Second Life, Sailing, Golf and Heroin

Two of the bloggers on my first Top Ten Sailing Blogs list -- and still two of the best writers about sailing in Blogistan -- Zephyr and Soulsailor have recently been posting about Second Life, a "3D online virtual world imagined, created and owned by its residents".

Zephyr in Second Life & Sailing tells us that he has been "sitting on the transom of a sloop in a virtual marina sipping a cup of coffee and getting ready for a romping sail". In a reply to comments in a subsequent post we hear that he's "currently looking at Ms. Jacqueline Trueau's 'Defender II' sloop for purchase" and yesterday we learned that he has bought that sloop and that he (or his avatar) is sailing it on the waters of the Nantucket Sim.

Soulsailor in Crapper.. reports that he has "gotten properly addicted to Second Life", and has been racing in some virtual sailboat races. A couple of days later in One Sailing Boot... we learn that he is thinking of buying some land in Second Life and is asking us for advice on which of two properties he should buy: "Seriosuly guys what do you think... if you were hanging out in second life and were gonna come and visit me then where would you wanna go?"

Remember that these cups of coffee, boats, land, marina and houses that are being built, improved, coveted, admired, and bought and sold only exist as bits on servers at Linden Lab the creators of Second Life. I have to confess to being simultaneously intrigued and skeptical about this idea of immersing myself in an imaginary world of such richness and complexity. In response to a couple of comments from myself that must have communicated more skepticism than interest, Zephyr tells us...

At the moment the experience is somewhat limited due to computing power but in my opinion we are seeing the leading edge of a technology that will change the face of everything - the analogy I like to use is think of the gap between the old reel to reel tape player I remember my Dad having in the mid 1970's and the ipod today. We could have never envisioned something like the ipod when we thought the reel to reel was the bees knees but the core concept of portable audio was there and in 20 years or so it was extrapolated out to the ipod...which one could argue is in and of itself just the leading edge of something we can't yet envision. The point being that the excitement around "Second Life" has to do - for me - with what I can imagine being able to to as the technology gets more powerful. As well it's a cool way to interact more broadly with a community of (in my case) sailors.

He may well be right and I'm not sure why I don't immediately share his enthusiasm. It's not that I'm some kind of anti-technology luddite. After all I did spend almost 30 years of my life working in Information Technology, trying to keep up with each wave of change and working out how best to exploit it in our business. And in my personal life, while not being one of those early adopter types who has to own each latest gizmo as soon as it hits the market, I do end up using most popular consumer technologies sooner or later. I have even been known to play a sailing simulator game on my computer.

I think my reluctance to leap with both feet into Second Life is more related to the reason I don't play golf. In my former corporate life I was surrounded by colleagues who were avid golfers. They often encouraged me to join them in the sport. I always resisted the temptation because I suspected that golf would, like sailing, be one of those activities that I would find seriously addictive. My competitive streak would have driven me into wanting to improve my game and I would have spent every leisure hour practicing or playing in desperate efforts to lower my handicap. And that would have cut into the time available for my other addiction, sailing.

I have more time now I'm retired but I am also now addicted to blogging and marathon running as well as sailing. I'd like to be as good as I can be at all three. I'm scared that Second Life might be so engrossing it would cut into the time for my other addictions. Is it the kind of thing that, like heroin, it's so good you shouldn't even try it once?

Has anyone else tried sailing in Second Life? How does it compare to the real thing? What are the rewards of the experience? Will it make me a better Laser sailor? Are Zephyr and Soulsailor thought-leaders we should follow into the Second Life, or simply uber-geeks who need to get out and feel the sun on their backs and the wind on their faces more often?

Warm Beer in Winthrop

Thanks to Winthrop Frostbite Sailing Club for the ultimate comment on frostbite sailing. Follow the link for more of the same.

Laser Sailing and Tai Chi

Zen who writes one of my favorite sailing blogs, Zensekai, has posted some intriguing thoughts on Tai Chi, Sailing and Laser Racing. He argues that Tai Chi helps with awareness of one's environment and in dealing with wind energy and the transfer of that energy to the boat.

So, in racing and sailing we need to be aware of the wind changes, patterns. Taking in the environment, feeling and seeing not just what is in front of us, but small changes in the water, the body of the competition. Looking feeling, sensing, seeing small things while looking at big things...

Not only the wind, but the feel of your boat & yourself everyday we are a little different. The training, forms, breathing, drills helps us stay as centered, balanced as much as possible...aware. Add to that the mind/mental state of being in meditation, calm, but actively aware.

The more aware you are and better able to use that on multi levels the better you sail.

Great stuff. Do go and read the whole article. As far as I can tell from a quick Google, Zen is the only writer discussing this relationship.

