OVER 10000 BIRDS PER MILE ARE FLYING SOUTHWARD TO THEIR WINTER HABITATS... ACCORDING TO RADAR ORNITHOLOGY STUDIES
The birds know how to follow the weather.Flying South for the Winter?
Margie and I really enjoy the many species
that we see in the wintertime when we are
cruising and anchored in Everglades National
Park. We have a sunset sail today, our 1st
of the "snowbird" season. It will be nice to
have the boat sailing again.