The ramps and stage before the storm.

My video and sound system (One of two I am working on)

The opening ceremony for these games was to be tonight (July 17, 2010). Hundreds of young dancers and performers have been rehearsing for months for this ceremony! Last night was their final full dress rehearsal and the show was set for 8:30 PM tonight.

The north end before the storm, notice the video screen in the center.

The orchastra tent when all was good.

At approximately 12:30 PM today, while I was standing in the control room over looking the stadium (talking to my wife on the phone) a micro burst hit the stadium, I watched the wind go from a gentle breeze to hurricane force in just seconds! As the wind continued to build, it sounded like a train was running through the stadium. Tents and awnings were beginning to blow apart! All of a sudden the wind go REAL intense and the stage began to lift! It was at this same moment when a 70′ tall scaffolding at the north end of the stadium collapsed on a busy sidewalk and street!

The north end two minutes after the collapse!

I could not believe what I just witnessed! My first thought was all the people on the sidewalk! I had just driven past that sidewalk and had hundreds of people on it! I rushed down to the end of the stadium to see if I could see if any body was trapped under the wreckage. I could see a few cars but it didn’t see anybody rushing to free trapped people.

The stage after the storm.

All that work down the drain!

The collaped orcistra tent.

The werckage

More wreckage.

Just minutes after the collapse!

One of three cars in the werckage.

Later on I was told by the people I am working for that several  people were hurt. They did not know how serious.

Unfortunately, one American (working for the lighting company) had three finger chopped off. He had just stepped out of the production room and placed his hand on a wall. At that very same moment a metal plank from one of the lighting scaffolds 70′ up, crashed into his hand removing the fingers. His buddies told my they immediately wrapped his hand and packed the finger in ice and rushed him to the hospital. Hopefully they can reattach his finger.

While talking to the lighting people, we discussed the wind loads placed on this scaffolding. A 30′ video screen was hung in the center of the scaffold. This screen is made of light bars, so it is more like a transparent grill than a solid screen. But the video people placed a sheet of solid plastic behind the screen. If this was unknown to the engineer that designed the scaffold, that would be a HUGE problem.

I am now sitting in my hotel on permanent hold, waiting to hear what will happen with this show.

Another beautiful day in the Channel Islands

Dimensions

• LOA: 31′
• LWL: 28’8″
• Beam: 10’7″
• Draft: 4’3″
• Lead Keel: 1,785lbs
• Volvo Penta Engine, 18 hp, Engine Model: 2002 HE BT
• Fuel: 18 Gallons
• Water: 45 Gallons
• Holding: 30 Gallons

Resting in the slip

Cockpit

Room Interior

V-Berth

Rear Berth

Engine:

• Salt water pump and all associated metal and rubber piping replaced. (new 2009)
• Fresh water cooled
• Bronze Sea Water Strainer (new 2009)

Clean well Maintained Engine

Engine Compartment

Galley:

• Ice box – Isotherm (new 2009)
• SS deep sink
• Hot/cold pressure water
• Sea water pump
• 3 Burner propane stove/oven
• Storage locker at cockpit with propane shut off solenoid, safety system. (tank fill valve updated to new standards)

Galley

Electrical:

• 12 Volt DC w/ breaker panel
• 120 Volt AC Shore power w/ breaker panel
  • All lights, both interior and exterior replaced with LED’s. (new 2008)
  • Shore power cord (new 2009)
  • Built in 3 Bank Battery charger (new 2009)
  • 2, House battery’s (180 Ah, new 2009)
  • 1, Engine battery 800 CCA (new 2009)
    • Xantrex Battery echo charger (new 2009)
    • Xantrex 2 bank Battery Monitor (new 2009)
    • Guest 2450P active Galvanic Isolator (new 2008)
    • 6 Gal. hot water tank 120 VAC & engine heated (new 2006)

Nav Station and refrigerator

Electronics:

