Just a quick post with some pictures from the annual Halloween boat burning at the Long Island Maritime Museum.
Live music all night long.
The burning boat is spectacular and keeps everyone warm.
This was a 40' sport fisherman.
Huge clouds of smoke filled the air.
Good food from the truck, and trinkets for sale under the gazebo.
A handsome rowing skiff is the raffle prize.
Kathleen Prokesch, director of special events, announces the lucky raffle winner.
I haven’t thought much about the disaster that struck New York City 10 years ago. Not that I’ve forgotten, I never will, but there is enough pain and discomfort associated with those memories to make one want to avoid them. I can’t even watch the footage that they’ve been playing way too often on television this past week.
Everyone who lives on Long Island either lost someone or knows someone who lost someone on that day. September 11th is as much a Long Island tragedy as it is a New York City tragedy and a national tragedy.
Just a short note then to acknowledge and remember the victims and their families, the police, firemen, and all other rescuers and volunteers on the scene that day and the days and weeks after. You will not be forgotten and you have the gratitude of everyone in this great country.
Battle on the Bay is one of several events that take place on the Great South Bay each summer. I went yesterday for the speed trials, today the actual races will take place.
Boats are lunched from the pier with a crane.
Precarious, but it works
This is a jet engine powered boat. It sounded like the Bat Mobile as it screamed past at who knows how fast. I spoke to driver for a while and he told me they were running 3700 horsepower today, but the boat can run up to 6000 horsepower with the bigger engines. It has been clocked at speeds as high as 213 mph.
The Miss Geico racing team runs the world’s fastest offshore catamaran
There are plenty of food vendors at events like this, but I opted for a crab cake sandwich at Nancy’s Crab Shack right next door. Nancy’s has good food and I just feel more comfortable eating food from a known establishment rather than a truck.
Great food in a very casual setting. And yes, there really is a Nancy
CQ, CQ, CQ field day…
That was the mantra heard across Long Island this past weekend as local ham radio operators took part in Field Day, an annual exercise in emergency preparedness. (CQ is an invitation for anyone hearing the signal to respond.)
You might have seen them in open fields at schools, parks, parking lots, malls; small groups of people huddled over radio equipment connected to antennas strung between trees or held up by twine.
I came across this group, members of the Radio Central Amateur Radio Club, at the Long Island Maritime Museum in Sayville.
Establishing a satellite link for long distance communication
This portable antenna can be set up in a matter of minutes
In the event of a natural disaster, extreme weather (or worse) standard means of communication are sometimes knocked out leaving amateur radio operators, hams for short, as the only link to vital emergency services.
To demonstrate their emergency operating capabilities hams take their equipment outdoors for a 24 hour period running from 2pm on Saturday to 2pm the Sunday on the 4th weekend in June. During this time they try to contact as many other hams as possible sometimes making upwards of 50 contacts per hour.
It’s nice to know that on a moment’s notice amateur radio operators can set up effective, long distance and local communication systems that don’t rely on telephone, internet, power grid, or any other infrastructure that can be compromised in a crisis.
As a former ham myself, I think this is pretty cool.