Guitar Surf

Beautiful wench Mary

This was my first Buccaneer Days. It’s been celebrated for twenty years and draws hundreds, maybe thousands of modern-day “pirates” who demand their ration of grog. Here we find a deckhand who was caught stealing rum.

Cap’n Harry sailed our crew to Cat Harbor on Catalina Island on his Beneteau 38, [...]

The Tequila Derby has two parts: a race from Ventura to Santa Barbara on Saturday and another back to Ventura on Monday.
As we motorsailed out of the harbor and headed for the start line, we were faced with choppy seas and about 15 knots of wind. Everyone donned foul weather suits as we took [...]

Been sailing on other boats for the last two weeks because Taylor has been out of town (his son got married in Hawaii). So I raced with Harry Krum (Fusee, Beneteau 38) in two Wet Wednesday races and with Mark Coleman (Wainui, Cal 48) in the Frenchy’s Rum Run. All races were fun; [...]

Since my last post the Wet Wednesday races have gotten into full swing, with three races completed. The first scheduled race on May 6 was called off because of sloppy conditions left over from a 4 day blow and small craft warnings. The next three races were held in more benign conditions. [...]

It’ a May 23rd, and a warm sunny day. The schooner Bill of Rights will sail today and I will be on deck. IslandPackers is handling the passenger list and that means it’s free! At this moment I am waiting at a local dockside establishment and drinking vitamin C, the kind from Mexico.

After boarding [...]

Saturday Morning I found myself watching Bruce (The Creamy Pint’s owner) disassemble the carburetor on his mighty 4 hp outboard engine. It wasn’t working but after he put all the parts back together and pulled the chord, the beast started right up. There was a bit of wind, so between the sails and [...]

The last race of the year, the 4th of the TGIS series (thank God it’s Sunday) was held on Dec. 7 in typical winter conditions….meaning there was good wind and a t-shirt was not enough to stay warm.  Part of the crew actually wore foulies.  In spite of a “few errors” we won the race [...]

Maine Squeeze sailed to victory on Memorial weekend, beating a Santa Cruz 50 as well as the rest of the fleet.
The wind was very light at the start, which gave us an advantage over the other heavier boats. We went for the rhumb line (shortest distance) and only had to make 5 or 6 [...]

This is a very old resort town for wealthy people. Many of the homes and businesses date back to the early 1800’s, and are found on narrow streets. There are mega-mansions that were summer homes but are museums now.
The waterfront teens with traditional yachts and retired America’s Cup racers as well as thousands [...]

t took half of the day to get from the anchorage at Sandy Hook to our mooring in Manhattan. It was a 22 mile run through the Lower Bay and up the Hudson River. The motor shut down soon after we left our anchorage, but was revived after Don replaced a fuel filter. Passing through [...]