Getting caught in a squall off the Berkeley shore is one of the most dangerous moments of my career. The ocean can be challenging, but it’s land that poses a bigger threat to any vessel. I learned many lessons and gained confidence from the experience. Bolinas and back…goodness me. I am exhausted just by the [...]
mav·er·ick ˈmav(ə)rik/ noun 1. an unorthodox or independent-minded person. Saturday 09 December 3am Alarm goes. Beddit tells me I've managed 5hrs 34 minutes of sleep and took 40 minutes to fall asleep. My clothes are laid out, my food and water bottles filled and ready by the door. I stretch and hit the road. 4:05am Off [...]
SF > Half Moon Bay Saturday 8th December - 32 nautical miles (10-15hr Row) I'm 90% sure I’ve got this, but what I’ve learned from my rows in the bay of San Francisco is that conditions can change in an instant. In my last 10hr+ row to Bolinas and back I struggled from sleep deprivation. For [...]
From Sausalito to Berkeley is a good 4hr row. Usually I go under Angel Island rather than over through Raccoon Straits. On Tuesday since my boat was at the San Francisco Yacht Club, I decided to take the Straits. The forecast was light, 10-12 from the E/SE. Hardly ideal, but I can row into 10-12 [...]
(Click here for Part 1) The only upside of being blinded by apocalyptic search light - three times - is that I rowed so far onto the bank of San Pablo bay that I found myself in flat water and surprisingly, in better current flow. You can see from the chart of my HR, how [...]
(Click here for Part 1) It's 6:30pm at night and I am wandering around Vallejo, sore, tired and desperately hungry. All three taquerias in my vicinity are closed. I follow my nose. This leads me to a Chinese restaurant, where the answer to everything is no. ‘May I order half a $12 portion of bok [...]
From the outset I knew that rowing to Vallejo was going to be tough. How much would the tide help me? I didn’t know. Could I row 18 nautical miles before the tide turned against me? I was going to find out. My route was a 36 mile roundtrip from Paradise Cay; my plan to [...]
The disappearance of the moon sets my body off on another desire to sleep. It’s not so much that I want to sleep, mostly I want to stop rowing. I decide to let the boat drift and go in my cabin and lie down for 10 minutes. Except I am not exactly offshore. I am [...]
The wind is now fresh from the E/SE, but I settle in for the slog and manage 2+ knots. “What’s our strategy? I was thinking of cutting across to the north shore.” “Let’s row along the south shore.” Don says. This reminds me of a great quote in the book ‘Sod’s Law of the Sea,’ [...]
When Don Bekins and I rowed under the Golden Gate, out to Point Bonita and back on September 22nd, there was no wind, no wind at all. Not even a puff to send us home. Yesterday, we knew, would be different. Our original plan was to row today, but Don and his wife had made [...]