He always answered my questions at the squaron and I will miss him. His son is great sailing coach.

Arrived STT on time around 1:00 PM June 23 and taxied to the Petite Pump Room to await the arrival of Haley (Lauraandrex’s Bert) coming in on the same flight as Tradewinds (Chris and Tracy)
Had a nice lunch and a few cold Red Stripes, some big hugs with Sailpuppy and Bert, grabbed some Rum Punches for the ride, caught the 2:30 ferry to West End, long ride, they stopped at Cruz Bay AND CA!!

Really easy check in at C&I at West End, called Jerrys and got our Jeep, off to Big Apple Villa!

Great stay at Big Apple as always, enjoyed have Chris and Tracy upstairs, had bunches of peeps enjoying the patio, Mal and Candace, Island Jim, Lifeguard Steve, Tony and Melody anchored Utopia out front and joined us for dinner at Bananakeet on Thursday night with Reuben playing, wonderful evening indeed!
Had a nice little birthday celebration and cake for Sailpuppy and Chris on the patio on the 24th.
Had our first night dinner at Sebastian’s, an easy walk, the food and service were good,
Andy, Dionne and Rachel (Ratchet) came in on the 26th. So I ran over to WE in Jeep and brought them back to freshen up at Sebastian’s and then the gang headed for Sugar Plums for dinner, Gingerwine chicken was great and our host Tiny took very good care of us.

Wandered down to Bombas to check out the Full Moon party, it was early but the band was good, tried to muster down a bomba Punch, gave it to Andy and wandered back to hit the rack.
Had a great time doing basically nothing during our stay, floating about in the water out front and consuming copius amounts of adult beverages with our guests.
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June 27: Off to West End to prepare to board Galeaux, our Voyage 500 cat for 10 days, made 2 trips over from Apple Bay to get the crew in and gear staged, greeted Tricia and Tommy, they had spent the night at Bay View Inn.
Made a run to Kelly’s Market to pick up our Beer and liquor that was pre staged for us via email, missing a couple cases of beer, they delivered those a short time later..
Did a quick briefing with Kimo, the bobby’s provisions arrived and we prepared for our voyage. Manpot joined us from the start and kept us entertained on board no doubt!
Had a nice sail then motor sail after the wind quit cooperating to The Bight, Norman Island, several of the TTOL boats were already in, blue Moon, Cattitude, Southern Exposure, etc. We anchored in close to the dock at Pirates and had our first swim off the boat, sailpuppy, Bert and Ratchet were treated to a playful Dolphin that got even more playful with their shrieks of delight, several other kids joined in and then there 2 dolphins, magical, swimming on their backs and letting the kids pet their bellies, amazing indeed!
Excellent buffet dinner and fun at Pirates, most of us wore our Pirate gear we brought for the Dinghy Poker Run
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Steve (Boatjunkie) got some video of the Dolphin play:
http://web.mac.com/castines/Site/Welcome.html

I managed to get a bit of video too!
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/saildoggie/BVI610/?action=view&current=Produce_46.mp4

The crew opted for AC and man, we sure enjoyed it, ran it every night after that!

June 28: Had a nice sail up The Drake and stopped at The Baths, continued on and motor sailed up to Leverick, made a staffing run with water cannons on Utopia, great fun!
Opted to skip the Anguilla Cut and go around, not my boat and wanted to excursive caution, this is a big ‘un and not quite used to it yet.
Had a great swim and ongoing dock party at Leverick, hung out with Guy from YachtshotsBVI, got a nice bottle of Bubbly from Griz and had an enjoyable, rum soaked dinner downstairs.