• Raymarine ST-60 wind, speed, depth (new 2005)
• Raymarine ST4000+ auto pilot (new 2005)
• Raymarine rudder angel indicator (new 2005)
• Lowrance Globalmap GPS Chart plotter (tied into auto pilot) (new 2008)
• Navionics Gold chart So Cal and Baja (new 2009)
• Uniden UM425-BK VHF radio w 3/WAM2 wireless stations (new 2009)
• Shakespeare mast mounted VHF antenna (new 2009)
• Hand held water certified VHF radio (new 2009)
• 600 Watt true sine wave inverter (new 2009)

Insterment Panel

Interments and Steering

Entertainment:

• Sony 26” BRAVIA LCD HDTV w/ BRAVIA Link DVD player, ultra low power consumption  (new 2009)
• Shakespeare HDTV mast mounted antenna (70 mile range, new 2009)

New HD LED flat screen with DVD player

Head:

• Hot/cold pressure water to galley, head vanity, and shower
• Manual pump marine toilet with “Y” valve (new 2005)
• 30 Gallon holding tank
• Shower

Head sink and Shower

Sails & deck:

• Dacron Mainsail  (new 2006)
• · 155  Dacron Genoa on head sail furler, w/ UV cover (new 2006)
  • 155 Kevlar racing Genoa w/UV sock (used 5 times)(new 2006)
  • Tides Marine Track and Slide System (new 2006)
  • Symmetrical spinnaker (installed 2007)
  • Back stay adjuster
  • Main sail cover
  • Fractional rig without runners
  • Solid Boom vang (new 2006)
  • All lines run aft to cockpit
  • 2 Lewmar 30ST sheet winches
  • 2 Lewmar 16ST halyard winches
  • Wheel and Binnacle cover (new 2006)
  • Winch covers
  • Open transom w/ boarding platform and ladder
  • Anchor w/ 40′ 5/8 chain & 300′ rode
    • Stern Anchor w/20’ 5/8 chain & 150’ rode
    • S/S bow & stern pulpits
    • Double life lines (new 2004)
      • Kayak Rack (new 2008)
      • SS Rail mounted Barbecue
      • MOB Pole
      • Horseshoe life ring
      • 2007 Bottom Job
        • 3 man dingy
        • 2.5HP four stroke outboard (new 2008)

Conclusion:

• Moonshadow has been set up to be easily single handed in the sometime challenging water of the Channel Islands. This is a “turn key” boat, ready to take you to your next adventure.
• The First 310 is a complete racer/cruiser providing speed and safety racing around the buoys and providing elegance and comfort at the marina or the Channel Islands with family and friends.
• Yachting World says, “The First 310 is great fun to sail and responds eagerly when crew effort is put into driving her. She is also very easy to handle which makes her a good choice as a performance family yacht. Well suited to two couples or a family with a couple of youngsters.”
• $44,900 OBO
• For more Information contact: hornloaded@hotmail.com

Another beautiful day in Channel Islands

We left the dock about 8:30 in the morning and headed toward the Island. We didn’t ave enough wind to sail fast so I kept the motor on. Whale season is upon us and this was no exception. Bill (Our Porpoise) call out on the radio at about 5 miles out ans sighted spouts. They were closer to us than any one. After about a 1/2 hour Kalin saw two spouts just off our port bow. A few minutes later, we got a huge tail out of the water just behind us. Whale are so cool!

Kalin, the master whale spotter.

Anacapa Island, crystal clear!

On this trip we were heading to an anchorage on the back side of the island called Coaches Preitos. I have never been to this anchorage so this was going to be fun.

As we turned the corner to start up the back side of the island, I noticed my wind indicator picked up to 17 knots from behind us. I decided to try to sail. I used my spinnaker pole to set the boat up, Wing on Wing. I turned off the motor and we were sailing along at 6 – 7 knots heading straight for our destination. Very Kewl!

We reached Coaches later that afternoon and prepared to set anchor. Coaches is a small anchorage and requires you to use both a bow anchor and a stern anchor to keep the boats from swinging. So we set the bow anchor and had Mike (Maine Squeeze) use his dingy to drop our stern anchor. Life is good.

