Up, Up & Away

Perhaps a bowline would have worked better?


NORTH BATTLEFORD, Saskatchewan (AP) -- A skydiver's hope to set a new free-fall record might have come to an end Tuesday when his ride to the sky left without him.

The helium balloon Michel Fournier was going to use to soar to the stratosphere detached from the capsule he was going to use to jump from 130,000 feet (40,000 meters).

It happened after the balloon was inflated on the ground at the airport in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. The balloon drifted away into the sky without the capsule.

Ocean Sunfish

The Ocean Sunfish, otherwise known as Mola Mola.

I went on a long distance (2 days & 2 nights) ocean bird watching trip a couple of weekends ago and at about 100 miles offshore we came across a couple dozen of these guys. Weird looking fish they are. They were eating the large jellyfish that were also out in this area known as Tanner's Bank. A good fish to name a sailboat after.

Today's NY Times Xword Puzzle (for Stu)

see 27 down.

Opening Day Regatta

We led the fleet for the first 2 1/2 hours but we lost the lead and finished in second place. A good race and a fine party afterwards.

Tribute to Sox Hitters Past & Present

Click on the title to watch the video

End of Big Papi's Batting Slump?

Perhaps this was the cause?

Click here.

Spring Arrives

Approaching the Mark

A Day at the Races

There we were, on the first leg of the first race, close hauled on port tack, among the leaders after a nice start, Dave at the tiller, Ross sitting on the cabin top to hike moderately hard. In response to nothing in particular (the wind was steady, the water flat) Ross adjusted his position — only slightly, but enough to lose his balance, fall backwards through the companionway, strike the back of his head on the coaming, and fall to the bottom of the boat, knocked unconscious for just a few seconds.

Ai yi yi! Yet he came to almost right away and answered repeated insistence that we should return to the dock with repeated refusal. He lay there a while and, after we were both satisfied that he had recovered, we went on to…win the race. We were third around the first mark (after our little "moment" led us to overstand it), but passed both boats ahead of us on the downwind leg, and stayed ahead on the second upwind and downwind legs.

Naturally, in the second race I asked Ross whether he would be willing to knock himself unconscious again, since it seemed to work so well for us, and would you believe it? He said no! Whatever happened to taking one for the team? This race, the most he was willing to do was whack his arm hard enough against a bulkhead to raise a lump and, predictably enough, we only came in third. That result had nothing to do, of course, with the helmsman making bizarre decisions on downwind legs.

And so it went. Our worst finishes came when Ross merely cracked a fingernail or almost (but not quite) fell overboard (a fifth, out of ten, in both cases). Once again, of course, the helmsman's tactical decisions and performance could not be faulted.

In the fifth and final race, Ross was kind enough to wrench his knee, and so our performance improved — we finished third once more. And so, a third place finish over all, with no one (permanently) hurt and nothing damaged (except for the other boat in the collision I didn't tell you about, in which of course we were blameless.)

Ah racing!

Tea Party - Raven Riddle

`You should learn not to make personal remarks,' Alice said with some severity; `it's very rude.'

The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he said was, `Why is a raven like a writing-desk?'

`Come, we shall have some fun now!' thought Alice. `I'm glad they've begun asking riddles.--I believe I can guess that,' she added aloud.

`Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?' said the March Hare.

`Exactly so,' said Alice.

`Then you should say what you mean,' the March Hare went on.

Wetsuits are for Wimps

Went for my first ocean swim/bodysurfing of 2008 yesterday. Waves were great. Water was a chilly 59. It took me about 10 minutes to get "all in' but it was worth it!

Full Wetsuit Required

http://www.surfline.com/video/video_player/video_player.cfm?id=13885

I'm in the 500 Club!

Click here!

We've worked out the kinks

fluffie has her equipment cooperating and lbilightnin' has found his invites so now we are ready to roll

only .15 miles to go??? oh come on!!!!

because we are also about dogs....

SunfishGirl ! & SunfishBoy ?

Congrats to Sunfishgirl for a great end of the season climb up the ladder to beat msmollin and all those other runners. Let's keep it going in 2008. I have taken up the challenge and logged in my first 1.8 miles yesterday. We are un-officially the MSYC - Crabbing - YankeeSwap - cats & dogs - soccer/football - kilt wearing - Bosox - rummy - surfing and running w/ipod society.

If Tom's not ready

We have Daisy!

Boat Builder races to finish

click on title to read fascinating story...

The Chargers Versus The Greatest Football Team Ever

San Diego Super Chargers

Working at home

How am I supposed to print?


No problem!

Good News

No more verification strings when posting something new!

At Radio City Music Hall: 3-D Glasses!

I've done it; Have you?

