Gale Force Sailing

You don’t find good friends that often, and I am blessed with the best.  Better yet I don’t have the budget to find models this good looking, but Michael Harrison (aka Nunya, Nooner, Ninja, Tha Nunner) can fill up a GFS shirt with gold medal hunkiness.  Go Nunson Go!  His wife Audra would do well in a Gale Force Sailing baby-Tee, but this is a FAMILY site.  Tee Hee.

Here at the J22 World Championship we are having a good time.  We didn’t do that well today for a finish score, but we sailed an OK race.  We were in great shape on the first leg (upwind) and then I screwed up thinking we could cross when we couldn’t (darn those rules) and the wheels came off our bus.  Regardless we had a good time in our ONE RACE of the day.  We had a chance to really excell and we didn’t, but we know we are at pace and can do better.  So we shall.

Tick tock.  Tick tock.  It’s just about race time.  Stay tuned for more video blogs, podcasts from every race, and more.

This year’s event is going to be an amazing thing. With more than 100 boat registered and some of the best racing talent in the world.

Our team is focused on sailing smart and loose, focusing on fun and learning, and sailing to the best of our ability.  We’ve got a great boat, great sails from North Sails, and I have confidence in our abilities as a team to do fairly well.  So, off we go.  For now, here’s some venue weather you can track:

I just finished another great week of sailing coaching in Chester, Nova Scotia.

My last full day in Chester I sailed aboard an International One Design - La Diva - in the Chester Classic cup.  We corrected to fourth and would have liked to have done better.  But we were certainly happy with the finish and we had the best time.

Before I left I took in some amazing local art including pieces by my friend Simon Copas and Dolly Hancock who have some REALLY beautiful cards for sale online.  You can check their amazing stuff, on their site, which will help you feel like you are closer to Chester.

Another artist of note, who wasn’t at the show, but who’s stuff is fun to look at is Jose Antonia Valverde-Alcalde.  This year’s Chester Race Week - probably the best race week in North America - promotional poster image was done by this man.  Check the site, I bet you’ll like the paintings.

Speaking of Chester Race Week, this event is a one in a million sort of thing.  Great sailing in my new favorite place against talented sailors.  How could you go wrong?  The event has some really interesting history as well.  Here’s what the Chester Yacht Club has to say about their event.

Before I left I came out of the woods and stayed at the Mecklenburg Inn - mostly because Suzi makes a breakfast that can’t be beat.  The only other spot in Chester that holds a candle is breakfast at the Kiwi Cafe - owned by Linda Flynn.  Both Lynda and Suzi can cook up a storm, but they both have sailing connections too.  Suzi is a top flight sailor and Lynda’s kids are romping and ruling in the Opti/420 scene.

The last thing to note is while I was in Chester I caught a play a the Chester Playhouse.  The show was a one man show that blew me away.  Here’s what another blogger said…

…and stockings for the ladies pulls a personal strand from the huge and hard to look at tapestry of world war 2 history and stitches together real letters into a series of vignettes about Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Amazingly it manages to be captivating, uplifting even in the trauma at what’s being witnessed and narrated, and quietly electric. A good one person show.

Brendan McMurtry-Howlett plays over 20 characters I’m sure in this 1 hour, as he tells the true story of the Canadian soldiers who avoided orders in order to bring some humanity and recovery to the ghosts and slips of humans found alive at Bergen-Belsen at the end of the war. And he does his countless changes with a slow fluid ease and a swively turn that’s not overwrought or cheezy, but feels likes a winding and setting of a clock. His performance across all the characters has a dearness and intensity that feels like it’s from another time, and when he looks around the stage he makes you see the beautiful countryside in Germany, the heather, and the children who had been hidden in the camp by the nurses and inmates playing on it during their stolen picnic hours.

He performs every character himself – everyone except for prisoners of the camp and one little girl. For these he twists behind a crate and twists back with a tiny fragile puppet. With their large eyes, bony features, papier mache skin, hanging cloth bodies and the actor’s one oversize hand in their sleeve, these puppets look hauntingly like the real and countless photographs of the survivors of genocide. McMurtry-Howlett is delicate and moving with their gestures and voices. If you hate delicate and moving, or history, or puppets, don’t go see this show.

Now, I don’t agree with the last sentiment.  I thought the story was OK - no, it was good - but the actor is incredible.  20 characters, near perfect transitions, 90 minutes at a frenetic pace and puppets that captivate rather than creep you out.  It was just amazing.

So that’s it.  Another trip to Chester.  You should call and we’ll talk about the opportunities to sail with Gale Force Sailing in Chester.  Until then…

OK, so I can’t spell.  My dad’s been telling me for years and spell check…well I just ignore it.  Meriwether Lewis (or was it Clark?) said that if a man can’t spell a word more than one way he lacks creativity… well I am fairly creative.

Anyway it is Pedal and Sea…  not the way I spelled it (peddle).  And they are amazing people running an amazing business.

I broke a pedal - because I am a heavy boy, apparently, and they buzzed out to bring me another one.  Aren’t they great?

And though I am camping, they brought it to the Mecklenburg Inn (where I am staying this weekend) - which is maybe the ONLY place to stay when you are in Nova Scotia.  Suzi, an incredible chef and a great sailor, received it and sometime tomorrow I am going to upgrade to it.  Until then I am creaking along.  Still a good bike though.

If you’re a cyclist who is planning a Nova Scotia vacation, but would prefer not to lug a heavy bike around, then cal them! They rent bikes by the bushel. Pedal & Sea stocks a modern fleet of hybrid bikes made by the best manufacturers, including Gary Fisher and Opus.  I went with a hybrid and found it to be perfect for cruising the lighthouse route.

And here’s what’s really cool… they are happy to rent you a bike for a day, or for a week. That’s often the case with people traveling in Nova Scotia…. (like me) They decide to spend a day riding along the coast, only to become love struck…. or moonstruck…or awestruck. Or maybe all three! Pedal and Sea can even recommend some nice country inns and restaurants along the route… and in my case they are helping me get BACK to the airport.  Amazing!

I’m one of those AWESTRUCK people.  And I am doing all that I can to be here from July to September next year.  The place is just incredible.

And biking is really a wonderful way to explore a wonderful place. In addition, they also offer all-inclusive kayaking day tours on Nova Scotia’s South Shore.  I’d like to do the kayaking… maybe next time.

Anyway, it’s been another day in paradise.  I sailed all day on a Bluenose and then did some race strategy conversations until the early evening.  After that I was invited to a party with a local sailing hot shot who races International One Designs and it was a fantastic party.  Great people, great food catered by the Kiwi Cafe and one of the most beautiful houses I have ever been to.

Till tomorrow…