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| The Dream... |
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| The Vermont Sail Freight Project Reality! |
In the end all was fine, our fine barge rose to each challenge gloriously. Captain Steve, who had been dubious about the seaworthiness of the barge right from the start was ready to hug me and declare me a master shipbuilder by the time we had rounded the battery.
From Ceres has Arrived in NYC by Erik Andrus
In the brief time since my last post - SPLASH! CERES Launches the Vermont Sail Freight Project - much has happened.
First, she goes and attempts a late-season maiden voyage / test cargo run from here homeport of Vergennes, Vermont, across Lake Champlaign to Burlington. Full success.
Okay... that was ambitious. New boat with all the small details to work out. Challenge enough. But a cargo of foodstuffs to organize, load, transport, unload and market? Well... if you can do it, it ain't braggin'.
Time to put her to bed for the winter, right? Right?? Ruminate and plan for another, modest step forward come spring?
Wrong!
Next I check in, she'd acquired Captain Steve (Schwartz) "who has a pedigree of experience with traditional sail on the Hudson River going back to the inspired zaniness of the early days of Pete Seeger’s sloops, the Clearwater and the Woody Guthrie. Steve has been involved with skippering the latter for many years."
Note: All quotations from Erik Andrus (Designer and Builder of CERES) who is enscribing her adventures at vermontsailfreightproject.wordpress.com.
Then straight-away, she headed off down the Hudson River, in October, loaded to her lines with several tons of cargo, worth thousands (the very livelihood of local Vermont farmers who comprise the Project)!
I mean, do these guys have cojones, or what???
'Course, I missed all that. By the time I next get connectivity... they have ARRIVED in the Big Apple!!!
No way! Nobody moves this fast!
Started in May, launched in September, initial sea/commercial trial in September. And in October? MAJOR FULL ON VOYAGE WITH HOLDS STUFFED TO THE GILLS!!
I feel old.
And it's working! They are met with open arms in every port, wined and dined, and their cargo is selling like hotcakes all up and down the Hudson!
It is truly wondrous to see this project bloom. Aside from my obvious, bargey bias; to see the buzz and excitement enfolding this small step toward the New Age of Sail.
Well, I won't say more, other than to marvel at being able to witness the transformation of Erik's dreams and drawings into the very stuff of life.
If we only dare...
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| Speaks for itself, dunnit? |