I have my renewed ISCA membership card - sail # 80015. It is proof that I have joined over 1900 other sailors in support of the Sunfish Class. Being a member entitles me to race at World Championship events.

While we wait

cher and cher II (aka puffin)

I Want a Million Points!

 

Meet Cathy of Encinitas, California, who tells me she visits LBI every other year. While in California, she adds, she can always tell if a person she meets is from New Jersey by the reaction to her sweat shirt.

Let’s Talk About Sailing

You may recall that back when the fires were raging, Emma and I were evacuated and wound up taking Raven and Nemo on a little “stationary sail.” Here’s what it looks like when dogs are at the helm:

 

But while we rested at port under canine command, I found I liked the boat so much that I had to take it out for some actual sailing. So Ross and I went out last week from San Diego Bay, rounded Point Loma, went out to sea a bit to avoid the kelp beds, then tacked back and forth to fetch the opening to Mission Bay. Didn’t quite make it all the way, but so what, when we spent an entire day that looked like this:

 

Plus we got to make a daring hat-overboard rescue, saw a mysterious wave moving against the swell that may have been the wake of a blue whale but probably wasn’t, drank some beer, and got to wear shorts in November.

We covered a total of about 18 nautical miles CMG (a shiny copper to anyone who can say what that stands for) and returned in darkness (sunset at 16:44, and sailing after dark is a treat in itself). Too slow? Not for my tastes; give me a brisk six knots any time!

In your face msmollin!

Better Them Than Me, Part Two

We all love sailing, but face it: sailboats are kinda slow. So perhaps we should all try the airborne sport demonstrated in the video at this link. Or maybe not! I don’t think there’s any camera trickery here — just some insane people who can’t buy insurance.

P.S. Beat MsMolin! Go Ex-Pats!

As Long As We're Not Talking About Sailing

Look to the Monday/Tuesday Men's Fall '07.

Ex-Pats rule! Especially over our arch rivals, Egan's OPT!

it's a horse race

in the absence of any sailing related news, we must turn our attention to the Nike+ challenge to your left, in which the race has tightened up to be a mere 10 miles separating 3 of the top 5 contenders ("ElizabethAnn" doesn't count because rumor has it that "ElizabethAnn" is actually a robot). Sunfishgirl, it's time to pick up your pace and leave msmollin behind!

These are not clouds

Here's the view from the end of my street. It's all smoke from one of the many fires buring in San Diego Country right now. For the time being, it appears that this fire is buring a little south of us and moving from east to west. More to come....

Believe

This picture may look alot like last week's picture, with the only difference being my Red Sox Nation citizenship is far more obvious. Today it was 82 and much lighter winds. We discovered that Hingham Harbor becomes very Barnegat Bay-like at low tide. About a foot deep in some areas. With a mucky bottom that almost sucked me in up to my knees. Today we made it out all the way to Boston Harbor and back.

So this is sailing in New England in October

Yesterday we went out in 15-20mph winds. As soon as we made it out of the more or less protected Hingham harbor into the more open Hingham Bay, there were huge waves and white caps so we quickly surfed back to Hingham harbor (wheee!) and had a fine time sailing back and forth in relatively warm conditions without capsizing.

"I will not drive over the speed limit."
"I will not drive over the speed limit."

We did it!

Captain and crew

OK so we didn't really have all of the rigging figured out... next time! You can see Boston in the distance.

In the parking lot after the sail, wondering if we will be able to unstep the really huge mast without breaking everything.

2007 Crabber of the Year

Nominations are now open.


I nominate...myself:

caught, barehanded, 1 sandcrab.

devoured, 2 crabcake sandwiches.

watched, 1 SpongeBob SquarePants episode featuring Mr. Krabs.

Poor Little Rhode Island LBI'er

I know you all want to see real pictures of Cher II, but for now...

Puffin

The lengths some people will go to have something to blog about....

Route 9 East, Framingham, MA

Surfer Girl

LBI 2007

Rounding the Mark

Grey sky & pretty sails.

A year of planning, and they picked this week???

For those of you who have left the NJ region, here's a brief description of the weather in relation to the 2007 Sunfish World Championship race schedule:

Saturday, 8/18 - travel day - warm and sunny;
Sunday, 8/19 - practice race - dark and drizzly;
Monday, 8/20 - first race day - rain;
Tuesday, 8/21 - second race day - LOTS of rain;
Wednesday, 8/22 - third race day - overcast and rain;
Thursday, 8/23 - last race day - overcast and rain, skies clearing by nightfall;
Friday, 8/24 - boat return - warm and sunny.

Sunfish Worlds - Brant Beach Y C

Sailing fast & we know just how fast!

Catch a Wave and You're Sittin on Top of the World

Today, August 1, 2007 Caroline and I each caught waves and rode them. Standing. 2 or 3 each. The water today was better than I have ever experienced on LBI.

