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We went to the market this morning where I thought about asking the boy selling fish and turtles how much he would charge me to take back Banana Ice Cream Goldfish, but I didn’t because Ali loves that thing, even if she won’t admit it. She changed her water this morning and spent the rest of the day talking about how active the fish was now thanks to all of that fresh oxygen in the water (thank-you Google for providing us with way more information that is necessary for a two dollar fish).

I don’t often do this—bag on companies—so when I do you can be assured that their products are indeed crap.

Irish Radial sailor Annalise Murphy takes you inside the commitment, discipline and hard work required to claw your way toward the top of an Olympic dinghy class:

Annalise Murphy - The Journey from Atomic on Vimeo.

Have you got what it takes? 

(via)

We were at the beach today and Ouest was running around picking up dozens of sliced in half oranges, melon skins, and all manner of other fruit that could only have come from some cruiser’s boat, when she spotted a giant white blob floating in the shallows. She ran over to grab it too when I yelled at her to stop. She jumped back just in time for it to roll over and reveal itself as the humongous fish head that it was.

“It’s a fish head baby, you don’t want to pick that up.”

The Papillon crew is a family divided at the moment.  While the girls and I visit long-lost friends and relatives, Erik is on the boat, hard at work welding fuel tanks and replacing swage fittings.  It is a little disconcerting to be so far apart after 2.5 years of togetherness.  The girls and I miss him.  But I also worry.  Because I get emails like this:

MY LAST POST about that abandoned Swan 48 floating around south of Bermuda has created some buzz it seems and numerous people are now making noises about retrieving it. To help inform and inspire would-be salvagers, I thought I should share some of what I know about these boats. I've sailed them back and forth between New England and Caribbean several times and have also raced a bit on them—around the cans and in one Bermuda Race.

Written by Ben Ellison on Apr 18, 2013 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

“No way!” That is Ouest’s latest saying. She doesn’t say it like a valley girl or anything, she says it clearly and directly.

“Ouest, can I have a bite of your ice cream?”

“No way!”

“Ouest, instead of turning four on your next birthday will you turn two? I want a chico girl, not grande.” (She talks about her next birthday all the time. It’s eight months away.)

“No way! No! Me grande girl.”

Really hard to imagine that someone somewhere is gloating over the same images of the Boston Marathon bombings that are making me feel ill. Thoughts are with all those helpless innocent victims.

While all that is going on our lives proceed without worries. News like this only invades us at night after the kids are in bed and we have time to go online. We’re fortunate.

I spent a day hanging out with multihull designer Chris White a while back and came away all buzzed up over his latest idea. The basic concept, as you can see in the image from his website up top, is pretty simple: two jibs and no mainsail. What isn't immediately clear from the photo is that those aren't conventional pivoting wing masts behind the sails. The masts in fact rotate through a full 360 degrees and have controllable flaps on their trailing edges, so that they too can act as sails and create lift at any wind angle.

We arrived on Saturday morning, just before noon. Saudade​ made a faster passage than I'd expected, averaging about 7 knots for the duration of the 850 miles or so. In perfect weather. For photos, check out Mia's post here, at 59-north.com. 

Written by Ben Ellison on Apr 14, 2013 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

We got our first pet today. Ali and I have never gotten a dog of our own because of the responsibility. I mean, who wants to saddle themselves with something that could possibly be dependent on you for like eighteen years? Not us. But then today Ali and the kids went off to the Saturday market and came home with…

…a Betta. Yep. We’re looking at up to four weeks of daily feeding and attention. As if we didn’t have enough on our plates—now a fish too. I know, right?

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen; this is your captain speaking.  We have turned on the seat belt sign as we are experiencing light turbulence at the moment. We currently have a 101 knot tailwind up here in the jetstream...

HERE'S A HOT STORY from the Where Are They Now Department that blew my mind a bit while I was cruising around in the Spanish Virgins last week. Spotted a feature in All At Sea, a local Caribbean sailing comic, by a young blonde rasta-looking dude about sailing 2,000 miles to windward from Vieques to Brazil in a converted wooden fishing smack with a pregnant wife and young son. Byline: Thomas Tangvald.

Late last month, at the start of a race in Banderas Bay, Mexico, there was a collision between two boats Blue and Camelot (see above), with a pretty horrific outcome. Latitude 38 had the details:

Banderas Bay sailmaker Mike Danielson suffered two broken legs in an incident during the Class A start of race two yesterday in the Banderas Bay Regatta. Craig Shaw, driving his father Howard Shaw's Portland-based Hunter 54 Camelotwas literally in the middle of it, and gives this report:

"We — my mom, dad, sister Trudy, girlfriend Jane, and crew Jim and Laura Campbell — had a perfect start today. The Variana 44 Olas Lindas, with former J-World instructor Eugenie Russell at the helm, forced us up near the starting line about 10 seconds before the start. She had every right to do this, as she was the leeward boat. We were hard on the wind, maybe 30 or 40 feet from the Race Committee boat, when the J/160 Bluecame barging in — which is illegal — between us and the RC boat at about 10 knots. I yelled 'No room!' My crew tells me that I hollered it three times. Those on the RC boat said they heard me. Blue finally responded by heading up, going over the line early. But their transom came into our boat at about the shrouds. We didn't feel or hear any contact, but saw someone on Blue rush to the closest point of contact to help someone. We later learned that Mike Danielson had fallen while trying to cross the stern of Blue to fend off, fell overboard between the boats, and had both legs broken. Naturally, we all felt horrible about it."

The collision went to a protest committee, and Blue was found to be at fault.

Now, a video from Blue has been published, and Danielson, to his credit, has weighed in with his perspective.

First, the video:

And now, Danielson's comments, which were posted on Sailing Anarchy:

My next post was supposed to be about my six days in the boat yard (fascinating!) but something way more interesting intervened.