Coaches

The Stern Anchor

My stern anchor problems are kind of a little mini story in the bigger New Years Story.

In this anchorage, it can get very surgy with the tides. I was parked right next to the rocks. Once we set our anchors, we got a fix on our position in the anchorage and waited to make sure we weren’t dragging. All was good!

We took off over to Our Porpoise for cocktails. Out at these Islands, the wind tends to shift around a lot. Usually around sunset, you get the wind blowing directly off shore. This is were the stern anchor comes in.

The wind came up, right on schedule and we watched my boat begin to creep toward the rocks. We scrambled the ding brigade, and pushed my boat to safety. I re-dropped the anchor and we seemed to be staying put.

That night, I got up at Two AM to check on the boat. We were drifting into Our Porpoise. The wind was still blowing off shore and I was going to have to do something.

I decided maybe I could do this with just my dingy, with out waking Kalin up. So I g0t dressed and fire up my 2.5Hp dingy. I pulled up my anchor and tried to pull the boat back trowed shore. The only thing that was accomplished was me letting the boat drift even closer to Our Porpoise.

I had to wake Kalin. With Kalin at the helm, we were able to back the boat up and reset the anchor. That lasted the rest of the night.

I wonder why my anchor would not hold! What do you want for ten bucks!

The next morning, we were over on Sea Dancer for breakfast. It was Déjà vu!  We look over and our boat is drifting toward the rocks again! Earlier that night (about 2:45 AM) I decide I had an anchor  problem, and I was either going to barrow a spare anchor from some one, or I was going to anchor out so I could swing on one chain. We ended up borrowing an anchor in a bag (Very large Fortress) and relaunched the dingy fleet. With the new anchor we reset Moonshadow in her proper spot. She was stuck! Not going anywhere! That next nigh, I slept like a babe!

Unfortunately, the next morning, Our Porpoise had drug her stern anchor and was close to another boat.

So back to the trip.

Our big excursion away from the boat was a dingy trip. Our original destination for this weekend was an anchorage called Willows. It was several miles farther down the island. Since we didn’t go their, we decided to take our dingy’s down their. We left Coaches in four dingys heading to willow. We stopped along the way , checking out rock formations and look for rays in the clear shallow water.

Mike and Cheri heading to Willow

Willows is a cool anchorage. The island protects it to the west, and two very large rock protect the south and east. The beach is well protected and getting on shore was easy. We all went on shore and did some exploring. There is a good trail to the top of the hill. A pair of boats had just come down, and told us it was an easy hike.

Heading into Willow

Bill and Tina on the beach of Willow

Don and Bobbi (Sea Dancer) had their new dog Rags with them. Rags was having a blast chasing the foam on the edge of the surf.

Rags having fun

It was time to go. We got our dingys successfully launched and prepared to head back. Bill and Tina’s dingy failed to start. Rescue Mike was on it! Bill and Tina jumped into Don and Bobbies dingy and John went into Mikes. We started back.

Now on the way up, I had made the comment, “I wonder how  long before I run out of gas”.

Rescue Mike, towing the dead Dingy

We got our answer 2/3 of the way back. We ran out of gas, and nobody had any on board. We had to go under tow to get back to the boat (lesson learned: Long trip, take a gas can). We made it back to the boat.

Our dingy being towed

The next day we decided to move to Yellow banks on the east end of the island. This would shorten our trip home by a few hours. It was a pleasant motor sail down to the east end. There were three boats already anchored. We tucked in between two boats on a single hook. We settled in for the night.

At Yellow Banks, we ran in to Bills Neighbor Wizard. Wizard is a Mason 44 and a beautify boat. Our hosts, Skip and Teri and their gigantic yellow lab  were a lot of fun to talk to. Boat parties in anchorages is one of the best parts of cruising.

That night the east wind kicked up and drove the swell into Yellow banks. The wind was keeping the boat parallel to the swell and we ROCKED and ROLLED all night! IT was the roughest night we have ever spent on the boat. I got up several times, but the anchor was fine. I kept thinking, how was I going to get the motor off my dingy in this!”

