Saturday, May 11, the Essex River Race sponsored by the Cape Ann Rowing Club will be held rain or shine. Over 230 craft of every kind that is human powered will be setting off around 10 AM from the starting line in the Essex River right there on the new causeway where the Essex River hugs Route 133. If you park in the way back behind Woodsman’s it is just a short walk to prime viewing. The serious racers will take less than an hour to do the six miles down and back and Rubber Duck will show up about a half hour later.
Many boats will be washing the winter cobwebs off as they are placed in the water. Wash off your winter cobwebs and come on down. And it’s never too late to enter. Get your craft and your butt to registration 8 AM to 9:15 and get a good start to the season. Registration and pre-race meeting at the Essex Shipbuilding Museum.
Even if it’s raining, come on down because the over 230 boats already registered will be there. And there is so much to do on that stretch between the Shipbuilding Museum and Woodman’s that the hour during the race will fly by.
Last year:
Can you find Rubber Duck?
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Send him photos of anything that looks like a Rubber Duck.
Mark Destino sent him this one of what looks like a Rubber Duck made out of GMO golden rice perched atop a lovely stew. Joey gets dozens of these a day and it drives him up a wall. Every once in a while he sends one on to me to show me how I have denigrated the original mascot of GMG, Homie the Seagull, with these monstrously annoying Rubber Ducks.
The only other thing that drives him up a wall even faster is if people send him Rubber Ducks. Going to Amazon there are plenty of links for multiple Rubber Ducks which you can then send to the dock:
c/o Joey Loves Rubber Ducks
95 E Main St
Gloucester, MA 01930
Meanwhile negotiations for a Gloucester visit of the 56 foot Rubber Duck which is currently in Hong Kong are stalled. Please contact Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman and plead with him that the Rubber Duck needs to stop in Gloucester, MA.
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Yesterday we were hanging out with my favorite wolf at Wolf Hollow in Essex freezing our asses off.
And today on Lansdowne Street outside Fenway Park I can almost say in the past hour it has gotten downright hot. Hope the Red Sox stay hot like this Italian Sausage Rubber Duck and I are having. Not an Ambie but it is the locale that gives it the zing.
ps. Did anyone catch the moon right before sunrise this morning? The smallest waxing crescent I have seen in a while. If it is crystal clear tomorrow it should be even smaller, (yuck clouds predicted.) New moon on the 10th.
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A shot of Gloucester from Turkey Hill in Hingham, Massachusetts. Only 30 miles as the crow flies, 57 miles by car. The three windmills are easily picked out.
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EJ asked me about credit card swipers and I think we both knew about the same amount. That there were two out there that worked easily on smartphones. PayPal Reader and The Square. (Click either for signup and more info.)
The Square on the left and PayPal Reader on the right
So it’s 2013 and Rubber Duck thinks it is time for all the galleries and small shops to get one of these if they are still using the old paper ka-chunk machine for credit card transactions. Even the old phone swipe machines are old technology and slow. Are you going to lose sales if you don’t upgrade? Maybe. Crowded shop on Saturday and you want to spend time with the customers and they don’t want to wait in line while you either ka-chunk or use the telephone to call in a card.
Rubber Duck recommendations. What you need:
1) Smartphone. Android or iPhone both can use them. You probably already have one or you already know if you are an iPhone person or an Android person. Joey likes Androids, I like iPhones, personal choice. (Do make sure your phone version is new enough. It likely is.) There is a caveat to the iPhone. It is very easy to turn an iPad into a cash register. If you have wireless in your shop that iPad is a cash register and a credit card swiper. Clear all the old tech away and you may not need the smartphone.
2) PayPal Reader or The Square. Kind of a toss up. Both are dead simple to use once you have given them all your documentation. Rates are 2.75% or 2.7%. I hope everyone picks both then complains about the percent. Competition will drive it to a more reasonable 1.85% of the old ka-chunk. But that extra one percent is worth the convenience.
One caveat: If you already have a PayPal commercial account as a collection source I would look at their set-up first. If you are really pinching pennies The Square rebates the ten bucks you paid for it. And the deals you can get on smartphones are pretty decent lately. You don’t need the newest model iPhone 5. You can get the iPhone 4S for 99 cents when you sign the two year deal. Same kind of deals on Androids since the wicked awesome Samsung Galaxy S4 that tracks your eyeballs is coming out the S3 is/will be cheap.
