Big Weekend

Down in the Santa Barbara area for a sojourn to to Santa Cruz Island. On our voyage to Mexico in 2019, we stopped in the area for three weeks to enjoy this spectacular island. An ancient volcano, this island has tons of tiny beaches as well as the largest sea cave on the planet. My best friend Andy is here as well as our captain Barry. We all swam together back in high school. I helped Barry buy his boat last year and then we sailed it to Ventura. We will be out there three nights. Should be a blast! And it's my birthday!

Have You Had an Unusual Experience While Swimming?

I have three. I have been a swimmer all my life and was a scholarship swimmer/polo player at a Division 1 college. In my senior year of high school way back in 76′, I was at the championship and needed to place in the top 2 in the 100 yard backstroke to win the high point trophy for my age group. Ready, GO! I hit the first turn perfectly and was swimming fast. As I hit my second turn, I came off the wall and hit another swimmer in the head… with my head! I had swam over the lane line into another lane! I stood up dazed, and was promptly disqualified because I touched bottom. Bummer! My other moment was when we were rafting down the Colorado river. We made a stop at Havasu Creek for a hike to Beaver Falls. We reached this beautiful falls and one of the boatmen asked if I was game for a special treat? Yes. We swam over to the falls and then proceed to dive down 10 feet under water and then 10 feet behind the fall and then up 10 feet. Easy for me and I had googles on and could see perfectly. We ended up in a cave that was about 3 feet high above the water and 6 feet across. It fit 3–4 people. Because the water was so clear, when the light came up from the bottom. the color inside the cave was bright green. It was amazing. They called it the “green room”. I loved it. Lastly, I was on a sailing trip in Mexico. We stopped for a couple days at Santa Maria on the west coast of Baja. I had been at a beach party all day and when I got back to the boat about 9, I needed a swim. I donned my trusty goggles and jumped in the warm water. My whole body lit up with an amazing green color from the bioluminesence. Tiny proto-plankton that light up when agitated. I had seen it before but nothing like this. The faster I swam, the brighter it got. With my goggles on, I could see perfectly. Even tho it was a bit dangerous to be swimming at night, alone in a huge bay, I was too excited to think about it. I swam for about 40 minutes and loved the amazing color these tiny creatures created. Similar to a lighting bug color, however there were millions of them on my body and it was exhilarating!

To Stream Or Not To Stream

In 2000, streaming was at it's infancy. iTunes came along in early 2001 and the streaming world hit it's peak in 2012 with many of the services listed below. Many have come an gone since and Spotify continues to be my go to. Take a look at the list and see how many you remeber.

Radioactive Island in the Bay

Windsurfing Was an Amazing Ride

Safari in Botswana

We have encountered many species of animals in a short two days of safari. An elephant came right up to our tent collecting berries. We saw many lions and cubs and were within 10 or so feet from them. We are very respectful and they don't seem to mind a bit. We are currently touring one of the seven natural wonders of the world: Victoria Falls. More to come with the highlight Cheetah Plains. My sister won a $40k stay at a villa near Kruger Park.

Vacation!

We are on safari in Botswana. This morning we saw about 20 lions and cubs hanging out and sleeping in the shade. Awesome. I will post a vid shortly. In the meantime, here is a video from Yachtweek in Croatia. We ran into these guys in Vis last summer. If I had one wish, it would be to be 25 one more time!

The Cape!

Top Ten Sail GP Mishaps

We are off to Cape Town for a little adventure and safari (12 days). My sister won a couple nights at one of the most exclusive lodges in Africa ($18K per night) at Cheetah Plains. Private game perserve with our own guide, masseuse, chef, wine cellar and more. The animals come right up to your room. Back in September. In the meantime...

The Baddest Big Wave Surfer in the World

Kai Lenny started hitting the waves of Maui at age 4. He became a world champ of SUP's at 18. He has excelled at everything he has done: a true waterman. In his 30's and a father of twins, he a slowed down a bit. But he is still charging! Here he is surfing the biggest swells of the century! Check his series on Red Bull TV: Life of Kai.

Back in the Saddle! Ronnie Simpson

I have been following Ronnie for years. He has not had alot of good luck. He lost a rudder, lost a keel and lost two masts. His last adventure was a race around the world. He was in 3rd place when he dropped off a huge storm wave near the bottom of the planet and lost his mast on his 50 footer. He is gearing up for round 2 in 2027 and another lap. Take a look.

Maiden Voyage

You can watch the full length feature film on Prime.

American Pie by Don Mclean - An explanation of the song!