Finally, at about 4:30 am the swell laid down. When I woke up at 6am the boat was calm. I immediately sprang into action and started to pack up the boat. We were ready to pull up anchor around 7:00 am.

We left yellow banks and headed home. We immediately ran into 15 – 20 knots on the nose. I raised the sails and fell off and started sailing at 6 knots. The wind kept building from the east. I reefed the main and kept trying to sail. The wind got to 25-30 knots and I was having to sail to far off course to suit me, so I furled the head sail and pointed the boat at the harbor. Luckily, the seas weren’t bad. I watched the boat and Kalin stayed below. We made it across the channel in 3 hours.

All in all, we had a great New Years, So. Cal. Style!

This has been a whirlwind day, starting in San Clemente Ca. at 5 am and ending now, 12:30 am in Brooking SD. Here is a blow by blow of this special day.

The new bride showed up right on time. 8:30 am

It was another perfect day in SoCal. Thats the ocean in the back ground.

First it was make up

Then the hair crew (Ashlee) took over!

The mother of the bride looks on with the company of Diesel.

Diesel was a very cool puppy!

With hair and makeup done the Bride and Maid of honer were ready. How in the hell did I produce such beautiful daughters!

While all the prep was going on, Kalin slipped out and painted the car windows

So were at the court house, on time. But no Groom!

The groom and his possy showed up just a few minutes late.

You cant show up late to your wedding with out getting a little crap!

So were at the counter ready to go.

The first order of buisness was the witnesses sign the license.

Then the oath.

Its tradition for the father of the Bride to pay for the wedding. I got off cheep!

Now we wait to enter the chamber. Jake looks nervous!

So we finaly made it into the chappel, but wait, we need Deisel!

Dieselhas arrived! Let the wedding begin!

The vows got quite emotional!

The rings actually fit!

You may kiss the Bride!

Let the tears begin!

I am so proud to introduce Mr & Mrs Casteneda

And now for the reception.

The wedding party at the center table!

The happy couple are off to Vegas for their honeymoon!

Congradulations Jake and Sarah! I love you both!

Welcome to the Zou!

Cities visited:

1. Ann Arbor, Michigan

2. Allen, Texas

3. Memphis, Tennessee

4. Salt lake City Utah

5. Natchitoches, Louisiana

6. Santa Barbara, California

7. Columbia, Missouri

8. San Antonio, Texas

9. New York City

The sign before Skin

My major Football Installation the year was Tiger Stadium in Columbia MO. This is a MAJOR sound system! A 3/4 of a Million Dollar Sound system. Capable of ripping your head off! Our young engineer, David, did a great job of installing it, the consulting firm that did the design Specification was very happy, and most importantly, the clients are very happy!

One of my September events is the long running Tequila Derby/Santa Barbara City Race. Kalin and I have been organizing the race and dock part in Santa Barbara for the last four years. Its at a real bad time for me, but its a real fun event.

SBYC - Santa Barbara Yacht Club

This event is held in Santa Barbara in the Harbor and the Santa Barbara Yacht Club, a beautiful place!

One tradition for kalin and me is to have breakfast Sunday Morning at Sambos. This place makes the BEST breakfast by the harbor.

This place has quite the history. It was started in 1957 by two friends, Sam Battistone and Newell Bohnett. Even though the name was taken from portions of thier names, the chain was soon associated with the THE STORY OF THE LITTLE BLACK SAMBO. They took advantage of the association and grew the chain to 1200 resturants.  As you can imagine, in the late 70′s the name grew controversial, and by 1981 the company went bankrupt. Only this original restaurant remains.

Puff On is our friends boat. I wonder if they was the name of the boat they were parked next to?

One of the very cool traditions in Santa Barbara is the art walk on the beach. This art sale has been going on here for as long as I have been living here. If you ever get to Santa Barbara, plan on a Sunday morning on the beach. You wont regret it!

