Bound for Pape'ete for an Epic Charter

We depart on Friday for a bareboat charter to the Society Islands (Tahiti). We plan to hit 4-5 islands with a flotilla of three 45' cats. The leader of the grop has done this trip several times and will lead the group thru the reefs and into the lagoons. I had thought that I would sail my own boat here one day. However with age and experience I have realized that nothing goes to weather like a 787-9 Boeing aircraft! It would also take 7 months to get there from the west coast by boat. Its 7 hours by plane! I am going with an old swimming buddy from Delaware who has gone nuts for sailing since I introduced him to it on our voyage to Mexico in 2018. He is on the cusp of buying a Catalina 36 for cruising in his home waters of Santa Barbara. Wish us a bon voyage!

Sailing Doodles Brand New Boat Lost

Boy oh boy it seems that some of the most famous video bloogers are having trouble. First, La Vagabond gets hit by a fishing boat in the middle of the night causing extensive damage to their brand new boat. Then, Gone with the Wynns have a year of issues on their brand new boat and sell it back to the manufacturer. Recently, just 3 months after he purchased it, Sailing Doodles loses their boat on a beach. All these folks have been cruising for years and making big bank along the way. The good news is LV is back on the water, the Wynns will find another hot boat and SD has purchased his old boat back that he sold in 2021. He is currently cruising the Bahamas. See below for the details on how he lost his pride and joy.

Lake Erie Can Be a Dangerous Waterway

Due to its shallow waters, Lake Erie has been a place of many marine diasters over the years. One of the issues: sudden squalls that can create 15 foot waves. In 1913, there was a storm that killed 235 sailors and sank 12 ships. The deadliest shipwreck was in 1850 when a steamboat caught fire and 240 perished. Lastly, the PS Erie had a fire caused by a varnish explosion killing 175. Lake Erie also sees 12-15 drownings each year. Folks need to respect the powers of lakes and their weather. Here is a link that will give you some guidelines for the lake and all bodies of water around the world. https://www.richmondvona.com/blog/boating-safety-on-lake-erie/

Bloggers Buy a Lemon and the Lemon Sellers Buy It Back

You may follow a popular Youtube couple (Gone with the Wynns) that purchased their dream 45' cat that turned out to have as many issues as a 70's era Fiat. Lots of issues. One of the biggest was some stray energy from one of the 4 motors that was causing all the metal on the boat to breakdown. After almost a year of dealing with the issues, the manufacturer is buying back the boat. In the second vid, Mr. Boat looks at many of the issues and breaks it down. Check both vids!

Pure Sail

Lots of rain upon our return from Southeast Asia. We had an amazing time and met lots of cool folks. Vietnam is nuts with 8 million scooters trying to hit you. Hong Kong was beautiful as it is surrounded by hills and water. Glad to be back home. Hope to get out his weekend but the weather is in charge.

World Speed Record of 65 Knots to be Broken Before Summer?

Sail GP Heading to SF March 22-23

The flying machines will be back on the bay next weekend. I have a boatload of folks joining me and hope to get some great views of these guys approacing 50 mph (43 knots). Tradionally, SF has been the final stop to the season. This year however, they have racing into November. Hopefully, we will get some nice weather!

Tesla Roadster Still Oriting the Sun After 3.5 Trillion Miles

It's been 7 years since Musk rocketed a Tesla Roadstter into space as a publicity stunt to introduce the car to the public. He added the payload to one of his latest rockets in February of 2018. Inside the car is a mannequin in a space suit listening to a famous David Bowie song on repeat. Am I crazy or is it the hash? This month it was spotted and offically listed as an asteroid. Here is the scoop: Musk's car was accidentally and briefly classified as an asteroid in 2025. The International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center issued a bulletin on Jan. 2 announcing 2018 CN41 as a newly discovered near-Earth object. NEOs include asteroids and comets. The MPC issued a follow-up notice on Jan. 3, saying, "The next day it was pointed out the orbit matches an artificial object 2018-017A, Falcon Heavy Upper stage with the Tesla Roadster. The designation 2018 CN41 is being deleted and will be listed as omitted." Time flies when you're floating aimlessly through the cold, inhospitable wasteland that is space. And it's already been seven years since SpaceX test-launched its powerful Falcon Heavy rocket, shooting founder Elon Musk's personal Tesla Roadster into space. The cherry-red sports car is still out there after taking off on Feb. 6, 2018, and even suffered from a recent case of mistaken identity when astronomers thought it might be an asteroid. A lot has happened since 2018. Musk turned Twitter into X. Tons of Starship development. Tons of Falcon 9 launches. Some more Falcon Heavy launches. Through it all, the red car and a mannequin named Starman have been in orbit around the sun. Tesla Roadster as near-Earth object. Where exactly is the car now? Whereisroadster.com tracks the location of Elon Musk's car in space. Whereisroadster.com has been in operation since 2018, tracking the car on its journey through space. Created by Ben Pearson, the site follows the car's location and calculates the distance it's traveled. As it passes its seventh anniversary in space, the Roadster has "driven" around 3.5 trillion miles. It takes the car about 557 days to orbit the sun. According to Pearson's work, the Tesla has exceeded its 36,000-mile warranty by over 96,330 times. The car famously pumped out David Bowie's song Space Oddity at the start of its journey. If the battery and speakers were still working, the on-board mannequin would have heard Bowie's masterpiece over 692,000 times. Talk about an earworm. Researchers had already looked into the chances of the car hitting Earth some day, and calculated the odds at just 6% within 1 million years. The team also worked out that the Roadster will make a close(ish) encounter with Earth in 2091, when it will come within a couple hundred thousand miles of the planet where it was made. Space is a harsh place, so it's likely the Roadster and its pilot are pretty roughed up at this point. What will be its ultimate fate? It could be doomed to wander the solar system, or perhaps we'll go fetch it someday and put it in a museum. Anyone want to buy a lightly used, well-traveled electric car?

Portland Maine becomes round the world central

Racers from far and wide are picking a few boatyards in Maine to prepare their boats for a lap around the planet. Read the article here:https://www.sailmagazine.com/cruising/the-storied-legacy-of-shorthanded-around-the-world-sailing-based-in-maine

One of my favorite boats: Mayan

Beau is the Commadore of the St Francis Yacht Club and a perfect owner for the classic beauty.

Cool Moon Fly Over

Firefly's Blue Ghost lander captured more incredible footage of the Moon during its third lunar orbit maneuver on February 24 that inserted the spacecraft in a near-circular low lunar orbit. The footage below, sped up by 10X, was captured about 100 km above the lunar surface, showing the far side of the Moon and a top-down view of Blue Ghost's RCS thrusters (center) and radiator panels on each side. The radiator panels are moving nominally to protect Blue Ghost's subsystems from extreme temperatures.