Laser Sailing is Fun

Top Ten List blogger O Docker says Ocean Sailing Is Hard. I don't really understand his point. Apparently ocean sailors don't like going upwind. Something to do with "swells and waves" and "leeway" and having to tack every three or four hours so you don't get where you want to go as fast as if you were sailing in a straight line.

Huh?

Apparently some west coast ocean sailors find the horrors of upwind sailing to be so intimidating that they sail downwind to Mexico where they succumb to the temptations of "cheap tequila, warm water, and the almost endless summer"... and then they never go back upwind to home.

Hmmm.

I guess I'll never understand ocean sailing. I've never done it. So I'll just have to take O Docker's word for it. Ocean sailing is hard.

Laser sailing can be hard at times too. But most of the time it is pure fun. That's why we do it. That's why I do it anyway.

Last Tuesday was a great example.

The sea breeze kicked up on schedule in early afternoon, and continued to build, so I headed over to Bristol Harbor and launched at 4:30pm in a delicious 15+ knot southerly that was whipping up some juicy rolling waves. I played around by myself for about an hour just enjoying the wind and the waves on all points of sail and not thinking at all about those miserable west coast ocean sailors having such a hard time doing ocean sailing on the ocean.

After an hour or so some of the other Tuesday evening Bristol Harbor Laser sailing crowd showed up and we started racing windward-leeward courses with rabbit starts. It was close racing and excellent practice. It reminded me somewhat of that day two years ago which I wrote about in Just Six Laser Dudes Racing Round a Sausage. But Tuesday was even more fun, if that could be possible. The winds were steady and strong enough for hiking, the fleet stayed close, there was plenty of boat to boat tactics, and the sun was low in the sky bathing the sea and the boats in an orange glow.

If the Wickford Regatta the previous weekend restored my passion to sail more regattas this summer, then Tuesday evening brought back my enthusiasm for informal group practice with fellow Laserites. I have a feeling I will be spending a lot of Tuesday evenings in Bristol Harbor this summer.

Laser sailing is fun.

Fat Bottomed Girls

Today I ran another half-marathon.

If you're not the lead dog, the view never changes.

Useless Unless Worn

I have just started reading Jon Emmet's new book Be Your Own Sailing Coach. I will probably write a full review later but I just had to share the first page of the book. It's that image above, an ad from Britain's RNLI campaign to persuade boaters to wear their lifejackets.

Very timely in view of so much news recently of fatal boating accidents. Wouldn't it be great if every book about boating started with a reminder to people to wear their lifejackets?

If you're going on the water this weekend, be safe.

The Curse of the White Towel

Last weekend I sailed in the Wickford Regatta.

Apparently, back in the day (whatever that means) the Wickford Regatta was the "premier springtime event on the East Coast." It says so on their website so it must be true. First held in 1972, it was one of the first Laser events in the world and in subsequent years 470s, 505s and Flying Dutchmen put the Wickford Regatta on the map.

It still is a pretty cool event. We had Lasers and 420s for regular folks like you and me. And sexier boats like Vipers and 505s and foiling Moths for people who are sexy enough to sail sexy boats.

I don't often have a chance to see sexy boats. It was the first time I had seen foiling Moths. I even got to see them actually foiling. It was an even more bizarre sight than they look on YouTube. I was tempted to try one until I noticed that all the Moth sailors were at least 8 inches shorter than me and at least 50 pounds lighter.

Hmmm.

Anyway, the Wickford Regatta was revived last year and is now, once again, one of the premier springtime events on the East coast. Well, at least the premier springtime event in Wickford.

I was only mildly surprised to realize that this was the first "real" Laser regatta I had sailed since the weekend I won the towel in 2008. I never knew at the time that winning a towel would almost destroy my motivation for sailing. I sailed very little last year. No regattas at all. That towel is a curse. Where is that towel? I need to have a towel burning ceremony to exorcise the curse.

Anyway. (I think I said "anyway" already.) Anyway, because of the curse of the towel I didn't have very high expectations for my performance at Wickford. If I had bothered to write down my goals for the regatta (which I didn't) they would have been

• have fun
• meet some old friends
• meet some new people
• get familiar with racing Laser regattas again
• work out what I need to work on
• learn something useful
• not win a towel
• have fun.

It's not every time that I go to a regatta and achieve every single one of my goals. But this time I did.