On the job front, my Allen Event center is slightly delayed, but will get completed on schedule. I went out to the site and commsioned the practice ice system, but the main arena wont be ready until the end of October. I have started a new job in Chicago, this is a new Mall called Block 37. This will be a cool job. I am implementing a new system that will move sound up and down the mall to coincide with the video images on four stories of screens. Watch for future blogs to see the results.

On the personal side, our good friends Bill and Tina got married! It was a traditional sailors wedding. On the boat and in the yacht club. I was one of the bar tenders (my usal job at the yacht club).

A Beautiful Wedding Congratulations Bill and Tina!

We celebrated their wedding until all hours of the night.  It was a great time!

Dragging beer cans to the reception

Last but not least, was this last weekend. I took Kalin to NYC for the weekend. We had a great time! We staid at the Intercontinental Barclay on Park Ave. We were all over that city! We had a great time!
I heard about it from Dennis Millers Radio Show.

Il Mulino

He described it as the BEST Italian restaurant in the US. It took a while to find but was well worth it. I looked this place up and found it was much wiser to come at lunch. It is very low key from the out side and only has about 12 tables. From the moment we sat down until the time we left, we were bombarded with flavors! It was Fantastic! Be prepared, it was a $200.00 lunch, but worth every penny for us.

All in all it was a lot of travel and a lot of fun. After 25 years on the road, I sill enjoy all the different places and people out in the world. But theirs no place like HOME!

Our host Club

The previous two times, we discovered that we needed a lot of work to keep up with this fleet. This time we were equipped with a brand new #1 head sail, and a lot of practice.

DAY ONE: The winds were light at 220 degrees. We had a great start! We decided to stay away from the crowd and come into the line on starboard at the committee boat. We hit the line perfectly and found ourselves in a great position.

Now, I have been racing sail boats consistently for seven years, but this was a weekend of firsts for me. We were about three quarters of the way out to the windward mark when we noticed the boats behind us turning around. At first we thought they had an equipment failure, but then we saw two more boats to the left of the course turn around. Then we saw the inflatable committee runabout coming out, flying the abandon race flag. Now we were really confused. A boat did cross the line early, so we were thinking general recall? but that didn’t make scene. We made our way back to the start line and talked to the race committee. They told us the wind had shifted 10 degrees. Are you kidding me! 10 degrees? If they were going to do this all weekend, it was going to be a long week end.

Our next start was not as good as the first, and we spent the race chasing the fleet. The next race went about the same way. Our crew work was very good, but we just couldn’t match the speed and point of the rest of the fleet. The last race of the day was about 3:30 pm and the wind was getting light. We figured they would bring out the course 1 flag to get us into the bar at a reasonable time, but no, two laps, just like the previous races.

The keepers of the Gold S. MAKO

We had an OK start and were doing our usual chasing up the course. We decided to take a flier out to the right side and bang the corner. As we were coming into the mark on starboard, we noticed the mark was becoming a parking lot. The wind has left the building! One boat, (MAKO) did manage to get around the mark and get a spinnaker up, but they were heading the wrong way! We got to the mark and encountered six other boats drifting around with the wind slowly doing a 120 degree shift! Lucky for us, we saw what was happening with the other boats and brought out our wind seeker and managed to get the boat around the mark pointing to the gate. We were now point to weather heading to the leeward mark.
That was the second first of this race. At the same time we had passed four boats! As we approached the gate we noticed the committee boat had moved up to the gate and was finishing the boats (a good call). That was our best finish of the weekend.

DAY TWO: This day we decided to try to cover MAKO all day, They are the class champions and is showed. Three bullets from the day before with nobody else really close. We had an OK start but we were holding to boats below us, one being MAKO. We should have held them down their all the way out to edge of the course, but we decided to go and the boat just below us come with us, but MAKO stayed on course and banged the left corner, just like they had the previous day (So much for staying with MAKO). This race turned out like the rest DFL!

