My Bucket List Group Writing Project continues to create unprecedented apathy in the sailing blogosphere. The subject clearly has no interest for most of my regular contributors. I guess I'm losing it.
Looking on the bright side, there is a contribution from Greg and Kris who have a relatively new sailing blog Log of the s/v Clarity. They live in Oregon and their sailing bucket list starts with...
Liveaboard.
Cross the Columbia Bar, turn to port, go South for a month.
And it just gets better from there with nine more fabulous adventures. These two sure know how to dream. I hope they make their dreams come true. Check it out.
By the way, and nothing to do with the above, I received a letter from John McCain yesterday. He wants me to send him thirty five bucks so he can "tell the truth". Hmmm. Why didn't he say before? If that's all it would take I would have sent him some truth dollars before.
So if you want to make a grumpy old man happy you have two choices...
My Stud Boy, Lead Dog, Advance Powder Coating, Anchorage Drag Bike, Anchorage Suzuki Arctic Cat, Arctic Cat, Citgo, Crowley, Davis Block, Debenham Investments, Fairbanks Gold, Fine Line Interiors, Guardian Security, L&M Supplies, Dillingham, Pacific Alaska Leasing, Renton Coil Springs, Ron Davis, Ron Zugg Shocks, Speedwerx, Spenard Builders Supply, United Steel Workers Local 4959, Wasilla Arctic Cat 74th Sail of 2008 was a very special occasion. Special because it was only the second time this year that I sailed with my son.
I do understand why he hasn't been able to sail much this summer. First of all he was getting established in a new job while taking evening law school classes, graduating this May, and then studying to take the bar exam. Also, he and his wife decided this summer would be the perfect time to have their second baby. Just to make life more interesting they thought it would also be fun to put their house on the market, and then accepted an offer on their home when their new son was three weeks old, without any idea of where they were going to live next.
With all that going on, I really did understand why it would probably not have been a smart move for him to say, "Bye dear, I'm off to sail with my Dad all weekend at the Buzzards Bay Regatta. See you Sunday night."
But this weekend I did persuade him to join me for an hour or so of light air sailing on the Sakonnet. Just like the old days. We headed down the river for a while and then the wind died. Stud Boy stood up in his boat and started rocking it around towards the west where he thought he saw a wind line. I chilled out and used my extra-sensory wind perception powers to find a new wind to the north. Once we were both in some sort of wind we beat upriver and I crossed him by about a hundred yards just to rub it in that the the old dog is still the Lead Dog.
I think Stud Boy was enjoying it. When I suggested we head back to the beach he persuaded me to stay out longer. I guess he wanted to make the best of one of the few sailing days he will have this year. Though perhaps he will be able to join me for some frostbiting once they are settled in their new house.
Why all those sponsors for my 74th sail? Well if they would sponsor these dudes, why not me? What do they have that I don't?
OK. In retrospect last week probably wasn't the best time possible to ask you to think about your "bucket list".
After all, the movie Bucket List was all about a couple of old geezers doing various extravagant things in what they both assumed was the last year of their lives. One of the dudes was filthy rich and he financed their spectacular round-the-world vacation.
With the financial news last week, most of you were probably wondering if you would ever be able to afford to retire, let alone visit the Pyramids or go skydiving; or if already retired you were trying to work out whether to give up sailing, stop buying gas for the car, or cut back on eating first. Some of you, in anticipation of another Great Depression, may even have been searching for recipes for squirrel soup.
But our group writing project on your sailing bucket list is still open. So switch off the news, imagine that you will be able to afford to pursue any and all of your sailing dreams, and tell the world what sailing adventures you want to enjoy before kicking that proverbial bucket. Full details at Bucket List Group Writing Project.
My Caramel-Brorst Polanskified Terrafirmatrically Solanderizised Radiotopicallyistic Flummery 73rd Sail was on a beautiful autumn afternoon on Upper Narragansett Bay.
Your what?
My 73rd Laser sailing day of 2008 as sponsored by... those guys. I can't be bothered to write out the full name again.
What's the deal with these weird sponsor names? Is it supposed to be funny or something?
Well that guy called "anonymous" who is always leaving comments here suggested a couple of weeks ago that I ought to do more marketing of my quest to sail 100 days in a year and should secure some sponsorship. A bit like Reid Stowe and his 1000 Days at Sea. He has sponsors doesn't he?
Yeah, but you're not fooling anybody. We all know you are just pretending to have sponsors. They are just made up names. What's the point?
Point? Does everything have to have a point? Blogging is all totally pointless.
I still don't get it.
Well, the first two sponsors were pretty obvious weren't they? The makers of my sunglasses on a day of amazing visibility. And then being inspired by John McCain's "I have a pen" speech.
I don't like it when you get political. I thought this was supposed to be a sailing blog.
But what was that weird one about flue gas desulfurization? I didn't get that.
Aaaah. That was a test. To see if people who followed Laser sailing, or for that matter Olympic sailing in general, ever noticed who was sponsoring the sailors.
That's Anna Tunnicliffe. She won the Laser Radial gold medal in China. So what?
Who was her main sponsor?
I dunno. I think it says Carmeuse on her sail.
And what do they do?
Don't have a clue? Who cares?
Well, I guess Carmeuse cares. If a company sponsors an Olympic sailor don't you think the company would want the world to notice who they are and perhaps have some idea what they do?
