This is my Superbowl VOLVO OCEAN RACE

I wait for two years to watch these boats sail nearly 40,000 miles, 9 months, 5 Continents, 4 Oceans. This is my Super Bowl, this is my World Cup, This is my Tour D' France,

Last time around I was in for Puma, this time around I'm behind Team Alvimedica. Charlie Enright, Mark Towill,  Armory Ross are my player favorites. I am giddy with excitement.

That said in case you are new to this craziness I've posted a link here for you to get caught up with. It's a three part series from CNN it should just play all three back to back for you.  

COUNTDOWN TO VOLVO 

Seriously though, I'm excited. This is the culmination of two years of reading the message boards, following behind the scenes drama. Nail bitting stuff seriously. The big change that the media will focus on is that the VOR is now a one design race. What does "one-design" mean? It means that instead of a 7-10 boats built and designed by different firms by different yards, one design was chosen and one boat yard was allowed to build the boats. This makes it easier to raise funds for a cheaper race campaign and in theory lets the team that gets the first boat practice while the next 6 boats are being built. 

That is a major change to the premise of the race. At the surface it says that the sailors are going to be the ones tested and less so on the boats since all the teams are using the same boat.   BUT I AM NOT SO EASILY FOOLED! 

My theory: the yard that is building the boats, Farr Design, has a great history and a solid track record. I personally love some of their ocean cruising designs. But they are building 7 boats! The last boat to come out is definitely without a doubt going to be better than the first. There is just no way to avoid it. The processes are adjusted and kinks fine tuned in the building system to streamline production and create a better product. Its the nature of the beast! 

Interestingly enough though....and arguably (everywhere just look to the forum and builders blogs) The first team will have had their boat for something like 18 months (don't quote me) by the time the race starts. Which means they'll be able to practice to their hearts content and work out all the human factors well before the last boat is finished...in theory. 

Here's the catch: The first boat finished went to the ALL WOMEN team SCA the last boat finished is going to the team who's skipper came in 2nd in the last edition of the race. How's that for engineered balance.  Knut Frostad is definitely scheming in his Volvo Home office. 

Someone else that is probably scheming but in a far more sinister fashion is Juan Kouyoumdjian and his team. They are the massive sore losers in the one-design plan. Juan K has designed boats for the couple of editions of the VOR and has put more than one boat in each race. Believe me when I say, he lost a LOT of money in this deal. Here's the thing though, his designs, they have a tendency to break. But maybe thats not his fault. Maybe it's the boat yards fault. Maybe the crew pushed the boats, dare I say it, TOO HARD?

Here's the juice, this is going to be a sick race. New tech is going to allow us to have live interviews with the crew mid race, there is going to be high definition video and graphics. Think of all the graphics that go into explaining where the 1st down line is in football or the arc of the kick in soccer, or the wind line in golf. All of that is going to be added to Volvo this edition... and it's going to be nutz!

oooo I got goosebumps... there's rumblings that we might fly out to one or two of the stops on the race.

photo credits: volvo ocean race 2014-15

New Port,Rhode Island or a Brush with Death

I'm playing catch-up with my posts this trip was actually 3 or 4 weeks ago....

Let me start this off by saying I fly because there is no other way to get someplace faster or in our case cheaper.

Newspaper write up... sugar coated appropriately

Its a bit hard to see but the emergency crews are outside my window inspecting the underside of our broken plane

I was supposed to have been on a flight that got me into Providence at like 3:30 pm on Friday afternoon. Instead it was 11 pm and I was on the runway in Baltimore. Honestly, I was just quietly glad to be on the ground in one piece. I called my one of my friends in Baltimore to just in case I couldn't get on another flight (not a thrilling idea) and I needed a crash pad. I then called the hostel I was staying in to let them know I would be even later than expected. I then called the rental car agents who told me if got there by 1am I might have a chance at getting a car. Otherwise I'd be paying a $70 dollar cab fare into Newport from Providence.

Flying standby is never a guarantee. You never know if your flight will have empty seats, if it will be on time, if you'll make your connection, if... if....if... So what ends up happening for us is 25% of our trips go smooth as butter. We show up to a flight an hour early, we usually only check a bag if the kids are with us. We cruise thru security, wait for the standby list to clear. The flight has a short list of people on standby and we are near the top which doesn't matter because there are plenty of available seats. Occasionally we get upgraded. We board and make a smooth connection and arrive at our destination on time.