The next race we port tacked the fleet and ended up on the line with four boat heading straight at us with starboard rights! This was going to get UGLY fast! We were able to tack just before the start and went over the line early, so we had to duck back below the line. After all that excitement we settled into chasing the fleet was going the same way except when we got to the windward mark. As we approached the windward mark one of the other boats looked like they were going hit the mark. They parked on top of the mark and got it caught on there keel! So now we were chasing
the mark! We yelled over to the committee boat looking for direction, but the other boat stopped and we got around them. We sailed of watching them struggling to free them selves from the mark. We got eighth in that race. The last race was the same as the others, decent start but chasing the fleet.

That night the club had a dinner for the teams. This is a fun group of people! The had a live microphone being passed around from team
to team talking about the race. Each team named a MVP team member. Mike named Curt! He has been their for every race, every delivery,
what ever was needed, Curt is their to help! The fleet also gave Maine Squeeze the perpetual Rookie of the year trophy. That was very cool!

Bruce, Bow Monkey Extraordinaire.

DAY THREE: The day before at the dock, the crew of MAKO (they were on the same end tie as us) were talking to Mike and saying his rig was
not tuned right. They decided to take a quick look at it this morning. Race time is 12:30, we started looking at the rig around 10:oo.
We discovered that the fore-stay was 3-4 inches short, we had very little pre-bend in the mast and the shrouds were way to tight.

Its now 10:30 and we are disconnecting the fore-stay and adding a shackle to lengthen it. We had no way to shorten the back stay, but we decided
we could move the back stay chain plate down on the transom three inches. Mike climbed into the settee and we removed the bolts holding
the back stay. We moved it down the transom and inserted reinserted the bolts. Only three of the six bolts would line up. Its now 11:30!

Mike was scrambling to try to find a drill so we could get at least two more bolts in for the race. The word spread about our dilemma, and to our
surprise, the race committee found one across the harbor and dispatched the runabout to retrieve it for use.

The Drill from the other side of the harbor!

While all this was going on I was attempting to move the base of the mask back about 15 mm. This was to no avail! Its going to take a lot more that we could do at the dock to move
the mask.

The drill showed up, we got the holes drilled, reattached the back stay and adjusted the shrouds and left the dock at 12:00 noon. The mast had nice pre-bend with the ability to put a hole lot more bend in with the back stay.

Drilling holes in the boat.

We made the line with time to spare!

This last day was going to be two three lap races. We reaffirmed the we would ONE: Stay with MAKO, and TWO: Stay out of the mix at the start.

WOW what a little rig tuning will do! We had good starts and were in the mix at every mark! On one Leeward mark we were behind two other boats and Mike tucked the boat inside the mark. We emerged in front of both the boats! What a rush!

On the last leg of the last race we were going toward the finish line running about 90 – 100 degrees. Another boat was coming in on our port side hot. It was going to be very close. We heated up the boat and dove for the pin at the last second. We beat them by just a few seconds! The crews on the finished boat were cheering us. How cool is that!

Our rigger freind from MAKO. Thanks for the help!

Our thanks to SMWYC and the race committee. They were perfect hosts and ran an excellent race. And a special thanks to the crew on MAKO for pointing out out rigging problems and helping us straighten them out. I’m sure we will look forward to racing this fleet for years to come.

Cadet Graduation in Michie Stadium

I just got the opportunity to travel to this beautiful place to do a check up on the football sound system.I was not part of the original install so this is my first trip out.

The drive up from Gotham is absolutely beautiful. I can only imagine what its like in the fall.

I figured this would be a quick trip, with a basic system check and back to Gotham. Boy was I wrong! Four of the six Mid/High speakers had problems and three of the six Woofers were dead! Ouch!

If you have ever wondered what is inside the scoreboard, here is an inside look.

A view thru the grill

The view from the top

Contrary to popular believe, the drivers I use, (drivers is what we call an individual speaker in a lager speaker containing multiple drivers) is only 6.5″. Its a real myth that bigger is better.

This is the view of the 6.5" Mid range drivers

What is different about my speakers from your speakers is the quantity of drivers. You have one, maybe two drivers in a single speaker. I have at least 5 drivers (my smallest), up to 15 drivers (my largest).

