New Boat 4 Sled

[Philpott]

That is a great photo! It also looks like a fabulous ride.

[sleddog]

Up in the PNW, they have this tradition of the Round the County Race on the 2nd weekend in November, a 2 day event circling around the San Juan Islands. Weather conditions can be quite non-balmy with SE'ly gales and sloppy seas. Friends aboard the 115 year old schooner, MARTHA once again sailed amid carbon sails. This year's event was a counter-clock-wise loop (it alternates directions each year) in rain and breezy conditions.

Thanks, MAGICdreamer, for the awesome photo on page 612 above, of MARTHA in the Around the County Race. As you observe in the photo, Robert and Doug recently built a new mast for MARTHA that is nearly 8 feet taller than previous. What looks like a third reef on the new, taller, mast is actually the old main with a second reef. The new main, awaiting fund raising, is not yet built. It looks like a 3rd reef in the new main might be good call.

If you look closely in the photo, MARTHA is motoring past a sloop to windward with dark, carbon sails.,That would be RIPTIDE, the water ballasted, Paul Bieker 44 that as Team Pure and Wild, won the 2022 Race2Alaska.

Robert and Doug also headed up the crew that built TALLY HO's new spars. As well, MAGICdreamer, our CBC schoonerman/yacht designer from Los Osos, navigated MARTHA in the 2015 Transpac Race.

MARTHA's finish off Diamond Head light is celebrated above.

[sleddog]

Congrats to Stephen on his build and recent launching of SCOOT! Well done, Good Sir. (See thread New Boat 4 Tchoup if you haven't been following this inspirational story.)

Apologies for a prolonged absence from these pages. As we all know, "problem solving" as well as "having fun" can be time consuming. Interspersed were 3 extended road trips up and down the Pacific Coast (Port Townsend Wooden Boat Fest, East Side Sierra Color Ride, and S.Cal walk down memory lane to participate in the National Sailing Hall of Fame induction of good friends, including Sally Honey, Skip Etchells, Tim Hogan, and Bob Perry.

The Forum going offline for weeks did not help things, and I'd pretty much given up we would ever see it again. My truck's engine became problematical, and the phone died unexpectedly of an ailment Google knew about, but did not reveal.

Several things I do know is paddling early mornings on a empty sea, offshore a nearly deserted beach, has been good spiritual and physical exercise. "Deserted" may be too strong a word: there were and is all sorts of life at hand including otter moms with their adorable pups, dolphins, loons, scoters, pelicans, sea lions, cormorants, terns, and "flap-a-miles."


Santa Cruz Boardwalk Main Beach Empty

In the antipodes, a serious two boat challenge is playing out for who is most likely to be first home in the 2023/24 Global Solo Challenge. SSS friend and roving reporter Ronnie Simpson, aboard his 50' SHIPYARD BREWING, and Cole Brauer, on the Class 40 FIRST LIGHT, are slowly stretching their leads on the rest of the fleet as they enter the Southern Ocean in their communal east-about circumnavigations.

At 5 feet, Cole Brauer is the real deal, and looks to become the first American woman to solo circumnavigate non-stop. If you doubt her chops, check-out Cole's recent video of a broach that laid FIRST LIGHT on her side while Cole went aaft and below into the steering compartment to reattach the auto-pilot quadrant. Dame Ellen MacArthur remains a favorite of mine. Cole Brauer is every bit a tigress on the prowl, and Ronnie is going to have his hands full getting past.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0KYA...6-64ec2fcdf6d5

And here is the GSC tracker: https://cf.yb.tl/gsc2023

[Intermission]

Oh thank Neptune you're back!!!

Could you elaborate on "flap-a-miles"?