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

That's Larry!

In a modern day twist on the "Prince and the Pauper" the Marin Independent Journal ran a story recently on..."the gold collar-blue collar partnership of Larry Ellison and Norbert Bajurin - the billionaire and the mechanic..."

Says the journalist...." At first glance, the two men seem to have little in common."

Um, well yes. How many of us truly have something in common with the fourth-richest person in 2007, a man who Forbes reports as having a net worth of $26 billion? Well there is the "common" interest in sailing...only with Larry its not so common.

Reminds me of my Ellison sighting story. I was crewing for John Sweeney in a vintage America's Cup regatta on the SF Bay circa 2003. I had the mast position on US-11 Stars & Stripes. At first I was taken with the glamor of it all but I have to say, honestly, that vintage AC boats not only require a lot of $$ to keep up but they also begin to make scary noises in wind above 15 knots. Luckily during my brief tenure only one block blew up with no lasting harm done.

Anywhoo...we were reliving the race at the yacht club bar in Sausalito. I was on the deck overlooking the harbor and glanced over to the bar to see if the time was right for another drink run...people three deep stood chattering around a skinny man obscured save for his pale, hairless legs shod in old school topsiders, black dress socks pulled to mid-calf. He may have been out of sight but his voice wasn't. We could clearly hear him bellowing at his entourage, all of them to a one wagging their heads in unison.

"Who in the hell is that?" I asked, guessing at some local dignitary or sailing legend gone to seed.

"Ah c'mon dude," my new found mate sneered in disgust at my lack of savvy. "That's Larry."

A Caucus on the Potomac

We all know that marinas are where the action is...the flotsam and jetsam of the boating life mingling with shore side nonsense - and if folks want to call them "floating trailer parks" well that's just fine. A good marina is an appropriate mix of seamy, comforting, exclusive (even if it's not gated), gossipy and glamorous. Some lean heavier on certain aspect of the mix than others but they all are, for the most part, interesting places. And unlike a trailer park, all one has to do is cast off the dock lines to be free of one. Much more appealing.

There's a terrific story in the New York Times today about a Washington DC marina that is, as you might imagine, a political place chock a block with political people and their (well paid) flunkies. It's a good reminder that even in a less than ordinary place like the nations capital, a marina is just a marina after all...with all the accompanying features any experienced marina-dweller would certainly recognize.

Late Summer on the Eastern Shore

Sea-Fever

Sea-Fever

I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

By John Masefield (1878-1967).
(English Poet Laureate, 1930-1967.)

Rolex Big Boat Series - September 12-16, 2007
San Francisco, CA (Photo credit Rolex/Daniel Forster)

The Original "Slogger"

WIRED Magazine is really on a roll lately in regard to the intersection of sailing & Blogging (with a capital "B"). Only now there's a new term for us folk (who blog about sailing or blog while sailing or...) - get this we're "sloggers." Love it!

Read about slogger Peter Jensen (and wife Sally) who have lived on a 39-foot sailboat (a Freedom cat-rigged ketch) for nine years in Mexico. They sold their house in Sacramento, California, along with her florist shop, her white 1990 Toyota 4-Runner and his yellow 1974 VW Thing. They abandoned the dirt life (life on land) and moved onto Hopalong, named after Sally's childhood TV hero, Hopalong Cassidy.

Chief among his complaints? Unreliable wireless access ;-)

"Writing and reporting the blog has been wrapped around maritime matters, such as rebuilding the devilishly unreliable marine toilet on our boat (call me the "prince of potties") and climbing the five-story mast to replace light bulbs. But like some cyber dope fiend, making my connection to the internet consumes me. When you move from place to place in a foreign land, the ease of fast broadband connections found in the Old Country (the U.S.) begins to appear a fantasy."

Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup - September 2-8, 2007
Porto Cervo, Sardinia, Italy (Photo credit Carlo Borlenghi)

1,000 Days

There is a small contingent of hardcore offshore sailors always willing to endure the latest and greatest extreme sailing challenge...but 55-year-old Reid Stowe is breaking new ground by taking on a voyage with a commitment to stay out of sight of land for one thousand days. It's a challenge so extreme that he plans to use the results of the journey - should he survive - to prepare astronauts for the grueling trip to Mars...a space flight that would, given current technologies, take two to three years. The "1000 days at sea" project has its own blog...where you can get daily updates on Reid and his girlfriends most recent oceangoing deprivations. And if you want to go in-depth then have a look at the recent WIRED Magazine feature. It will make you mighty glad for an anchorage.

From the WIRED story...Stowe has made a number of long, grueling sails, including a trip to Antarctica in 1986. But if he succeeds in this mission, it will not only be the longest trip of his career, he'll also shatter the 1988 record world record for the longest continuous sail -- held by Australian Jon Sanders, who was at sea for 657 days.

It Helps to be Able to Visualize

If you've scoffed at my posts on Second Life & sailing I don't blame you...after all the idea of sailing in a virtual world seems to defeat many of the things we love about the experience. Namely being out-of-doors and enjoying the wind in our hair (and sails) the sun on our face, etc. But if you have to be on a computer...then why not participate in an extension of your passion. Not perfect by any means but, as I've attested to in previous posts, certainly intriguing. Have a glance at this video, footage of a Second Life Sailing Regatta in the Hollywood region. It helps to be able to visualize.

Back from Boothbay, Maine

Back in the office after a few glorious late summer days up in East Boothbay, Maine. The weather in the Northeast U.S. could not be more perfect...though the strong breeze on Saturday necessitated a double reef due to a number of two, four and five-year old crew members!

Shields US Nationals - August 15-18, 2007
Newport, RI - Photo credit: Amory Ross

Headed Down East

I have the pleasure of leaving for coastal Maine after work today...we'll spend the holiday weekend in Boothbay Harbor (Hahhhbahh) with a close friend and his family. Labor Day marks the beginning of my favorite sailing season in the Northeast U.S. If you're lucky you're still day sailing well into October until, at some inevitable point, the chill winds blow you back down the hatch for another long winter. I know, I know Tillerman...there is always frostbiting but not all of us are cut from that cloth.

But the cold dark winter seems a way off on this bright, late summer morning...with the promise of Maine just past a few more emails in my inbox. Maine and I have a history. It will be, for example, nearly 20 years this August since I participated in a 26-day Outward Bound course out of Hurricane Island in Penobscot Bay. We - the young men and woman of HIOBS August 1988 - didn't spend a whole lot of time on Hurricane...encouraged instead by our instructors to plan and provision several lengthy cruising excursions in classic, Pete Willauer-designed open wooden pulling boats. I grew up sailing on Lasers and the like but I trace the genesis of my passion for cruising and living aboard sailing boats to that challenging, invigorating, Maine-soaked summer month when I was lad of 18...so many years ago.

If you have a few minutes click on the Outward Bound link and read about the Hurricane Island program. It's a gem. Have a tremendous holiday all!