My Experience Racing on The Eleonora

My Experience Racing on The Eleonora

Incredibly fun time sailing and racing on the Eleonora for the Westward Cup 2015!


Wow what a Yacht.  Huge challenge for me as I am much more accustomed to 50′ and less.  Everything is much larger and almost surreal because of the dimensions.  You go to grab for a block or tackle and it is almost unrecognizable.  It literally takes a full crew just to manage the sail hoists.  I learned so much including new types of sails called the fisherman and the Gollywobbler!


When I first came on board in the early morning hours I felt humbled and awed by this magnificent craft.  I went around introducing myself to the crew members on board and to the skipper.  They all asked if I had experience on Classic Boats before and I had to say “NO”.  They were all very nice but I could see the look in their eyes that I had a lot to learn and boy did I.  Can I say foremast topsail tack!!

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Now I have sailed for a long time and as many of you know I used to live on my 36′ Lancer in San Diego Harbor, but all of this was new to me and integrating into a crew was a challenge all on it’s own.  I was able to overcome the fear by focusing on the excitement of learning all this new stuff.  I jumped in anywhere I could and pulled sheets with the best of them.  My one regret was that I knew I didn’t have the youth in me anymore to have hooked up and flown to the top of the masts, what a view that would have been.  Darla would probably be happy that I didn’t do that though, cheesy grin.  I did however climb out onto the bowsprit and attend to the sails.  That was a rush!

Sailing on a Yacht this large is a different experience with regard to communication as well.  The skipper, 1st mate and bowmen have radios to communicate and very seldom do the crews in different parts of the boat see each other.  When you are so focused on doing your job sometimes you don’t even have time to look up and see where you are.

IMG_3211Made new friends including a french chap named Pierre who, unbeknownst to me lives in San Diego with his pregnant wife and had sailed with my good friend Joe Saad many times!  Very small world. He crewed permanently on the yacht for a year all over the world and came back to help out for this series of races.

What an honor to be here.  I am so grateful to have been invited.  Thank you to Mr. Zacks and Skipper/tactician Mike MacMillan! Also a shout out to my lovely wife who inspired me to put myself out there.

It is frowned upon for the crew to go around taking pix etc… so I snuck a few and will post them below with some youtube stuff just so you can get an idea of the scale onboard.

So in summary, incredible experience and I say to all of those of you out there who experience self doubt and don’t choose to put yourself out there to be in a position to test yourself and grow, doing the things you love to do, STOP rethink that and see the possibilities to become more of who you are.  Listen to the people around you who encourage you to grow and challenge yourself.  This lifetime is short  and your experience in this life is of your own making!  Go for it!

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Top 5 Things To See in Italy

Top 5 Things To See in Italy

10830712_10204337884961342_3898451562199085688_o1511974_10205420337816931_5631157130022342886_o10460580_10205420602183540_8202122239943591235_o 1.  Tuscany of course!  it REALLY is as pretty as the pictures and sometimes even more. The colors are crazy gorgeous.  My Favorites are Assisi, Cortona, Sienna.

2.  Rome if you have never been.   Its crazy and busy and crowded and there is SO much to see it takes at least a week and really 10 days or more. 10714174_10205449406423628_763545874214255085_o10845661_10205449389223198_3261126770416417379_o

3.  Vatican City, Yes its in Rome but its Not Rome!  Vatican City is its own city and the Vatican and the Chapel are crazy cool and a MUST do. 10855124_10205470798398414_533276455828262746_o10557045_10205434902781046_8810559633558960713_o10479856_10205434907341160_1836562481666127882_o

4.  Venice.  Go quick it Really is sinking!  and its gorgeous and wonderful. Venice-Italy-1-Wallpaper-HD Venice-Italy-2 Venice-Italy

5.  Amalfi Coast:  We haven’t made it yet and its a must do BUT does need to be done non winter months as I’m afraid all will be shut down.   Best to hit this May or Sept for the shoulder months.  Love to take a boatfrom Rome vs the crazy curvy road trip. i_1

PS:   Yes that main photo is of Florence and No I didn’t put it on top 5.  For me, I like it a lot,  but not top 5 -but its a must do as well.  the amount of leather shops is OVER whelming. and yes the brown leather coat you see in a lot of my photos is my coat from Florence 🙂  soft as butter! 10542853_10205514289365661_4784827085183473235_o

Scotland Here We Come Finally!

