For the past, say, roughly two years I have watched this boat being built under a shelter directly on Highway 20 leading to Fort Bragg. Yesterday I stopped and began taking photos of the boat still under construction. However, this time, there was a banner in front of the fence, as you can see above.
I went to the indicated website, Chasina Bay Charters, and discovered that this boat is set to launch in May of this year, and is the featured vessel in the Chasina Bay Charters company.
According to the website, the vessel is a 75-foot expedition yacht that will ply the waters in and around Ketchikan, Alaska. One planned itinerary includes 8 days of crabbing, whale watching, kayaking, fishing, nature viewing, beach combing and hiking.
Sounds great, doesn’t it? With one small caveat: click on the tab that indicates “rates & reservations.” Booking the boat, which can berth 8 persons, is $22,000 for the first four days, and $4,800 each additional day thereafter.
Let’s see: for that 8-day trip I mentioned above, your tab would be $41,200.
It seems to me this company might just be trying to pay off their vessel on the backs of those persons making reservations the first year.
Call me crazy, call me wacky, but I don’t know of anyone who would pay $41,000 for 8 days on a 75-foot boat in Alaska. Russell Brice’s Himex company (Himalayan Experience) will take you to the summit of Mt. Everest for $56,000 and roughly two months’ time, in comparison.
Additionally, those able to afford $41,000 for 8 days would surely own a yacht themselves or commission a larger vessel.
So, am I crazy? Would people pay this kind of money for a trip of that nature? Or are you thinking what I’m thinking: the owner, in this economy, is going to have to seriously revamp his rates or find no clients?
My wife and I are in the midst of spending nine days on the northern Fornicalia coast, right on the ocean, in order to celebrate our third anniversary which — luckily for me — is Valentine’s Day. Even I can remember that one! We were hoping to do some whale watching via local charters, but the ocean was tumultuous and the fog was thick. Above, the waves are cresting over the breakwater for Noyo Harbor!
Again, the incoming waves are burying the concrete breakwater. Last year, I stood right there.
I had, at one time, walked out to the red triangle. Today, I’d have been completely swept away!
However, our friendly, local sea lions were still in evidence, in the calmer waters. Taken with Sony A300, 75 – 300 lens at max zoom.
Fishing vessels in the harbor. No one dared the nasty waves at the mouth of Noyo. Tara Dawn at left, and Miss Kelly, right. MK is Noyo’s largest fishing vessel.
Local deer south of Noyo Harbor. Not far from here, in the 1800s, women would stand near the cliffs and await the return of their fishermen from the savage Pacific seas.
Waves crashing affect the “trashcans of the skies” not in the slightest. I can’t see gulls anymore and not think of the scene from “Finding Nemo” —
The waves were absolutely majestic.
Further out, my zoom at full, the waves looked to be perhaps 20 to 25-feet.
The waves crashed, the spume flew. I could watch the ocean for hours and hours and hours. It always changes, it’s never the same; each day, each hour, is different.
The red buoy in the background. It’s never tossed like the green buoy!
The Trek II takes tourists out for whale watching. The problem? That was the last moment of clarity; the fog descended and socked in the coast.
The Sea Hawk follows the Trek II on the 10 am whale-watching tour. After that, everything turned gray.
Because the waves had subsided a bit, the Donna J crew decide to try their hand at fishing, outriggers lowered for stability in the still-rough seas.
Donna J makes it out past the largest, most difficult harbor waves, both pitching and rolling in the rough Pacific waters.
We fed the local feral cats from our top story hotel patio. We discovered that kitties like appetizers such as salami and provolone cheese. They also enjoyed a few pieces of dropped sourdough. A bit of a problem? The wind. As I dropped food below, only at the last second did I notice that I almost beaned the head of a woman peering over her own patio one floor below. How was I to know she would be sticking her head into the Flight Path of Kitty Food?
The Coasties take the time to train whenever they can. I was disappointed, however, when the local station commander didn’t insist his troops brave the worst of the weather and take their new aluminum 47-foot lifeboats built by Textron Marine into the thick of the weather.
The motor lifeboat above is one of two possessed by the station at Noyo Harbor. These motor lifeboats (MLBs) were designed to withstand impacts of three times the acceleration of gravity, can survive a complete roll-over, self-righting in less than 10 seconds with all machinery remaining fully operational. Powered by twin Detroit Diesels producing 435 hp (324 kW) each, the 47 MLB can travel at 25 knots (46 km/h).
I’ve seen the waves at Noyo. And I’ve also seen the waves and visited the mouth of the Columbia River at Astoria. The Columbia River Pilots take some of the largest ships in the world on to Portland. Further, the Columbia River Bar Pilots Association guarantees those ships will negotiate the treacherous Columbia River bar successfully.
Predominantly the UK media tends to swing not simply Left, but frequent hard aport.
And yet, if you truly wish to be informed on so-called AGW (what the Religious Left call Anthropogenic Global Warming — “man-made”) you won’t find the truth in American publications. You have to — as I did — trot through the cloud and across the water to various British sites.
Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995
Data for vital ‘hockey stick graph’ has gone missing
There has been no global warming since 1995
Warming periods have happened before – but NOT due to man-made changes
Cooler heads (sorry, couldn’t resist) such as myself and the bulk of my readers know that AGW was and is nothing more than a Power & Money Grab, plain and simple, a concept purchased by the Religious Left and others whose emotions and belief systems overwhelm the presence of reality and facts.
Back in December of 2009 the Obama administration, via the EPA, already warned Congress that if it doesn’t move to regulate greenhouse gases, the Environmental Protection Agency will take a “command-and-control” role over the process “in way that could hurt business.”
His AGW agenda couldn’t possibly be trumpeted any louder than that. “I will force you to my will,” he says. “I will make you suffer pain.”
The EPA, resultingly, already declared C02 a “dangerous pollutant.” Yes, that C02: the gas you exhale. That which is required to sustain every plant on the planet. Yes; that C02.
The time is now to refuse to submit to the Religious Left. Their belief systems are fallacious. Their purpose is to enact Socialist agendas, to make you even more dependent upon government and, moreover, to open your wallet and suction every spare dollar you have. To remake our American society. To siphon power, to redistribute whatever wealth you have managed to accrue.
Above, a copy of Mr Obama’s book that I had “massaged” a tick, thanks to JR.
Because NOW the book is accurate and reflective of reality. Because Mr Obama is only that: hype.
In truth, Mr Obama is a massive despoiler of this nation and has done nothing but bring shame, indecision and doom to it. He is the Audacity of Hype personified:
– His so-called “Global Warming” agenda, which is slated to do nothing more but rape and tax Americans and their businesses, is falling apart due to, again, reality. DC has never had more snow. It has now recently snowed in all 50 states, including Dallas, Texas. Utah’s House of Representatives promulgated a resolution condemning “climate alarmists” due to, essentially, the outright lies upon which AGW “science” is predicated. It snowed in Rome, the heaviest fall in 25 years. Of course (and this is such tasty irony!), if you really wish to read about the AGW abrogations, lies and purposeful misleadings, you’d have to visit various UK sites — their media is actually covering the topic and taking AGW liars to task. Already the investigation is rife with Religious Leftist bias. And now, from the TimesOnline, UK, Canadian and American scientists are saying — zounds! — the world just may not be warming!
– Because Mr Obama cannot get his Unhinged Bullshit past Congress, he plans to ramrod his Socialist and Fascist agendas on the budget, AGW, ObamaKare and other areas via Executive Fiat. The other two branches of American government can just go to Hell.
– Some people believe the Euro is going to collapse. Nations coalesced into the EU in order to become more powerful. That power is now in question. Nationally, Mr Obama has indicated his continued insanity (the definition of insanity? — doing the same thing time and again, expecting different results) by not only refusing to stop further spending, but to continue spending on an heretofore absolutely unprecedented and biblical scale. On this path, the Euro and dollar are both slated for doom.
We have the ability to pull ourselves out of our hole. If one but realizes the First Rule of Holes.
THREE WEEKS AGO, THIS IS WHAT I WROTE AND DIDN’T PUBLISH:
Let me make this plain and simple:
The more difficult you make it for me to comment on your blog, the less interested I am in commenting on your blog.
It doesn’t mean I don’t visit your blog; it means I’m getting so damned tired of having to possess an individual password for each and every blog. I have to “subscribe” to this site, to that site, to that host, to this host, I have to enter a Username for this site, then enter a Password, then confirm my password, then enter a different password to confirm that password, then enter the name of my cat, my proctologist, confirm my proctologist’s appointment for next Thursday, genuflect towards Mecca, spin around three times and recite the dialogue to Pulp Fiction.
You know, it’s just about reached threshold for me.
And, clearly a factor: I don’t get nearly the hits that most of the blogs I read do. The bulk of my The Usual Suspects are much more popular than I am.
That said, I’m just pretty much not going to entertain any more limits and buffers and roadblocks placed in my way in terms of comment engines. It’s just too tough and too long. I’m done. Moderating comments is one thing; it already makes me less likely to go back to see what your response might be. That’s frustrating enough.
But when I have to jump through innumerable hoops and sign up for this and that, I’m just predominantly done.
I really like any number of your blogs. You wouldn’t be in my blogroll otherwise.
But, the way your digital domain comments are set up, I concede: I mostly give up.
I took Word Verification off my stupid blog. Even that pissed me off, it was too much for me.
White flag.
BZ IN RETROSPECT, I SUSPECT I WAS WAY TOO HARSH.
However, why is it that it is so damned difficult to make comments on blogs? Why should I be so frustrated? And why should I — or the average reader — jump through the various hoops and blockades purposely installed on today’s blogs?
My blog is now thesimplest in the Blogosphere (that I can determine) in which to comment. I clearly must be missing something. Am I unsophisticated? Am I a dupe? Can anyone explain this to me, please??
For the past, say, roughly two years I have watched this boat being built under a shelter directly on Highway 20 leading to Fort Bragg. Yesterday I stopped and began taking photos of the boat still under construction. However, this time, there was a banner in front of the fence, as you can see above.
