America’s Cup and a Crash

$7800 bucks worth of silver

The America’s Cup has been in my blood since I started sailing.  I guess it’s the international competition that excites me. Rooting for my country and all. Now it’s become such a team sport that the actual sailors are my favorites now. Sure I want America to win since I am American, but wouldn’t it have been cool to see Ben Ainsle bring it back to England for the first time in 150 years. Or Have Frank Cammas take it home to France? After all France is the biggest sailing nation on earth. I guess it’s OK that Peter Burling won it for the Kiwi’s. Lennie and I saw him win the Red Bull Youth Cup in San Francisco at the last America’s Cup match. Boy did he step up.

Bermuda Shorts

We had never been to Bermuda. Seems weird. ….island, beach, palm trees and all that… but the problem with Bermuda is that it’s cold from October to May.  Having the Cup there made it a mandatory trip and now we wish we had been going all our lives. This island is now on our top 10 favorites list (and you know we have been to hundreds) for its natural beauty, pink sand beaches, pristine houses and buildings and the most friendly people we have encountered anywhere ever. Except for this one funny thing. The men wear these long shorts in bright colors with socks up to their knees and dress shoes. Yes they really do. Bankers, doctors, teachers and the like. They are everywhere and very proud. The women don’t seem to mind.

Worse than Junk Mail

While I was riding dirt bikes in Baja I got an email that said “you’ve been hit by Vitamin Sea” in the subject line. I blew it off as junk mail from China trying to sell me pharmaceuticals.  I didn’t open it or read it but I didn’t delete it either since I always try to unsubscribe to unsolicited mail. I kept riding for 2 more days. Then on the plane home (private with no wifi) I look at this email and it’s from a YouTube subscriber who saw a boat hit Happy Together in the Oakland Estuary where she was berthed. Lennie was in Florida and I was in the air and I had 3 hours of knowing nothing! I didn’t know if it was holed and taking on water or what.  Later I landed and got LTE and the email was downloaded and there was a picture of a beautiful monohull called Vitamin Sea ramming our boat.  They were heading to the fuel dock and their engine cut off and they immediately drifted into Happy Together and broke a window.  In the end it could have been worse but it was still a pain in the butt to fly to CA and spend 8 days in the boatyard for what I thought would be a simple repair.  The next email was from the owner of the boat who apologized up and down and gave me his insurance info. Stand up guy for sure. And I have no hard feelings. I pilot a 48 x 25 Catamaran and the fact that I haven’t hit anybody yet is just dumb luck!

The video below is part Bermuda and part boat repair. We hope you enjoy it!