Sail: #2 poled to starboard, main to port, broad reach on starboard
Noon-to-Noon Miles Made Good: 137
Miles this leg: 2,051
Avg. Miles this leg: 137
Miles to San Francisco: 680
I can’t fathom today’s weather. You are thinking hot dogs, cold beer, and fireworks on a warm summer’s evening. A mere 700 miles NW of San Francisco, I’m plowing through low cloud and freezing rain. ...
Ruins of petrol tanks from the Wellman expeditions.
The harbor is named after the ship ‘Virgo,’ which anchored off the desolate stony beach in the late 1800’s with supplies for the Swedish explorer Andree’s planned ballon expedition to the North Pole. We dropped anchor surely closer to shore than ‘Virgo’ did back then, anchoring in about 30-feet of water a few hundred feet off the beach. The scenery here is different than the west coast – small, but tall, islands, littered with black volcanic scree on they’re steep slopes. It’s rugged terrain, mostly black, yet surprisingly green in places where ...
Sail: Spinnaker poled out; main other side, running.
Noon-to-Noon Miles Made Good: 109
Miles this leg: 1,914
Avg. Miles this leg: 137
Note the above reference to the highly unusual absence of FOG, which has finally cleared after nearly a week. Cleared to a heavy, dark deck of cloud, but this is a positive step. We are not trapped under a dome after all; we did not ...
Fireworks flashed in the distance last night as the Bainbridge Island ferry pushed through Puget Sound’s dark water. This was supposed to be our last leg for summer travel back to the Seattle area, the culmination of a plan crafted in minutes while in Grenada last fall after learning Totem’s hull needed drying out. Instead, we’re headed to New York soon to tape an appearance on NBC’s Megyn Kelly TODAY. Holy exciting plan shakeups, batman! Our interview is due to air next Monday, July 9, and we hope you’ll tune in.
Jeanneau Owners in 2016 on the beach at Pirate’s Bight on Norman Island
If ever there was a year not to go to the British Virgin Islands (BVI), this year is it. Or is it? Yes, the BVI got trounced by Hurricane Irma back in September. Yes, there was a huge number of boats lost. And yes, many of the areas best known resorts such as The Bitter End Yacht Club and Peter Island Resort and Spa, have been forced to close their doors and sit out the season until repairs are made. Despite all this, the British Virgin ...
1230. Most of the Delos gang (plus James) are still sleeping, despite playing the whale fish song (twice). Mia’s pouring coffee, Karin just climbed out of bed and Alex is looking groggy at the saloon table. Brady & Brian are passed out on the settees and James & Kiril are ostensibly still in the forepeak bunks. I’ve got a bad back and have been up since 0945 because I can’t stand to lay down.
Isbjörn is anchored at Virgohamna in low clouds and patchy fog. The cockpit is dry for the moment, but the forecast looks damp. There is graffiti ...
Sail: Spinnaker, poled to port. No main. Not enough air.
Noon-to-Noon Miles Made Good: 117
Miles this leg: 1805
Avg. Miles this leg: 139
We motored all night, a good choice as the foretold wind never rose above 5 knots dead aft. I’ve edged up to 45N to get a leg over the fence that is this high pressure system, and each mile we travel north, the high happily obliges by rising ...
It has begun! Seventeen competitors in Don McIntyre’s Golden Globe Race 2018, a highly structured tribute event honoring the 50th anniversary of the original Golden Globe, the first non-stop solo round-the-world race, took off from Les Sables d’Olonne Sunday at noon local time. An 18th sailor, Francesco Cappelletti, of Italy, is still in port working to pass a safety inspection and complete sailing trials. First across the line when the starting cannon sounded (fired by Robin Knox-Johnston aboard Suhaili, the boat in which he won the original event) was a Frenchman, Phillipe Péché, sailing a Rustler 36 ...
NOTE: I’ve shut down the high tech Fleet Broadband 250 satellite unit and am switching to the Iridium GO! for the, hopefully short, duration of this cruise. The bandwidth of the GO only allows for low resolution photos and only one or two.
For the most part, the boating season here on the Chesapeake Bay is pretty much toast. Oh, there are still a few boats running around and of course the diehard racers are still out there but for all practical purposes the season is over. Last week however, we had a nice stretch of indian summer with unseasonably warm temps in the mid-seventies, clear blue skies, and plenty of sunshine. This, along with the fall foliage being just about at its peak, served up the perfect conditions to head out onto ...
Ice men & Isbjorn. Photo from James Austrums, who was IN the icy water!
Anchor Watch in Magdalenafjord
It was all but 50 miles from Ny Ålesund up the coast to the NW corner of Spitsbergen, and the gang was pretty slow-moving after the midsummer/birthday party in the village the night before. Nonetheless, we wanted to keep moving. After topping up on water and scrubbing the muddy footprints off the deck, we set out around 1700 and pointed the bow north again, taking turns on the watch in the calm, grey weather, on a motorboat ride up the coast....
#237. Brandon Wright is the founder of BRNKL, a Vancouver-based tech startup focused on remote monitoring systems for boats. Brandon & I originally connected on Instagram and immediately hit it off. His sailing, tech & entrepreneurial background ticks all the boxes of my own personal interests, so it was a blast talking to and learning from Brandon about how he got his fledgling business off the ground. He has a background in surveillance, having worked for the US Military in the middle east, creating home systems for Arab sheikhs and more. Brandon’s lightbulb moment to start BRNKL came when his ... Read More
I can’t fathom today’s weather. You are thinking hot dogs, cold beer, and fireworks on a warm summer’s evening. A mere 700 miles NW of San Francisco, I’m plowing through low cloud and freezing rain. ...
Note the above reference to the highly unusual absence of FOG, which has finally cleared after nearly a week. Cleared to a heavy, dark deck of cloud, but this is a positive step. We are not trapped under a dome after all; we did not ...
We motored all night, a good choice as the foretold wind never rose above 5 knots dead aft. I’ve edged up to 45N to get a leg over the fence that is this high pressure system, and each mile we travel north, the high happily obliges by rising ...
NOTE: I’ve shut down the high tech Fleet Broadband 250 satellite unit and am switching to the Iridium GO! for the, hopefully short, duration of this cruise. The bandwidth of the GO only allows for low resolution photos and only one or two.