Dock Nightmare with 60 Knot Winds

The End of My DJ Career

My love of music came early. My older sisters were really enjoying the Beatles, Beach Boys and Simon and Garfunkel in the mid 60's. By 1968 I was a big radio listener. I was all of 10 at the time. My Dad Harry also a big radio listener, got me into Sinatra. In high school, I discovered FM radio in Philly. I grew up in Delaware, about 30 miles away. I also had a bunch of albums by now. Going to college at UNLV, I discovered progressive rock. Yes, ELO, Emerson, Lake and Palmer were my go to's. I started recording music on cassettes and loved a good mix tape. Moving to the Bay Area in the early 80's brought a ton of concerts and the Dead into my life. I even worked with the manager of the Dead and booked their hotel rooms at the Hyatt when they played at Stanford Frost. I was part of a ultimate team at Stanford and I would spin the music at parties. Then I got into the event biz in the silicon valley and started playing at these gigs. My first official gig was at a corporate gig in Napa. That was 1991. In 1992, I started my own event company, Too Much Fun Club. I rented the equipment and played CD's. Finally in 1994, I purchased speakers and a mixer and off I went. I found this amazng club called The Palace in Sunnyvale. I started booking big parties there and got a taste of the big sound and equipment the pro's use. The bad news was I developed tinitus due to the fact I was in front of these huge speakers for my gigs at the club. Soon, the club asked me to become the house DJ and do the corporate and wedding events. That was a blast. I would end my gigs with People Make the World Go Round by the Stylistics. If I did not play it, the employees would rush the booth and request it. Due to that exposure and my gigs thru Too Much Fun, I was getting calls from all over the bay for some amazing gigs. Soon, I was doing 50 or so gigs a year. It was my calling to entertain thru music. The Too Much Fun Club was very busy and some weekends I would throw a huge picnic during the day, the rush off for a gig in the evening, It was a busy life, however I loved it. I guess I did some 700 gigs over the 30 years. My last gig was a wedding for some friends. I had not done any music for about 7 years. I was a wreck. I was nervous as my equipment was old and it seemed it would fail during the gig. I made it thru to the last 10 minutes when it gave up and died. I used to roll in and not think a thing about it, now I could hardly hang on. I told myself no more. I was putting too much pressure on myslf. I have been the DJ at my last few high school reunions. My 50th is coming up. I want to make this my last gig. I started working on the playlist about 17 months ago. I have a vast music library on my hard drives at home. Much of that music focuses on my high school years. That music was very special and my focus was 1968 to 1976. I pulled 1000 songs together in a single playlist. Then I picked 100 or so of the very best. I pulled together a background list, a dinner list and a dance mix. I put about 100 hours into the music lists. And another 100 hours thinking about it. Our reunion is only 4 hours long. I realized that its a shame that we only have four hours to share all this great music. So I came up with a plan. At the event, I will pass out a card with a QR code that will lead them to some 24 hours of music that they can take home with them. If I had told my classmates in 1976 that at our 50th reunion, I will hand you a piece of paper with a code on it and it will take you a file with 400 songs in it, you would have wondered if I was smoking too much hash?! I decided to record each playlist and present each as one file for each category. I then uploaded everything to the cloud and voila, I think my friends are going to love it. If you are interested in this era of music, I think you should take a listen here. Here is to the Class of 1976!

The Amazing Story of Drum and the Whitbread Race

DRUM: The most famous Maxi class racing yacht of her generation, was the vision of pop star Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran, who fulfilled a dream when he took up the challenge of sailing the 1985 Whitbread Round The World Race. Following her dramatic capsize in the 1985 Fastnet race after losing her keel, DRUM went on to finish a credible third overall. Here is the entire 1987 Documentary featuring the timeless song 'Grey Lady Of The Sea' penned by Le Bon for this feature. Enjoy!

Dismasted Boat Gets Rescue Mid Ocean

Windsurfing Changed My Life

I was living on a lagoon in Foster City in 1985 when a friend gave me a windsurf board and sail. It was a Bic and very much a beginer board. Perfect for me. I had been surfing for 15 years and now I needed to figure out how to harness the wind. I picked it up quickly and sailed the summer away. Soon I purchased a Klepper board and it was very fast and took me out on the bay and delta. 3rd Ave and Coyote Point became my new hangouts. I started a windsurfing club called Windpower that brought like minded folks together for weekend adventures. A few years later, I was sailing 60-80 days a summer on the bay. I loved the feeling of skipping across the bay at 20-25 knots. One very windy day, waves formed in the deep channel near the San Mateo Bridge. Riding them was a thrill! I kept sailing for over 20 years and had an epic last sail on a bay near Hatteras called Pamlico Sound in 2008. I rented a hot board and was ripping it up in 30 knots of wind. It was an epic way to end my windsurfing voyage. I miss the speed and exhilaration but I love sailing my 40' sailboat even more!

Bernoulli's Principle

In 1738, Daniel Bernoulli plublished his book: Hydrodynamica. The book explained his theory of fluid machanics. He showed that when a fluid speeds up, its pressure drops. He was using water and liquids in pipes as well as lots of math to prove his theory. I found this fun depiction of his principle: When most people think of a sail, they assume the wind blows from behind and pushes it, perpendicular to the cloth. This is incorrect. Instead, the wind flows parallel to the sail, across the surface. But that leads to a new question: if the sail isn’t pushed, where does the force come from? It turns out a sail is actually a wing that uses lift to pull you forward, not a scoop that catches the air. The same physics that keeps a jet airplane in the air is what moves the boat. Because a wing is curved, air has to travel a longer distance as it blows across the front of the sail than behind it. To go a longer distance in the same amount of time, the airspeed over the front of the wing has to go faster. Faster air has lower pressure, so it basically creates a partial vacuum pulling you forward. This is called lift, or Bernoulli’s principle. This is why you can sail upwind, and why the sail is always at an angle to the wind, never directly in front or behind. You manipulate this angle with the rudder and keel to determine your speed and direction. It’s actually a bit more complicated than that, but fundamentally, a sail pulls, it doesn’t push. Check this vid from some NASA scientists that goes even deeper into the subject, 250 years later.

El Nino may be the biggest and baddest yet!

If you have not heard, El Nino is coming this winter. The warming of equatorial waters affectionity called El Nino, happens in December or so. It affects weather all over the world with extremes of snow fall, drought, storms and much more. Currently, were seeing some of the warmest waters across all oceans. In some cases 3 degrees higher than normal. The warmer water creates more moisture in the atmosphere and on the west coast of the US (I live near SF), it will bring very strong storms from the Gulf of Alaska in the form of rain, wind and snow in the Sierras. It's going to be a wild winter. Currently, the winds on the SF Bay have been extremely high due to the warm water. Normally the winds are in the 25 knot range every day. This summer, the winds have been in the 30's most days. That's alot of wind and not very comfortable. We will see what happens. Time to buckle your seat belt and hold on!