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When I speak with folks who aren’t familiar with sailing, I often get asked “How do you” type questions. Here are the answers to some of these: Q: Where do you stop at night? A: You don’t. You keep sailing in the dark. When conditions are benign, sailing at night is a beautiful thing. The night sky is truly awesome in the real sense of the word, not awesome like a good sandwich. You can see the Milky Way and the blackness is almost silver as you can make out clusters of millions of stars that you would never see on land due to light pollution. There is phosphorescence in the sea is stunning and the boat leaves a trail of luminescent pearls behind it. But, also the Night is Dark and Full of Terrors. When the boat is sailing fast, heeled over in high winds and bigger waves, it... Continue reading

A Log of Our Passage To Newport In Part 2, we covered the crew and the boat, now for the passage itself This shows our course. Our goal was to get to Newport by Friday evening, and we had a plan that we thought would make crossing the Gulf Stream easy and possibly speed up our passage with a favorable current. Freebird’s top speed was around 8 kts. Given that winds and currents make that hard to achieve when planning you expect to cruise at 5 kts, possibly 6kts while motoring at a speed that does not burn up the limited fuel too fast. In addition, you have to consider that currents (and there are lots of them) can slow you down or speed you up. On Monday, June 27th, we filled up the fuel tanks including an additional 20 gallons in tanks tied to the lifelines. This would give... Continue reading

In part 1, I shared a bit about why I want to sail offshore so badly and how the opportunity came, went, and came again. Three Men in a Boat The return crew of three were Phil, skipper and owner, Jack (a great name for a sailor) the navigator from the race, a highly experienced offshore sailor, and me aka “Roger the Cabin Boy”. As Phil and Jack are of an older persuasion, I was responsible for semi-skilled manual labor. Basically, if a line needed pulling or something needed attention outside the cockpit, that would be my job. To be honest, I love that stuff! Captain My Captain The skipper has a vast responsibility in offshore sailing. First and foremost, the captain is responsible for the safety of the crew in what can be a very dangerous environment. He or she is also responsible for the preparation of the boat,... Continue reading

One of my greatest passions in life is sailing. I didn't sail growing up and very few of my friends or family sailed so I am not really sure where the interest came from. Early in our marriage, my wife and I decided that it would be good to have a common interest. Neither of us liked golf and both of us were intrigued by sailing. We took some lessons and bought a small boat that we could sail on Galveston Bay. We loved it and it has been a shared passion that bonds us. Over thirty-three years, we have sailed in many places, on multiple types of boats, and in many conditions. We have sailed up and down the Atlantic coast, Texas, Southern England, Turkey, all over the Caribbean, Hawaii, and even on Lake Dillon in the Rockies. We have owned three boats, the last was Cadence, a 38-foot... Continue reading

Putting this on hold. I have not been updating this blog for a while as my creative juices has been re-directed to more entrepreneurial areas. you can follow more about what I am up to in business at my Turinas Consulting site. Continue reading

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via www.wavetrain.net This is a truly great read and shows how easy it is for a good crew on a good boat to get into unavoidable problems. Tough call to abandon a lovely boat but the right call. Continue reading

It's a got a baot in it, right? Continue reading

Storm Sail Vs Fourth Reef -- Interesting! Continue reading

I I took this screen grab from earth wind map. I believe the arctic vortex is the low pressure system about 3/4s of the way up the screen, which appears to be breaking up as a long blue squiggle. All I can say is a bloody cold as it feels here in NJ, it's nothing compared to the orange bit. [UPDATE} Jist read this Wikipedia post which explians that: 1. The Squiggly blue thing is the Polar Vortext 2. It's so bloody cold 'cos the the jet stream is meandering South. Continue reading

c/o Carlo Borlenghi Continue reading

I am probably one of a zillion to blog this site - earth wind map - but I find this obsessively fascinating. From what I can tell, the site processes GRIBS from NOAA, overlaid onto an interactive globe to create a model of surface winds. It's mesmerizing especially during big storm activity. Continue reading

Back in 2010, I created this slideshow using the wonderful photos of Carlo Borleghi. Enjoy! Continue reading

I guess the title of this post is a little ironic as it has been a year since my last post. No excuses and no dramas, I have been all consumed by starting a business.Will try a little harder to keep this puppy going despite other distractions. I received an email today from Paul Gelder, the former editor of Yachting Monthly that inspired me to get off my provervial and start posting again. Since his retirment he has been all consumed by the refit of a 1978 trimaran. This video shows Paul enjoying the fruits of his labor and an awe-inspiring refit sequence. In his own words: This was my biggest DIY project ever! I guessed it might take me 1,000-hours-plus, at least. It turned out to be nearly 1,500 hours. Phoenix is a 1978 Mark II Telstar trimaran, which I've owned for 21 years. Designed by Tony Smith, she... Continue reading

US Sailing and Old Pulteney Single Malt Scotch Whisky recently announced its top six finalists for the Old Pulteney Maritime Heroes Award. The award sought out unsung heroes in sailing communities across the country making a significant contribution to the sport. Each finalist was nominated by another member of their sailing community based on their charitable and selfless efforts. The top nominees were then carefully selected by Old Pulteney and US Sailing representatives. The finalists draw from different backgrounds as well as experiences and are as follows: Bruce Bertucci – Perth Amboy, NJ -- Bruce created the Perth Amboy High School Sailing Team and implemented the summer program which is open to all aspiring sailors regardless of their ability to pay. Chris German – Ashford, CT -- Chris founded Connecticut Community Boating in 2007 which gives inner-city and underprivileged children a chance to experience the sea Donald Backe – Annapolis,... Continue reading

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US Sailing and Old Pulteney Single Malt Scotch Whisky announced its six finalists for the Old Pulteney Maritime Heroes Award. The award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to their sailing community. A public vote is now being held at www.maritimeheroes.com and is open until December 16, 2012. One winner will be honored at a gala event on January 23rd during US Sailing’s National Symposium in Clearwater Beach, Florida. I stronlgy suggest you vote for Bruce Bertucci. Bruce created the Perth Amboy High School Sailing Team and implemented the summer program which is open to all aspiring sailors. It makes a huge difference for these kids. Bruce in his own way is saving sailing. Full disclosure, Bruce is good friend and crew-mate. Continue reading

Orchard Lighthouse before and after Sandy. Continue reading

We are running a watch system at RYC to keep looters away. I was there from 1600-2000 yesterday and took these up close in the yard. It's staggering seeing what Sandy did to our club. From what we hear, we were lucky compared to Richmond County YC in Great Kills and Keyport Yacht Club. It will be tough but we will recover. Continue reading

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