June 29: Dinghy Poker Run!! The teens opted to stay ashore so The Admiral set up pedicures at the Spa for them, got into the Pirate Gear and had a great buffet breakfast during registration, then the Poker Run was ON!
Water battles ensured even before the start, off to Sandbox! Capt, Mark of Sanctuary joined us aboard our dink and brought a nice “bar in a bucket’!!
Great fun, water cannons, buckets, etc all the way.
The second stop was Bitter End, we attacked a few charter boats along the way, they thought we were nuts, head right for them full speed then WOOSH, nailed ‘em!!
The antics continued on to Fat Virgin and of course adult beverages were flowing freely by now.
The awards and buffet dinner were awesome, as always Nick and Monica did a super job as our hosts, and the whole staff at Leverick was on key!
I believe Cattitude had the best hand with a full house, many bottles of Necker Island bubbly and other great prizes were awarded, the event raised about $2,500 for a local charity, I believe Animal rescue.
The 3rd. Annual Dinghy Poker Run sold the most hands yet and all had a great time!!
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YachtshotsBVI did an awesome job covering the event, pics here:
http://www.digiproofs.com/ecom/g.pl

Awesome video by Boatjunkie here:
http://web.mac.com/castines/Site/Pirates_n_Poker_Run.html

June 29: De Anegada Lobsta Regatta!!
We held a Skippers Meeting at Leverick established the start times for the participants for the pursuit race to Anegada, Paul and Carolyn from Cattitude took my watch to record start and finish times and did a great job!
We helped Catatoinic get off the dock since they had an issue with port reverse and then scurried aboard to make our start time, Galeaux was past to start by about 6 minutes.
Our crew was on it, trimming well and we were off, we managed to pick off the competitors one by one keeping our distance rather than strafing with water cannons, heading down in the puffs, up in the lulls, maintained 7-9 knots most of the way.
The final 2 cats, Utopia and Catatonic were well ahead took a bit of work to catch as we only had a few miles to go, we got past both of them and then realized the committee boat, Catitude was not in position yet, we had to head up to close hauled to make the finish, I thing Catatonic caught this first as they started to close \on us, we squeezed them out by a few minutes and furled and dropped at the finish.
We motored into the channel slowly to watch utopia finish, great race by all!!
We anchored in close to ARH in about 5 feet of water and visited with the other crews all afternoon. Great day on the water indeed!!
Tricia and Tommy headed into Potters and we caught up later only to learn they had printed 50 large, full color photos of my white A$$ from a stealth middle of the night shot back in ’07 aboard Jeannius and tacked them up all over Potters each with it’s own inscription, very funny indeed, what are friends for??
Drinks and awards followed, a short discussion with our race Committee confirmed it would be bad for the Race Chairman (me) to accept First Place, prolly should have gone over this with the crew but they spread all over the joint.
We award the finishers in order of finish leaving Galeaux, the first boat to actually finish as the “rabbit” boat, sorry Mal, Andy and crew, you showed ‘em your stuff and you know we won!
Ctatatonic should have also got a “Teens Favorite” for the electronic gadgets and screaming tube towing, could hear those girls screaming the whole way!!

All the boats sailed a great race and truly, it is difficult to handicap a pursuit race of this nature. The results were posted as follows:
Anegada Lobsta Regatta Start and Finish Times:

Galeaux: Start10:11:28am – Crossed Finish Line 11:35:11am Time Elapsed (1hour 23 min. 43 sec.)
SailDoggie relinquished 1st place as race organizer.

Catatonic: Start 10:10:25am-Crossed Finish Line 11:36:06am
#1
Time Elapsed (1hour 25min. 41 sec.)

Utopia: Start 10:03:45am – Crossed Finish Line 11:37:15am
#2
Time Elapsed (1hour 33min. 30 sec.)

Blue Bayou: Start 10:10:27am-Crossed Finish Line 11:39:22am
#3
Time Elapsed (1hour 28min. 55 sec.)

Blue Moon: Start 10:12:00am-Crossed Finish Line 11:47:52am
#4
Time Elapsed (1hour 35min. 52 sec.)

Forever Freye: Start10:05:12am-Crossed Finish Line 11:48:35am
#5
Time Elapsed (1hour 43min. 23 sec.)

