Messing About In Sailboats

Song for Friday: CS&N - Southern Cross

Southern Cross by Crosby Stills & Nash was a post-Neil-Young hit and came out on the 1982 CSN album, Daylight again, written by Steven Stills. Trivia #1 David Crosby was a big sailor. He tried to run from the law during a drug binge, attempting to sail to Mexico in his sadly dilapidated sailboat. He never left the dock. Trivia #2: Art Garfunkel was on backing vocals on the original recording Trivia Question: What bands were the members of CSN&Y in before they started playing together? Lyrics: Got out of town on a boat goin' to southern islands, Sailing a reach before a followin' sea. She was makin' for the trades on the outside, And the downhill run to Papeete Bay. Off the wind on this heading lie the Marquesas. We got eighty feet of the waterline Nicely making way. In a noisy bar in Avalon I tried to call... Read more →

Check out Sailtrac. It's like facebook for Sailors

I have to give a shout-out to Sailtrac. This site has excellent potential. It's like Facebook for sailors that lets you create a profile about you and your vessel, connect with other sailors, chart your trips. It's early days but IMHO it's better than Sailblogs. Here's what they say about themselves: Have you tried Sailtrac? Create your own custom web site and use remote access features absolutely free! Integrate personal Google Maps with route, course, and speed data. Display weather information from your current location and share your voyages or racing with your Friends. Submit text updates and add photos - or even video to your pages. File remote position reports or send updates from Winlink, Sailmail or any remote e-mail device. Sailtrac updates your pages automatically and e-mails your network of friends so they can stay current on your adventures aboard and abroad. No need to know HTML or... Read more →

More Stupid Things heard on Channel 16

A few weeks ago I posted a story a friend told me about the dumbest thing they heard on Channel 16 while boating in Florida. Here are a couple more. From the Beagle Blogger, Peter McGrath, heard in the Solent: "Solent Coastguard this is motor boat Imbecile, I am aground, over." "Motorboat imbecile, this is Solent Coastguard, have you tried your engines in astern. over?" Long silence. "Solent Coastguard, this is motorboat imecile. We are no longer aground..." And this classic from John Gilbert in Canada: This is based on an actual radio conversation between a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier (U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln) and Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland in October, 1995. (The radio conversation was released by the Chief of Naval Operations on 10/10/95 authorized by the Freedom of Information Act.) Canadians: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the South to avoid collision. Americans: Recommend you... Read more →

Song for Friday: Styx - Come Sail Away

Styx - Come Sail Away. Interesting bit of trivia was that this Chicago band was formerly known as "Tradewinds'. Hmmh! Subconsciously these guys were salty dogs. "Come Sail Away" only got to number 8. According to Wikipedia "...The lyrics use the metaphor of a voyage of discovery and make reference to angels and spaceships." We sailors are a bit of a literal (as well as littoral lot - haha) as it was number 6 in the Top Sailing Songs so I guess we all thought it was about sailing. Come Sail Away I'm sailing away, set an open course for the virgin sea I've got to be free, free to face the life that's ahead of me On board, I'm the captain, so climb aboard We'll search for tomorrow on every shore And I'll try, oh Lord, I'll try to carry on I look to the sea, reflections in the... Read more →

For Tillerman - Pics from Colonna

Tillerman, here are a few of my pics from various trips to Colonna. I am not sure if the first one is Turban but if not, it was one of his proteges poncing around on a hobie. And speaking of poncing around,the other is yours truly in a laser. It was in the weekly race just before the guy passed me. ("Does my bum look big in this?") I got third in the full rig race. This was the race where I didn't fall off the back in a gybe. Read more →