Zen also wrote on this topic back in May, linking sailing to Feng Shui and Zen too. The quote below is only a brief extract of his article but for those interested the full post is Feng Shui, Tai Chi, Sailing & Zen.

His summary of how these disciplines are linked is convincing...

All take understanding of changes in energy flow, "feeling" the environment. Letting go of forcing an achievement, letting it happen through you. Balancing the energy of the environment, being one with the flow (or the force as they said in Star Wars), maintaining your center in the moment to archive Harmony/ Peace/ a state of Zen/ a great sail.

Here Master Liang demonstrates Fu Style Tai Chi Chuan Crane Spread Wings.

Image from Liang, Qiang-Ya International WuDang Association

I can see a lot of sense in what Zen is saying but am not sure if it would be the best investment of my training time. What do you think? Should I take up Tai Chi to improve my Laser sailing?

What a Difference a Year Makes

One year ago today I became a grandfather.
It's pretty cool.

Commitment Questions

How do I know if my commitment to training for the Laser Masters Worlds next year is strong enough for me to achieve my goal of finishing in the top half of my age-group fleet?

I started asking myself this because I was struck by the difference between training to run a marathon next year and training for a sailing event. In both sports I have a clear goal but I am much more confident in my running program than in my sailing preparation. My running program comes from a book by Jeff Galloway. The marathon program is a pretty simple formula. Do these runs for 26 weeks and you are prepared to finish a marathon in such and such a time. There are even tables that tell you how to predict your marathon time based on your time to run 5k or a mile.

How much harder it is to plan a training program for a sailing event. Of course one problem is that the nature of my targets in the two sports are very different. In running I am really only competing against myself: can I run a faster time than my previous marathon? But in sailboat racing we are always testing ourselves against other competitors and they are an unknown factor. Who will turn up for the regatta? How hard will they have trained? Will they have improved since the last time we raced together and, if so, by how much?

The running program has workouts designed to develop different skills. Intervals to work on speed. Long slow runs to work on stamina. Races over shorter distances to predict marathon time and also determine the pace to run in other training. And the book tells me exactly which workouts to do when and how fast and how often. How do I know how hard to work on different sailing skills? How much time should I spend on practicing starts vs tacks vs straight line speed? How do I know when I've done enough in this session? How do I even know if I'm practicing a certain skill properly? It's tough to know whether the quality and quantity of training will achieve the desired objective.

Every day when I wake up I know exactly what I need to do in my running program. Today is the distance run. Tomorrow is cross-training. The next day I need to run 45 to 50 minutes. I would like to think that I could do something every day to improve my sailing performance. But how many days a week should I sail? If there is no wind today should I lift some weights or study a sailing DVD or both? There is no set program. No formula for success.

The running program allows time for rest and recovery. One rest day every week to allow the muscles to recover. And as the distance runs become longer in the later weeks of the program there is a mix of weeks with longer and shorter total running times in each week. How do I determine the right pacing in sailing training? How many days a week should I be sailing? Can you do too much sailing? What's the right balance of time spent at regattas vs clinics vs solo practice vs group practice? No book has all the answers.

It has to be fun though, doesn't it? If there were no joy in sailing why would we do it? But is "go out and have as much fun sailing as you can" any kind of formula for success in racing? And if not, what is?

So much uncertainty. So many different ways I could try and improve my sailing performance. Does this sound negative? Have I given you the impression that I enjoy running more than sailing? That the certainty of a formula for training is something I prefer? Nah. None of this is true.

All of this complexity, and variety of ways to train, and options to consider, and uncertainty about the competition... that's what makes sailboat racing the most fascinating, challenging, intriguing, interesting, rewarding game on the plant. At least for me. How about you?

Hot Lake Sailing Record

Several bloggers, including Litoralis, reported recently on the discoveries in August by the yacht Maiken of a new volcanic island in Tonga and a huge raft of pumice caused by underwater volcanic action.

Thanks to sNIPEOUT for drawing our attention to some superb photos from NASA of the new island and the pumice raft.


The NASA website earth observatory has the story...

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flying onboard NASA'’s Aqua satellite captured the aftermath of the eruption on August 10, 2006 (top), at 1:30 UTC (2:30 p.m. local time). For comparison, the bottom image shows the same area on September 15, 2005.

In the top image, the emerging volcanic island is partially hidden by its own plume. Volcanic plumes often appear drab gray or beige compared to clouds, and plumes from the emerging island move away from it in different directions, one to the southeast, and some to the north. The bright white spot directly over the island may be cloud cover, or it could be steam resulting from volcanic emissions.

The raft of pumice appears to the northeast of the emerging island, and it actually connects, via a thin thread, to neighboring Late Island. The blue-green color of the water around the raft and the new island is probably fine sediment that is making the deep blue water more reflective.