Scotland Here We Come Finally!

 

Scotland here we Finally come.  Our next destination for July/August.   Darla has dreamed of Scotland for years, the land of both our heritage. (and hot men in skirts!)

Darren and I have been on Ancestry.com for quite some time and tracked our family trees back to the Scottish Isles and are looking forward to going to actual towns that we have found our heritage to be from.
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This is Darren’s Grandfather in full regalia!  What a handsome fellow!

and Darren’s grandma,  who was born in Glasgow.

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How cool will it be to maybe be able to go to local archive offices/churches and see if we can confirm what we have done on line and find our ancestors home towns.

Can’t wait to hear Scottish music and drink a pint in a good OLD old pub.  stay tuned.

Bella is Hanging On the Isle of Wight With the Wild Life!

Bella is Hanging On the Isle of Wight With the Wild Life!

Bella is surrounded by all kinds of wildlife, not just the ones coming for the Isle of wight Festival!

(think of a modern day Woodstock) Fleetwood Mac be darned she says.

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She much prefers the company of pheasants and grouse and badgers and flocks of sheep and rabbits, oh the rabbits, heh heh.  Even blind she knows they are here and loves to get excited and riled up!

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She is doing really well and loves to roll down the grass hills.  She loves to roll into pubs in her Royal Pram and join us for a pint!

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Having a Bath in Bath!

Having a Bath in Bath!

1493399_10206873343101155_6329627403766938466_o 10338466_10206906043638648_794259892187669898_o 10498155_10206906049118785_8876915591536785518_o 11148811_10206906050558821_4637513766785523377_o 11270388_10206906050038808_4417110037180663135_o 11334051_10206906050358816_4606010444772007992_oBath, in SouthWest – Somerset , Bath, England is Gorgeous.

Never seen a more consistant Architectural town than Bath with its Gorgeous 18th century Georgian buildings. Wow very nice.

Centuries of Romans and Noblemen and ladies, have take the “waters” of Bath.  After a 30 yr hiatus once again since 2008, IMG_4705you can now take the hot springs “waters” again. No longer able to use the real Roman Bath site, a newer very modern building was built in 2008 using the same waters (supposedly) bubbling up next door at the ancient Roman Bath.

Thermal Bath spa is the only place in Bath you can actually get in the infamous waters.  Not what your really expecting,its very very modern more Danish in style than Ancient Rome.  the interior is a bit disappointing for aesthetics in my opinion but the views from the roof top deck are great.

There is no smell as they are not sulphur springs but also we didn’t really feel like they gave you the benefits of other hot springs mineral spas, no soft baby skin afterwards and in fact felt a bit dried out so have to wonder if there is chlorine added to them?  But when in Rome, eh er, well when in Bath you have to do the Bath’s right? good one time but probably wouldn’t go back.  Plenty enough to do in town shopping, site seeing, architecture touring etc.  Beautiful town, great shopping

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Lands End- Rhossilli Bay in Gower

Lands End- Rhossilli Bay in Gower

Sand dunes, surfers and campers. Huge stretch of beach at the end of the peninsula opposite Swansea, Wales.

Voted #1 Beach in UK for several years but Beware, tiny one lane roads to get there so drive careful!

  Met a self proclaimed “hippy” surfer named Cosmic (Jeff) Smiles. Very cool lots of local knowledge. The entire area is owned by one family to this day. Rather like Hearst Castle in central California. Great pub and live music up the hill called the Kings Arms

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Lots of Chemtrails.  Watched them balloon into clouds that stole the sunset. Seriously. Why are they being allowed to do this?  It’s our sky too!

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