Long Over Do: Start 10:07:47am Crossed Finish Line…….sometime laterthat day.
#6

Results from the Race Committee Boat “Cattitude” and the Dinghy Poker Run Winner…..

In retrospect Blue Bayou had the next best ET on the course, again, Race Chairman’s handicapping was flawed.

Special thanks to Potters By The Sea for hosting the awards and dinner!

Very special thanks to our Race Committee Paul and Carolyn aboard Cattitude and also Boatjunkie, Steve created this awesome video!

http://web.mac.com/castines/Site/Welcome.html

Click on Lobster Regatta 2010

Great pictures of all of the competitors here on YachtshotsBVI.com, great Job Pierre on both events, view by boat name!

http://www.digiproofs.com/ecom/g.pl

We had a nice beach day at Potters new place, Island Lovers, appeared everyone was moving kinda slowly for some reason…
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The Galeaux crew needed to regroup a bit so it was burgers aboard an early night to prep for our sail to JVD in the morning gotta pace yourselves sometimes!!

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Sarasota Youth Sailing program is looking for an excellent Laser coach.  Please send details to:

sarasotayouthsailing@gmail.com

DIYC just had a huge theft sometime in the past week.  My two boats were almost completely stripped.  If you hear of anyone selling J24 parts, please let me know.  There was also a Melges boom and vang system stolen.  Someone else had all their sails stolen.  I also had a CD player taken.  If you hear anything or see anything, please let me know.

Charlotte Harbor Regatta, Inc., has been chosen as the host organization for the 2012 Combined World Disabled Sailing Championships in January 2012. The regatta board of directors voted to accept the International Association for Disabled Sailing’s offer at a special meeting June 24.

“IFDS is delighted to announce the selection of Charlotte Harbor, Fla., as the site of the 2012 IFDS Combined World Disabled Sailing Championships,” said IFDS President Linda Merkle. ”Charlotte Harbor was named by SAIL magazine as one of the ‘Top 10 greatest places to sail in the United States,’ and we are fortunate to be going there. This promises to be an exciting venue for us and fulfills a long-time wish of sailors to hold a ‘Worlds’ in a Paralympic year. We welcome Charlotte Harbor Regatta, Inc., aboard and look forward to a successful event.”

The regatta will be staged at Punta Gorda’s Laishley Park Municipal Marina and other facilities around upper Charlotte Harbor. The 10-day event is expected to attract some 350 sailors, coaches, family members, race officials and media from all over the world. The IFDS is the governing body for all national disabled sailing organizations. The last time its world championships were held in Florida was 2001 in St. Petersburg. This year’s world championship is being held in The Netherlands.

“Along with numerous existing boating activities and events, such as the Charlotte Harbor Regatta, the Conquistador Cup and the Leukemia Cup, the IFDS World Championships would advance Punta Gorda towards becoming the premier waterfront community and boating destination in Southwest Florida,” said Punta Gorda Mayor Harvey Goldberg. “We appreciate this opportunity being afforded us by the International Association for Disabled Sailing.”

“The board of directors of the Charlotte Harbor Regatta is honored to accept the IFDS’s invitation to host such a prestigious international event,” said Charlotte Harbor Regatta Chairman Brian Gleason. “We look forward to working with our member clubs, volunteers, government partners and local business sponsors to stage a world-class regatta on our world-class harbor.”

Tourism officials expressed excitement over both the direct economic impact such an event will have as well as the international exposure it will generate for Charlotte Harbor as a top sailing and vacation destination.

“From a tourism perspective, this prestigious event will provide an enormous opportunity for us to promote our area as one of the world’s top sailing destinations to a worldwide audience of prospective visitors,” said Becky Bovell, executive director of the Charlotte Harbor Visitors and Convention Bureau.

Regatta Pointe throws a fantastic regatta. The atmosphere, food, service and pool were top notch. It is nice not to be shuffled around the side and out the back door like most yacht clubs! Looking forward to the next one!

