Pre winter tales...

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It would be nice to hear tales during the off season of fellow Ribster's first nautical experiences, which planted the seeds of our wanderlust and respect of the Seas. And how is it we have decided Ribs to be the craft of choice...

and second...

To hear tales of where we were during the really BIG storms in history...hopefully most were on shore...



The first photo is of the 30 ft. Pulling Boats used by the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School, This is where I began my sea training. When there was no wind, there were the oars. I was 18, a late bloomer, born on the coast of South Carolina, but raised inland, in North Carolina. AS a Child I was always summering at the coast, but had never had the oportunity to venture far from shore. After a childhood of reading 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Treasure Island, Moby Dick and Survive the Savage Seas, to be out in these sturdy sailing crafts for 26 days, was quite the adventure. The spark has never left!

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A couple years later found me working at the Hurricane Island OB school. At the end of the season, a couple mates and myself put a proposal to the higher ups of the school, to let us winter on the island for the winter. We were able to work out a deal, in exchange for a new grain room addition off the galley, one floating dock, and two emregency fire-station shelters for our work load for the winter, (mind you with no power, all hand tools), we got the green light. On Feb. 2, 1976, the storm we had waited all winter for had arrived.
Hurricane Island lies off the coast of Maine,in the Penobscot Bay, 13 miles off shore, the seaward leading island to open sea towards the S...SW, of Vinalhaven Island. Herron Neck Light House, on Green Island, is visible looking towards the East, on the Hurricane Island.
Anyway the story is a bit long...but here is a picture of the waves breaking over the Spruce trees...

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I can take a hint...