Is a Garage a Big Deal?

It can be if you don't have one. We moved out to 7409 19 years ago and accepted the fact that we had a house and a pole barn (we refer to it as "the shed"). For years we only stored stuff in the shed, but after a few hard winters we realized that if we parked our vehicles in the shed we wouldn't have to scrape windshields or possibly deal with dead batteries. The shed wasn't heated, of course, but just having the vehicles out of the wind kept them from freezing up.

Still, even though the shed offered our vehicles shelter during the cold months, we couldn't lock the doors or keep out the weather. Everything in shed was covered in dust during the warm months and much of the winter we had snow and ice coating everything within 15 feet of the doors. We kept thinking that we could improve on this.

Putting up a garage would not only offer us security for our vehicles and other belongings, but it would reduce the amount of driveway that would need to be plowed in the winter. In fact, if we built a garage, yours truly might not have to set up snow fences every autumn. Now that's enticing!

In early November we decided this was the year to deal with the garage dream. We hired Schmidt Homes to do the deed and it went off like clockwork. We were blessed with an incredibly late fall. Start to finish? Three weeks. Amazing.

I'm a wimp, I know

Here it is, the first harbinger of winter and I'm staring out the window feeling glad I don't have to go anywhere or do anything. It's 32 degrees with a blustery NW wind and some white stuff swirling around and actually staying on the ground. Yeah, well, I'm wishing it was summer again so I dug around in my hard drive and found some pics I never published. I'm going to watch them again and invite others to enjoy them as well. Cheers.

Chartering in Bayfield, WI

Tripp and I finally soloed on our second try. We took our first Bareboat Certification Course in 2009 and passed, but since we didn't go sailing in 2010, we needed a refresher course in order to be allowed to sail solo this year. This was not an obstacle, in fact, we looked forward to getting more tips and more practice.

Last weekend we chartered a boat from Superior Charters in Bayfield, WI and after the refresher course on Saturday with Mike Caswell (a great instructor) we got to take the boat out on our own on Sunday. We rented a 30' Catalina named Windsong II which is just about the perfect size for us, although having a couple other crew would have been even better. Maybe next time!

On Saturday we covered the finer points of the superiority of the diesel engine over the gasoline powered engine, the protocols of radio communication (especially the stuff about the significance of the call "MayDay, MayDay, MayDay" which means "We're about to die"), and the fact that modern day sailing vessel designs provide for boats that are self-righting and self-surfacing (read: they can't be sunk).  We had seriously flighty winds so the sailing wasn't great, but our Man Overboard exercises were quite instructive.

Sunday the weather was again perfect and the bonus was that the wind was steady at about 5 knots. After a tasty breakfast at the Egg Toss, we had our staff meeting about  the assignments for the dock departure tasks and we cast off. Captain Dan succeeded in backing out of the slip facing in the opposite direction from the breakwater so it was necessary for him to turn the boat around and try again. Kind of like taking a car for a 180 while pulling away from the parking spot. The boat owners in the area were polite, but standing guard over their possessions. In the end, no harm came to any vessel. Whew!

We had excellent conditions and were able to practice tacking and jibing until we felt very comfortable with the handling of the boat. We were never completely satisfied with the Catalina furling jib design, but we made it work.

We have two goals for sailing in  2012: start sailing earlier in the season and find some other bodies to join us. Oh, and get to know some of the other boats in the Bayfield fleet.

The AC45 World Series

I'm not a sailing racer and I don't follow any fleet racing, but I'm always intrigued by the America's Cup. I'm still not completely supportive of the move several years ago to the multihull format with a rigid wingsail, but since that's where the Cup went, I guess I have to accept it in order to appreciate it. There's more speed in the new format, but the Cup has lost the beauty associated with single-hull vessels. At least that's my feeling.

