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My personal safety equipment
I went to the SFYC this evening along with about 500 other people for an event surrounding the loss of 5 people from Low Speed Chase. It was a sad event and it has made everyone in the sailing community pause for thought whether or not the missing and deceased were friends. After leaving the club I came home and I went online to update my Personal Locator Beacon information which was out of date since I have been away and it was sitting in my garage. I also did the monthly test. I am going to set up a system to update my friends and family of what events and boats I am sailing on. I have always provide a lot of information when sailing across the ocean but not when it comes to coastal events or inshore regattas. One of the lessons from this incident was that the emergency contact details given to the coastguard should be someone who is not on the race on another boat as was the case in this instence.
I thought I would share with you all what I take offshore…
1) I wear a Spinlock deckvest (automatic) with crotch straps and a tether with a snap shackle at the chest. The crotch straps are very important to stop the lifejacket being torn off your body in rough seas.
2) I wear around my waist in certain conditions but always have with me a bum bag inside there is my PLB (406 EPIRB and 121.5), VHF (with DSC), GPS, a laser flare and a spare whistle. The 406 tells the coastguard there is a problem, the 121.5 is the frequency they can home in on. The VHF would allow me to talk to them assuming I am concience and the DSC feature on the VHF allows me to alert boats within range that I have a problem and gives them my GPS location on there built in VHF.
NB Not pictured is my bright yellow drysuit which is what I tend to wear offshore by Kokatat it is more visible than my black foul weather gear.
Something to bear in mind if you are travelling is that the GPS takes a while to get a new fix if you fly with it so when you first get to your destination it is best to turn it on to find itself again.
The coastguard had a few questions which would have helped in their search. Wanting to know what the crew were wearing and what the vessel looked like. So I will send my family and friends an email with a picture of the boat if I am going offshore in future. If I am wearing foulweather gear it is always Musto and all black.
I hope everyone can take something useful away from this tragedy and I am proud of how my yacht club SFYC has pulled together and is handling it all. They have now called off the search so a total of 5 were lost http://news.yahoo.com/c-guard-ends-search-4-missing-yacht-racers-065444796–spt.html
Sad
Today we were meant to race to the Farlonnes on Rhumb Boogie but as the boat had jobs that needed doing we didn’t go out to the ocean. Instead we worked on the boat and went for a short sail in the bay to check rig tune and all the other things we had done. It was a beautiful day at Southampton with 12 knots of wind and after going upwind we turned and hoisted the kite gybing a few times before heading back in.
When I was on my way home I got a phone call from some friends asking me if had gone out as they were concerned. They knew one of the kids on the boat who set off his EPIRB. The reports started to come in about an accident at the Farlonnes. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/14/BA0O1O3H5G.DTL The accident is tragic and there are at least two people I know well who were on the boat.
While on the downer my sister in law informed me that the divemaster (Ryan) we went diving with in Bermuda on the wreck a month ago lost his life diving this week in Bermuda. Such a friendly great guy.
Getting off your couch is risky and living life to the full is rewarding so we will all continue to go sailing and diving. However, stay safe out there everyone and sometimes make the hard decision to turn around or maybe ease up a little like I did on Aconcaqua. Some things are not worth your life. There are so very many great things to look forward to doing and you need to grow old to see your kids or nieces and nephews grow up.
11:30pm update…. the guys I knew on the boat didn’t make it. Very very hard to comprehend at the moment. One of them I sailed with in the great lakes doing the mac races it was a great summer I also sailed with him a lot on the Farr 40. RIP..
This is a picture taken of the boat in the accident. It was taken on their way out the bridge by sailing photographer Peter Lyons. peterlyonsphoto.com
Happy Easter
Happy Easter one and all. I am in Mill Valley having been for a great run and this afternoon will meet up with my friends to hike amoungst the redwoods at Muir Woods. I talked to my nieces and newphew who were high on chocolate and delighted in telling me about breaking their eggs I had left for them and eating them all up!
I thought I would put some links up of interesting news bits…
This is an article about BAS and the 25% funding cut
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/exclusive-british-polar-research-in-crisis-7627014.html
Also an article about Bay Area sailors in the Virgin Islands by Paul a local journalist here in the bay. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2012%2F04%2F07%2FDD0I1NVFOK.DTL
Those in the US with Discovery Channel make sure you want Frozen Planet tonight at 8pm it has lots of great footage of my home south.
