Matt Rutherford Talks About His Circumnavigation of the Americas

Matt Rutherford talks about his solo nonstop circumnavigation of the Americas with Gary Jobson.

For his blog, check out www.solotheamericas.org.

I'll have a full post up later at peterfblack.com

200th Post - Future Contemplations

How does one celebrate 200 posts? Well, I don't know how others do it, but I'm not really going to do much. It doesn't feel much different than my 199th post or even my 37th post. (Please don't go searching for my 37th post to find out which one that is; I just picked a random number).

I remember that it was about this time that I expected to be living on a boat and getting ready to set sail around the world but that, sadly, has not occurred yet. While that is a bit of a downer, on the upside, I am already signed onto a crew for the Annapolis to Bermuda race for this summer. That has me pretty excited! I haven't done any offshore racing and this is probably a more sensible way to be introduced to it than just setting off around the world.

Although, looking at some of my more popular posts, I realize that 5 out of my top 6 were about some terrible but hilarious movies. I've been thinking that maybe I should start a blog on all the terrible movies I've seen....Start a companion blog to my film director friend Dan Gvozen's movie blog, Grind My Reels. He reviews decent movies and gives a pretty in-depth analysis. Mine would be surface-level commentary on loveable but crappy B films. Hmm... It's certainly something to think about.

While I contemplate that, please enjoy a great song with B movie attention-grabbing visuals:

Dammit Irene!

Dear Skipper,

First, thank you for your support of CRAB through your entry in the Boatyard Bar & Grill Regatta to Benefit CRAB/Battle of the Chesapeake. 

We are sorry to tell you that after careful consideration and waiting as long as possible to make this determination, we have decided that attempting to conduct the on-water portion of this event would be unwise in light of the impending arrival of our unwanted guest, Irene. While we probably would have been able to start a very nice race, the current forecasts indicate that we would have been unlikely to be able to finish it safely. With several marinas in Annapolis already calling for the evacuation of their wet slips, we believe that you should be able to take the time you would have spent racing with us to secure your home, boat, and other property.

By the end of the day, we expect everyone to be ready for a great party. We've moved the festivities indoors at Eastport Yacht Club, where we'll still have the same great band, food, and drink, but a little less watered-down and windblown. 

Thanks again for your entry and support of CRAB. We're disappointed, too, but we hope to see you at the party.

-- EYC RC/Registration

Discouraged Yet Hopeful

I know Irene is going to be really intense and totally flood the crap out of my area but I still really want to go racing this weekend. It's Battle of the Chesapeake and I could really use more sea time before law school starts burying me in work. They haven't called the race yet so there is still hope......

MD Governor's Cup 2011

The Governor's Cup was the 5th to the 6th of August. Hard to believe it's been two weeks already.

This was my first overnight race and we couldn't have had better wind! It was blowing 15-20 knots almost the entire time, including the few hours of sleep I tried to get between 2:30 and 5am. The wind only dropped as we were approaching St. Mary's of course, right in front of the finish line.

The whole time we were just pounding through the waves. If you get sea-sick, this definitely wasn't the trip for you. We had some seasoned sailors onboard, but even this chop was enough to a make a few of them green in the face. Personally, I had a blast! It was exciting, although a bit cold since, as foredeck guy and railmeat position #1, I kept getting the most of every wave that splashed over the bow.

Sailing at night was cool new experience. We had to make sure we weren't going to hit any of the other hundred and fifty odd sail boats that were racing with us as well as any of the big shipping vessels making their way up to Baltimore. There were a couple boats that seemingly came out of nowhere (low powered running lights) and at about 2am, we had caught up the bulk of the boats that started at 3pm (we started at 6pm since we were in a faster class). It was pretty hectic. We dodged about 30 boats within an hour. It probably wouldn't have been so many but we were just getting to the smaller part of the Chesapeake.

