Summer Reading: Sex, Lies & Spinnakers

You can tell this book by its cover, which gives most of it away in the title. Except that many keel boat sailors, especially cruisers will like the details of boat and sail handling, as well as salivate over navigational details in the passage between Puerto Vallarta and the Marquesas Islands. Author Steve Van Slyke is an accomplished blue water sailor and has published a nonfictional account of his experiences in Kavenga's Wake.

For myself, I had trouble in the early going with my suspension of disbelief. I found plausibility problems with the early details in this whodunit story line. But that's because I was overlooking a lot; as Trophy Wife comments, often I have difficulty with paying attention. So fault the reader, not the writer.

In the end, which is worth pursuing, all is tied together. Even for this non-cruiser.

Happy 4th!

Dock Party!

We're gearing up to go down to the docks a couple of fingers further than our slip for what is a perennial 4th of July event for us. Around 6 PM to fireworks. The docks are really crowded, generally. And as the night wears on the crowd gets drunk, generally. So we meet, greet, eat, and drink up and leave before the fire works happen: don't want to be caught in the rush hour in the dark and on the docks afterwards.

We also prefer to watch the fire works from home with Doberwoman: she's not as skittish as Bando was, but it feels right to do this as a threesome!!

June: Out Like a Lion!

Steady winds up to 21 knots this afternoon. Had more sailing talent aboard for this mid-week twilight than ever before. Last-minute addition was a visiting multihull sailor from Hawaii. We finished 3rd out of 16. Partied heartily afterwards. Too much for this old man! 

No photos: my batteries were dead. (In more ways than one!) This shot from my past files shows what it was like.  I will publish anything from my bud when he gets back to the Big Island! Hopefully!

Here are the shots I've been waiting for. They are not as dramatic as I expected. Whoever said that photography from deck level renders water surface much more calm and flat than photography from a camera raised above the surface--whoever said that was right!

Prescription for Sunstroke

Dismal race around the same boring buoys again. 4nm course, 2 knots of wind, 2ft swells, 2 hours of sunlit sailing. 15 boats, maybe. Despite a perfect start, we were next to last rounding the weather mark, and passed one boat at the 2nd mark. Fun.

Saturday Is for Soccer

Three of my sons are at the Rose Bowl where Team USA is tied half time in the Gold Cup finals with Mexico. Newt sent me this panorama from his ipod. We are texting back and forth. USA was ahead 2-0, but could not hold back the Favorites!

Better than Advertised

Today we had a full crew and a forecast of 7 knots. Instead, 17 turnouts enjoyed a breeze of more than 15 knots at times. We started well, had a good set of mark roundings a good spinnaker set. And a great set of photographs to show for our efforts - the last thanks to a guest crewperson. Our esteemed photographer collected our 3rd place trophy at the end of the evening.

Father's Day

We took out my 12-year old granddaughters for their first sail for a couple of hours. They took to it! Sailing amidst a pod of 100+ dolphins was an added delight!

For Trophy Wife and I, it was a treat to have das boot out for some rare, much-needed non-competitive sailing pleasure!

Twilight Beer Can Racing in Marina Del Rey

The Harbor 20's now have a fleet start in this venue. I think the fleet has a future. We had four boats out there tonight. The builder was racing in one, so the rest of us assumed from the start we were racing for 2nd Place.

My son got a great start on the windward and starboard end of the line and the MIR started on the leeward end. Out story, which is what we're sticking to, is that there was more wind on the leeward side. The MIR was soon out of camera range. All the way up the weather leg, we led in the race for 2nd: close tacking, lee-bowing and threading our way through a competitive Laser fleet. At the end of the narrow channel, I mis-called for a tack because I was unaware of a crucial limiting mark, and the home team became the 3rd Place team. They stretched out their lead several boat links but we stayed as close as we could, rounding the weather mark in four foot seas and reaching back into the harbor. Winging-on-winging we gradually ate up Sparky's lead until we were overlapping. That's the way we remained until the finish: inches apart, but in 3rd place.

This was an incredible pre-Father's Day gift for him to invite me down for the race. Well-worth the drive!

Another Wednesday

5-8 knots. Beautiful. Traded off helm to light wind specialist. Took some photos. Passed more than a half a dozen boats but could not save our time. 13th out of 16.

Summer #1

Light winds 8-11 knots. Bad start. Great (tactically) mark roundings. Good spinnaker set. Good finish line maneuver. Finished 8th out of 20.

I'll take it.

Sailing To Windward Under Jib Alone: Research in Progress

Some time ago, maybe two or three years ago, I wanted to register a start in 30+ knots of wind. On this occasion, getting scored as a DNF for this race in a series was all I was after. So we motor-sailed to weather under jib and cut off the engine with 5 minutes to go. We rounded the starting pin and smartly crossed the start line after the gun. The only trouble, initially, was keeping clear of leeward reefed boats which could sail closer to the wind. That we managed. Then, to my surprise, we were able to close-reach close to 60-65 degrees. At the time, I thought we could have finished the race without too much embarrassment, considering the few boats which actually chose to race.

I look forward to trying this again. In the meantime, I'm looking around for evidence that this works, even if it's not pretty!

Volvo Ocean Race Game - Beta

I'm not sure how much I'm going to throw myself into the VORG Beta Race starting tomorrow. For one thing, a decent start will require setting Mr. Alarm for 0300hrs, and I have been enjoying a good night's sleep of late. 

For another thing, I don't have a clue as to whether the software will be a step forward in terms of intuitive feel of sailing. But I think there might be issues be worth discussing... Maybe. Maybe not.