October 3, 2024
We didn’t have to rush off in the morning so I started my day with a walk around Main Beach and a nice sit-down breakfast. Ah the luxury. After one last shower it was time to move Sky Pond up to The Boat Works for some maintenance and where she would be sold. It was a pretty mellow trip with…
September 28, 2024
Rain! Lots of rain overnight and into the morning. And cold. It is got down to 12 degrees (well 52 Fahrenheit) overnight and this morning it was hats, jeans, and sweatshirts for everyone. Clearly we are no longer in the tropics. A relaxing morning gave me a chance to call home and just as important have a call with a…
September 25, 2024
After midnight conditions improved to what I would call “moderate” (probably a 3 on John’s scale). My second break to sleep was not great but I did manage a few hours with an interruption in the middle to help Carl drop the main sail due to lack of wind. With arrival assured, I took to clearing out the freezers of…
September 24, 2024
The night continued to be a rough one, thankfully things mellowed a bit and by sunrise the violent waves banging the bridgedeck were starting to diminish. Our speed increased too and the arrival into Brisbane was looking like it was on track to beat the southerlies. On my morning inspection we were up to 6mm (0.25″) of salt caked on…
September 23, 2024
A bit after sunrise the winds started to creep up, once Carl came up we immediately raised the sails. The wind gave us a knot of extra speed over the engine bringing us to 6.5 to 6.7 knots. A much appreciated speed bump. For another hour things were pretty chill. The wind started to creep up and with it, an…
August 31, 2024
Lots of discussions on plans the last couple days, with an eye on what the weather would let us explore. After downloading the files it was clear that going to Rano, where SV Nimrod had an incredible traditional dance presented by the Smol Nabas in 2016, was not in the cards. A huge bummer as it was the highlight of…
April 29, 2024
I woke for the sunrise and after getting my morning dose, I got to swabbing the deck. The morning dew worked well to clear the salt from our crossing. Getting that checked off we fired up the engines and made our way south. There was a motor vessel anchored with us and they led the way. It was a very…
April 27, 2024
Well let’s try this again. Lowell and I were up around 5am, my review of the weather made me think that a 9am departure would be best but it was good that Lowell wanted to leave sooner. The wind and waves from the high NW winds overnight were manageable (diminishing) and, rather than arrive at 3:00am, by leaving right away…
April 26, 2024
It was an interesting start to the sailing season… We hustled to leave Puerto Penasco and probably should have listened to the locals who asked, in a questioning way, if we were leaving the next day. We had a narrow window to beat three days of strong southern wind and waves so Wednesday morning at 5:30am we motored out of…
January 10, 2024
With the next race in Ridanna it was time to leave Cortina with an early morning departure. I still had the chains on the tires so it wasn’t much concern driving down the mountain but reaching the valley off they came and the concern for black ice. Thankfully it was not a issue and with plenty of time I pulled…
January 7, 2024
I ate a quick breakfast and was on the road by 9:30am, since I was concerned about road conditions and the trip was estimated to take three and a half hours. I used the chains to get off the mountain and thankfully the roads were in good condition in the valley. From there the driving was good through Bolzano as…
January 5, 2024
Anna wasn’t training until the afternoon, so I picked her up and we headed to Rabland. Actually the plan had been to go to a cool town that I passed on the drive from Venice but it turned out to be too far. Not to worry Rabland was a cute town. We walked around checking out the fire station (Anna…