Pic of the Day

Epic

I found a website from weather.com that looks at weather extremes from an athlete's perspective. It features great video from the land, sea and air. There are some awesome videos from Maverick's, kiting, paddling, sky surfing just to name a few. These are short clips from a show called "Epic" that you can find at the weather channel on your TV. Check the vids here.

100 Movies Every Guy Should See

Here is a great list that includes many of my favs, including Dumb and Dumber, Pulp Fiction and Matrix. See the whole list here.

You will be able to see some of these movies for free here.

Gitana Sets Record

Gitana 13 crossed the finish line of La Route de l’Or, situated just off the infamous island of Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay, at 1707 (UT). After over 43 days 38 minutes at sea, including a forced five and a half day stand-by at Cape Horn, Lionel Lemonchois and his nine crew improved on the reference time held since 1998 by Yves Parlier and his men by 14 days 2 hours and 43 minutes. The maxi-catamaran in the colors of the LCF Rothschild Group covered the 14,000 miles, which separate New York from San Francisco at an average speed of 15.88 knots and thus set their first record time in their 2008 record campaign.

Setting out from New York on 16th January 2008, Lionel Lemonchois and his crew made San Francisco this Thursday 28th February shortly after sunrise on the Golden Gate Bridge. After over six weeks’ navigation, their names will be listed as the new titleholders of this legendary record, created in honor of the ‘Gold’ seekers of the 19th century.

Read more.

Time for a New Boat

Some days, you just shouldn't get out of bed in the morning. What began as a leisurely ocean cruise Wednesday afternoon ended with Jim Dobson's 54-foot yacht running aground at Poka'i Bay, on the big island of Oahu, Hawaii, and the destruction of the very expensive craft after yesterday's wave surge left it sitting on the beach at the Wai'anae.

Trouble began for Dobson and his three female companions around 3 p.m. Wednesday after the blue and white yacht lost its anchor. Nothing daunted, Dobson kept going. However, then, as it neared Poka'i Bay, the yacht lost its motor after the props got snarled in the line of a kayak the boat was towing. So now, he couldn't motor and he couldn't anchor. Adrift, the boat was also unable to turn around by hoisting a sail, and began moving toward the bay's reef.

He no doubt thought he was saved when a passing fishing boat attached a line to the yacht and attempted to pull it out to sea.

But when that line snapped, and then another, the yacht finally ran aground. By then, Ocean Safety and Honolulu Fire Department rescue personnel had been alerted, so they quickly moved in to safely get Dobson and the three passengers to shore.

Area resident Patricia Haller, 60, who had watched the drama unfold at the bay on Wednesday, stood by the beach yesterday and shook her head.

'I've never seen anything like it,' she said. 'And we've lived at Poka'i Bay since 1959.'

However, it was not to end there.

Bad as matters were for the yacht, it was still in one piece. William Aila, harbormaster at the Wai'anae Boat Harbor, said yesterday's high surf shoved the yacht across the reef and into the bay, leaving it stranded with multiple holes in its bottom and a hull filled with water.

Dobson, 60, owns a car dealership in Oregon and has lived weekends in the yacht where it has been moored at the Ko Olina Marina. Yesterday he said he had no alternative but to have the yacht cut to pieces and hauled to the dump.

'Well,' he said, looking toward the mountains, 'no one got hurt. All my kids are healthy. And I've still got a few years ahead of me.'

Stoic words, Jim but we're sure you just wish you had gone golfing that day.

Global Cooling

Over the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snowcover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile -- the list goes on and on.
No more than anecdotal evidence, to be sure. But now, that evidence has been supplanted by hard scientific fact. All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA's GISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously. Read more here.

Over the Top!

I woke up on Sunday morning about 5:30 and took a look at the wind online. It was over 30 and gusting to almost 50 at Angel. I headed up to the boat and fixed a nice french toast breakfast. At around 8am, I headed out with all my foulies on after taking a good look at the south wind. It looked like an above average summer day as far as wind speed. As I entered the channel, I put out a little bit of jib to help me out. As I hit the end of the channel it was already at 30 knots. We (me and the boat) blasted straight out and the speedo was hitting 6.5 to 7 with just a sliver of a jib. Gusts were in the 40 range easy. About half way out, I noticed that with the wind direction and the current, we were in a lee shore with the Berkeley Pier. I needed to keep an eye on that. I let out a little more jib to give me a little more power. As I reached the end of the pier, the winds were easily topping 50 in the gusts. The boat was handling it well. It was only getting wilder so it was time to tack. Getting the boat to turn into the wind is no easy task with this much pressure on the boat. I got her around and needed to trim in the sheets and make sure the boat got going back into the wind. No easy task and I was huffing and puffing as I finished the tack. This was the windiest day I have ever been out on!! And I was loving it. Knowing that we had recently refreshed all the standing rigging gave me confidence that the rig could take the pounding. Going back in, I didn't have to worry about the pier as I was headed away from it on this tack. Hey what's this, blue sky to the south and the rain is letting up a little. The wind keep building with each tack and each tack became more difficult. I did about eight tacks out and back to the end of the pier and then to the channel makers. About 1.5 miles each way. At 9:30 I felt as if I had accomplished my mission and headed back to the slip. I was motoring into the wind and just praying our little 14 horse diesel would get me back in. She did of course and I am happy to say it was a great feeling to know our little boat could handle the monster winds of this storm! I would say the winds were 30-40 with gusts to 50 in the area I was sailing. It was an awesome feeling to be out there in that weather!

Speed Machine

Hydroptere - video powered by Metacafe

And Now For Something Completely Different

Wipeout

Nice Sailing Footage

In this vid you will see some shots of the famous Playstation boat that Steve Fossett used to break many sailing records with. Sadly, Steve died in a plane crash and Playstation is sitting all alone in Alameda without a mast. Very sad for a boat that once held the record for the fastest sail around the globe. Disney bought her and used her for the filming of the upcoming movie "Morning Light". The movie tracks the youngest crew ever to sail in the Transpac. Enjoy the video.

Embracing the Extreme

Pipeline Posse

Bonehead Moves

What Were They Thinking? - video powered by Metacafe

Day 300 - Mainsail Shredded

Reid and Sonya have made it to 300 days at sea but have lost their mainsail. They are slowly working their way around the world in an attempt to make 1000 days at sea. They do have another main at the bottom of the cargo hold but it will take a day or so to move all the stuff to get to it. How long will this 7-8 year old sail last? Maybe less time than this newer sail? Catch up with their journey here.

Also David Vann has had to abandon his trip around the world just 60 miles after he started. Seems he had a welding failure on one of his cross beams. The boat was towed to Santa Cruz and he will try again next year. Check Sailing Anarchy for more info.

Flying High

Train Station Prank

Max Cornelisse is a young IT pro from the Netherlands. He has hacked in to many a public system and posted the results on Youtube. Do a Youtube search with his name and watch the 6 other pranks he has pulled off.

Go Back in Time - Rio

Remember how cool it was when MTV got its start back in August of 1981 ("Video Killed the Radio Star" was the first vid played) and music vids became all the rage. One of my favs had a neat nautical/sailing theme. Duran Duran's "Rio" was a huge hit and a great video. The video was filmed in Antigua, West Indies.

Pic of the Day

Click the pic.

I am off for a little camping and skiing adventure. Camping and hiking in Big Sur with my son. Will be visiting Esalen (http://www.esalen.org/) for their amazing natural hot springs on the cliff overlooking the ocean. Then up to Tahoe for some skiing with my best friends! Should be outta sight!

Extreme Sliding