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Mathew Sympsun

@matsympsun

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Something about skiing into the sun on a slushy Spring day just feels like you're flying on that glare from the sun. And I love the sound of skiing in the slush, up there with skateboards rolling down streets in a foreign city.
No idea who this guy is, I pulled over to get my camera out and start recording then he flew by so I tried to catch up. But he had skate skis and I had classic skis, and skate is the better choice for these conditions. taken in Bellevue Champlain Lookout by @matsympsun

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6 months ago

Black diamond Spring ski. Besides the skimpy outfits the water features turning the trails into an obstacle course is the best thing about this time of year.
Also, I saw a turkey vulture and I ain't never seen one show up and then have daytime temps go below freezing. Unlike the geese which are a little too eager if you ask me.

Equipment used: @fischernordic Country Crowns. Snow was so buttery you don't even need metal edges. taken in Gatineau Park by @matsympsun

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7 months ago

Best place to have lunch in Gatineau Park in the winter? Western Cabin. You can see the Ottawa River clear across to Calabogie when the skies are this blue.
It was a great cross country ski season and hoping to get a few more weeks of Spring skiing in 🤞☺️⛷️ taken in Gatineau Park by @matsympsun

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7 months ago

I’ve been planning to post something about Mike ever since he passed away, but it’s hard to know where to start. We met at the old Oz Kafe. Not sure who took this photo, but it’s from 2012, the year we met. He walked up to me with his big smile after realising I liked black holes, so our friendship began with long talks about physics. His expertise was the physics of fluids, specifically how turbidity currents carry and deposit sediment. From that starting point of black holes we talked about everything under the sun, and then some.

Mike saw the entire universe as a fluid. For him the three states of matter (gas, liquid, and solid) were just a fluid moving at different speeds. The first two elements to come into existence after the Big Bang were the first two types of sediment, combining into new elements and expanding outwards in their turbulent currents, shooting outwards for 13.8 billion years of increasing complexity. From the chaotic gaseous beginnings the sediment of the universe eventually settled into stars and planets- not that different from how the eddies and currents of rivers and oceans leave deposits of the sediment they carry in one place, while eroding it from somewhere else.

Once he got his PhD he was always in search of jobs and funding that would allow him to do research in fields that were rich in the same data he needed to further his own theories. These theories were radical revisionings of the fundamental underpinnings of the entire field, all based on lab experiments and data collected on glaciers, rivers, and sea beds. Unfortunately his life’s work was cut short. It was more than just his work, it was his obsession. After his first cup of coffee he would open his laptop and blink at the screen a few times while he refreshed his memory of where he was. Late morning he would be out the door and off to the university lab until late afternoon. After that it was often to the Manx Pub to continue coding his simulations or polishing a thesis while sipping a Guinness.
(Continued in comments) by @matsympsun

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9 months ago

Day 9 of 9
We rounded the eastern shore of Antigua in the dark, with the smell of goats hitting our nostrils after 8 days of nothing but fresh sea air (rude). We dropped anchor in Falmouth Harbour a few minutes past midnight.
In the morning we took the mainsail down while we were at anchor, since it’s easiest to do while pointed into the wind, and a boat at anchor is always pointing that way. Getting the sail off of a 100 foot mast can be daunting, but with the light breeze it went smoothly.
I put the Cayman Islands flag out- it's one of the popular places for yachts to be registered to avoid taxes. This practice became even more popular after the most recent inauguration of he-who-shall-not-be-named, and even the ultra-wealthy who had been patriotic enough to pay taxes have opted out.
Then we got the fenders and dock lines out, pulled the anchor up and motored into the Cat Club dock where a couple of the marina staff were waiting to grab our lines.

One of the things I've learned on this trip is how overwhelming it can be to cut a 2 minute video out of an hour or more of footage, but I'm getting faster at knowing what will work and what should be left out. At some point I'll make some longer and slower format videos for YouTube. taken in Falmouth Harbour, Antigua by @matsympsun

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10 months ago

Day 7-8 of 9. On the leg of the trip that some would call monotonous, but it doesn't feel like it's been all that long so we're all just vibing- in the routine of standing watch, preping and eating meals, and taking naps to be rested when our next watch comes around. Matt the Captain is probably the most antsy since this is his second time doing this trip this month.