There were some really good sailors near the front of the fleet. Really good as in a couple of current Laser Masters World Champions and a Cape Cod Frosty National Champion. As usual a bunch of fast kids (meaning anyone under 35.) Then a solid group of mid-fleet sailors. And, as expected, I was duking it out with the other tail-enders.

I didn't totally disgrace myself. I even beat that other guy in 4 out of 5 races on Saturday. He reads this blog so I had to mention that.

Unfortunately on Sunday there was no wind. We stayed around until lunchtime before everyone admitted that there wasn't going to be any wind, so we all went home.

Actually Sunday was better than it sounds. It meant that we all got to hang around together on the beach and talk about what sailors talk about. Laser sailing isn't inherently a very social sport when you are actually racing. But Laser sailors are interesting, friendly people (present company excepted.)

I caught up with some old friends. Spent a long time talking with a very interesting guy whom I had only known casually before. Picked the brains of some of the top sailors. Spent an inordinate amount of time with some other inquisitive souls examining how the regatta winner rigged his boat. Even measured his all-important downwind vang setting. How anal-retentive of me.

I think I have overcome the curse of the towel. The Wickford Regatta restored my passion for Laser racing. I've got the bug again. I'm scanning the district regatta schedule to work out what regattas I will race this summer. I'm making mental checklists of what I need to change on the boat and what I need to practice.

I'm back!

I Do Believe in Duct Tape

Best line from tonight's finale of LOST....

"I don't believe in a lot of things

but I do believe in duct tape."

That explains it all.

I think I'll go to bed now.

Glue Factory

48 Blogs that Offer Tips on Boating Safety

Talking of boating safety (of which we seem to have been doing a lot lately) check out boatinsurance.org's post on 48 Blogs that Offer Tips on Boating Safety.

Britannia Rules the Waves

Yes, that really is a bouncy castle being paddled through a fleet of Lasers at an international regatta. Thanks to tonic.com for drawing my attention to the three plucky Brits who decided to honor the proud nautical tradition of our seafaring nation by paddling an inflatable bouncy castle five miles across Lake Garda. Full details and video at Three Brits Realize Their Dream Of Crossing Italian Lake In Inflatable Castle.

If further proof were needed that, when it comes to boats, we British are more than slightly unhinged, check out the story at Captain JP's Log of the skip with the outboard which is supposed to be demonstrating something about the evolution of boat design. (For American viewers, "skip" is Real English for "dumpster".)




Altogether now...

When Britain first at Heav'n's command

Arose from out the azure main;

This was the charter of the land,

And guardian angels sang this strain;

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:

Britons never will be slaves.

The nations not so blest as thee,

Shall in their turns to tyrants fall;

While thou shalt flourish great and free,

The dread and envy of them all.

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:

Britons never will be slaves.

Still mor majestic shalt thou rise,

More dreadful from each foreign stroke;

As the loud blast that tears the skies,

Serves but to root thy native oak.

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:

Britons never will be slaves.

Thee haughty tyrants ne'er shall tame,

All their attempts to bend thee down

Will but arouse thy generous flame;

But work their woe, and thy renown.

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:

Britons never will be slaves.

To thee belongs the rural reign;

They cities shall with commerce shine;

All thine shall be the subject main,

And every shore it circles thine.

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:

Britons never will be slaves.

The Muses, still with freedom found,

Shall to thy happy coast repair;

Blest Isle! With matchless beauty crowned,

And manly hearts to juide the fair.

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:

Britons never will be slaves.

It Could Happen To You

Sometimes fatal boating accidents happen to people who may not be very experienced boaters and who, because of their inexperience perhaps, make some bad judgments... like driving a motor boat fast in the dark in unfamiliar waters that have low rocky islands. That appears to be the case in the accident that I reported a couple of days ago.

But you are not like that, are you? You are an experienced sailor. You know what you are doing. It couldn't happen to you, could it?

Wrong.

It could happen to you.

It happened to Marty Stevenson, a friend of Carol Anne and Pat Byrnes who wrote about Marty and his tragic accident here and here.

Don't assume it couldn't happen to you. Play safe. Always wear your PFD. Wear a drysuit or a wetsuit if the water is cold. Accidents happen. People fall into the water for all sorts of unpredictable and unexpected, and sometimes unknown, reasons. Nature does not respect your years of experience. You had better respect nature.