The earth observatory site also has more recent photos of the new island...

On October 4, 2006, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA'’s Terra satellite observed the newly emerged Home Reef. This image shows two views of the volcano. The larger image uses a combination of light visible to human eyes and infrared light. In this picture, dark blue indicates relatively clear water, light blue-green indicates water mixed with sediment, and the white ring around the island shows rocky material. The inset image shows temperatures on and around the island, with bright yellow being the warmest and dark purple being the coolest.

Both images indicate a warm plume from the island that moves in a northeasterly direction before splitting in two. The exact origin of this plume is uncertain. It could result from underwater volcanic activity, but it might also result from solar heating of pumice remaining in the area. The island itself sports volcanic lakes, some as warm as 64.7 degrees Celsius (almost 150 degrees Fahrenheit).

Hmmm - that sounds interesting - lakes with water at 150 degrees Fahrenheit. If I can find a way to ship my Laser there maybe I could make the Guinness Book Of Records for hottest lake ever sailed?

Giving Thanks

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the USA, a traditional holiday started by the passengers from the Mayflower in 1621 to celebrate setting the record for the slowest, most crowded, and most miserable east-to-west transatlantic crossing by a square-rigged sailing vessel of under 200 tons displacement (ratified by WSSRC on 23 November 1621). It is called Thanksgiving Day because the colonists were giving thanks to their friend Squanto for teaching them how to survive in the wilderness, especially the trick of planting a fish-head in the ground with every seed of corn. Historians differ as to whether the planting of the fish-heads was the first successful practical joke executed by an American against gullible immigrants, or a shrewd business move by the local Wampanoag fish merchant who needed to unload a large consignment of fish-heads well past their sell-by date.

So I would also like to celebrate this special day in American history by giving thanks to all the readers of the nonsensical jottings that I write on this blog. Yes, I mean you. Is anyone still here?

And I would like to give a very special thank you to everyone who has helped spread the word about Proper Course to new readers...

To all the bloggers who have put links to Proper Course on their blogs. According to Technorati, as of today, 90 blogs link here. God knows why anyone would go to the trouble of linking here, but thanks anyway. Those 90 links apparently place me firmly in the ranks of the C-list bloggers according to Dave Sifry's latest report on the State of the Blogosphere. I feel extremely proud to have reached these giddy heights of "middling authority" and will try not to let it go to my head.

In the last few months I've noticed that a few real sailing websites (as opposed to unreal sailing blogs) have also been directing readers here. Destination One Design has been carrying the occasional post from me that's actually about sailing in their D1D News ticker. The Laser Class Association of New South Wales has been placing articles from my posts on Dave Dellenbaugh's Top Ten Tactical Tips in its "What's New" section. And talking of non-English language sites, Västkustens Folkbåtsflottilj has been including a feed from here in its Nyheter och bloggar feature. (Don't ask me -- I haven't a clue what anything on that page means but it appears to be about sailing and I think it's in Swedish.) To the editors or webmastes of these sites, many thanks.

Other readers occasionally find me when someone emails them a link to Proper Course. Thanks to Ward Esaak of About Sailing for telling folk about the WD-40 and Duct Tape post in his weekly email sailing newsletter. And a super big thank you to Craig Leweck at Scuttlebutt for telling readers of his very popular email newsletter about a couple of my muddled ramblings this month. Man, the dials really started spinning off the gauges on my site meter on those days!

So as Americans celebrate this special day by stuffing themselves with turkey, watching some game that they call football on television, and by planting ceremonial fish-heads under their lawns... I give sincere thanks to everyone who reads Proper Course and to everyone who helps other readers find their way here.

Thank you.

What's Wrong With Buzzards Bay?

I don't know. What is wrong with Buzzards Bay? Jimmy Buffett seemed to place it in the same category as Three Mile Island and the Ayatollah.

I don't know, I don't know,
I don't know where I'm a-gonna go
When the volcano blows

But I don't want to land in New York City
Don't want to land in Mexico
Don't want to land on no three mile island
Don't want to see my skin aglow

Don't want to land in Comanche Sky Park
Or in Nashville Tennessee
Don't want to land in no San Juan airport
Or in the Yukon Territory

Don't want to land no San Diego
Don't want to land in no Buzzard Bay
I don't want to land on no Ayatollah
I got nothin' more to say

I think I mentioned before that Tillerwoman and I are in the middle of planning a house move from the outer suburbs of Gotham City (where we live because of my former corporate job) to a retirement home somewhat nearer to Cutest Granddaughter in the World, who currently resides in southern Massachusetts.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Before you tell me, I do know that it is bad strategy for retired parents to move to live close to their still-employed children. Bad because the children might suddenly decide to relocate to anywhere in the world just like their parents (UK to USA) and grandparents (Australia to UK) before them.

