"Days Like This" - The first day of summer in the U.P. was a doozy

You don't expect to see articles about the Upper Peninsula in the Huffington Post. But..

The Upper Peninsula Is Underrated, And We Have The Photos To Prove It

"In Marquette, a remote Michigan beach town further north than some parts of Canada, the only thing more enchanting and boundless than the views of Lake Superior is the sky above it. Most of the year, the northern coast of the Upper Peninsula is too cold for the average person to sit for hours marveling at the scenery, though weather won’t deter locals and hardy adventurers like Marquette's own nature photographer Shawn Malone.

And when her city does get its few months of warmth, coinciding with increased hours of daylight, Malone rarely strays from behind the camera, even to sleep. She's determined to capture all of the beauty the North Country has to offer. That’s how she ended up documenting the spectacular variations in the sky over Lake Superior in one 24-hour period last month, catching bright stars, moody clouds and the vibrant colors of both the Northern Lights and a double rainbow."

The article references Shawn Malone of Lake Superior Photo and an album she posted on Facebook "Days Like This..." featuring six remarkable photos of the Michigan sky, including a spectacular dawn, rainbow, and northern lights, all shot on 6/22/2015.

The cool thing is that while Shawn was shooting these pictures over Lake Superior, we were also mesmerized by the U.P. sky and shooting pictures over Big Shag Lake.

Our Big Shag Lake 6.22.15 "Day Like This" started with a spectacular sunrise...

Finished with a gorgeous sunset...

But the best was after dark, when, forewarned by internet alerts, we observed a spectacular Northern Lights show when the planet was hit by a mega solar storm.

The display was augmented by a power blackout at the lake that eliminated virtually all light pollution. My GoPro efforts to capture the display were a waste of time, but Harlan has a real camera and the mad skillz to capture it all:

It turned out to be one of the bigger solar storms of recent years:

"On Sunday, the summer solstice, a major explosion on the sun propelled a coronal mass ejection toward Earth at about 4 million miles per hour. It then swept up two smaller, slower coronal mass ejections from last week, creating one big smorgasbord of geomagnetic exuberance. The whole mess reached Earth Monday afternoon with a bit more energy than expected."

Quite the show, quite the day. After seeing one small Norther Lights display during my first 50+ years of  Shag Lake sojourns, I've now seen two full sky displays in the last 3 years. When you pick the right day in the U.P, there's no place like it on earth.

Chronicle article features Russian Hill

A 1982 view of Russian Hill & The Summit from Coit Tower. The year before I moved to EssEff

 Our local fishwrap is running a weekly feature on the "Hills of San Francisco" by architecture critic John King. The Summit building (prominently displayed as the background pic for this blog) is featured in the Wednesday May 29 article on Russian Hill. The article was behind a paywall, but the Chronicle has apparently relented and released it to run wild and free across the intertubes. Particularly interesting is the history of how this building and neighborhood set the pattern for neighborhood activism, height limitations, and using CEQA as a tool to block development.

Russian Hill's lofty role in height debate
Russian Hill pivotal in city's debate over building height
by John King

"...While Fontana Towers grabbed the headlines, several modern high-rises rose on Russian Hill itself. The most striking is the Summit at 999 Green from 1965, 32 stories developed by Joseph Eichler where the upper floors flare outward. Next door are four Willis Polk cottages from 1916, which are among the two dozen homes between Broadway, Jones, Vallejo and Taylor streets that survived the 1906 earthquake or were built shortly afterward...The block dominated by Eichler's Summit is now the Russian Hill-Vallejo Street Crest national historic district. At the very top, framing a park with a sloping lawn and aged trees behind a classical balustrade, two modest shingled buildings occupy sites cleared in the 1960s for towers that never got built. They were developed by longtime residents eager to preserve the ambiance. The hill's settled aura comes with a price."

"A brute of a building" - Herb Caen

More pics are featured in John King's summary blog post at the SF Gate free site:

"Russian Hill is the stuff of which San Francisco legends are made. Snug stairways lead to homes by Willis Polk and Julia Morgan. Hyde Street is a shady nook with cable cars rumbling by. Jack Kerouac lived with Neal and Carolyn Cassidy at 29 Russell Place in 1952, and Armistead Maupin reimagined Macondray Lane as the anything-goes Barbary Lane in 1976.

It’s also a terrain of modern slab towers, startling juxtapositions that are all the more startling when you consider that no big buildings have been added since the 1960s. Instead, residents of the hill fought hard to stop anything tall from being added to the landscape after the initial wave — an effort that helped fuel the citywide antipathy to towers in the 1970s and 1980s."

Herb Caen described The Summit as "a brute of building" in his iconic column. I guess one advantage of living in The Summit on Russian Hill, is that I don't have to look at it while enjoying my view.

SF Bay and Coit Tower from The Summit

Lisbon

Exploring the sights on the streets of Lisbon

 Deb and Kim go horseback riding while Jim, Bob and I take the train into Lisbon for a day of touring.

 When two heads are not better than one. Or none.

We take a cab from the train station to the Castle at the top of the hill.   Rather than tour the castle, we start with refreshments at a little cafe just outside of the castle wall...

  ...and raise our glasses in solidarity with the oppressed worker repairing the cobbled street one brick at a time.

 Slowly. Carefully. Ever so slowly.