I spent a good chunk of today trying to get footage of flying fish as they skitter across the waves when our boat scares them out, but won't know until I'm back home combing through the files if I got anything.

Besides that I've been watching the waves and the sky, and especially the place where they meet, and the colours there where the haze and the swells merge.

Here's some clips shot with my iPhone (often zoomed in more than I should be on a moving boat) with some of the music I was listening to. My favourite ones are the least dramatic, the almost monochrome yellows and silver greys by @matsympsun

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a year ago

Day 6 of 9. Can’t forget about the night. Moonlight shining through hollowed out clouds, lighting up the waves, and so many pin-point planets visible these past few nights. Constellations always ready to make themselves visible when the moon sets. That's Orion in the last slide.

The phone camera makes the night sky look a lot brighter in some of these shots than it actually was, but I still like the dreamy sci-fi atmosphere. Reminds me of the end of The Quiet Earth (top 5 sci fi movie recommendations btw) by @matsympsun

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a year ago

Day 5 of 9. Busted out the @insta360 and got some faux-drone footage of the @oysteryachts 675. I wasn't able to frame it using the gyro setting in the app the way I normally like, because the boat is moving around too much for me to stand and spin around in circles, but it's something. Will do a better cut when I'm on dry land. The ten foot extention pole made it possible, but I realized it may not be long enough to get the underwater shots of the hull I was hoping for.

#oysteryachts #oyster675 #weareallcreators by @matsympsun

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a year ago

Day 4 of 9 on the Oyster 675 delivery. Just dolphins frolicking with us in a following sea. When I went up for my watch at 9PM we were just passing Bermuda but all I could see of it was the glow of the city lights and a lone lighthouse or bouy flashing in the night. Now and then Bermuda Radio would blast through on the VHF with a bulletin or to communicate with an inbound vessel. A quarter moon soon sank below the horizon and the Milky Way shone bright enough to illuminate the olden ways, with Orion dominating the southern sky and the Big Dipper pointing out the North Star in the opposite direction.

#oysteryachts #passagemaking #oceanpassage #Bermuda #bermudasailing by @matsympsun

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a year ago

The Gulf Stream can be a wild card, and at this time of year is often rougher than the surrounding ocean. The Stream is essentially a river within the ocean that flows up from Cuba and along the Eastern US until it veers out towards Bermuda which is at the same latitude as North Carolina and 1000+ kilometres offshore. From there it arches north across the Atlantic to warm the Azores, Britain and Notherm Europe. It forms such a clear cut course through the ocean that as you approach it you can have a 20+ degree ocean temperature on either side of the boat (the Gulf Stream is always in the 70s Fahrenheit up here).

The reason it can be rough is if you have a few knots of current heading north with an opposing wind the waves kick up fast and steep as the two forces oppose each other. This time we got lucky and the wind was coming from the south. Meant we had to motor but it made for an easy crossing (took about 12 hours) and a chance to tweak the jib and main sail, and also some easy cooking on an even keel.

More to come...

#oysteryachts #oyster675 #offshorepassage #gulfstream taken in Gulf Stream by @matsympsun

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a year ago

Second day out from Newport and the wind has been shifty from behind so had to jibe 3 times in a day, which is probably a record for me on a delivery. The steps are basically roll the headsail up, center the boom, switch the running backstay to the windward side and switch the preventor over to prevent crash jibes. Crash jibes are one of the scarier and more dangerous things that can happen on a boat and only happen while sailing downwind. The pit for grinding the winches and such is the most uncomfortable I've experienced as you have to be on your knees the entire time. I do my best work on my knees but I really would have brought knee pads had I known.

#oysteryachts #oyster675 #offshoresailing #newportri taken in North Atlantic Ocean by @matsympsun

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a year ago

The owner casts the dock lines off as we leave the dock to take his boat down to Antigua. Everyone knows what they're doing so there's no commotion or fuss. Nothing more embarrassing than a captian who's yelling while getting on or off a dock. Fenders deflared and dock likes coiled, all stowed away in the forepeak.

#oysteryachts #oyster675 #offshoresailing #newportri #antigua #caribbeansailing #passagemaking #bluewatersailing #sailinglife #yachting #sailingadventure #oceanpassage #newporttoantigua #luxurysailing #lifeatsea taken in Safe Harbor New England Boatworks by @matsympsun

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a year ago