The race to the finish was pretty lackluster since our wind started dying and boats were already coming back at us from finished but we pushed through and finished pretty decently. 14th out of 16th in our division but 46th out of 155 boats in the fleet with corrected time.

Thanks to Photoboat.com for most of these pictures!

 Race Committee had some pretty sweet boats

 Foredeck View

 If you'll notice, the RC boat here is a pirate ship

 Wave for the camera!

 Apparently someone forgot to clean the bottom...

Speaking of Racing...

I have recently signed up for a bunch of races for this upcoming season!

I'm pretty stoked since Tango Too, the boat I sail with on Wednesdays, only does a few races here and there; mostly due to lack of crew.  Now I'll get to do some more intense, and longer races.

So far, I've signed up to crew in the Coast Guard Cup, the Governors Cup, Annapolis to Solomons Race, and the Screwpile.

The Coast Guard Cup is supposed to be 80 nautical miles (nm) depending on the forecast and is scheduled to be around 24-30 hours of straight sailing. It'll definitely be the longest race I'll have ever been a part of. That'll be another notch on the ole sailing belt.

The Governor's Cup goes from Annapolis down to St. Mary's and as an Asst. Harbor Master (in Annapolis), I got to talk to a bunch of people who sailed it and most of them had a pretty good time. Except the year when it was almost dead-downwind without the wind part. A bunch of boats grabbed moorings on their way back up the Bay and bitched about the sun and lack of wind. Fingers crossed, that doesn't happen this year.

The Annapolis to Solomons Race is pretty similar to the Governor's Cup (course wise) except its a little bit shorter, finishing at Solomons Island instead of St. Mary's.

I don't know much about the Screwpile but I've always heard its a bunch of fun from the people that have sailed it. It takes place in Southern MD but I think it'll be worth the drive.

Side note: I also got into law school and tonight is Poker Night so things have been going alright lately...

Decisions, Decisions...

So I've been feeling a bit confused lately...

The Irwin 35 I went to look at last weekend was in pretty bad shape on the inside. There was so much water damage on the inside that I didn't bother taking pictures. It would take a minimum of 25K just to get the boat up to ok, excluding the sale price which, after the guy saw his boat, I'm sure would come down anyway. It seemed pretty obvious that guy hadn't been down to his boat in probably close to a year; if not longer.

I don't want to put all my savings into a boat that is iffy in the "will it float?" category. If I'm going to take the leap and go for it; I'd love for it to be a Valiant. The Rob Perry design and solid construction really have me won over. I basked in the glory of another one of those beauties at the boat show the following day and all it did was remind me what I'm shooting for. The guys who were showing the boat were a bit more snotty than the guy last year but that doesn't stop the boat from being gorgeous.

I know that the smart thing to do would be to buy a house that would only appreciate in value over the years (unlike a boat), eventually sell the house and buy one helluva boat. Try and get a job on a yacht and get my sea time in for my Captain's license in the mean time I suppose...It just really sets me back in the ability to just loose the dock lines and go.

Decisions, decisions...

Back on the Water; Back on Blog!

So I've been absent for a few weeks. I don't really have a reason except that there wasn't much to write about and I've been lazy.

However, last night I FINALLY got to out for a Wednesday night sail. It had been far too long.

To kick things off, we (the Captain and crew of Tango Too) weren't sure that there was even going to be a race. Lack of wind, not enough boats...etc. However enough boats eventually showed up that we were able to race. The wind was so slight tho, I was sure they would call it off before we started. Maybe I just went out expecting the race, for some reason, not to happen. Almost two months without racing will do that to you. [sigh].

Anyway, RC (race committee) made it a short, 4 mark course. We didn't start great which was a killer in this nothing air and we proceeded to drift for the next 45 mins.

We fiddled with the spinnaker; nothing.
We put down the spinnaker and took out the headsail; nothing.
Our knot meter kept a steady 0.00 - I know, awesome right?

Granted, the tide was coming in and we were making some headway; I could see it using the shore as a reference point; just not enough.