I wouldn't say that. Anna is a real Laser sailor. And she has earned the respect of the whole sailing world with her accomplishments.
OK.
Anyway, As I was saying my Caramel-Brorst Polanskified Terrafirmatrically Solanderizised Radiotopicallyistic Flummery 73rd Sail was on a beautiful autumn afternoon on Upper Narragansett Bay...
So, how best to find the sailing opportunities in each state? Use The Interwebs and The Google of course.
But Adam Turinas wrote some time ago about how sailing web sites suck so much (blogs excepted). So we ought to use blogs to research this trip. It would be cool to have a list of blogs about sailing in every state. Then we could read about sailing in each state and maybe contact the bloggers to find out more.
So I started to build the Bloggers' Guide to Sailing in 50 States and quickly found out that it's a lot harder than it sounded. The idea was to have one to three blogs that covered sailing activities in each state. California and New York were easy. Then it quickly got a lot harder.
For some states I had to use a non-sailing blog; for example for South Dakota I found Kayaking the Lakes of South Dakota which at least has descriptions about many of the lakes there.
And then there were some blogs that covered multiple states and I didn't know which state to list them under. Chine bLog has lots of useful information about boating in multiple states around Chesapeake Bay. I think the author lives in DC so I put it there.
But for many states I couldn't find any blogs that were any use.
So please help me. Take a look at Bloggers' Guide to Sailing in 50 States. If you know of any good blogs that cover sailing activities in any of the states with none listed yet, please let me know.
One of the beauties of sailing the Sakonnet River off Fogland Beach is that in a southerly breeze the waves rolling down the river from Rhode Island Sound are larger and more regular than the typical chop in other parts of Narragansett Bay. My 72nd Laser sailor of the year last Wednesday in these conditions, generously sponsored by Sunshin Deserts, was a classic.
A long upwind stretch concentrating on working my way up and over, up and over, every wave. Trying to avoid slamming the boat into the front of each wave. Even with the relatively regular waves on the river it's still an area where I have room for improvement.
And then riding the waves back downwind to the beach. Trying to find the best angle for maximum VMG. Trying to time pumps to catch a ride on every wave. Also an area where I just know there is more speed to be gained if I can refine my technique in these conditions.
Thanks to C.J. at Sunshi Deserts for organizing their very generous sponsorship. Check out their new range of Exotic Ices.
...take one entire summer, hit the road, and sail for one day in each of the 50 states, meeting different people, and racing on unique local boats on different waters... the more remote the better...
It got me thinking.
First of all, how many of the 50 states of the USA have I actually sailed in so far? Let's see...
Mid-Atlantic: My old stomping ground. New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania.
New England: Where I live now. Connecticut (my old frostbite club), Massachusetts and Rhode Island (most of the sailing written about on this blog in the last year). And Maine. I had a vacation at a very weird resort in Maine with the family many years ago. And there was some sailing involved. But the full story can wait for another day.
Chesapeake: Delaware (a memorable Sunfish North Americans in 1995), Maryland (mainly regattas in Annapolis), and Virginia (several regattas at Fishing Bay YC).
South: North Carolina (a Laser US Nationals at Wrightsville Beach), Texas (a clinic with John Kolius), and Florida (various midwinter regattas in Laser and Sunfish, a Sunfish Worlds, and a couple of clinics.)
I think that's all. How many is that? Thirteen states? Pretty pathetic really, considering I've been living in this country for twenty years. I really should have been more adventurous in my sailing.
So should "sail in all fifty states" be on my bucket list?
On the one hand a target like that does make you start thinking about interesting ways to explore other sailing waters. Not sure I would try and do them all in one summer like Jobson suggests. But picking off four or five new states a year for the next ten years might be fun.
On the other hand it seems like an awfully artificial way to plan your sailing. Sure it would be cool to sail on a mountain lake in Montana or Wyoming, or try some of that desert sailing in New Mexico and Arizona that Pat and Carol Anne are always writing about. And I can't believe I haven't yet sailed the Columbia River Gorge or San Francisco Bay. But it would seem odd to say, "Let's see. I think I'll go sailing next month in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota," just because I need to tick them off my list.
Pause to allow readers in IA, NE and SD to leave abusive comments about all the superb sailing venues in their states.
Where was I? Where am I? Oh yes. Bucket list.
So maybe I will and maybe I won't put the Fifty State Strategy on my bucket list.
Or perhaps I will add instead "Sail a world championship regatta on all six continents." (I'm not counting Antarctica). I've already done Sunfish Worlds or Laser Masters Worlds in North and South America, Europe and Australasia. So all I need to complete this one is Africa and Asia. It's a while since the Laser Masters Worlds was in Africa. Maybe I would have to sail a different class?
I also have a feeling that it's slightly immoral, given the current concerns about global warming and climate change, to set out on a quest of burning up thousands of miles on the road and in the air to travel just for the sake of travel. Part of me feels that it makes more sense to go to the other extreme and maximize the boating enjoyment I can have on all the waters within fifty miles of my own house where there are plenty of aquatic opportunities of all kinds.
So what do you think? Does a goal like "sail in all fifty states" make any sense? Would you want to do something like that? (Translate to counties, provinces, or whatever if you don't live in the USA). Or is it just too artificial a way to plan your sailing activities? Would you rather just pick and choose the outings that happen to appeal to you, without bothering to do the research to even find out what boats they sail in North Dakota, say?
