That's a loud purrrrrrrr

I just read this article from the BBC "Noisy cat hits purr-fect pitch in world record bid".

Smokey looks pretty normal to me... but his purr was measured at 73 decibels, which is 16 times louder than the average cat, and louder than our Honeywell HW2000i generator!!!

Another sad day for boatbuilders

We were sad this morning to find out that Dynamite Payson had passed away. He was a great inspiration for me as he de-mystified boatbuilding.

The first dinghy we ever built was one of his plans from his book "Build The NEW Instant Boats". It was the 7-foot Nymph using his "tack & tape" method.

We built ours on the kitchen table when we were living on the Barge Black Moon on the Seine outside of Paris. Such a wonderful boat to row. It got a lot of use :)

See Bob's post on BoatBits...

Don't Miss Super Perigee Moon Tonight - Get Your Moon Music

Tonight, March 19th 2011, will hopefully be an excellent, clear night for stargazing as it is the night of the Super Perigee Moon. It will appear to be the largest moon in 18 years. The last time this happened was in March of 1993 (has it really been 18 years???) and this time it's bigger!

Willow & Buffy will be watching with us

We're definitely going to take a look... Might even have to have a second sundowner so we'll be outside for the moonrise.

Here's a good source of info for this occasion from NASA.

Want to get some music for this lunar event? Here's some MP3s from Amazon to check out:

• Bad Moon Rising - Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Fogerty, Queen Ida & Her Zydeco Band
• Moon River - Andy Williams, Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, Rod Stewart, Louis Armstrong, Aretha Franklin
• Harvest Moon - Neil Young
• Shine on Harvest Moon - Leon Redbone
• Walking on the Moon - The Police
• Eldorado to the Moon - Michael Nesmith
• Fly Me to the Moon - Frank Sinatra, Tom Jones, Rod Stewart, Julie London

---

• Blue Moon - The Platters, Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald
• Blue Moon Nights - John Fogerty
• Once in a Very Blue Moon - Nancy Griffiths
• Silver Moon - Michael Nesmith & The First National Band
• Shine on Silver Moon - Gloria Gaynor
• Sail Along Silvery Moon - Billy Vaughn
• Yellow Moon - Neville Brothers
• The Moon Was Yellow - Mel Tormé 
• Pink Moon - Nick Drake
• Orange Moon - Erykah Badu
• Pale Orange Moon - Noel Maurice
• The Moon was Orange - Harmon Ikka
• Neon Moon - Brooks & Dunn
• Dark Moon - Gale Storm
• Strawberry Moon - Jr. Grover Washington, Neptune's Car
• Once in a Red Moon - Secret Garden, Nils Mathisen
• Under a Violet Moon - Blackmore's Night
• Kiko and the Lavender Moon - Los Lobos

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• New Moon on Monday - Duran Duran
• No Moon at All - The Ames Brothers (Do you remember Ed Ames from Daniel Boone?)

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• Moon Over Georgia - Shenandoah
• Blue Moon of Kentucky - Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline, Ray Charles, Boxcar Willie
• Havana Moon - Carlos Santana, Chuck Berry, Two Tons Of Steel
• Desert Moon - Dennis DeYoung, Great White, Mariah Larkin Band
• Beneath A Desert Moon - Sting
• Moon of India - World Meditation Ensemble 
• Moon Over India - Nature Lounge Club
• Carolina Moon - Connie Francis, Dean Martin, Thelonious Monk
• Texas Moon - Stoney Larue
• Cajun Moon - Ricky Skaggs, Poco, J.J. Cale
• Mexican Moon - Concrete Blonde, Booka & the Flaming Geckos, Chicken Mambo, Rubber Duck, The Wolf Banes, Terri and the T-Bone (I just loved the names of these artists)
• Moon Over Bourbon Street - Sting

 ... and many, many, many MORE...

Eldorado to the Moon always makes me smile :)


Here's a 14-second video of the Super Moon from where we are anchored in Gallows Bay, Christiansted, St Croix, US Virgin Islands.  Sorry that it's a bit shaky but it was a bit bumpy with the swell coming in. Still photos were worse :)

Enjoy!

Happy St Patrick's Day

This is probably the most popular subject of the day and what a nice day it is...

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh!

Looking for some tunes to get you going?  Check out these mp3 downloads from Amazon: Van Morrison, Thin Lizzy, U2, The Pogues, Sinead O'Connor, The Cranberries, The Corrs, The Chieftains, The Irish Rovers, Irish Folk Players, The Cieli Band  

In honor of St Patrick's Day, this month we are featuring the Irish Hotel Barge Shannon Princess and thought we'd tell our All About Boats readers about her.