So we did what all racers (or at least the ones I sail with) do when the wind is dead and you're just drifting; we broke out the beer.

Suddenly, we get a little puff.
We drink some more.

More air...
We finish our beers.

We're moving at just shy of 3 knots past all the boats that left us behind at the start!

RC had decided to call the race at the first mark so we ended up finishing somewhere in the middle (we needed more beers on hand next time since the wind caught up to everyone else once we hit the middle) which was good for us. Still have to see how we do considering PHRF times tho...

It felt so good to finally be out on the water again; it still shocks me how much I miss it when I haven't been out in a while. Last night also makes my 199th day out on the water according to my logbook of seatime I've been keeping for my Captain's licence. I'm going to have to celebrate my 200th day with a sail and party soon.

Annapolis Race Week is coming up as well. Labor Day weekend can't come soon enough. We did OK last year but I'm hoping we can edge up a bit even though it feels like we haven't been out nearly as much (its probably about the same though minus a race to Oxford).

In other news, I'm flying back down to New Orleans and I'm looking forward to not to being in a sketchy hotel this time. Instead of ordering pizza delivery and hoping I don't get stabbed, this time I thought I might go out and try some local favorites.  I'm thinking House of Blues and visiting Cafe Du Monde.

Any suggestions?

Hurricane Musings 2010

I figured that when my insurance company, USAA (great company BTW), sent me Hurricane Preparedness stuff, it was just another email that they send out every so often. I missed the memo that it was National Hurricane Preparedness Week. Anyhow, it seems that this season is going to be a bit rough in terms of hurricanes. At least that is what the NOAA is saying, and I kinda trust them. Well...theres definitely a 75% chance that I trust them on any given day.

The currently accepted reason for this more intense upcoming hurricane season is the warming weather trend that has been happening the past few years (AKA the weakening of El Nino).

If you're interested in tracking some of these storms, a good website I found was Moreweather.com's Atlantic Basin Tropical Weather Page. Personally, I love Weather Underground as most of you could probably tell by the widget on the uppermost right corner of this page. 

If you want your own Hurricane Tracking Chart, there is one available here. 

If you're interested in how the Atlantic Basin hurricanes are indices of climate change, thats available here. I didn't read it but it looks interesting if you have the attention span.

Plans

I don't know about this weather. It was 71 and sunny out yesterday and now its just barely 40 with rain and just plain shitty weather. Either way, good weather or bad, the plan is to do some work on Surprise Saturday and Sunday; probably sanding which I am not fond of.

As much as I dislike sanding, (the wood particles always seem to infiltrate my eyes, nose & throat and act as mini-splinters to all three), I  like having a nice looking boat. My dad is looking at upgrading to a Vagabond 42, his dream boat, and he just found one that's price has just slipped into his range. I think he's going to go take a look at it down in VA on Sunday.

He was recently looking at Hans Christian 43 that he found on an auction website for 25K but even the low price wasn't enough to compensate for the amount of work that would have to have been put in to make it a wicked stellar boat. Well hell, even just a solid boat in good condition.

Anyhow, either case will be great for me. With my dad looking to upgrade, I get the handme down Surprise when he does; which is what I want and am very excitedly looking forward to. I'm going to have to pay for it of course but with all the work we've thrown into her, I know her inside and out. Plus I'm planning to keep all the electronics we updated only a year ago (new VHF, depthfinder, autopilot and GPS) and with the new cockpit cushions and door we plan to install, I'm very seriously considering  liveaboard plans.

Right now I just plan to put some more work into my future boat.


Also, for any readers who are interested, there is a webcam of Annapolis Harbor that you can access from the Annapolis Yacht Club's website. With the Annapolis Harbor View, you can see the mooring balls and out into the Severn River. The Eastport/Spa Creek view shows you what you would see if you panned to the right after viewing the Annapolis Harbor View. There is another webcam available on the Annapolis City's homepage (upper lefthand side) but its very grainy and not really worth it.