Rolex TP 52 Global Championship - September 21-29, 2007
Porto Cervo, Sardinia, Italy (Photo credit Carlo Borlenghi)

Catching Up

It's been a busy month what with the trip to Spain and work-related projects coming on big time. Not as much opportunity for sailing or writing but don't give up...Zephyr Sail will see 2007 through in good form.

Heading to the Chesapeake...where warm weather lingers...for a Fall sailing weekend on November 10. My Dad and I are going to take my five-year old son on his first overnight sail. A brief sojourn up the Tred Avon to drop the hook up some deserted creek. Nothing fancy but I always welcome the opportunity to be on the water with these two people and the fall season on the Chesapeake can be breathtaking.

I took a look through my archives, which stretch back a few years now, and noted that October has always been a big month for coverage of the Annapolis Sailboat Show. I missed it this year but be certain to read Herb's blog post over on Cruising World - he details the annual changing of the guard that marks the division between the Powerboat and Sailboat shows along the Annapolis waterfront...a drunkenly, gleefully observed occasion I'd completely forgotten about until now...appropriately known as Breakdown Day!

Yacht Monkeys...previewing soon

I've wondered at the dearth of sailing-oriented plot lines on the telly. Not that I watch all that much TV one way or another but it's interesting that, in the long history of television drama and sitcom, there has never been - as far as I know - a show set on a yacht, in a marina or a boatyard. I kind of like the boatyard backdrop idea...a mash-up of (dating myself here) Sanford & Son, Hill Street Blues and, say, Cheers. A little bit of Six Feet Under too. There are plenty of real life stories out there that could be picked up for example this sordid tale out of the LA Times. If we wrote and cast a pilot what would we call it?

Some ideas:

* The Yard (Short and sweet...more of a crime oriented drama)
* Gully (Gully would be the cantankerous boatyard owner with a heart)
* Yacht Monkeys (a comedy with an Al Bundy type lead...his hot wife is banging the artistic varnish worker)
* Essex Junction (angst filled 20 somethings suffer boatyard intrigue in Connecticut)

Hyères Trophy - September 10-15, 2007
Hyères, France (Photo credit: ThMartinez/Medcup)

Sailing Abroad

We realized during our trip to Spain just how myopic and "blanketed" the generic U.S. media are - reflecting, no doubt, their readers preferences for American-centric claptrap such as the fiasco of OJ Simpson and whether or not Hillary C can best that guy from Law & Order. Sure, you can read about what's happening in the rest of the world but you'll have to really want to.

Sailing demands, in many ways, a more international perspective...particularly as it applies to the racing circuit. That being said - the U.S. Sailing media does cater to the U.S. audience in much the same way. Point being that at any given moment exciting, eventful and well attended sailing occasions are happening all over the world...occasions that most sailors in the U.S. are only dimly aware of. Take the glamorous Voiles de Saint-Tropez. A total of 3,500 sailors, 304 modern and classic yachts took part in last week's 9th edition of the Voiles de Saint-Tropez.
U.S. based veterans of the Rockville Regatta and Block Island Race Week and Key West and...going pretty far afield here...Antigua Race Week. Ever heard of the Voiles de Saint-Tropez? If the answer is "yes" then congrats...you're in a minority!

Moorings Outpost in the Balearic Islands

Our trip to Spain - while not as sailing oriented as Tillerman's - was significant in so much as it was the first time we'd been away alone together without the two children (2 and 5 years) for a long, long time. Though we were only in Spain for five days...we very much enjoyed a brief stop in Barcelona and an extended weekend on the island of Mallorca for a friends wedding. I made a note to return for a Moorings bareboat charter out of Palma when time and finances permit...the Balearic Islands seem very much an ideal Mediterranean cruising destination.

The time on Mallorca was mostly spent in the seaside mountain town of Deia...the final resting spot of the renowned British poet, Robert Graves and home to one of the most exquisite hotels I've ever had the pleasure to visit, La Residencia. We stayed across the street in a less glamorous "pensione" - much easier on the wallet but just as centrally located. The wedding reception was at the restaurant El Olivio on La Residencia grounds...a four hour multi course, wine flowing feast that left us cross eyed and ready for bed ;-)

Back to writing about sailing next week!

Back from Spain!

On Holiday in Spain - back October 8

"Got no place to go
But there's a girl waiting for me down in Mexico
She got a bottle of tequila, a bottle of gin
And if I bring a little music I could fit right in

We got airplane rides
We got California drowning out the window side
We've got big black cars
And we got stories how we slept with all the
Movie stars

I may take a holiday in Spain
Leave my wings behind me
Drink my worries down the drain
And fly away to somewhere new..."
Counting Crows