But we have reasons to believe that CGITW's parents' ties to New England are fairly strong. And in planning a move to Rhode Island we were also choosing an area that we enjoy and could feel comfortable in. And did I mention that Rhode Island is also somewhat known as a great area for sailing?

I see myself sailing the District 7 Laser regattas around New England in the summer, frostbiting with the Newport Laser Fleet in the winter, and getting involved in who knows what kinds of other sailing and boating activities in that area.

So we were looking around at homes for sale in Rhode Island. Found some towns we liked. And then I looked at a map and started wondering what those towns in the south-eastern corner of Massachusetts are like. Marion and Mattapoisett. Close to major highways. On the north shore of Buzzards Bay. Close to Cape Cod without actually being on the other side of those damn congested bridges.

So on a couple of trips to New England this year we explored that Buzzards Bay coast. On one trip we went out with our daughter-in-law and a realtor and checked out some houses for sale. We were very impressed. Beautiful houses. Oodles of New England charm. Boats everywhere. That famous Buzzards Bay breeze.

As we were cruising around admiring the properties, our dear daughter-in-law summed up the area in the vernacular of her generation... "This doesn't suck!"

It certainly doesn't. But what are we missing? What's wrong with Buzzards Bay?

Sticky Fingers

While sailing my Laser on Saturday I wore a pair of regular full finger neoprene sailing gloves but for the first time since last winter my hands were starting to feel cold. So on Sunday it was time to bring out the heavy artillery in my sailing gloves arsenal... my APS Dry Gloves.


These are made from natural latex rubber and have a tapered wrist seal that keeps water from entering the glove. With a polypropylene glove liner inside, these gloves keep my hands perfectly warm and dry in the coldest weather.

Things were fine for the first few races, but then a very strange thing started to happen. My fingers started to stick together! Why was this happening? I've never had this problem before. Is the saltwater attacking the latex and turning the surface into glue? Have the gloves picked up some contaminant? Is it just old age? (The gloves not me.)

And more importantly how can I prevent "sticky finger syndrome" in future. Is the answer here? Or here?

I don't know. Any suggestions?

Snap!

I think I've worked out what I'm doing wrong. Well, at least one of the things I've been doing wrong. All these years I've been sailing at below my true potential because of one simple thing.

It dawned on me when I recalled the other day something I had been told by a sailing coach many years ago. Something about taking snapshots not videos when you are racing. His point was that you need to pay attention to a lot of factors in a race and that you need to keep switching attention among them all, not get focused too long on any one issue.

When I thought back to racing last week I remembered his advice. There was one race where I had a superb start near the favored pin end of the line, heading towards the left side of the course which had previously been the strategically optimal way to go. I was concentrating on my boat speed and the boats around me and not letting the waves slow me down and maintaining a good lane with clear air and feeling good about being the leading boat of all the pack on the left ... And it wasn't until way too late that I looked over my shoulder and saw that stronger wind had filled in from the right side of the course and the boats that had gone right were already 100 yards ahead of me. Aaaagghhh!!!!

Did I look upwind before the start? No.

Did I look around the course after the start? No.

I was just way to focused on boat speed that I forgot about the big picture.

Of course there are a lot of things that a single-handed sailor like me has to be dealing with all the time. Sail trim. Boat trim. Boat balance. What are the boats close to me doing? What are they likely to do? Am I being headed or lifted? What is the wind ahead of me doing? What is the wind on the other side of the course doing? Are the boats on the other side of the course doing better or worse than me? Where am I in relation to the next mark? And so on.

So when I went out to practice on the local reservoir on Saturday I concentrated on using the "snapshot" approach. Switching my attention every few seconds between all the variables. Telltales look OK? Boat flat? What's the wind ahead doing? Where's the next puff? Am I being headed? Big picture wind - where is it strongest?

I'm sure that good sailors do most of this unconsciously. They are constantly receiving and processing this information all the time without having to think about it. But given my tendency to concentrate on one thing and forget everything else I found this snapshot exercise useful.

Then while racing yesterday I tried using the same technique. 2 minute signal - check out the wind. 1 minute signal - check out the wind again. Then once we're racing keep taking the snapshots. Telltales. Snap. Boat trim. Snap. Wind ahead. Snap. Wind over my shoulder. Snap. Wind other side of the course. Snap. Windward mark. Snap. Boats nearby. Snap. Boats other side of the course. Snap.

And it worked. My results were dramatically better than the previous week. I went from about being a third of the way from the bottom of the fleet to being in the top third of the fleet. OK, there's still plenty of room for improvement. But if I hadn't missed that persistent shift on the second beat of the fourth race...

Oh well. There's always next time.

Snap!