I am a citizen of the most beautiful nation on earth. A nation whose laws are harsh yet simple, a nation that never cheats, which is immense and without borders, where life is lived in the present. In this limitless nation, this nation of wind, light, and peace, there is no other ruler besides the sea.
– Bernard MoitessierElectronic gadgetry for the race -
● RockBox
● Waterproof Camera
● GoPro Action Camera
● Oregon GPS
● Umpteen million rechargable batteries and charger
● Laser Pointers
Was programming the RockBox prior to the race this weekend and was having trouble finding all the navigation buoys in Google Earth. This website overlays the NOAA charts on top so they’re much easier to find.
Tomorrow I get to be hauled 55’ up in the air by 1 rope to install a new LED masthead light on ReignMaker. Good thing I’m not scared of heights.
Oh .. Hrm.. I forgot that I AM.
An example clip using the GoPro HD mountable camera. I’ll be working with one of these shortly to get some good footage of our upcoming races.
DSCN1305 on Flickr.
I little story…
There’s a fresh breeze coming out of the East. I’m on the hook and struggling to get all the parts of the boat ready to go. Mainsail goes up and starts flogging madly. I tighten the main sheet to stop the flogging, and now the boat is meandering around the mooring bouy. I thought “Hey, isn’t this supposed to calm the boat down and point the bow into the wind?”. To hell with it, let’s get the jib up and get on our way. So there I am, standing leeward and hanging onto the mast with my left hand, hanking on the jib with my right.
Enter stage left: Big gust of wind.
Survival instinct isn’t always very smart. Boat starts going over, and instead of just letting go and getting wet, I hang onto the mast for dear life.
And get wet anyway.
And pull the boat over on top of me.
OK, dinghys roll over all the time. I have my life jacket on. I’m close to shore. There’s a rubber raft tied to the bouy that I haul myself back into. Collect all the floating parts. Start working out a plan to get the sailboat righted.
Hop back in the water. Mainsail is sheeted in hard so the boat is refusing to roll back over reguardless of how much I struggle.
Why the hell does this ferry keep honking? There must be some asshole trolling for salmon behind him.
Wait, what is this bright orange inflatable raft with a big motor circling me all of a sudden…
“Yes, I’m fine.”
“Seriously, I’m fine. Dinghys roll over, it’s no big deal.”
“I’m fine. Gonna just row back to shore now, OK? Thanks for your concern”
I really wish that ferry would quit honking.
Dragging the raft up on shore and sloshing out of the water I see two men running down the beach. \
“Sir, we have a report of someone drowining.”
“Ummmm. Uhh, I assume that would be me, I’m OK.”
(Laughing) “We had about 20 calls from cell phones on the ferry dock saying that there was a man overboard.”
“Yeah, well. Thanks for your concern.”
Fuck it. I’m going to go get my camera. I might as well document this so I can look back and laugh.
I never did talk to the Coast Guard. But they sure did make a nice backdrop to my picture.