Take advantage of our special gift for a barge charter on the all-inclusive crewed hotel barge SHANNON PRINCESS which cruises along the River Shannon in Ireland. It expires today but maybe you'll get lucky if you ask nicely :)

Besides their standard itinerary, which can be adapted for your charter group's interests, they also have ones for golfing, guided walking tours, family cruises, and they now have a new itinerary for Guided Bike / Cycling Tours which sounds very interesting... and at no extra charge! Read our various posts on the Shannon Princess.

Here's a bit of culture for you :)

• Wondering what that phrase above means?

Beannachtaí na Féile Páraic oraibh! : St. Patrick's Day blessing upon you
Click HERE to listen (ban-ock-tee na fay-lah paw-rig ur-iv)

• Here's another useful saying when you visit Ireland:

Pionta Guinness, le do thoil. A pint of Guiness, please.
Click HERE to listen (pyunta Guinness leh duh hull)

(Thanks to http://www.irish-sayings.com for these sound bytes!)

If you would like to visit the Emerald Isle this season, let us know! Visit www.BargeCharters.com

Sláinte agus táinte!

3.14 = Pi DAY -- Let's celebrate!

This morning while having our first cup of coffee, we were listening to NPR radio and discovered that today is PI DAY.... Already???

I found the video on their page HERE: How to Transform the Number Pi into a Song.



Interesting... He said he's had requests to score the Fibonacci numbers... How about the special numbers from LOST :)

We have the DVD of Pi.

Here are some PIE songs you might or might not know...

• American Pie, Don McLean
• Cherry Pie, Skip & Flip
• I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch), Four Tops
• Key Lime Pie, Kenny Chesney
• Custard Pie, Led Zeppelin
• Chicken Pot Pie, The Spoiled Chefs 
• Mah Mah Chicken Pot Pie, The Leopards 

and, of course, there is the group Humble Pie who did 30 Days In The Hole.

Being a moose enthusiast, I found this intriguing Moose Turd Pie by Utah Phillips.

Over at www.seriouseats.com they tell you how to make a Pi-shaped pie.

Don't you deserve a pie treat today?

On a lighter note, save 40% on this yacht charter

This came across our desk yesterday. I think it's a bit much for the budget of our normal clientele, but maybe it will strike your fancy...

This 246-foot charter yacht  is offering a 40% discount for a 2-month charter this summer...

Accommodates up to 12 guests and has 15 crew.

The little "blurb" on this special offer says:

Take advantage of this amazing offer:
1 MILLION euro for a 2 MONTH CHARTER this summer!
A reduction of almost 600,000 euro on her standard rate!
Special amenities: gym, sauna and beauty center.
Highly talented chef!

So, if you have a million euros that you'd like to have fun putting back into the economy, give it a thought!

See their brochure HERE

Buffy says...

Buffy says "What the ???"

Their cousins live in that yellow zone!

(This image was floating around on various websites on that day. No claims for authenticity. Might be from a movie for all we know... but still scary)

They better get a lid on this quick and Chill Out, please!!!

I started to rant about THIS and THIS but it's just too overwhelming... My goodness... I need to go over to the beach so I can stick my head in the sand and ignore this stuff.

Too bad that it goes so...

Honeywell HW2000i Generator - Problem: won't start

Late yesterday afternoon when we went to start our less-than-a-month-old Honeywell HW2000i generator-inverter so we could run our 12V battery charger for an hour, we had problems...

It started and then choked up and died after running maybe a minute. Pulled the cord a couple of times and it gave a bit of a cough and that was its last gasp.

At lunchtime today I tried to start it and no joy...

Later on, Bob tried with the same result. We checked connections to make sure nothing had vibrated loose, poked about inside at all the usual suspects, and all seemed well. Just about ready to call a repairman but we thought we'd swap the spark plug for a new one even though it has less than 25 hours on it.

It started on the first pull... Doing the happy dance...

We are going to lay in a supply of spark plugs :)

What's wrong with this picture?

The other day I looked at an unused sheet of stamps that I had bought years ago, Pacific Coral Reef, and noticed that it had a lionfish. I mentioned this to a charter yacht friend (Sandcastle) and took a picture of it today so I could email it to her.

I took several pictures some with flash and some without because of the glare off of the plastic covering.

After I downloaded the photos to my computer, I deleted this one (the first in the series) because of the glare. I looked at them again and noticed something bizarre...

Click image to enlarge

What is that in the upper right quarter of the page? It looks like a cat looking up some steps with a door or window in the background.  Where did this come from? There's nothing that this is a reflection of. There is nothing on the plastic wrapping that had been transferred from being pressed up against it. It is not part of an image left in memory of something gone before.

Here's the next picture I took...

No cat or weirdness here.

A bit spooky, non?