Winds of April

See November gusts here.  Today on the Upper Bay gusts were in excess of 25 mph.

Spray crashes over the bulwarks although to my untrained eye, Quantico Creek rides smooth, as

does Elk River, a short time later.

Pilot boats like Yankee are designed to ride in all weather.

Ellen Bouchard pushes B. No. 284 through quite effortlessly.

Kate Maersk holds tight.

But this outboard motorboat needed more care in negotiating wakes and swells.

Yet, here’s a similar size boat–a 26′ Grover–that crossed the Atlantic.  See video here and a background article here.

Some basic statistics:  route was from St. Pierre to Portugal, 26 days at sea, 615 gallons of fuel resulting in only 10″ freeboard upon departure, and an encounter with Hurricane Claudette.    You can see her in Freeport, NY.  See 10 minutes of fotos of a Grover restoration project here.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

See doryman for more small boats.  I ran some small boat posts here and here back in January.