Will I buy lobsters from Joey with a swipe next to the scale? Sometimes cash is the handiest and 2.7% would pay for a few rubber boots. But transactions in a gallery where the tourista only has a card and not much time, it’s a good fit. It only takes one extra impulse purchase per month to easily cover the cost.
Imagine you have a card table in front of the store with mugs. Someone walking by likes one. Swipe right there, they sign the phone with their finger, and done.
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The Rubber Duck signed up today for her 4th paddle all the way around Cape Ann. Click the map below for Rubber Duck’s Blackburn Challenge timer (108 days to go until Saturday July 20, 2013.)
Cape Ann Rowing Club Blackburn Challenge
Rubber Duck has been faster each time she has paddled it. By the time she is 80 she will win it. RD will also have the popular GMG RD real time locator running during the race.
Rubber Duck is also registered for the warmup, the Essex River Race on Saturday May 11th. Both are a lot of fun.
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About eight pair of Harlequin Ducks have been hanging out in Chapin’s Gully for the winter. Here are a few of them on Easter Sunday. They might be here for a few more weeks but they will be gone soon.
Where do they go? Not tired of the challenge of waves crashing on the coast for variety they spend the summer swimming in white water streams up in Canada. That’s where they have harlequin sex and hatch the next generation. the name harlequin means a clown, a buffoon. But they seem pretty stately to me and they are monogamous, no clowning around. Earlier in the winter there would be an odd number and chasing each other around asking each other for dates like teenagers but by this time of the year they are all paired up. Dabblers, they dive for a minute at a time or more. Around here I think they are eating the mussels that are packed in attached to the rocks but a crab might get nailed too.
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It’s been open all year but today it is really open. Reconnoiter of the strategic plan. Maximum food intake per distance travelled.
The calm before the storm.
Roy Moores smoked salmon with a tasty horseradish dip on the side. My pal the lobster, haven’t seen you on a plate with butter in quite some time. Get in my belly!
First in line at Top Dog for my Chili Dog and fries. Opens at 11AM, hhmm maybe there is time …
I can scoot down to Helmuts Strudel for a pastry.
Will you hold my place in line?
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This list used to be easy to make but Cape Ann is exploding with openings today. So turn this computer off, finish that cup of coffee and get off your butt and get out there. Because when you are putting up your Christmas wreath this fall you do not want to regret missing one day of the season. The outdoor, eat a fried clam and enjoy Cape Ann season.
Below I stick my normal list but there are plenty more places opening this weekend. I could spend time adding names and links but I got a date with a fired clam and I don’t want to
Hot Tip:Cape Ann Whale Watch sets sail starting on Saturday April 13 at 10AM weather permitting. Tonight, after you drag your fired clam filled sunburned butt back to the couch click here and get tickets.
Everyone knows that coyotes have moved onto Cape Ann and Cape Cod but did you know they are actually a new hybrid with the eastern wolf? The DNA typing of this new species is just in its infancy. Mostly using mitochondrial DNA to get a rough understanding but now that genomic sequencing is much cheaper a more detailed picture is forming. Some coyotes trapped have come up as 90% eastern wolf DNA! These hybrids, I’ll call them coywolf from now on, are bigger than coyotes. They are very sociable, live in family packs and can have a range of ten square miles. That is a decent chunk of Cape Ann. I would guess though if the food is plentiful they would hang in one region near their den.
Should you be fearful of these coywolves? You shouldn’t. In fact we should be happy they are here. They fill the niche that the wolf filled here for centuries and now she is back. They eat deer, mice, rabbits, all those small animals. The deer and mice are key. Lyme disease has a life cycle that explodes when deer and mice populations increase. Knocking down both of these populations will keep Lyme disease in check.
Yes, the coywolves will eat your cat but your cat should not be out there anyway. Feral and outdoor cats eat more than 3 billion birds in the US annually. You can’t blame them. They have been trained to do this since ancient egyptian times protecting granaries from vermin. They don’t even eat them just killing one bird after another. Keep your cat inside and let these coywolves keep the population of Lyme disease plagued vermin like deer and mice down to tolerable levels. They are a perfect fit for Cape Ann. They don’t like to eat birds. And if you find a dead coywolf I need just a very small blood sample to run a genetic haplotype test to see how much of a wolf she was. But please do not hunt them. They are doing us all a big favor. Imagine going for a hike in Dogtown and having no fear of being covered by disease ridden deer ticks. If you’ve had Lyme disease you should kiss a wolf on the lips for moving into your neighborhood. They might even take out a fishercat or two.
