Bottom laminate done for Big M's board

I should have done this while La and the kids were in Houston last week... too much sailing.

Anyways - I'm getting back on track. Tonight will be lap cleaning and top laminate.

I'll do Noe's bottom laminate later today also.

These boards should be ready to go by next weekend!

Boxes and one last paint job

Noe's board is ready for laminating!

La and Noe wanted one more splash of artwork.

La did all the painting on Noe's board. Mighty fine job if you ask me!

Mau Piailug, Micronesian who sailed by navigating sun and stars, dies at 78

I am poaching this one -

Credit to NY Times.

If I could pick another career and start over, it'd be Pacific Island Cultural Celestial Navigator. Earlier in my career, I had the wonderful opportunity to experience the island of Kaho'olawe. I still have a panoramic picture I took from a place near the top of the island where you could see the island chain from Oahu (on a clear day) down to the Big Island. The pre-contact Hawaiians used this place as a navigational training area - you could see the currents move between the islands during the day and more importantly, the stars rise in the night. This is a large portion of what polynesian celestial navigation is about. If you know the ALL the stars in the night sky, then as you see the relative angle the stars are coming up from the horizon, you can tell what your latitude is.

Western celestial nav is based on identifying a known star and calculating position based on tables.

Two distinct ways of using the same resource, but as different as bats are from birds.

Mau - may you be at peace among the stars that you have looked up to for so long and thank you for the gift that you gave to us all!

Awesome Sail!

Wind from the SE at 12-18 mph.

HOOYAH was ripping!!!

Slicing through 1-3 ft wind swell on the outbound legs and riding the same swells back in!

I haven't smiled this much in a while!

Bull Carp!!!!!

So much for TS/TD Bonnie - the graphs says it all.

I went out with Roger today on the F28 expecting a wild ride. The wind DID NOT deliver.

It was still a great sail - got 8.8 kts out of the wind today and made a straight run out and then back from Ship Island (it's always nice sailing when you don't need to do tack after tack to get to where you want to go).

I packed tons of windsurfing gear in anticipation and WHAM - no wind.

Man I've turned into a cranky whiner...

That's what happens to surf/wind junkies when you don't get any (wind or surf).

Oh by the way, there was some oil on Ship Island, but no sheen at all on the transit out and back. The dispersant certainly did something to prevent buoyant surfacing or the SW winds we usually get are pushing the oil further East (Pensacola on).

Well - there's always tomorrow....

Look who's coming to town!!!!

It's been a while since I've written - work, glassing boards, having fun with the family - but unfortunately less water time.

But that's about to change...

There will be wind!!!!

And a good agitation in the GOMEX (to help breakup some of that oil floating out there)

Sailing and windsurfing here I come!!!!

Bernoullis

Seabird shapes are fascinating to me, as are their lives.

Lucky guys -

Eat (trash) all day (and not get fat).

When you get bored, hang around (and poop on the unsuspecting two-legged mammals below).

Go back and do it all over again the next day.

Oh, and you were born with a lightweight skeletal system and you grow aerodynamic appendages!!!

If you're lucky, some procreation, then back to dive bombing.

And they're enough tough that the oil won't be able to touch them!!!

Lucky guys (especially the pooping part).

Boston Whaler 28

I'm not sure what our next boat will be -

The soon to be released Farrier 22 is certainly a candidate.

But this one is also in the running - 28' Cuddy from Boston Whaler. Small enough to still get on a trailer (to avoid the expenses of a slip), but big enough to bring boards, fishing equipment and people for a good, amphibious strike.

The next boat will also largely depend on where we end up next (starting the negotiation process now), but it is always nice to daydream...

Too much to resist...

The wind on Saturday was good - good enough to kite, but we had other agenda items to take care of.

The wind on Sunday was better, and despite the oil on the beach, I dragged the family out and logged some hours.

I didn't see any oil on the surface of the water, but there were pancake to dinner plate sized blobs on the beach. Had to clean some off of my 16.

The kids and I did play around in the water (wind swell pushing in) and we didn't come out all oil covered.

More luck I guess. But I REALLY needed this kite session. I felt the grumpy old man in me creeping out. Now after several jumps and a few rides on small waves, I'm back to my old mellow self!

A great July 4th!

Nose Art

If this were my board, there'd be a flying grim reaper or a shark getting electrocuted by a bolt of lightning emanating from a horrible storm...

But this is La's board and it has some of the flowers/plants she loves the most (from Hawaii of course).

I'll still paint on a skull and a trident though ;)

Finished painting La's Board

These are the paintings on the bottom - updated from the last post before I left for Seattle.

The oil is here... :(

Cleanup workers lined the beach from Biloxi all the way back past Long Beach.

The tar balls (more like tar pancakes) that are washing up have the consistency of warm caramel. The workers are using large shovels (looks like snow shovels from up North), and they patrol the beaches looking for globs to pick up. This area is where we last took the Weta out - Courthouse Rd in Gulfport.

Today the wind was macking out of the East - 10-15 mph solid in the mid afternoon. Would have been a perfect kiting session...

Life is going to be different around here for awhile.

We're Back -

La and the kiddoroos we're up in Seattle for two weeks, I joined them for the second week.

We got our Japanese/Thai/Hawaiian food fixes in addition to spending time with all of La's immediate family and my sister.

One of the days we went to Mt Rainier - there was still snow on the ground (I should've borrowed a snowboard...). Frozen water is still water!

Nice vacation!