Mark Missed, Mean Mouse, Much Mayhem
That was our Three Bridge Fiasco in a nutshell.  This is the biggest race of the year on San Francisco Bay — Saturday, January 30, doublehanded or singlehanded, 311 boats entered, 282 boats started, and 242 boats finished. 
The rules are unique: three marks — Blackaller buoy (near the south end of [...]

You may recall that as VALIS was sailing home from our recent northbound attempt, we discovered that we were entering the Golden Gate at the same time as No Ka Oi, returning from Oahu.  No Ka Oi had raced in the 2008 Pacific Cup, and as a result of our radio contact out by the [...]

Yesterday Mary, Edward Killeen, and I took VALIS out for a sail on the bay.  At first it looked like the fog was going to be hanging around, but as we left the slip the sky began to clear and we had nice warm day.  The wind started out light, but once we got out of Sausalito [...]

Here (attached) is the Google Earth “.kmz” file showing our track up and down the coast. You can also see the ships we were seeing with our AIS system. I have included placemarks for the major weather buoys along the San Francisco to Seattle route.
I swear that we can sail better tacking angles than you [...]

Just received this from our good friend Jack Thomas, Commander of the U.S. Navy “Skinny Dragons”:
———
Re: Pirates
If you’ve been watching the news, you might have seen a familiar four- engine turboprop flying around.
 
Cheers,
Jack
———

I would like to say “Thank You” to Jack and the Skinny Dragons.  You guys make us very proud!

Rich and I had a great time sailing in the Fiasco.  We saw some old friends, made some new ones, had a few minor close-calls, and experienced quite a variety of conditions.
Our start time was 10:18:18AM.  Almost a dozen other boats shared the same starting time, and since the various starts were spaced by about one [...]

VALIS will be racing in the “Three Bridge Fiasco” on Saturday, January 31.  This is a race sponsored by the Singlehanded Sailing Society (with singlehanded and doublehanded divisions) and should be a lot of fun.  As this point there are 322 entries, and there is still almost a week to go for sign-ups.  VALIS will be [...]

And here she is, gracing the December 2008 edition of SAIL Magazine:

This shot was taken by Peter Lyons, when we were heading out the Gate for a pre-Pacific Cup offshore overnight shakedown.  From left to right the crew is: Rich (at the helm), John (completely hidden behind Rich), Michael, Alan, Steve, and me up forward.  [...]

I have actually been asked to describe the systems and programs we use on VALIS  for communications and getting our weather forecasts.  Here it is: http://www.sailvalis.com/specs/CommTech.htm
Any comments or suggestions are most welcome.

We have been planning to take VALIS out on an overnight sail for several months, to give the crew a chance to regain (or gain) their sea-legs, and do some open-ocean spinnaker practice. We had agreed on the weekend of April 12-13, and if the weather wasn’t appropriate we would stay in the Bay. [...]