BUT 73% it goes like this. Arrive an hour early, cruise thru security. Sit anxiously watching the standby list. Refreshing it every 30 seconds to see if we have fallen lower or if we got bumped. There 40 people on the list and 10 seats available. The four of us are traveling and we are 11, 12, 13, and 14 on the list. Hoping some poor soul misses a connection or oversleeps so we can get to our connection on time. Nope, everyone shows up and the flight is oversold adding 6 more people to an already growing standby list. We miss the next flight out too and end up catching the third or fourth thus barely catching a connection to get to our destination at the latest possible hour. Which inevitably pisses off the people who were picking us up, and thereby creating a dreary precursor to our trip.


This is a 1% trip. I missed my first two flights out of New Orleans ended up with a 6 hour layover in Atlanta (which really isn't the worst thing See: One Flew South). I did catch the last flight to Providence, only for it to nearly be my last flight. I'm not so sure how close disaster we were but I will say that plane did loose hydraulic pressure in  the right engine which meant the pilots couldn't close the the doors over the landing gear. The flaps were also not functioning the way they should have been and when we came in to land the emergency crews were waiting for us on the runway. The door over the gear hit the ground and flaps stopped working altogether. I don't know the cause of the problem but I know that hydraulic pressure is extremely important in modern flight. I was just glad to be on the ground in one piece.

Now I bet you did the math....there's 1% missing.

1% of our flights go like this. We arrive 30 minutes before our flight, breeze thru empty security lines, walk right on to the flight because we've been cleared for seats in business class and get to board first. We are wined and dined sleep well. We make a seamless connection. Arrive slightly early so we can get our bearings and stretch our legs before we explore a new place.

Now then, like I had said. I did eventually get in to Providence and had another fiasco at the car rental booth. That's another post altogether. I finally got a car and drove down to Newport. Checked into my little hostel and slept for and couple hours. I was in town to check out a boat for the New Orleans Maritime Heritage Foundation. Just a favor for some friends with the added bonus that it was in Newport. I might do a full write up on that but for now here's some pictures.

Family matters | Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15

Being a Husband is hard sometimes...being a Dad is even harder. I get the feeling sometimes that our society has made it seem as if there are no good dad's out there anymore. Like we are all deadbeats that don't take care of our kids and let them grow up to be criminals. But I think the reality is that there are a lot of dads out there busting their asses to be the heroes their kids can look up to. But the mainstream media portrays us differently.  Here's a good dad that inspires me to be better. 

Race 1 Twilight Series

Every wednesday night I crew for the racing series out of New Orleans Yacht Club. It's generally the best day of the week for me because I get to sail. Which to me is a bit ironic. Mainly because the majority of the people that come to New Orleans do not equate it with sailing. Much less do they realize that there is a huge lake here or that sailing is open to the public on wednesdays. Everyone seems to think that New Orleans= Mardi Gras 24/7/365......very not true. So if you are in town on the right night do yourself a favor skip the French Quarter and head about 10 minutes north to the other side of the city and come out for a sail, a beer and burger

This race was an interesting one to say the least. The wind had been blowing hard on the lake all day bringing in water from the gulf of mexico and creating waves around 2-3ft high. By the time we had gotten the boat set up and ready to leave the wind dropped down to about 18kts with puffs in excess of  20kts.  The boat started to pitch and roll the moment we left the protected harbor and our bow man had a pretty good ride up front. The first start was recalled on account of the race committee loosing their anchor and had to reset. We (except the skipper) were okay with that on Heavy Water since we had been a little bit late to the line. The second start we hit the line in under 10 seconds and headed out to mark with the other spinnaker class boats.

 As we trimmed and set the sails, checked our heading, and got relatively comfortable on the rail as the boat cut a 30 degree heel we were totally oblivious to the calamity behind us. Apparently two boats (Footloose Too a J34 and Easterly 4) had a fairly serious collision at the line. The Easterly ran it's bow into the starboard side of the J and caused some very serious damage. I would post pictures and my opinions of the situation but I don't want to accidentally offend either driver or crew. Especially since I sailed with Footloose last week. Let's just say the hole is big and looks expensive. Hopefully someone's race insurance will cover it.