Don't let it happen to you.

Sorry to sound such a dark note. But I don't want to read any more posts about fatal boating accidents to people I "know" through blogging. And especially not one about you.

Three Laser Sailing Posts

And now for something completely different...

After a week of powerboat posts it's time to get back to the real subject of this blog which is... whatever I want it to be.

Seriously, I need a fix of Laser sailing reading. Maybe you do too. So for your reading pleasure, here are three recent posts about Laser sailing that piqued my interest in the last few days. Each, in their own way, reminds me of a period of my sailing history and holds a lesson for what I should be doing in the future...

Keeping the youth interested... Brent Burrows is pretty young himself - only 16 years old. He's an up-and-coming Laser sailor from the Bahamas. Most of his blog posts are about his own racing and his training sessions. But this post is about an even younger sailor, Pedro, who has been sailing Optimists for a year or so. Brent sees a lot of potential in Pedro and has volunteered to coach him all summer to develop that potential. What a guy!

In my last few years in New Jersey I spent quite a bit of time myself mentoring young sailors but I haven't done any of that since moving to Rhode Island. I should be more like Brent.

Practice Toward Perfection. Jay Livingston has written another classic in his series of posts on the Zen of sailing. His musings on the meditative nature of solo practice remind me of all the days I sailed my Laser alone in 2008. You can overdo this solo practice thing but it certainly has its place. I need to be more like Jay.

Laser Masters Nationals Wrap-Up. Scott Young is a very accomplished sailor. He is a four-time winner of the Mallory Cup and was tied for first place points at last year's Laser Masters North Americans. He recently sailed in the 2010 US Laser Masters in Charleston. Most people would be happy with fifth place at such a tough regatta. (I would be delirious. So delirious that I would probably retire from Laser sailing and take up power-boating.) But Scott sets high standards for himself, and in this post he analyzes what he should have done and what his competitors did to prepare for this championship.

Such things as...

• sail in a competitive home fleet
• do the midwinter Laser circuit in Florida
• experience the local conditions before the regatta
• sail a series of regattas before the championship to be sure of your fitness, equipment and race course management

Certainly in 2007 when I really hit the New England Laser circuit and sailed almost every major local regatta that summer, I saw the impact on my results at the Masters Worlds that October. I should listen to Scott more.


Hmmm. What just happened? I read a few blogs and all of a sudden I'm getting enthusiastic about Laser sailing again. My flirtation with power-boating is over... probably... for now... until the next time.

Powerboat Accident

There is some very sad local news about five young people who had a powerboating accident at the weekend. Apparently two mechanics from a boating business in Portsmouth RI decided to "borrow" a boat from their employer without his knowledge and take three young women for a midnight joy ride. They ended up driving at speed into some low rocks known as Despair Island and flipping the boat which landed upside down on the rocks.

Local fire departments and rescue services were called to the site of the accident at 2am on Sunday morning. Two of the women are dead and the other three people on the boat were injured. The Rhode Island Attorney General's office is investigating.

My condolences to the families and friends of the victims.

More details here.

Top Ten Reasons Why Powerboats Are Better Than Sailboats

This weekend, Tillerwoman and I enjoyed two days of glorious weather, cruising on Long Island Sound with my son and his wife in their new powerboat. I suppose it's a powerboat. It has an engine. Two of them in fact. We pottered up and down the Branford River and along the Connecticut shore and around the Thimble Islands and blasted around on a plane in more open water.

It was fun.

It made me think about All The Ways That My Son's Powerboat Is Better Than My Laser. Which should be the real title for this post. But I like misleading titles. There are lots of them on this blog.

1. It is more social. The four of us had fun hanging out on the water together. It would be fun just sitting on the boat in the slip having a glass of wine and watching the sunset (but we didn't do that this weekend.) Lasers aren't social boats.

2. You can use it even if there is no wind. There is nothing more frustrating than driving hundreds of miles to go to a Laser regatta and then sitting around for three days because there isn't enough wind to sail. It happens. Been there. Done that.

3. It is faster. Apparently their boat can reach Block Island from the New Haven area in about two and a half hours. That's about 70 miles. No way I could do that in a Laser in that time. So you can actually go places. Relatively distant places.

4. Driving fast is exciting.

5. You don't need to bother with all those esoteric skills like tacking and gybing and sailing at 45 degrees from the direction you really want to go. Not to mention how to avoid death rolls and how to do capsize recoveries.

