More Northern California

We have mostly been working on my son's house, with only a few interruptions for distraction, a trip to wine country, Napa, Sonoma, St. Helena.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

I am in northern California, by that I mean north of San Francisco. I had an idea of what to expect, I was mostly wrong. It is as diverse as the rest of California, with agriculture being the dominant feature. Being from the East I always fall back to the idea of the Pacific Ocean, surfers and people in Los Angeles and San Francisco. It is far more diverse and interesting than that.

Everything is big; the trees, the spaces, the vineyards. It is fascinating for me from the East. Although I am still without bearings.

My son moved here from Los Angeles, and we are here helping him settle. I had only just gotten used to Los Angeles.

Sharks

I just watched a 60 minutes episode about shark watching. It made me remember a summer, I must have been 8 or 10 years old. That particular summer the Gulf Stream moved very close to New England. Many beaches on Long Island and in Newport were closed due to shark sightings.

It is important to put this in context, it is the mid-fifties.

I spent my summers in Westport, Ma. with my grandmother. A fin was sighted in the Westport River; a group of my grandmother's contemporaries were there swimming. Try to visualize elderly women, in one piece bathing suits, with a skirt at the bottom, entirely in black, and all of them wearing bathing caps.

These were women of principal, seeing the shark, they swam out and grabbed it by the tail and towed it ashore. It was easily 15-20 long from it's nose to the end of it's tail. Looking back at the event, the shark must have been sick. The groundskeeper from a nearby estate arrived with a shotgun; put it to the head of the shark and pulled the trigger. I watched all this from the beach. and after the shark was dead, put my fist in the hole left in it's head by the shotgun blast.

COWES WEEK FASTNET RACE 2009

The Fastnet Race which starts today,is probably my favorite race, a tactical race, never really offshore. Cowes week is always fun, a far cry from my early days.

I must say I would like to be there.

MADCAP

The boat has been measured and is now officially a six meter. In fact is entitled to some extras, as the measurement came in below 6 meters.

you tube fun

I found this thanks to sailing anarchy.

1971 Trans-Atlantic

In 1971 we sailed "Carina" first to Harwichport, on Cape Cod. David Steere, the owner of "Yankee Girl" (sistership to Charisma") gave a large party for all involved inviting astronauts as guests of honor. The next morning very early, to catch the tide. We left, after a late night. "American Eagle", Yankee Girl" and Carina" We took a more northerly route. and made a very quick crossing, 14 days. beating the other boats by a day. They had taken a more southerly, warmer route. In fact, I have never beaten this time, in a race.

I had purchased a BB gun and hid it on the boat. I would take the cans and glass out of the garbage, throw it over the side and shoot at it as it trailed off astern. I am not sure the English Customs would have taken to the idea of the gun, even a BB gun arriving in England.

NEW TRANS-ATLANTIC RECORD

Banque Populaire a 130 foot trimaran crossed the atlantic in 3 days, 15 hours, 25 minutes, 48 seconds. I should add that in the process they sailed 907 miles in 24 hours.

I sailed the same course in 2005 on an 80 ketch, winning our class, in 14 days and some hours.

QUEEN'S CUP

Today I sailed the Queen's Cup, a race with no time limit usually sailed the second day of the New York Yacht Club's annual cruise.

I sailed on the six meter "Madcap", a 1921 Frederick Hoyt design, we had our own class.

This weekend was also the Folk Festival at Fort Adams so leaving and returning around the Fort was congested.

The photo of a six meter against the 90 foot "Rambler" gives you a sense of the range and scale of boats involved in the race.

IT'S HOLLYWOOD

Went to a party in the Hollywood hills, what more is there to say?

more LA

Los Angeles is fun, I have found it amusing, eclectic, crowded, wild and calm all at the same time.

Music is such an important part of Los Angeles, as is art, movies,and theatre, writing.

The fellow looking skyward is Dix Denning, guitarist for the Weirdos, often mislabeled originators of Punk, still today they are described to me as exactly that. If you read their official site, They decry the monicker.

907 MILES IN 24 HOURS

907 miles in 24 hours. Who would have imagined. Now they ( the crew aboard Banque Populaire) are seriously considering 1000 miles.

I think the real heros of this achievement are the weather routers, the French weather routers.

This record was part of the larger plan to break the record from New York to the Lizard.

Sea state played an important part of this achievement.