We rounded the mark without much issue but lost our spinnaker halyard while hoisting the sail, rounding the offset mark. Luckily we keep an extra on the deck and after a bit of fumbling on the deck in the dark the boys on the bow straightened us out and we were making trees back down the course. We did however, during the confusion, foul a boat on starboard. Thankfully they knew we had issues and didn't protest us. We'll owe them a beer. Finished the race in 4th place packed up the boat and headed home satisfied and a bit sore from the bumpy ride. All in all any day on the water is good day.

Pre race set up

Scow gettin' lifted

Heeled over

Waiting for the start gun

Maneuvering into starting positions

Yacht Racing, It's A Thing I Do

Like I said earlier I'll be posting things related to boats and sailing. It's a lifestyle for me and thus will be a frequent topic here. I race regularly thru New Orleans Yacht Club usually on a Peterson 34' named Heavy Water (D20). I also sail on Girl, a Stoner 25 and occasionally will ride with Witch Doctor, a Beneteau First 30. We are starting our last five week series this week so I'll post race results here and hopefully I'll be able post the race tracker provided by a new app called RaceQS. It allows people to see the race in virtual reality which is pretty neat and formally reserved only for the fancy schmancy America's Cup crews. If you are interested in trying RaceQS for your own boat you can check it out here on their website RaceQS. It's a handy way to keep a log of your hours and routes as well, in case you had one too many sundowners to remember how you found that perfect anchorage.

In The Boat Yard Today

Almost forgot this pirate ship showed up in the boat yard while we were in Orlando. I think its a Formosa. By the way....It's FOR SALE!

Changes and Updates

Some of you may notice in the coming days, even last night, that the format and style of the blog is in a state of flux. I am currently working steadily to tweak and fine tune the blog. A couple reasons for this include making the blog more visually appealing, ad friendly ( trying to make pocket change), and generally easier navigate. I hope to add links to companies that I can shamelessly promote as well as products that I love. Maybe a map of places we've been and a few other things. I really want to be able to focus the writting on travel, sailing, and being a dad who enjoys his family. I might toss in the obligatory food photo or some other nonsuch from time to time too.  Change is coming and I hope it's for the better.

Back in the Grind

A lot of what you'll see post here will be related to sailing and boats in some form or fashion. This is my office today. Working on rebuilding a hydraulic steering system. Pretty glad to be in the engine room instead of fiberglassing or fairing. Its is much easier to deal with after we got in late last night and had minimal rest before starting the work week. Still haven't heard anything about the carseats which were sent to Atlanta instead of gulfport. Luckily the baggage attendent had quite a few laying around so we could get the girls home safely. Morale of the story, no one is safe from baggage woes not even frequent flyers.

Leaving orlando florida

Had a great time at the 60th wedding anniversary of my grand parents. 60 years is a long time and represents so much. Needless to say the party was full of love.

Driving Ambitions Part One

Driving Ambitions

The most common problem writers struggle with is where to start. So in an effort to overcome that issue I have found that by determining the most basic incident brought on the topic of which is to be discussed. By basic I mean, the ultimate inciting incident. In this case it was a need. I had a need for a vehicle. I had been balking at the idea of purchasing a car for a very long time, nearly a decade. I had multiple reasons for this, past tickets, maintenance costs, fuel cost, and general frustration. Unfortunately, I had to come to terms with the fact that I was a parent whose children were fast approaching school age and I was no longer living in the urban infrastructure of the northeast. In New Orleans kids are either bused to school, which wasn't always garaunteed or they were driven by their parents or caretakers, which is far more likely to be my future. 