6. You get to learn new skills like navigation and docking. I was very impressed how my son actually knew exactly where he was all the time and how to get where he wanted to be. And even more impressed by how he could spin his boat backwards through a sharp turn into his dock using mysterious (to me) combinations of forward and reverse power on his two engines all the while compensating for windage and tidage and ullage and all that kind of thing. Very snazzy.

7. You can sleep on their boat. Actually six people could sleep on the boat if they were really, really, very, very good friends. My son and his wife are starting to plan/dream of overnight trips they could take with their boat. Perhaps even to come and see us.

8. Their boat was incredibly good value. I guess it's the economy. And it is twenty years old. But even so... a total fun machine, two 350 hp engines, a galley, a head, a shower, six berths, stereo, fridge, GPS, etc. etc. etc. All for less than the price of a new Laser. A place to entertain friends. A vehicle for day trips on the water. A place to live in for a week's vacation. Pretty amazing value.

9. You don't get wet. It's impossible to sail a Laser without getting wet. Even if you don't capsize, which you probably will.

10. People... family, friends... will now go and visit my son and his wife so they can have rides on their boat. They will be the most popular people in their social circle. I don't think anyone has ever visited me so they could watch me sail away on my own on my Laser.

Hmmm.

Food for thought.

Maybe I've had this boating thing all wrong for the last thirty years...

Powerboaters Are Sailors Too

Sailors - listen carefully, for you have been misled.

You sailors, you think you are so pure with your devotion to the arcane art of making a boat zig-zag through the water using the wind alone, without resort to the use of a noisy, smelly, engine burning fossil fuels. You sailors, you look down your noses at powerboaters like me. You sailors, you even made sarcastic comments on my posts this week about the simple joys of powerboating.

Oh, you are so superior, you sailors. You don your fancy schmancy sailing clothes and tweak your lines and waggle your tillers and feel so superior to us powerboaters. You join your fancy schmancy yacht clubs and, if you are American, even pay your annual dues to US Sailing to strengthen your identity as sailors.

But I have news for you sailors. US Sailing supports powerboaters too. There is an organization called US Powerboating and... get this... it's part of US Sailing! It even has a few pages on the US Sailing website!

US POWERBOATING is organized to directly address the educational needs of powerboat owners and operators in the United States and is an affiliate of US SAILING, the national governing body for the sport of sailing. Its powerboat courses are offered through participating schools, community programs and clubs. These courses highlight on-the-water training for recreational powerboat operators, rescue boat operators, race support boat officials and instructor candidates, starting at the entry level and progressing into advanced boat handling, cruising, and applied piloting and navigation. The Certification Series of US POWERBOATING has established definitive national standards to validate knowledge and practical skills of operators of sport and cruising powerboats.

Ha! Take that. Powerboaters are sailors too. It's official.

Best Shark Ever

Antolin, in the comments to my last post, asked what is the best shark ever. According to my grandson Aidan (22 months old) the best shark ever is the one in this video. Thursdays wouldn't be complete without Aidan asking to see "shark - Grandad computer." He's not so much into the three little fishies. Until the shark appears he is constantly squealing with glee, "Shark coming! Shark coming!" (It's at about 1:09 if you are as impatient as Aidan.)

Aidan is quite fond of trucks too, so last week I broadened his education by showing him this Awesome Off Road Truck Video. He was fascinated.

You can see where this is heading, can't you? Now that I'm a powerboater I need to show Aidan the Best Powerboat Video Ever.

I know, I know. Antolin is going to say that it's the one that's not here.

But please let me have your nominations anyway...

Best Powerboat Blog on the Planet

After making the decision to become a powerboater, I figured I should do some research to find out some stuff about my new sport. What exactly is a powerboat? Is it the same as a motorboat? How do you drive one? What sort of powerboat should I buy? Basic stuff like that.

Well, if powerboating is is anything like sailing, all the best information and advice will be on blogs, right? That's where the action is. So I did a Google search on "best powerboat blog on the planet".

Hmmm. That's a little disappointing.

Article on 420magazine.com about the fastest hemp boat on the planet. I stole the picture above from this story, but 420magazine.com has... ummm... a different emphasis... not at all about powerboats really.

