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Leaving the US Party
In a bid to get my customers/friends out on their boats for more than racing I had my leaving party on Angel Island and it was miraculously a beautiful sunny day.
It was sad to be leaving San Francisco after such a short time at home. I won’t be back till 2012. I did enjoy seeing everyone and the food that people brought was very good indeed – thank you. I also received some very interesting looking books and DVD’s to read and watch in the winter down south.
I wish I had taken more pictures of the festivities. Thank you so much to David and Scott for being the chefs and doing such a great job at the BBQ with the salmon, pork, burgers and sausages. Their great help allowed me to spend more time with everyone. Also thank you to Bill and Alice Helvestine for ferrying people in HeyAlice across Racoon Straights saving us the ferry tickets 🙂
See you guys all in 18 months….
Nightlife at the Academy of Science
The living roof.
In my attempt to get the most of being in San Francisco I went out almost every night for a month with friends. A bit unusual for me I know! Anyways during my last week I went with Scott to the Academy of Science on Thursday night. It is a vibrant singles scene with music and bars dotted around the place. The rainforest is an amazing set up and we were able to see the extreme mammals exhibit just before it was closed. Check out Scott’s pictures – the butterfly on the flower is taken in the rainforest.
All American
So tonight I went with David to a Giants game for a typical all american experience. I haven’t been to a ball game since I was 8 years old so it was good fun to soak in the whole experience. I asked David a lot of questions and he kept on giving me information so he must not have been too bored with my stupid questions. I guess one thing that amazed me most is how much they get paid as atheletes I know they don’t have long to earn but if you were smart with your money it could concievably last a lifetime.
I guess also some of them are not that fit looking either! We had hot dogs for dinner and walked around during one of the innings visiting the side where the bleachers were. David also had an invitation to the club area before the game for a wine tasting.
There were a total of 31,000 people there tonight they just kept on streaming in all game long another thing that amazed me was how quickly the stadium emptied without any problems.
Oh BTW the giants beat the colorado rockies so David was happy!
Water everywhere….
Dad and I on the Going to the sun road Glacier National Park, Montana
We stopped off at Logan Pass which is on the Continental Divide and listened to an interesting talk by a ranger. I might have my figures very slightly wrong but here goes…
The earth is covered with 75% water. 2-3% of that is fresh water. 90% of that fresh water comes from glaciers providing us with water to use. The glaciers are melting. Of the 100+ in Glacier National Park in the late 1800’s there are only 25 left and those are set to dissappear by 2020. With this change in climate many species will be adversely impacted. One within the park is the ptargmigan which is a gamebird. They change their plummage from white to brown so they blend in with the snow in the winter and rock in the summer however, the change is triggered not by temperature but by the amount of daylight hours so they will be in trouble.
Anyways that is the thought for the day brought to you by RYM!!! So basically people conserve water and look after what we have!
Big sky and lots of trees!
My mother and I with a neighbourhood dog! on a paddleboard on Flathead lake MT
The two weeks since I got back from Hawaii have been crazy catching up with work and friends and getting ready to leave again for 16 months to South Georgia. On tuesday morning after only 2 hours sleep I jumped on the 4am airporter and flew to Kalispall Montana to surprise my Dad who is travelling with my mum and their friends for his birthday. So I have 4 days hanging out in Glacier National Park to get my fill of trees and spend time with the family. Followed by 3 days in Colorado visiting my cousins and Uncle. Time to do the rounds of all the relatives as I won’t be seeing them till 2012! It really is a very beautiful place here the water is crystal clear and the lake water is warm enough for a swim.
Turtles
So Charlie asked several times what sea turtles eat and I didn’t really know the answer. Nor do I really know what type of turtle we rescued from the fishing net. I have sent the picture off to turtle experts so that they can tell me. You can have a look and see from the picture if you can ID it by using the Sea Turtle Conservancy site.
Check out the website http://www.conserveturtles.org/ for more information. I have to say it was the highlight of my pacific adventures during July and August.
This is Whiskey Delta Foxtrot four wun six niner going clear on eight Alpha
I will miss the open ocean…
Our last roll call as we approach the golden gate bridge with less than 50 miles to go. We are starting to see a lot of sea birds and clumps of kelp are going by. It has been a good trip and all the crew I got from the Pac Cup website have worked out really well. For one I know it is a lifetime experience that won’t be repeated, for another it is the start of his offshore career and for the other I think he will continue to look to do a trip like this every few years.
There is always a feeling of accomplishment no matter how many times you cross an ocean when you get to the destination with the boat intact, everyone in one piece and happy. This was my sixth crossing and definantly the most benign with the most amount of sleep and the least time spent motoring. I think the crew got what they wanted out of the trip including some spinnaker sailing for about 7 hours on Sunday in pretty perfect conditions. We had to catch Green Buffalo so we crept up nice and steadily so as not to cause a stampede! It is touch and go as to whether Ed or I will win the bottle of wine if we average 7 knots from here he has it by 45 minutes!
Through out these trips as I explained to my crew you go through differentmental states about the distance to go and the distance you have come. At some point you just get into a rhythm and really it doesn’t matter how much longer you are out there unless it is really miserable conditions. I was very much looking forward to being on land for more than 5 days until it dawned on me on Saturday night that I only had 4 (potentially 3) nights left as boat captain on the ocean for what is likely to be almost 20months. I will leave San Francisco on the 12th September and not come back till January 2012 and I leave the UK for South Georgia on the 18th November. While on this delivery I was sent an email with the dates – it will take 10 days from London to get to King Edward Point as I go by sea from the Falklands.
So stay tuned. The next few weeks of posts will be about my adventures trying to enjoy everything the US has to offer before heading to Europe. Then you will hear all about my training for going south and last but not least there will be a 13 months of posts from South Georgia.
So now time to enjoy my last partial night at sea hopefully there will be some stars out though I can’t hope for a moon. It is likely however, that we will be bucking the tide coming in the gate under a cloak of fog listening intently to VTS for incoming and outgoing traffic into the bay. Thanks for reading.