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.

On Our Way

We departed Singapore on our cruise and are now heading to Thailand. At sea today we booked my biggest bucketlist item! I have been dreaming of a trip to New Zealand forever. We will depart December of 2026 for Sydney with a circumnavigation of NZ. Silver Sea again. I can't wait. Only 696 days until departure! Below is a pic of the incredible Marina Bay Sands Hotel Singapore.

Bon Voyage!

My wife Bridget and I are off for a cruise in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia. We have been on Silver Seas a few times and they always do a great job. On another note, there will be another Baja Haha in 2025. I hope to get on a boat but there is always a chance i won't find one. But not for a lack of trying. I usually fly into San Diego on the Friday before and start knocking on Haha hulls to introduce myself. It has always worked in the past. Last Haha I was on a great boat with a fantastic crew. I hope to repeat in 2025.

Music Map

I went to see one of my favorite artists this week. David Gray was in town and he put on an inspired show. His album, White Ladder is still one of my all time favs. I put his name into musicmap.com and it came up with some very interesting artists. Here is the result of interrelated artists. Give it a try with your favorite artists.

An Artistic Look at Nazare (gigantic waves)

A week on the water!

My wife is out of town and my friend Barry drove up from LA and we took off for a sailing adventure. We found some wind on the days we sailed and one day of rain. Saw some great music too. Dead tribute bands including DSO and a Tom Petty tribute band. Coming in on the last day we got stuck at low tide near the channel entrance. Sat there for 2 hours and then we were able to motor off. I took a nap. Had some great food too. Painkiller at Trader Vics to end the trip. Not related but here is a tip for an idle big screen TV. You can search for different countries to fly over. This one is Italy.

Somewhere in New Hampshire

My Friend Barry

My friend Barry and I swam on the same team back in Delaware. We lost touch after high school both going off to swimming scholarships on different sides of the country. We hooked up again 40 years later and he joined me for a boat charter out of La Paz, Mexico. He has joined me a few times on the bay and last summer we took a week long trip to the delta. He has fallen in love with sailing. He is currently taking classes to get up to speed as well as looking for a boat. He is heading up next week for more sailing on my boat and some great music at local venues. In April, we head to Tahiti for a 7 day charter. Barry's only wish was that he started 20 years ago as he has about 15 more sailing years to go (80?). The lesson here is don't let the years slip by. Buy a boat and live life to the fullest! Cool song and musicians!!

MLK on 10@10

Sailed the last 6 days as Bridget is on the road. Mostly solo but with several Meetup groups on the weekend. No wind on the weekend but we still had some fun taking Hana to the beach. Below is one of my favorite SF radio shows called 10@10. Ten great songs from one great year. This show features Martin Luther King Jr speaches and songs. Check it out!

Sydney Hobart Race Film

The 60th running of the race proved to be a challenging one with 50 knot winds and 15 foot waves hitting the fleet in Bass Strait. Watch the highlights (and lowlights) below.

Tahiti Charter Booked

I visited Tahiti way back in 1992 with the Too Much Fun Club. Had some great scuba with my then fiance Bridget (married 31 years now). I am heading back in April with my friend Barry. We are joining a small flotilla for a cruise around the islands. We each have a private berth on a 45' cat. You will be hearing more about the trip as we draw closer. Check out this beautiful vid below about the beauty and tranquility of this very special place.

World's largest sailing yacht gets ready to celebrate 100 years!

Allegra Gucci’s first palpable memory was aboard her family’s sailboat, the 214-foot Creole. As she recalls growing up, the world’s largest wooden sailing yacht formed a playful cocoon for water fights, running along hundreds of feet of teak decks, swallow dives into the ocean, and, at peak performance, adrenaline rushes as the boat thundered at full sail in the Mediterranean. Fun and games belie this superyacht’s stature. Creole is a head-turning behemoth with a crown of sails and an ink-black hull. Born in 1927, the boat is a work of genius from Charles E. Nicholson, the era’s greatest naval architect. “Creole is Nicholson’s masterpiece,” Gucci tells Robb Report in a rare interview, noting the boat has been in her family since her father purchased the then-dilapidated three-masted schooner in 1983, two years after she was born. Read the rest here: https://robbreport.com/motors/marine/gucci-creole-sailboat-1236133133/