Post on greenboatblog.com about Sailboat or Powerboat? Hmmm. I don't think I'm going to find much practical advice about how to drive fast in a boat with twin 500hp engines on a site called greenboatblog.

Story from the UK Daily Mail about a man dying in a powerboat crash... and his parents saw it happen. Yikes! That's not the kind of stuff I need to read when I'm all enthusiastic about my new sport.

So where are all the powerboat bloggers? What is the best powerboat blog on the planet?

Help please...

Solace and the Dark Side

Last Wednesday I went sailing in my Laser. It was as perfect an afternoon's sailing as one could possibly imagine. Ideal weather. Just me and my little boat scooting around Upper Narragansett Bay on an early summer afternoon. Antolin, the sailing potter, summed up the feeling of a day like that much better than I could in his recent post Solace.

I have several sources of precious solace but none better than the solace found on the water, out there where nothing is but the sea, you and the vessel you burden. Yeah, the grand cathedral of creation receiving one more hungry soul. Her face changes all the time but mother ocean is always there for us. Her winds a whisper or a scream, her watery skin calm or agitated, her, always present in all her unabated glory. In her I find solace. Tiller in hand, I ride her surface. Feeling the wave under my vessel, the winds in the sail, the perennial motion of her substance. Absorbed in this environment solace presents itself. I lose myself in the moment, however long the moment lasts.

And yet...

Something is missing...

Captain JP has the answer. Sailors you have been misled.

Why should we put up with despondently drifting in the calm? Why should we take hours to get anywhere? Why do we have to bother with things called "tacks" and "gybes"?

I want to blast around at 20 knots. I want to go places fast. I want to create a huge wake. I want to hear the roar of the engines. I want to go power-boating.

Today my son called us for Mother's Day. He suggested that he and his wife would come and visit us next weekend.

"No, no, no," I said, "We will come and stay with you. I want a ride on your power boat."

And that's the plan.

Next weekend, Tillerman goes over to the dark side.

The Future is Over

Thanks to everyone who participated in the April group writing project in which I asked you to contemplate Sailing in the Second Space Age. Or, in other words, to share some speculation about what sailing will be like in the years 2025 to 2035 when we expect human beings will be landing on asteroids, Martian moons, and perhaps even Mars itself.

Many of you commented that this was a tough subject to tackle. I tend to agree. I couldn't really come up with a good post on the subject myself unless you count Top Ten Thoughts That Went Through My Mind As I Tried To Think of Something To Write For The April Group Writing Project.

So I do appreciate all of you that managed to come up with some very creative ideas on the topic...

Beachcomber is the only sailing blogger I know whose profile picture was actually taken from outer space. So it was not surprising that he gave us a space age article about sailing the solar wind in Race for Z-Prix Heats Up! May 4 2034.

The Bursledon Blogger gave us a Back to the Sailing Future dream or fantasy or drug-induced ramble. I'm not sure which. It seems to have something to do with the 1970's, a decade whose popular culture is thankfully almost a total blank in my mind.

Adam Turinas wrote a very well thought out piece touching on the technology used for engines in sailboats, communications and navigation technology, the information available to racing sailors, the aesthetics of sailboats and the skills required of sailors. Lighter, more efficient, smarter and a lot simpler.

My2fish, offered a wild series of predictions about the possible consequences of "global schwarming." Sharks with laser beams on their heads to fight pirates, the death of frostbiting, the Great Lakes as the "new Cape Cod", and the continuing popularity of the Sunfish in sunfish sailing: 2025 and beyond.

Captain JP submitted an hilarious piece of science fiction sports writing in America's Cup 2028.

Sam Chapin went beyond the clouds to write about where he will be sailing in 15 years and why LASER GUY STOPS WEARING HIS LIFE JACKET.

Jos Spijkerman let his imagination run wild in speculating about how the Racing Rules of Sailing might change in the next 25 years in Transcriptburst > 2034-10-21-14:03:09-LTW-RRS-P17-Mech12-v-Harder^2.

The author of Master of None, offered a post on the future rise of commercial sailing vessels in April 2025: Cargo Cat Debut Heralds Second Age of Sail.

SailSox contributed Looking Backwards at Sailing which describes a very positive, and quite believable future for our sport.

On the other hand Zen wrote a very pessimistic future in Fresh from Japan in which he describes various scenarios of polluted oceans and all-virtual sailing.

