Let's knock the rust off of this thing

It has been a while since I have written anything, but it has certainly been a full and busy couple of years! Wow. It really doesn't seem like it has been that long.

Things you missed, that I will file in over the next few weeks or months:

• A long deployment in the desert (not much sailing there)
• Some fun trips on the boat
• Lots of repairs to the boat
• An awesome El Camino
• Quitting my job
• Transpac race preparation
• Racing my boat to Hawaii
• Back to school
• Hawaiian boat repairs
• Other things, too, probably

This is neither me nor my boat. Hey, I don't do all my own stunts.

Out with the old

Finally got around to ordering a new genoa. I was going to wait, and after sailing on my buddy's boat last weekend I realized I needed to get my boat moving again. They weren't kidding when they said boat stands for "break out another thousand." Sails are expensive!
Hopefully I'll have the new sail a little after the new year. Let's go!

Fuck off, birds!

Doesn't look very scary to me...

As if the soot from the airport wasn't bad enough, there have been little birds having a field day shifting all over my boat. In as little as two weeks, these birds have the deck looking like I've been parked in a forest or something.

If I'm home and I hear them up on the mast, I'll whip a spare halyard up there to chase them away. Five minutes later, they're back at it. Bastards.

I'd like to get a trained falcon or something to fly around the marina and keep these guys off my boat, but they're probably too expensive and I don't know where to get one.

As a final assault in my war against the birds, today I picked up one off the goofy-looking scary eyes beachball scarecrow things. I hung it up on the mast and crossed my fingers. Let's hope it works.
I'll just have to remember to take the silly thing down before I hit the yacht club for cocktails.

Still alive, actually

Wow, time sure flies. Hard to believe I haven't updated since August. I guess I'm a bit better at actually doing things than I am at blogging about them, or taking pictures, or remembering things when I'm drunk...

Maybe I shouldn't race my house?

Can't even tell, haha

Tore another sail today. The genoa this time. It was due, though. That sail was pushing 25 years old. Happened in the last leg of a race as we were catching up to and getting ready to pass the only yacht ahead of us, a Beneteau 473 (yup, they had five feet of waterline on us). With the genoa in pieces, we continued for a bit on just the main, but there was no way we'd catch them now.

Oh well. I made an executive decision and we made a detour to the bar, pulled into up to Bali Hai, and downed a few Mai Tais. Not a total loss...

More fun than a barrel of...rum

Made for each other

Stopped by a the Koloa rum distillery while I was on Kauai. I had actually already had a few sips of their gold rum that morning, so I was already feeling pretty good by the time we walked in for our tasting and tour. Sold. I already know how rum is made, but it's still fun to hear about it. Local sugar cane, some sort of local spring water, old pot stills. Sounds like a magical combination, and it is. The rum is pretty good. The rum cake was awesome, as were the various other rum desserts and syrups. Thing is, since they are pretty new, none of their rum is aged. The black and gold runs are colored and flavored that way. As part of the tourist/rum drinker trap, they had these one liter charred oak barrels for aging their rum yourself! Sold. I picked up a bottle of their white, which is already pretty tasty, ones of these barrels, and a rum cake (not part of the project, but it had been a little while since breakfast). I packed all these in my buddy's suitcase since I travel carry on only, well not the cake. I ate that in the car. Now that I'm back home on the boat, I decided to give the rum aging a go. After looking at the instructions, I decided it was a little more involved than I though and decided to put it off for a few days. First, I had to fill the barrel with water and add a purifier pill to clean it. After a thorough rinse, it was time to refill the barrel with water and let it sit for several days to let the wood expand and seal properly.... I almost forgot about it. Almost. Rum time. I drained it all out and filled it with rum. Turns out, the barrel holds a little more than a single bottle so i had to crack another open to top it off. I'm not a doctor, nor a rum aging expert, but I think it's important to get all the air out to prevent excess oxidation. Sounds right to me. Now I just wait. Supposedly, a smaller barrel ages a spirit faster than a full sized one due to the ratio of surface contact to volume. I thought I was going to have to wait a year, but now it looks like it might only take a month or two. I'll pour a taste after a month and see how it tastes. Best thing is, if this turns out nicely I can reuse the barrel!

Mai Tai's at Bali Hai

Just got back from a well needed vacation and my first day back at work was a drag. Not that that was a surprise, having to go to work is always a drag. As I was leaving the office a buddy tested me to see if I was going sailing this afternoon. I couldn't think of a reason not to so I told him to meet me on the boat and off we went.
Now despite what everyone seems to think, a Mai Tai like most named cocktails has a specific recipe that allows very little variation. Lime juice, orgeat, orange liqueur, and aged Jamaican rum. Try different rums, float some 151 for a nice color and booze kick, but please don't use any juice other lime and call it a Mai Tai!
Don't get me wrong, I love those concoctions with pineapple juice, orange juice, banana  liqueur, or cherry syrup. In fact I'll drink 'em all day long (and I have recently back in Hawaii).
When I want a real one, though, I have to make it myself. I make great ones, too, since it's tied with the mojito as my favorite cocktail.
Anyway, a few weeks ago I've discovered that Bali Hai does a pretty decent one, as well as a whole assortment of other tiki delights served in actual tiki mugs. Fucking love it.
Since they're right on the bay front and have a guest dock, pulling in for a sunset Mai Tai or two was a no-brainer once we got a whiff (possibly all in my head) of the rum coming from the bar. Oh yeah, this place probably has the best bay view in San Diego, too.