Bumper Sticker Question

How do I transfer a cell phone picture (LBTBP on a Prius parked on Torrey Pines Rd, San Diego) to a computer? Do I need a fancy USB cable? That's Long Beach Township Beach Patrol, baby!

The Boy Who Lived?

Vanessa and I went to the local bookstore's midnight Harry Potter party last night and by 12:30 we had our books. By 1:30 Vanessa was already chapters ahead of me (she started reading in the car while I drove home). I went to bed. When I woke up at 7:30 Vanessa was still awake and about 3/4 through the book. By 9:00 am she had finished the story of Harry Potter.

I'm on chapter 7. Don't anybody tell me anything.

My old daggerboard

If you ever wondered what the inside of your daggerboard looked like, there are about 40 of these metal rods that are really hard to saw through! Which sort of explains why they are so expensive. When I first broke the end off I could see the two metal thingies in the top picture and thought "No sweat I can saw through those!" Only of course to have it turn into a much harder project. But now I have a brand new daggerboard with silly rope handle and one patented custom Barnegat Bay length daggerboard.

Soliciting Opinions

Captains: What do we think of the Vanguard 15?

As seen on our trip to Canada

Emma's New Favorite Place

Wow! An entire museum in Germany, dedicated to Dance Dance Revolution!!

Got Miles?

Why isn't Sunfish Girl in the top 4? It's too much work to scroll down.

So This Is What Life Is Like

I was on my way to work last Friday when all of a sudden an object flew off a truck ahead of me and hit the windshield of my Prius. I didn’t see any immediate damage and thought perhaps it had hit the roof, but acutally it had hit the exact edge of the windshield, so that it was only on the drive home that cracks appeared, spreading long and fast.

So, time to get a new windshield. I called a glass company, which said it would send a guy out on Monday, but when Monday came the company called back saying the guy was sick and the supplier didn’t have the proper windshield and would Tuesday be ok? While my mind asked, Do I have a choice? my mouth said Sure, and for the Monday I swapped cars with Emma, thinking that she had a scant mile to drive to her job, and on local roads at that, so the cracked windshield was unlikely to present her any problems. Oddly enough, I was unequivocally right for a change.

That left me driving the old Accord to Irvine and, saints be praised, it got all the way there. And all the way back, too, but at the beginning of the drive back… it happened. Just south of the 5-405 merge (if you happen to know the area), where the traffic always settles down to a sedate seven or so miles per hour, I saw it. One lane to the left, one position ahead of me, a car with an LBI sticker on its bumper. I immediately reached for my camera, which I always keep in the arm-rest compartment between the front seats expressly for this purpose, and I realized:

I’m in the WRONG CAR!!! AAAAaaahhhhhhhhhh!

Oh well. At least the glass people came on Tuesday, and the Prius looks awfully nice without any cracks in its windshield……

Daggerboard change

Notice the new daggerboard design. "The daggerboard mold was modified after a sailor lost a finger tip slamming the previous style daggerboard with the large opening and blue rubber stops and the stops broke off."

However, "In the course of the redesign of the mold, the shape of the part of the board that extends beneath the hull and its length were inadvertently changed slightly." Rendering the new daggerboard "class illegal".

Why do we care? Be careful slamming your daggerboard I guess!!!

I like this rule

However, a boat not racing shall not be penalized for breaking one of these rules, except rule 22.1.

22.1 If reasonably possible, a boat not racing shall not interfere with a boat that is racing.

How are you going to penalize a boat not racing?

Force them to play one round of

My Second Favorite Racing Rule

Rule 45 (and, once again, italics mine):

"A boat shall be afloat and off moorings at her preparatory signal. Thereafter, she shall not be hauled out or made fast except to bail out, reef sails or make repairs. She may anchor or the crew may stand on the bottom. She shall recover the anchor before continuing in the race unless she is unable to do so."

On the bottom of what? My first thought was the bottom of the boat, in which case I hope the crew can hold its breath and has a finely tuned sense of balance (as well as a finely tuned sense of the absurd). So I guess it means the bottom, as in where the water meets the underlying muck, which isn't of much use if you're racing out in the Pacific or anywhere else that the water's more than seven feet deep (there's that crew holding its breath again).

On the other hand, the latter interpretation works fine if you happen to be sailing Sunfish in Barnegat Bay. I can't wait for August!!!!

In any case, I hope "she" recovers her crew along with her anchor.....