Home sweet home
I got home on Tuesday and it has been several days of moving boxes, doing chores and two dinner parties so far. The weekend seems to be set to be more boxes a birthday party and hopefully some hiking to take advantage of the beautiful weather we are having.
I am definantly going to head to Muir Woods to breath in the smell and listen to the quiet amoungst the redwood trees. Have a great Easter weekend everyone.
Close but no cigar
So I flew on Cape Air from St Thomas to Puerto Rico in a Cessna which is always great fun. Then went to transfer to Houston and the flight was delayed so I would miss my connection onto SF. They asked for a volunteer as the delayed flight was over sold and offered flight vouchers, dinner and a hotel.
So here I am in Puerto Rico with a very dismal view of the airport roofs in a room with no character but at least I have a voucher and a first class ticket tomorrow to New York and then onto SF tomorrow.
What you can get at the airport for $40! Time to watch some news and maybe use the gym.
Coming home to SF
In less than 16 hours I will be on my flight home to San Francisco for the first time in over a year and half. Very much looking forward to it. I will have to re learn how to drive my truck and get myself set up in my new place in Mill Valley looking over the square. Looking forward to my first bay area race on the 14th April on Rhum Boogie to the Farlonnes. Today for the first time I finished a regatta and someone else took care of the boat. Hannah and Sean left the dock for Antigua a few hours ago and I get to fly directly home. The repair to the boat was complete but it will need to be finished off in Charleston – respray of awlgrip.
Today 40 Degrees didn’t go out racing as the crew wanted a day by the pool so Hannah and I went sailing on a 63 foot racing/cruising trimeran called Paradox.
Both of us got to helm and it was a great trip around the islands effortlessly moving at 12 knots upwind. Cam Lewis the famous trimeran sailor was the navigator, there were 4 french sailors, a british guy called Sam and the owner who is from the Bay Area.
Downwind home
Today we blasted downwind with the A3 back to Nanny Cay from Virgin Gorda. We unfortunately had an incident on the start and by the time we were back racing we were a ways behind so decided to go conservative with the A3 instead of flying the A3 in 20 knots gusting higher. A beautiful day on the water followed by some boat work so we can be on the water racing tomorrow for the start of the BVI regattta proper. Only 3 days left then I am headed home to California finally after so long away – looking forward to it.
Virgin Gorda
We moved to BVI and within 5 minutes of getting to the house it was full of 16 crew while Hannah and I made salmon, couscous and grilled veg for dinner. The forecast for the race up to virgin GordaWe was for under 5 knots of wind so I took the boat with 7 others while everyone else went by ferry. The race committee boat postponed the race as there was no wind and put up the follow me signal. At this point Neil from Acadia a friend of mine motored up and started towing us at 8 knots – much better than 4 knots under our own steam:-). We never did reach that wind so unfortunately they are having a race tomorrow to make up for it so there goes my lay day of diving. Things could be worse in paradise. Tonight and tomorrow I am off dinner duties as we are going out at Bitter ENd YC and Leverick. Yippee.
For this regatta we are racing under a different rating so we can’t use our code 0 which means of course that we will wAnt it!
Moving on
Finished racing at St Thomas and now we are moving to the British Virgin Islands tomorrow. We will load 10 onto the boat and 7 will take the ferry over to Tortola. We will move into our houses over there and then on tuesday there is a passage race up to Virgin Gorda. We spend a day in Virgin Gorda where I hope to go diving with some of the guys before a race back. The regatta website is http://www.bvispringregatta.org/bvi/.
David who I raced with to Hawaii came in to day so I am looking forward to him coming aboard. Hannah (40 degrees boat captain) and myself are exhausted and the crew is out partying so we are attempting to sleep with the music blasting out from the yacht club. It has been a hard few days racing the boat around short courses and my tan lines are interesting to behold! I believe I might get the rudolph award with my bright red nose 🙂
My friend from the bay area Michelle will be at BVI so it will be great fun to catch up with her after such a long time away.
Have a great week