 Then spent the day exploring cafes, bars, and stores on the walk back down.

Perhaps the most interesting stop was at the Napoleao wine shop:

Where we sampled some ports and received a tutorial on port vintages and nomenclature. Then on to another sidewalk cafe. This one called Moma:

Where we enjoy more beer, wine, foie gras, wild boar pastry, caprese salad and fries. After meeting the girls at a downtown beer garden, we visit the Institute of Port, but not without a bit of navigation difficulties. Bob's guidebook and map could only get us to the neighborhood. After wandering in circles, we were about to give up when I accosted some locals on a street corner:

MW: "Pardon me. Do you speak English?"
Locals shake head:  "No. Very little." 
MW pressing on: "Do you know where the Institute of Port is located?"
Locals: Blank stare.
MW applying his intuitive linguistic skills: "Institut-OH Port-OH?"
Locals break into big smiles and point: "Two blocks. turn right."

That actually happened. We found it. True.

It was fun and interesting, but a bit stuffy for this crew. So off to find a suitable eatery.

Cocheira Alentejana fit the bill. Fine food. Good service. A great finish to a fine day in Lisbon.

We even managed to avoid missing the last train back to Cascais.

MW Ship's Log May 16 - Genius is as genius does

Dateline: 10:00 A.M. Wednesday May 17

Status:
165 nm traversed on Day 1 of the Sao Miguel => Cascais, Portugal passage. It's been mostly sail and little motor since departing the Azores 24 hours before.

I'd like to take this opportunity to make a correction to the last post. I may have inadvertently created the false impression that only one of the crew had a hangover as we departed Ponta Delgada Marina. This is incorrect. The correct count was three hangovers and one sleep deprived zombie who was probably too jet-lagged to notice that he was also hung-over. The general consensus was that Phillip's coffee concoction, although delicious, was a mistake. Interesting to note, regardless of crew condition, I found the departure to be our smoothest, easiest, least stress inducing de-docking marina exit yet. Make of that what you will.

As a statistical footnote: Bob traversed 11,000 miles and nine airports during his 40 hour jaunt to California and back. We're glad to have the crew again complete and back on a four man watch rotation.

Discussions continue on how Bob should make up his four missing watches during the Faial to Sao Miguel passage. Some feel he should simply stand a an eight hour watch and get it over with. I believe that would be too punitive and am advocating a different scheme - each of us can play the "Bob card" for one watch during the rest of the passage. Felling a little too warm and comfy in your bunk when it is time for that 3:00 AM watch? Just roll over and say - "Let Bob do it."

The first day sailing from Sao Miguel was essentially a re-run of the departure from Faial. Nice easy sail in sunshine traversing the South coast of the isle.

Smooth seas, favorable winds, lots of birds and interesting sights on the verdant island rolling past our port beam.

Then we emerge from the protective shadow of the island. Mixed currents, shifting, gusty winds from 18-26 knots, squalls, and heavy confused swells. Lot's of bouncing around and the crew mostly below deck when not on watch. Double reefed and no jib most of the way. Still picked up 165 miles.

Most Interesting Sight We Did Not See:
We passed within 30 miles of Ferrelgas - An active volcano that rises over 9,000 feet from the floor of the ocean to within 10 feet of the surface.

Dinner:
Deb's delicious Texas hash for those who trusted their stomachs at dinner time. Otherwise - Ramen Noodles.

Quote of the Day:
"I feel like a genius for deciding to stay in port last night." Captain Jim basking in the sunshine, enjoying the perfect sailing conditions just before we emerge from the protective sheltering effect of Saint Michael Island.

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MW Log May 14 - Whale Tails and Long Goodbyes

Dawn - Pico Island from Faial

Dateline: 8:00 A.M. Wednesday May 15

Status:
42 nautical miles to the harbor in San Miguel. 822 nautical miles to Lisbon. Mostly sailing since leaving Horta. 19- 25 knots of wind. Some squalls overnight and another one on the horizon. 

El Capitan is a little nervous with a short handed crew

Before departing Faial Tuesday morning I took the opportunity to join an 8:30 AM whale watch tour aboard a zodiac with Pedro's Horta Cetaceos.

Pedro's pre-tour briefing

It was a bone-jarring ride to the South side of Pico Island but worth it for some spectacular sightings and (relatively) close encounters.

Three species of whales spotted (Blue, Sey, Fin) as well as dolphins, turtles, and sea birds.

 Worthy of a stand-alone post which I will update on the blog with video at some unspecified time in the future.

At 3:00 PM we extricated ourselves from the double mooring, motored over to the marina office, re-docked, and checked out.

 By 3:30 we were underway and heading for Sao Miguel Island.

 A sunny pleasant sail around the south side of Pico Island following the same route of the zodiac whale watching tour earlier in the day.

It'll be a 3 person watch rotation until we pick up Bob - two hours on, four hours off. We figure it will take Bob about the same amount of time traversing airports and flights from California as it will take us the to sail the 108 miles to Sao Miguel. We should be back to a four man crew in a few hours, then on to Lisbon and the end of our transatlantic passage.

Dinner:
Cold pizza

 Addendum:
 It looks like we got out of Faial just in time.

 As we departed we noticed the notorious catamaran Firefly ominously lashed to another catamaran of similar design. No doubt the Reavers aboard were already feasting on their brains.  A fate we narrowly avoided only a few days before.

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