My family knew this, my wife knew this, I refused to believe it. I chose to avoid buying a car like the plague. I preferred the inexpensive carbon free lifestyle of biking to work and the store. I even thought I could get away with getting the child carrier and bike my kids to school that way. My family was not convinced of this plan and set about their own plan of acquiring a vehicle for me. I stubbornly accepted the offer on the condition that I could chose whatever vehicle that I liked. I gave myself a few parameters, V6 engine, manual transmission, less than 100,000 miles and 4 wheel drive if possible. I didn't care about the color or the company that made it but I definitely wanted a manual transmission, I believe it says something about a persons character. After a month or so and being disappointed on more than one occasion the family told me to "get a move on and pick something already".  Well fine, a few more hours of googling and I had found my chariot. I called the dealership to confirm that it met all of my criteria and it checked out good. A Nissan Xterra with the off-road package to include a 256 horsepower V6 engine, 6 speed manual transmission and two speed 4 wheel drive. Even less than 100,000 miles and under my budget. There was a catch though, of course, the truck was in Portland. Oregon. I lived in New Orleans. Louisiana.  3,017 Miles or 47 hours apart from each other.  

I asked my wife if this was crazy. I have to do that regularly, ask her if I'm crazy, to make sure, you know, that I'm not...well, crazy. The conversation went like this:

"Honey, I found a car." 

     "Great, when can you get it?"

"Well, next week maybe."

     "Why so long?"

"It requires some planning."

     "What's not being said here"

"It's in Oregon, I'd have to drive it home it could take, maybe 5 days, if I'm slow, less if we drive in shifts, is that crazy?"

-----long pause----

     "Well it's not the easiest way about things and definitely not the most absurd thing you've said this week, lets figure it out"

---short pause---

"Okay, not crazy"

     "not overly crazy"

"Good enough for me, let's go to Portland!"

A few hours later, we had come up with a plan. I would have to fly out on Sunday because the deposit I had placed on the truck was only good until Tuesday. I had to make some money during the week which meant I needed to be home in the same week and my wife's birthday was friday so we needed to be home by then. Then the curveball came in we originally thought that she could come with me but a lack of available baby sitters and family members meant that I would have to do the trip solo. There was no way I could call anyone on a friday night/ early saturday morning and ask them to meet me in Portland on sunday morning. Only to drive back to New Orleans just for them to have to fly home from where ever they started. This is the sort ridiculous life the standby traveler leads. It seems to be exclusive to us, Hillary Clinton and Navy Seals. I would make 6,000+ miles by air and land in under a week. Seriously. This was happening.

Marriage is hard. So this trip came a either a good time or a less than desirable time depending on how you look at things. My wife and I had already been "at odds" we'll say to avoid the gruesome details of married life. She felt as though a road trip would give me some time to clear my head, which I tend to believe is probably code for "see things her way". I felt as though it was taking me away from her when we needed to be together the most, even though being in the same room was at times unbearable. I was exactly the opposite of thrilled to be away from her, especially during her birthday week. However I can't deny the minute I saw the idea start to form, I was chomping at the bit for a much need dose of exploration. Travel is my oxygen.  I thrive on the chaos and uncertainty of it all. Its been a part of me since I was a child. I sit and stare at maps for hours lost in the names of unknown places. I am that guy.

Sunday morning we left the house at 430 am. I had my ditch bag or otherwise known as my A-bag, terms I carry on from sailing and a former life in the military. The contents of which were as follows

-2 pairs of boxers

-2 pairs of socks

-2 t-shirts

-2 pairs of shorts

-1 pair of sweat pants

-1 undershirt

- toothbrush

- hairbrush

-sound canceling head phones ( a new addition, seriously if you fly a lot, this is a lifesaver)

-laptop and charger

-printed directions

-id, passport and checkbook

-sunglasses

-a book from a friend

I also took a sleeping bag

I must take a moment to talk about an absolutely phenomenal experience. During my flight to Minnesota, where i had a layover, I happened to look out the window. The sky was very dark but with the new dawn colors starting to spread upward from the horizon. Still dark enough to clearly see the stars yet the sun was halfway up in the cloudless sky. I looked down at the ground which was also still very dark and similarly lightening in shades of green and brown creeping from the horizon. Suddenly, almost terrifyingly I noticed that what I thought was ground was in fact twinkling back at me and I experienced a long moment of confusion. The sky fully mimicked by the ground. It took a second ot register that the sun was gently reflecting on the multitudes of rivers, lakes, windows and various other shining objects. All at just the right angle to look marvelously like the sky above me. Honestly it was a beautiful moment. I wish I could have taken a picture. My words do not give it justice. Things like that will renew your faith in God.

