Sail Home, Be There, Happy

The canal in San Rafael, California terminates near downtown just east of Highway 101. A bit further eastward sits the San Rafael Yacht Harbor. I worked on my wooden sloop- Maestro, a Golden Gate hull #18 in this boatyard. I worked on the boat for a few years and then by way of a thousand […]

Going Up the Mast

I have tried a few times now to go to the top of my mast. It is 45 feet off the deck of the boat. I needed to go up and have a closer look around. It wasn’t like I made this up. It is what a prudent sailor needs to do. The locking […]

Plymouth 2 San Diego The Ship

The container ship HR Constitution has left Plymouth and I’ve got her position by way of AIS (automatic identification system via Marinetraffic) just passing south of the British Virgin Islands. Ship is making 14 knots toward Panama some 450 miles to the west. Ship will be there in 100 hours. Then the vessel will transit the […]

Beaufort Scale from Las Trampas Peak

Early this morning atop Las Trampas Peak in the EastBay hills here in San Francisco Bay Area a storm approached off the Pacific. The storm produced wind gusts to Force 10 on the Beaufort scale. Quoting from the scale, “Very high waves (20-30 ft) with overhanging crests, sea white with densely blown foam, heavy rolling, lowered […]

Sailing is Fungible

Sailing a boat is just the start of the thing. Some people see a sailboat and see a race and some people see as a way to travel. Sailing is fungible. You can race, cruise, live-aboard and never even pretend that you are ever going to use the sailing portion of what the boat you […]

Spaghetti Western meets Waterworld!

John Craig just back from Europe had much to say about setting up the Oracle Racing Teams 110 shipping container command center for the first time in Portugal and then a second go at it in Plymouth, England. Seems like a lot of equipment to support a A/C 45 that weighs something south of 2000 […]

Inspirational Change-aroony

Charging ahead full steam and now out of steam. I’m exhausted. Inspiration?????? I still have some, but it is rather more like this empty tanker. I’m in need of a new load of energy…..Good nights sleep will change all of that.

Friends Change

I departed on my journey inspired by the dreams of friends I made when my soul was still younger than spring. These were big dreamers. I had scrawny dreams. They weren’t even dreams, they were practical considerations, they didn’t contain ambitions, they were solutions to anxieties. I thought I’d adjust my aim so I wouldn’t […]

The Way an Oak Tree Changes What I Know

One hundred hours of labor can change you. I found the one hundred hours of work rewarding. I made some mistakes, gouged some of the edwood with the orbital sander, and was unable to repair some of the damaged wood prior to staining. But, we have to ask questions when doing this kind of […]

Removing Change

Finishing Bankrupt Heart meant I could focus on finishing the refinishing of the exterior of our redwood home. The east side of the building hasn’t been touched since it was first stained in 1974. Orbital sander in hand and with about 40 hours of spare time and just like that the side of the house […]