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after approx. 4 months and $10k in haulouts/survey,coast guard fees, etc. ,I find out the recently certified charter boat I was purchasing,was no longer able to be recertified… bummer. now the broker who so grossly misrepresented her will be the target of  litigation… it sucks, but, karma fell into place, and I ended up getting the 2 for 1 deal of the century! for the price of the clunker, I am now able to purchase the most beautiful,alluring sailing vessel I have ever laid eyes on. and, a CURRENTLY certified,charter schooner, that I wiill have to have delivered from Maine… anyone up for it?so, life does not always suck…..

Hope all is well with the group.  I’ve been busy with other stuff and hadn’t check in for a while.  Hot as hell in SE Virginia and it’s only just begun.  One thing that I have been doing was getting my Ham XCVR ready to put back on Sea Elf.  It had been in storage for a few years and when I set it up and turned on, I noticed the freq. would shift a few kc’s and then return.  Did a google for the Yaesu FT-747gx and found that it’s a common problem and an easy fix.  She’s working fine now….knock on fiberglass….

Are there any other hamsters here at SailMonster?  73

We’ve all seen those movies. A rainy Saturday afternoon, turn on the TV, and here is “Horror Theater”; or something to that effect.

In the standard chiller flick, we have a poor unfortunate innocent idiot, on a dark night, walking alone. What he doesn’t realize (but we do) is that only a few steps behind him he is being stalked by a hideous beast; with long sharp teeth and claws, red eyes, and a hungry expression. When the lone moron finally realizes his predicament, it is already way too late. He tries to run away but his legs turn to rubber. Salvation is visible but unreachable, and finally he becomes the gruesome monster’s latest repast.

You know it’s funny, but this same scenario is being played out, as I write this, in the Gulf of Mexico.

Here is the cast of characters:

MONSTER: Played very realistically by a blown out oil well, spewing thousands of gallons of oil into a once-pristine maritime ecosystem.
MORONS: Played by British Petroleum, with minor bit parts played by the Executive Branch of the US Government.

For six weeks now, Americans, who pride themselves on the grassroots values of neighbors helping neighbors, have been forced to sit and watch helplessly while members of BP and our Government are trying to run with rubber legs. It is like watching a slow-motion nightmare in black.

If you think that the Federal response to Katrina was staged like some sick practical joke, what we are seeing now is like watching mass-murder while eating popcorn.

For BP, they have not attempted to actually stop this runaway gusher. They are merely trying redirect it into surface ships (tankers.) WHY? Because it’s OIL! More accurately, THEIR OIL.

For Mr. Obama, he is, quote, “furious!” Well shucks, I feel so much effing better about the whole thing now. He seems to spend a lot more face time on cam these days, being in charge of (and “responsible” for) the whole situation of delegated authority. We have yet to see him appoint an “Oil Leak Czar.” More realistically, he is really “furious” that this whole bag of shit has stolen the wind from the sails of the Health Care agenda.

We would really like to have someone actually try to cut off the leak. As American Citizens, we all want to go and grab the nearest BP engineer and yell “Say old Chap, have you tried THIS YET?”

ITEM: In the 1960′s, we, the US of A, put Men on the Moon by utilizing slide-rule engineering and old, transistorized, computers. On an average, our Earth’s Moon is about 260,000 miles away.

This oil leak is a little more than 5,000 feet down, under one of Earth’s Oceans.

Think about that for a moment.

1969: Men on the Moon, and then home again. 260,000 miles out and then back.
2010: Crude Oil leaking from a 22- inch diameter busted pipe. 5,000 feet down (without leaving the planet.) FAIL.

That’s it for this extemporaneous bit…

… except for one last thing:

CNN.COM: a 21-year old prodigy engineer came up with a real neat idea to get this under control. To see it, follow this link for video:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/06/07/am.int.prodigy.alia.sabur.cnn?hpt=C2