If the genetic testing of the coywolves on Cape Ann come up as over 80% wolf DNA we can drop the hybrid coywolf name. That is a wolf.
[3/26/13 edit] Lots of great comments on this article. For some local information on wolves go to Wolf Hollow in Ipswich:
I think I figured it out. This has happened dozens of times. I lose track of Rubber Duck for a minute and the next thing I know she is perched onto another round shiny object.
Rubber Duck and Joey at GMG Mug-Up
Jamie at Stones Pub was describing how he was not really that sleep deprived even with one week old baby boy Cameron taking up some of his time lately and the next thing you know Rubber Duck has jumped off the bar.
Rubber Duck and Jamie at Stone’s Pub
So. Do you think Rubber Duck wants to be a mommy? I never got around to explaining the birds and the bees to RD and now I don’t know how to break it to her. Should I put out a call to Homie and get a nice seagull egg for Rubber Duck to sit on?
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Today, the first day of spring, the water is a brisk 39 F but Summer is just around the corner and with it the seasonal openings of restaurants on Cape Ann.
Saturday, March 30, Top Dog of Rockport opens. A clam roll at a picnic table outside. That is Rubber Duck’s official start of the season. Ward off the chill with a Hot Chihuahua Dog with Chili Cheese Fries.
Thursday, April 11, Lobsta Land Restaurant opens. Just say “Lobsta Land!” out loud three times. Quack quack quack, Rubber Duck feels better already. RD had to check their Twitter to find the date. Their website still just says “closed for winter.” Bad Lobsta Land. Engage in all social media.
Note to Restaurateurs of Cape Ann: Do you want patrons when you open your doors this season? Then update your web page!! Update your facebook page!! Rubber Duck should not have to turn over every facebook, web or twitter rock and still have a hard time finding your opening date! Too many places still had, “We’re closing this week for the winter, come back in the spring.” Not good. Update and make a comment on this post and Rubber Duck will add your restaurant to Seasonal Openings Part II.
Rubber Duck chillin’ at Duckworth’s Bistrot
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Spring will arrive at 7:02 AM on Wednesday morning shortly after sunrise at 6:45 AM. Start practicing standing raw eggs on their end. Rubber Duck is a master.
It won’t be long until we dip our duck feet in the water.
Right now it is a bit too soon. The A01 buoy off Gloucester Harbor is recording 40 F from the surface detector all the way down to 50 meters. in the next month or so that 50 meter detector will still be at 40 F but the surface will creep up to 50F and beyond. 50 F is where I draw the line for flipping my kayak. Arms and legs still function for an hour at 50 F but colder than that and paddle is just too hard to grasp. So when the air temp gets really mild make sure your personal flotation device is up to snuff and stick close to shore. Better yet, wait a few more weeks until that A01 buoy reads 50F.
ps. Seasonal Openings 2013 Part I will be posted on the first day of spring. Our first seasonal opening is March 31st. Can you guess?
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Gloucester Area Astronomy Club, “Intro to Amateur Astronomy,” is tonight, Friday night, March 15 at 8:00PM, at the Lanesville Community Center.
GAAC will feature presentations on the rewards of the hobby, what the different types of telescopes are, how they work, how to buy one, how much to spend, what to look at, you name it. Everything you need to know to get started, or to up your game. Bring your questions! The public is warmly invited; as always, there are no dues or fees, and presentations are geared toward the general public.
The Lanesville Community Center is located at 8 Vulcan Street, Gloucester, MA.
If they let Rubber Duck take a peek, they’ll let you too!
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This week and until the end of March if you get an unobstructed view of sunset you may be able to pick out Comet Panstarrs. As comets go this one is not going to blow your socks off but don’t you want to be able to say you saw Panstarrs? It will not be back for 100 million years so this may be your only chance.
Panstarrs is just a warmup for Comet ISON which should be brightening Cape Ann skies in late October. ISON is a “sun grazer” which will do a sharp button hook around the sun. If her water laden self boils furiously the resulting tail may outshine the moon.
So get some comet viewing practice this month and click the link for Lanes Cove web cam. If the sky is cloudless right before sunset get on down there next to the fish shack and bring your binocs. Rubber Duck might be there.
Rubber Duck in Lanes Cove
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Gloucester Area Astronomy Club, “Intro to Amateur Astronomy,” is moving to next Friday night, March 15 at 8:00PM, at the Lanesville Community Center as usual. We’ll have the same great program we were expecting tonight.
I’ll post next Thursday as a reminder as this Introduction is not to be missed.
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Good Morning Gloucester 