The next America's Cup will be held in San Francisco Bay in 2013, but there's lots of energy and excitement on tap before then. It all began last week in Cascais (kashkaish), Portugal with the AC45 World Series. The venue is reknowned for its superb sailing conditions, lots of sun and brisk winds. Nine teams are entered in the competition: two from the US, two from France, and 1 each from Sweden, New Zealand, Korea, China, and Spain. If I'm not mistaken, this is a first for both Asian teams.

So in 2011 and 2012, the racing will take place using the 45-foot cats that have been developed for training purposes by Oracle Racing, the defending America's Cup champion. James Spithill, the skipper of one of the two Oracle boats, has been the test pilot during development.The regatta in CasCais will be followed by another in Plymouth, UK in September and a third in San Diego, California in November.

In 2013, the teams will switch to the new standard in America's Cup racing, the AC72s, multihulls that are 30% larger than the practice boats. The challengers series, the Louis Vuitton Cup, will be first, followed by the America's Cup Championship.  There are no firm dates for either of these events yet. I'm going to be watching closely for the first hint of a solid schedule. San Francisco Bay? Sailing? Yes!

Tall Ships 2011 Has Run Its Course

Wylde Swan

Last Thursday, Tall Ships Races 2011 finished in Halmstad, Sweden after a four-day race that began in light winds in Stavanger, Norway. This was the longest racing leg of the summer series. The Class A winner was Wylde Swan from the Netherlands and the Christian Radich finished in 4th position on corrected time. So for the three races the Christian Radich fnished 1st in class from Waterford to Greenock, 3rd in class from Lerwick to Stavanger, and 4th in class from Stavanger to Halmstad.

Christian Radich

I'm still dumbfounded that I was able to be a bit player in this incredible summer odyssey that brings together dozens of tall ships from around the world for racing, cruising, and camaraderie with thousands of other sailors. Hats off to Sail Training International for organizing this adventure year-after-year and thanks to the host cities of 2011: Waterford, Ireland; Greenock, Scotland; Lerwick, Scotland; Stavanger, Norway; and Halmstad, Sweden.

Waterford crew parade

I encourage young people who love the water and love adventure to find a way to get on board in the coming years. And those of you who don't consider yourself young anymore, but have always wanted to take on a voyage like this, DO IT!

Tall Ships 2011: the videos

I took several short (really short) videos during my summer voyage on the Christian Radich and found that three of them were worth a second look. There are two that I took while we motored through the North Sea and into the English Channel and one while we were sailing in the Atlantic.  I'm posting them here for anyone who's interested.


The Christian Radich in the North Sea

The Christian Radich in the North Sea 2011

Motoring in the North Sea on the Christian Radich

Motoring through the North Sea on the Christian Radich

Sailing in the Atlantic on the Christian Radich

Christian Radich sailing in the Atlantic

Tall Ships 2011: Oslo to Waterford aboard the Christian Radich

I'm back from my big summer adventure in Europe and am finally able to share my pictures. I've grouped them into four albums beginning with the 24 hours I spent in Oslo waiting to board the Christian Radich. If you want to watch the slideshows in a bigger format or look at the pictures one-at-a-time, just click on the slidewhow window and you'll go to my Picasa photos gallery.

OSLO



OSLO TO WATERFORD
The next slideshow is a record of the eight days the Christian Radich was on the water journeying from Oslo to Waterford, Ireland for Race #1 of Tall Ships Races 2011.



WATERFORD
When we reached Waterford, we motored up the River Suir escorted by the Harbor Pilot with people greeting us from the riverbank on both sides of the river. We joined the over 40 vessels registered for the first race.



DUBLIN
After leaving the Christian Radich in Waterford, I took the train to Dublin where I had 24 hours to walk all over the city center and see the sights. I spent time in St. Stephen's Green, Grafton Street, Trinity College, the Temple Bar, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and The Bleeding Horse Tavern, the oldest pub in Dublin dating from 1647.



For more information about Christian Radich, visit www.radich.no. For more information about Sail Training International, visit www.sailtraininginternational.org.