iBar

Please Do Not Feed The Animals

I have seen lots of morey eels on my dives. They are scary looking guys with big teeth. Steer clear. This guy was a little too casual and lost a digit because of it. Be sure to watch the entire vid as the end has a surprise for you.

iPhone Does Windows Too

The new iPhone is coming to an Apple store near you. And it does Windows too! How cool is that? A cross platform phone. Who would have thunk it? Get one in June. !

Spring Break...Yeehaa!

Here in the Bay Area it is looking a bit like spring. Temps this weekend will be close to 80 in some areas. My nephew Danny is coming in from the east coast for his spring break from college. He is an intern for Ken Burns, the documentary god. He has been working with Ken on his latest project that will be out soon on PBS. It's a historical look at America's National Parks. Danny is keen on seeing Yosemite for the first time so we are heading there for a few days. Yosemite has a special place in my heart, as my first visit was with a friend who grew up there. He took me on the famous hike to the top of Half Dome in 79'. If you have never done it, you should. Past two amazing waterfalls, thru Little Yosemite Valley and finally up the cables to the top of the world. I have taken over 100 folks to the top since then. It's an all day affair and when we were doing the hike you could camp on top for the night. No more, however. When you finally reach the summit, you feel like you have really accomplished something extraordinary! After Yosemite we are off to Tahoe for some downhill skiing. And to top off the week, a little sailing on the bay! Being from the east coast myself, I just love the California lifestyle. Can you tell? So see you all in a week or so. Happy St. Pats too!

Clipper Ventures Race Around the World

Do you ever have that thought that little old ordinary you wants to sail around the world? It's a daunting dream and one that very few folks can ever hope to accomplsh. Enter famous sailor, Robert Knox Johnson, the first man to circum in a race. Back in 96' he put together a race that was open to that ordinary person who wants to break out of their comfort zone and do something epic with their lives. No experience neccesary. Ordinary people doing extrodinary things is their credo. The race has 18 stops along the way and you get to skip Cape Horn and head thru the canal instead. There is still time to join the race if you are so inclined as they depart from Liverpool in September 07 and should return in July 08. Are you ready for the adventure of your life??

Sailing is a Metaphor for Life

Sailing is one of life's most simple metaphors; that each day is an adventure into new waters, best savored when you realize you cannot control the direction or the speed of the wind, but that you can adjust your sails accordingly.

Blue Hole

SCUBA diving is one of the most sublime sports around. One of my favorite dives was a drift dive in Cozumel, MX. We dropped over into the azure Caribbean waters and decended to 60 '. This is where the magic happened. The vis was about 100'. We came upon an immense wall that dropped down so deep you could not see the bottom. A wonderful current of about 2-3 knots picks us up and we were flying past beautiful fish and scenery. The feeling of moving and floating at the same time was magnificent. We continued for 20 minutes in this mode and I was so eleated with the sensation of flying over the reef. That dive was with my wife on our honeymmon 14 years ago. It is still very fresh in my mind. One of the places I want to dive is just down the road in Belize. Have you heard of the Blue Hole? One of the most fascinating locations in the diving world. Read about it here.

Get High!

I have featured Sail.tv before and it has a ton of great video. Now there is a new kid in town. - High.tv. The video site features the best of extreme sports that includes, surfing, windsurfing, base jumping, kyacking, bmx and much more. Check it here.

Have a better weekend than this guy!

When you need to get to the water quick!

Online Sail Course

Learning to sail a boat is not that difficult. Learning everything about sailing the boat is a long process. Here is an online course that can help you learn along the way. What it comes down to is that learning to sail is a never ending process. There are always things to learn and many things to master. This couse can help you on your way. Click here, grasshopper.

Cruising Essentials

Here I go again. I have written ad nauseam about the consequences of complicated systems on a cruising sailboat. I would stop except that at every new harbor we visit, we hear the radio crackle with skippers looking for knowledgeable technicians or waiting desperately for parts to arrive. Lots of money then changes hands. With North America being comparatively rich and most Caribbean island nations comparatively poor, this transfer of wealth is probably a good thing. Yacht systems repair has become a significant part of island economies, and technically challenged owners of complicated boats can find consolation in the humanitarian gesture of contributing to the prosperity of those less fortunate.

