Cape Town In-Port Race! plus a bonus drinking game!

The in port race was held on saturday at some ungodly time in the morning. Which is why the replay is being posted here...a day later...and well into the night. I dislike timezone and how it is affecting my sailing obsession.



If you want to play a fun drinking game try taking a shot every time Alan from Sailing Anarchy (the American Voice) underhandedly disagrees with the owner and super power ($$$,$$$,$$$) behind Volvo Ocean Race Knut Frostad (the heavy Norwegian accent, you'll know it when you hear it). They have an interesting relationship to say the least...I can't believe they sat on the same boat together and no one drowned.



Enjoy!

Cape Town In-Port Race

A day late and a dollar short but that's just how life can be. Enjoy the Replay!

Jasmines Birthday!

Jasmine turned 4 on the 15th! Which means that this post is super late and that my little girl is growing up! So in honor of her birthday a little photo montage of some of my favorite Jasmine moments...

Jasmine's First Week home...she was almost an entire month early and was so tiny
which ironic because she is so freaking huge now

Jasmine has always been cooler than you...always

My Travel Buddy always ready

We took her on her first sailing adventure for her birthday since she seemed to be into boats and is always excited when she comes by the marina. Also we had gotten a set of child sized PFD's and it was about time the girls got used to to them. A little while ago we had tried them out to see if either of the girls would freak out while in the water and they did wonderfully...

      

We went out on Grace a 50' Columbia and really just a pretty boat. I figured that since it was a fairly big boat meant that it should be pretty stable and easy for the girls to move around. It has a flush deck so there would be space to sit etc etc. It seemed like a good plan. I'm sure that the other 20 or so people who were out for the evening sail with us said the same thing before they left the house.

Yea what was that saying about, "best laid plans...something something...think again dummy"

I saw the forecasted weather 15+ kts from the north and sort of shrugged it off, Grace big boat can handle big north driven swells. Right? Eh not exactly. Yes, the boat powered through the waves without much effort however that power meant a serious amount of heel which tossed people, parents, and my future sailors around quite a bit on the deck. The cupcakes that Tiff made were catapulted to the salon floor. At one point I saw people passing Dramamine out like tick-tacs. Jasmine and Violet did fine until the boat really started to heel over and water blew across the deck. Jasmine apparently has developed a bit of a sense of fear and it kicked in then and she demanded to be taken below deck. Violet, who has not developed the same fear made every attempt to get closer to the source of the water.  Thank God my wife is patient with me. I feel like maybe I forced this trip on the girls because I really want them to have something, anything in common with me besides a general love for cereal as a snack. That caused me to disregard the weather and my common sense. The good thing is that basically anytime we get the girls on a boat it will most likely be a much smoother ride. Jasmine did seem to enjoy some of the ride mostly in and out of the protected harbor. So maybe it wasn't that bad. Only time and experience will tell I suppose.

She really was extremely excited about the boat ride

 

She did spend a fair amount of time impersonating my grandmother and inspecting everything on the boat before we left the harbor. She also got to take in a pretty amazing Lake Pontchartrain sunset which is something the sailing community cherishes here.  So yea, maybe it actually went fairly well. I guess the only way we'll ever know is ask her if she remembers it in 20 years. I know I will.

The Team Brunel Song...Finished 3rd

Keeping their spirits up as they cruise to the line!

Dongfeng Finish Line 2nd place!

First Three Boats Cross Finish Line in Cape Town!

The first three boats have crossed the finish line in Cape Town, South Africa! Here's some footage from the crews...and don't forget there are still four other teams that haven't finished yet.

oh and this is just LEG 1...

Fast & Furious | Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15

Looks like we'll start seeing boats coming into Cape Town tomorrow!

Volvo Update 19 days into Leg 1

19 days at sea the teams have faced dead calm in the doldrums, crossed the equator, raced before the wind down the African coast, grazed the coast of BRAZIL,  and are now heading far south catch the right breeze to turn the fleet east. Oh and now they might have to look out for icebergs...no big deal.

The sailors meet King Neptune | Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15

This is what makes sailing awesome. When was the last time you saw this sort of shenanigans in a sporting event. Oh wait you don't, ever. And if they did do this in basketball or football it would get waaaaay out of control and they would call it hazing. But sailing we keep it civilized, like baked beans to the face.

The Sailing Season is Ending...

This week is the last "in season" race. Am I bummed? Oh yea. This marks the time of year when I completely lose focus and start doing weird stuff to compensate for not being on the water. My phsyical activity runs the gamut from hybernating couch potatoe to manic all nighters. I probably have mood swings too, but that's not your freaking business gosh! I'll read, cook, study, sleep, bike, maybe even run....and who knows what else. All on top of a regular work, husband, father schedule. Wish me luck.

Oh by the way have you looked at Volvo Ocean Race today?

Here's some photos from our race this week. Epic sunset that only water can buy.

Where Yat?

I am alive. I know you've been deeply concerned. I wanted to try a little blog experiment, "what happens when I don't post anything...for a week,or more?"

Well the answer turns out to be, "not much". The blog doesn't do much, people still stop by to see if anything has been posted but otherwise nothing happens. It's not like when you leave food in the microwave for a week or two by accident, you know when things just suddenly exist.

That said I have quite a few posts to make that have more or less been stock piled over the last week or so.
-Birthday stuff
-fitness stuff
-sailing stuff
-volvo ocean race stuff
-new orleans stuff

So this is the New Orleans stuff.  I took the girls to the BBQ and Blues Festival in the CBD. I LOVE events that are sponsored by WWOZ. They rarely disappoint. The girls had a pretty good time....until they didn't. The melt down was a full blown tantrum that only Team Terrible can produce. Imagine this, one minute everything is rainbows and BBQ and the next it's laid out in the street screaming and kicking. Why, I can't be entirely sure but its is related to using the lobby potty and an elevator.

Oh well it was still nice to get out and hear some music. We almost saw Valerie June.

Almost.

Maybe next time

Pro dad tip: When it is necessary to take your girl children to the potty in public avoid a portapot and find a hotel lobby. They will find sincere sympathy in your probably quickly devolving situation and point you in the direction of their cleanest throne. Hasn't failed me yet.

In-Port Race Alicante | Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15

Also I made it thru the entire wedding without looking at my phone once for the in-port race results. Leg 1 starts in 1 day 7 hours and counting...get excited!

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.

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!

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.