Sunday Morning Birding

standing from left: Ross, Terry, Trent, Barbie, Guy, Gjon, Shellie (in shorts!), Eitan, Lea, Matt
seated: Lauren
June 10, 2007
La Jolla Cove
Sunday morning, 10June, was a pleasant 59 degrees at 7 a.m. at LaJolla Cove, however, calm winds and seas made for few seabirds for more than 15 birders lined up at telescopes behind Stan’s Bench - but no puffins or guillemot…. and no Stan (!!). A few far-distant Sooties were spotted, but otherwise nothing much was happening until Guy McCaskie called out “Brown Booby!” and all present watched it fly in and over and around the myriad kayaks on the glassy water for more than five minutes. The young bird settled on the water a few times and made at least one booby-like plunge dive before turning back and heading south. Photo by Sue Smith

My 360th San Diego County Bird.

The King of Lightnings

Back in the day, when we were Lighning sailors with the Surf City Yacht Club, we sailed against some pretty big names in the Lightning Class. There was one guy though who dominated for a decade or more. His name was Bruce Goldsmith. Occasionally Jack or Howard would beat him (epecially when the race was on Barnegat Bay) but Bruce Goldsmith was king. He was known as the "Living Lightning Legend." Unfortunately he died last week in a sailing accident during a race on Lake Erie. There has been a lot written about him the past few days but I just wanted to forward one story I read that I think tells much about the kind of guy he was as well as the talent he has as a sailor....



Bruce, with his luminous charisma was the life of every party. Everyone felt they were Bruce's friend- and they were. He had the amazing knack to make anyone feel special, welcome and a part of the gang.

But perhaps what was most extraordinary about Bruce was his ability to "keep it all in perspective". No matter what was happening around him, Bruce made sure he held everything in perspective. It seemed that for Bruce, life was always too short to not enjoy it to the fullest... and that was his greatest talent and lesson for all of us.

In one race, a “number” of years ago, Bruce taught us many lessons, but again, "perspective" was the most valuable lesson. I was crewing with my brother in a Lightning North Americans and we were super deep, with a whole 2 boats behind us, in the last leg of the last race. ..We were struggling with the whole "keep it all in perspective" thing for sure. Interestingly enough, Bruce was just ahead of us (that would make him 3rd to last!) and evidently he could tell we were struggling with "perspective" and needed some coaching. Bruce turned around, opened up his cooler and smiled. "C'mon guys, lighten up a bit. It’s just a race." and he chucked us 3 beers.

We then watched Bruce round the leeward mark and proceed to sail through the fleet that last weather leg, nailing one shift after another, sailing around one boat after another...until he worked his way back to the top 5 .

What you need to appreciate is that with that top 5 finish, Bruce and his team sailed themselves back into the lead, the overall win and Bruce's 4th Lightning North American Championship victory.

Have I Forgotten Something?

Let’s see: car keys — check. Glasses… Damn! I have five pairs of glasses and I can never… Oh, there’s a pair. Wallet, phone — check. Account of the final day in the May regatta… Oops!! Well, some things I try to forget….

Actually, the day didn’t start all that badly. There was a good breeze, and current was not a factor, although there was kelp. We had a good start in the first race, sailed a solid upwind leg, and rounded the mark in first place, with Clay a short distance behind. Alas, we went right and he went left, and left turned out to be the better side; Clay edged us at the finish by about a foot. Still, we were in pretty good shape, now tied overall with the Matts (who took a distant third), only a point behind Clay, and sailing pretty well.

In the second race we got an even better start, hitting the line right at the starting gun but forcing Clay outside of the committee boat. In the early going we led, but we seemed to sail more slowly than other boats. Did I mention there was kelp? There was so much that a person of about Caroline’s weight could probably have walked across the bay. We’d snagged some, although we took a while to realize it. Finally, Ross checked the rudder, removed a small forest from it, and we instantly sped up, but by this time Clay and the Matts had caught us.

Even so, it was still very much a race, until…. We reached what should have been the lay line, tacked onto starboard, and watched as Clay’s wife sailed a collision course on port (and in her own boat, not Clay’s), blithely ignoring us. We hailed her, but by the time she responded, it was too late — we had to point into the wind to avoid a collision, came to a stop, and watched our competition sail away. By the time we got going again we could no longer stand the mark and had to make a couple of extra tacks. The result: Clay took first (again), and we almost caught the Matts, but ended half a boat length behind them, somewhere in the middle of the fleet.

I don’t think she did it on purpose….

Two more races remained, but by this time the regatta was pretty much settled. Not that we accepted our fate. For the third race the race committee responded to changing wind by changing the starting line a bit. The new line favored a port-tack start from the pin end, and we attempted it, but the kelp was so think at that end of the line that we couldn’t maneuver as freely as we would have liked. The result: I seem to recall that we sailed upwind and down, and ended just behind the Matts, with Clay in first. Fourth race: starboard-tack start, but otherwise ditto. And in the end, I’ve got a new third-place plastic boat to add to my trophy fleet.

Got those Fran Temme blues….. But June’s coming up!