Yawing, swaying, CONFUSING

.......and it continues....surging, heaving, pitching, rolling, CONFUSING.  These are all terms we use little in the sailing life and almost never while in the presence of a landlubber.  WHY?  Because it is so difficult to describe these terms of boat motion without looking like a fool and making the other person feel even more so.

uumm , swaying is when the boat goes like this (gesturing with hands) and moves along that axis thing..... 

So how do we do this?  This morning on my pre-work sail fix , I came across a post on Bowsprite and was amazed at how easy it was to remember and describe these terms using a drunken sailor as an example

Next time someone asks you what is swaying - grab a bottle of rum, drink half the bottle and show them.

or send them to this link

Pirates - no eye patch, just bazooka

So a while ago we celebrated "talk like a pirate day" and we all went out to our local pub and said: "Arrgh me matey, give me ya best bottle of rum!!"

Since child hood, most of us would put pirate flags on our little toy boats and pretend to plunder and pillage the oceans of the world (bath tub).  And at the school play, we all fought over the role for Captain Red Beard.  The Pirates of the Caribbean  movies series just made being a pirate so cool.  And even led to Lego bringing out a Pirate range of little lego pirates and commanders, even including the treasure chest.  No, they didn't stop there, they even created Lego Pirates, the game.

Would you be the Pirate or the Officer?? - Pirate

I think most of us, when we were young, were  drawn to becoming a pirate for the lure of adventure on the high seas and chests of gold coins. But as we grew older, this dream faded away and reality kicked in - Sailing on the oceans of the world is all the adventure we need.  Conquering the elements, our treasure.

Still today, in the age of gps tracking, long range missiles and real-time imagery, pirates are still a reality.  With the first Somali pirate trial (read more) underway , I hope it will lead to a decline in piracy activity, so we can enjoy the lure of the ocean and treasure of conquering the elements without the fear of running into a scary mother f(*&%@ with a bazooka on his shoulder.

And what is this I hear of a classic being remade into a modern sci fi film?  Yes, Moby Dick 2010  is coming.  Hope it is not going to be a let down like Sharktopus (shockingly bad movie) or Titanic 2

Bollards of Steal - the sequel

Is it just me or are more and more sailors taking chances out there?

Bollards of Steal

Has this guy got bollards of steal or is he just an idiot putting his life and that of his crew on the line?

Should we applaud or revoke his skipper license?

Bait?

Sailing Anarchy had a post on the Chesapeake Log canoes the other day.  When I saw it, I was wondering what they were fishing for with so much meat on the rail. Then I saw this trailer and new, SHARKTOPUS!!

Got the grey matter?

By grey matter I don't mean the unused part of a mans body between his ears, I mean FOG.  Since there seem to be a current theme on the other blogs of "sailing in darkness", I might as well share an embarrassing story of my early days of sailing.

Being top of my class in sailing school and really loving navigation, I got a position on a 36ft yacht as navigator and "jack-of-all-sails".  This was a recreational yacht, so no serious racing, etc , just the Wednesday night regatta and occasional weekend offshore cruising.  

On the first off shore cruise, it was also my first encounter with navigation blindly and relying only on instruments.  We were approaching a small bay, where we would anchor for the evening, and visibility was down to 2 meters.  So  the seasoned skipper decided to reef down the iron sail to a near idle.  

All of a sudden none of the headings on the compass, GPS or chart plotter were the same.  We could here the waves break over on our port side  and to our right I knew were unsafe waters too.  What to do?  One thing we could trust was the traditional compass so we used that for our heading.  The GPS and chart plotter had the same way points, so we used that to track our progress on a old fashioned chart.  Every 2 minutes I would track our progress on the chart and shout to the Skipper 5 degrees to port or 10 degrees to starboard or keep her steady. 

my Picasso inspired art work - "navigation in the grey" 

 

We eventually made it to our anchoring spot, even thou it felt like forever. It was one on the most stressful sailing times of my life and as one would have it, as soon as we anchored, the fog lifted an we were in a beautiful bay drinking sherry.

Lesson learned:  

If you go to slow, your electronic nav systems can't pin point your exact course/heading. So go faster.

Whale Tale

There has been a lot of hype over the Southern Right whale that jumped onto a 33ft yacht in Table Bay, Cape Town.

There are a lot of people that think it is a fake photo, since the Skipper is looking ahead with the whale leaping out of the water right next to him.  

BUT what they don't know is that the skipper, Ralph,  is a yoga master and thus very relaxed.  I have personally been out sailing with him. Even in 35 - 40 knts wind, 6ft plus swells,  he keeps his cool and steers Intrepid with confidence and experience.

I am so glad that no one was hurt, since it could have been a totally different scenario if he landed forward or aft of the mast and rigging, flipping the yacht.