Joe Rouse gave us some excellent advice in The Tillerman Time Space Continuum. What Will Sailing Be Like In The Future (2025)?

Greg told us of his own plans for the sailing he and his wife Kris will be doing In the Year 2025.

Some_day_soling thinks that Maybe Sailing and Mars are Equally as Awesome.

David Anderson doesn't see a lot of change coming to Sailing in 2025.

O Docker gave us a typically zany Glimpse Into The Future.

And Andrew educated us with some Laser Maths.

Finally, Peconic Puffin spent the whole month contemplating his response and composing his post, and eventually stunned the sailing world on the last day of April with his radical answer to the question What Will Windsurfing Be Like In The Future?

Phew. I'm all futured out. I think I'll take a nap now.

Shape Up RI

Last Sunday I ran in the Cox Providence Rhode Races Shape Up RI Half Marathon.

I think I did it because it was the half marathon with the longest sponsor name I could find. Reminded me of the fun I had a couple of years thinking up spoof sponsor names for my sailing outings such as my Sharpie Fine Point Permanent Marker 68th Sail and my Oglebay Norton Flue Gas Desulfurization 69th Sail.

No seriously. The real reason was that it was just down the road in the capital city of our little state and I've got this crazy idea that I want to do several half marathons this year. I thought that if this one went OK I could probably do a few more over the coming months. Seems like a more healthy way to keep fit than spending six months training for a full marathon and then spending the next six months recovering from it and swearing I will never do another one... until I do. Like I did in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

It was a fun course starting in downtown Providence and winding through various residential neighborhoods into the town of Pawtucket... which is almost as good a place to use in the first line of a limerick as Nantucket. The organizers had cleverly arranged the course so that there was much more uphill running than downhill running, just like the Run the Reservoir race in March. No really. All the uphills were long gradual inclines and all the downhills were steep. Which is better than the alternative... I guess. So we did spend a lot longer running up hills than down. And the good news was that I felt strong enough to maintain my pace on the hills.

There was a pretty good turnout of spectators to cheer us along. It seemed like a lot of the local people who lived along the route had put some deck chairs on the sidewalk in front of their houses and settled in for the duration to watch us all slogging along. Some of the little kids held out their hands to 'high five' the runners. Some people had signs saying things like 'Go Mom'. One guy had a sign saying, 'No one has ever drowned in sweat'. As a prolific sweater I couldn't resist shouting out as I pounded past him, "I'm working on it!"

After looking at the pace I had run in other shorter distance races this year, factoring in the temperature on race day, multiplying by the old geezer factor, and adding allowances for undertraining, overweightness and general wimpiness, I figured that I should shoot for an 11 minute per mile pace. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I was easily able to maintain a slightly faster pace and was about 90 seconds ahead of my target time at the 10 mile mark. Then I was unpleasantly surprised to discover that I was totally knackered (technical running term) and gave back those 90 seconds in the last 3 miles. I finished in a time that represented exactly an 11 minute pace averaged over the whole race. Exactly. To the second. Really. I have no idea what that proves.

I then went home and did nothing all Sunday afternoon. I didn't do much on Monday either. I did a gentle 3 mile run on Tuesday, went Laser sailing on Wednesday, and then did a 5 mile road race on Thursday evening. As I suspected, I did recover much faster from a half than I used to after a full marathon. I'm ready to do another. Maybe not straight way. But in a few weeks perhaps.

I know. It's really hard to write about running in a way that others will find interesting. Sometimes I get fired up about things that others don't seem to much care about. This might have been more gripping, too, if I'd kept it under two million words.

I think I'll go to bed now.

What Next?

What a weird week...

It started with the sad news from Elephant Butte Lake of a sailor apparently lost in a freak accident.

Also...

I ran a half marathon...

Greece is melting down...

My son bought a powerboat...

The Gulf Coast is drowning in oil...

The New York stock market is apparently out of control...

Britain is heading back to the 1970's era of hung parliaments and minority governments....

And I didn't write a blog post all week. I have no idea why not. I did do lots of bloggable stuff. Even went sailing. Weird...

To cap it off, this evening around 7pm Tillerwoman and I were watering her vegetable garden... when HMS Bounty sailed past our house. Not the Mel Gibson/ Antony Hopkins Bounty. The Trevor Howard/ Marlon Brando one.

It's not every day that you see Bounty sail past your house.

What next?

I think I'm going to go to bed now.