However, boat repair dollars are not all yachtsmen spend, and those that give up the enterprise early, worn out by seemingly endless breakdowns, take with them the dollars they would have spent on food, booze, transportation, communications, entertainment, etc. More to the subject at hand, a long-planned cruise ends early and badly.

So, I thought I would just share with you the wisdom of first-hand experience and provide a list of equipment you need to go cruising and also a list of equipment you don’t need. Neither list is all inclusive, nor are they intended to be, but I hope the items I have elected to place in one camp or the other will provide food for thought. The point is that the less equipment you have aboard, the less there is to fail. As a side benefit, you end up with a larger cruising kitty when you start out, all of which you can still hand over to islanders, but hopefully deriving more enjoyment from the exchange.

Continue reading here.

Helikiting

Kiteboarding has jumped to the next leval with helikiting. Your in FLA and you want a desserted beach with some open water. Jump in the heli and in a short while your in the Bahamas and lovin' it! For the vid, Click here.

Powder Day in Tahoe

I went up to the slopes in Tahoe for a couple days last week. There was a big storm heading in so we hit the road and got up there before it hit. Had a bunch of friends up there for the week. It was storming too hard to ski the first day but they got about 18" of new snow that day. On Friday we got up to Alpine early and hit it just right. New powder and tons of terrain. What a great day of powder and fun with my best friend Tex. We also met up with my other friends later in the day. There was six of us and we hit the Summit Chiar at the end of the day. The chair can accommodate six so we had a great couple rides and runs. Great fun in the snow!!

Couple O' Links

Found a couple sites this weekend that I would like to share with you. The first is viralvideochart.com. It takes the top videos from all over the web and puts them on one page. Very cool. The second is lala.com. This site allows you to trade old CD's with others for $1. Great way to get rid of those old CD's you never listen to anymore. The other cool part is the radio section. They have allowed some of their users to create radio stations that are very hip and comercial free. Check it out!

49er Gran Prix

Rogue Waves

Centuries ago, the "hole in the ocean" was the folklore of grizzled old sea dogs. Today, oceanographers know that the catastrophic phenomena -- which they call "freak" or "rogue" waves -- do indeed exist, and they even have a good idea of what causes the towering waves. While always unexpected, freak waves tend to occur more often in particular areas, such as off the eastern coast of South Africa (where the Waratah disappeared and the Oceanos sunk, as described in the SAVAGE SEAS episode "Killer Waves"), in the Gulf of Alaska, and off the Florida coast. That has given oceanographers vital clues about their origin.

The prevailing theory holds that freak waves can result when strong, high storm waves slam headlong into a powerful current traveling in the opposite direction. The interaction can push together the storm swells, so that their frequencies superimpose, creating one tremendously powerful wave that can reach a height of 100 feet or more. (The "hole in the ocean" describes the deep trough that precedes this steep crest of water.)

Off the coast of South Africa, north-tracking storm waves generated off of Antarctica (particularly when a low-pressure system is settled over the area) slam into the Agulhas current, which sweeps southward down the coast. The rogue waves that are generated severely damage two to three tankers every year. Off Florida, freak waves are born from the interaction of the northeast-flowing Florida current and North Atlantic storm waves butting up against the current.

To reduce the damage caused by rogue waves, oceanographers are trying to develop techniques to predict when and where they'll strike. Scientists at the University of Miami, for example, are using radar images snapped by NASA satellites to chart the formation and location of the deadly waves. Radar measures how light is scattered off the ocean surface, and can produce a picture detailing the height, length, and direction of travel of ocean surface waves -- including the occasional freak wave. The researchers hope eventually to be able to transmit that information in real time to cruise and cargo ships, steering them clear of danger.

A Bunch of Bonehead Moves

Here are some classic bonehead moves.....

Drunken Sailor
Uploaded by h2ojoe

Eskimo Nebula

n 1787, astronomer William Herschel discovered the Eskimo Nebula, which from the ground resembles a person's head surrounded by a parka hood. In 2000, the Hubble Space Telescope imaged the nebula that displays gas clouds so complex they are not fully understood. The Eskimo Nebula is clearly a planetary nebula, and the gas seen above composed the outer layers of a sun-like star only 10,000 years ago. The inner filaments visible above are being ejected by strong wind of particles from the central star. The outer disk contains unusual light-year long orange filaments.

Bonehead Pictures