My speakers produce between 133 dB to 144dB. A jet engine is about 148 dB at take off.

Turns out when all was said and done, I had three bad Woofer amps, One blow High Frequency Driver and some bad pins in connectors affecting the rest.

The High frequency driver is called a compression driver. This is very different from a “tweeter” that you have in your speakers.

These are the compression drivers. They provide the high frequency's.

You can see in the photos it is a lager magnetic assembly with a VERY thin titanium diaphragm to produce the sound. This type of driver is VERY efficient and when coupled to a properly designed horn will make lots of noise with very little power.

Just a quick peek into my world.

A view of all the speakers

Cheerio II

Connor, who won last years race on his sloop Brushfire, entered a 139′  replica of the 19th century racing schooner, America.

I have been fortunate enough to be a trimmer on Cheerio II for the past 4 years.  More than 60 years old, the vessel is a yar example of maritime heritage. Designed by Edson B. Shock, Cheerio II was built in 1931 by Fellows & Stewart in San Pedro, California. In 1988, Cheerio II was treated to a complete restoration.

The McNish Classic is a reverse start sailboat race. In sailing, handy caps are assigned to each boat in an effort to equalize all the boats racing against each other. Normally all the boats are started at the same time, and the handy cap is applied at the end of the race for get the “corrected time”. In a reverse start the handy cap is applied upfront so each boat has its own start time. The race started at 1200 hours. Our start time was 12:55.

We had a good start with the wind blowing 10 – 12 knots from the west. We had a good reach out to Gina. Unfortunately, Dicks arch nemeses,  Walter Russakoff on Vignette ll,  was in perfect conditions for his 39′ cutter and had no problem passing us before we reached Gina.

Dick McNish. You can see Walter passing us in the back ground.

Both the Big boats in the Fleet, 139′ Amreica and 79′ Miramar were able to pass us on the reach out to the Ventura Whistle Buoy.

Miramar Blasting past us on a reach

The spinnaker run back up the coast was a blast. We had a great view of most of the boats as they approached us with full spinnakers. It was quite a site.

America on approach with a spinnaker

On the final stretch into the harbor, we were within 100′ of passing another boat, but just couldn’t get up the speed with our asymmetrical sail. I came up with the idea of releasing the tack of the sail from the bow and free flying it with the lazy sheet to get it farther forward. It worked great and we picked up another knot of speed and beat that boat by at least 100 yards. All in all it was another great day of sailing in the Channel Islands!

And if tall of this wasnt enough, on Sunday I took Moonshadow out with my two friends Bill and Mike. It was a perfect day with the wind blowing 12-13 knots and flat seas. We tacked around Gina, went up the coats a few miles and launched a shoot. It was a great weekend!

Mike standing guard at the boom.

The star of the shoot. Russell Brand.

Russell Brand showing up to the shoot.

This movie is also Directed by Nicholas as well as written by him. According to IMBD this one will have a lot of cameos from famous rockers. The film stars Jonah Hill and Russell Brand.

The band on the set.

The set.

Today they were filming at Rockefeller Center out side the Today Show Studios.

Today’s shoot involved Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) trying to sing one of his songs (badly) and then canceling that and singing a much more upbeat song.

Just another day in NYC.

Paul ariving to the roof of the sign

So I take off walking down Broadway. When I got close to 53rd, I noticed barricades and cops. As I got even closer, I see a sound system and cameras in the street. Then I see the band setting up on the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theatre sign

The fans were in all the buildings

.

I rushed back to my apartment and grabbed my camera. I made it back to the theatre and got a Paul Mc Cartny Concert for free! It was very cool. He played lots of Beatles songs. McCartney opened appropriately with his song “Get Back” and followed it with several others including Back in the USSR, Helter Skelter, lots of others. He talked to the crowd and especially all the people up in the office buildings.

Paul doing a solo

I also saw Biff Henderson cruising the crowd.

You never know what you’ll see in New York City!

Paul saying Good by

Paul leaving the roof