Oregon

I landed in Portland just after 1pm and caught at cab to the dealership. Eighteen minutes, nearly fifty dollars. Easily the most expensive cab ride ever. I met up with my wonderfully enthusiastic sales representative Krista M. She's a peach and a pistol. Word to the wise people,  women who work in a field that is  generally accepted to be a man's are probably better and smarter than their male counter parts. Treat them as such. Or you will get rolled. I learned this a long time ago. So we followed what I presumed to be semi-customary/obligatory haggling and about 5 hours later I had the keys and was poor again. The process of course was not without a technical glitches but that is the world we live in now and eventually cash was handed over. Honestly, Krista and her team made the day pleasant when it could have been a nightmare. I am grateful for that. I could have just as easily gotten back on the plane and flown home if things went pear shaped but they accomodated me wonderfully.

I have to add that I showed up to the dealership with the clothes I was wearing, my ditch bag, and my sleeping bag. I imagine the employees will be talking about it for weeks. "Remember that guy who flew in, bought a truck and drove it back to New Orleans....he was crazy." My wife said I wasn't, remember that. 

First order of business, establish a working knowledge of the newly acquired asset. The truck. It needed gas, great so it begins. 

-I'm just going to stop the questions from coming right here. I paid a lot of money for a lot of gas. At an estimated 21 mpg on the highway the price of fuel ranged thru the trip from $4.87 to $3.37 per gallon. 3,017 miles... you do the math if you care so much, I gave up after the first $65 tank.-

I also needed a way to play my music thru the speakers which meant I needed a second stop. Lastly I needed food and drinks. I planned to drive until I got to the California state line in the first night so I didn't want unnessary stops. This took about an hour or so plus a quick, get my bearings tour ( aka "crap I missed my exit") of downtown Portland. Portland is a really interesting city. I'd like to have been able to hang around and really dig into it but it was getting late and I had a schedule. The road called. I headed south on I-5. I wish it had been earlier, the light that I had from passing cars and the moon suggested a beautiful landscape with tall trees and mountains, things I rarely see in the short flat deep south. I passed thru tiny rural towns one by one in the night.  Just past Crescent City I crossed the state line at 2am, two hours shy of having been awake for 24 hours straight. I pulled over into a rest stop and stretched out my sleeping bag. Wearily I searched for a pillow and only found the airline blanket I had absconded on my first flight. The back of the truck was hard plastic but I did my best to sleep. Engine off, windows cracked the smell of the warm forest and foliage. I passed out

Northern California

5:20 am: Startled awake to a blaring car horn, a stream of foul words issued from my extremely bitter subconscious.WHO the F**** is blowing their horn? Don't they know I am/was in here sleeping. You soul less schmuck!  Oh wait, I rolled over on the keys and set off the alarm on the truck. Damn it, how do I make this stop? I fumbled in the early predawn light to turn off the alarm which had an immense echoing sound, a very impressive horn. Swung the door open and staggered out on to shaky legs. Having forgotten my pillow I slept fairly contorted and was now paying a brutal price. Checking my surroundings I had parked next to a VW hatchback in the night. In the window I could very clearly see a 20 something woman glaring at me. Guess I woke her up. Sorry I tried to mimick. Inconsolable.  It looked like we had been parked in to a corner of the lot by two huge logging trucks whose drivers I had also woken up. They were staggering around the cabs just as I was heading to the bath room. Coming back to the truck I was able to really assess my surrounding. The fog was lifting a bit and I realized I was in a crook of sorts surrounded by steep hills on all sides with the rest stop nestled in the center. Big green odiferous pines trees standing tall with their light brown needle covering the ground. The air was fresh and crisp as I went to sit in the truck and drink the cold coffee leftover from the drive in. I briefly conversed with the couple in the hatchback as we waited for the logging trucks to pull out. They had come from somewhere obscure down in the south and were heading to Portland for a fair. They had opted to sleep in the car same as me and were generally pleasant west coasters. I packed up my very few things and made a mental note to buy a pillow before I stopped for the next night. Waved good by and headed out the way I came and turned south.

To be continued (its quite a long story actually...)