Whitehall and Balloons

A splendid row this morning —flat water, nice cool temperature, rested body.  I love this boat..it’s a timeless and beautiful European rowing design similar to those wherrys used by the Thames watermen to ferry people and goods across the Thames river.  They were first made in the US at the foot of Whitehall Street in NYC sometime in the 1820s to ferry goods and sailors on and off boats in New York Harbor and in the early 20th C were a popular recreational boat known as the “bicycle of the sea”   I love it’s distinctive shape with keel the entire length (14 to 22 ft), full skeg, and wine glass transom.  Whitehall designs are currently being built in wood, and manufactured fiberglass with wood trim, and more recently thermoformed in co-polymer plastic, like this one from Victoria.  and there’s a good history on their website


Are you wondering about the big blue ball(oon)???  It’s all I can think of for the Weekly blip challenge this week, Balloon.(“a non rigid bag filled with air or gas”)  the extra shows the cover for the boat and the plastic battens that hold the cover up.   But it’s not enough for those pesky otters who like to play on it and  collapse the battens  so we thought we’d try putting an exercise ball (or two) inside when we put it away so it won’t collapse.   It’s only been on the dock 2 nights tho and the otters have not yet visited,  so the jury is out to see how this works.    For good measure the “bumpers”we are using to keep the boat upright  are also called balloons as I recall from sailing on a Greek sailboat and hearing the captain shout for us to lower the “balloons” when coming into a dock.