Author: luken7

An avid and passionate sailor, drummer and technologist. My career focuses around computing and storage technologies. My passion is sailing and playing drums. I love music, especially progressive jazz and rock.

O2 Single-handed sailing video

Posted on by luken7

Rough going out, nice coming back. Almost dead on the nose in 20kts of wind and five foot seas. Being on the Pamlico Sound, the wave intervals are about one second apart as the energy builds up and there’s no where for it to dissipate as it does in the open ocean. Made for a bumpy and pounding ride. I should have just kept the sails up and reefed and fell off the wind, but the weather was already unpredictable and I didn’t want to struggle with taking down the sails if it got really bad. The challenges on single-handing.

The return trip was great. Off the port beam with about 10kts of wind. But that soon built up when I reached NR1 and it was consistent in the teens. That’s the second part of the video.

 

O2 Success!!!

Posted on by luken7

Hemispheres got me there safe and sound. A few snafu’s on the way. Getting the sails down and rolled, autopilot struggling, got soaked, and had brain farts due to being tired. Tried to follow last years track into Big Foot Slough, not a smart idea. Then cutting close to the mark while entering Silver Lake. Ran aground but was able to reverse and swivel the boat, then motor off. Good thing as the ferry was coming down the channel and there wouldn’t have been room for the both of us.

Single-handing can be challenging. This is the longest single-handed trip that I’ve done. Lots of anxiety when I left and returned, but a great confidence booster. Think I performed pretty well heading out to Ocracoke in those seas and lots of lessons learned. Never rush things, gets some rest prior to departure, life vest, tether, jacklines. and a pre-sail safety check. All done, but can’t believe I forgot to file a floatplan.

When you’re tired, you do silly things as seen in the photos below. While I can definitely single-hand back to Ocracoke, I think I’d prefer a second set of hands. Definitely need a cruising mate. Single-handing for short trips like up to New Bern or over to West Bay is fine, four or so hours. But when it’s 8+ hours and you hit rough weather most of the way, it can take it’s toll and a crew mate is definitely helpful. Not just a passenger that’s aboard that you have to care for and be concerned about, but a fellow sailor that you know you can trust on watch and knows the systems on the boat. Most importantly, knows what to do when something goes wrong and doesn’t initially panic. Anyone out there interested in being a cruising mate on the NC sounds, let me know.

Some shots around Ocracoke, and most importantly, the coffee shop. Gotta have good coffee at the Ocracoke Coffee shop.

The return was much nicer. Winds out of the south and southeast, started out light under ten knots but built up nicely as I passed NR1 and headed up the Neuse. Much, much nicer sail back….oh, did I mention that already? Overall, wonderful extended weekend. Learned a lot about single-handing over long distances (to me anyway). Looking forward to going again. Our club has a two-week long sailing trip coming up next month. Not sure if I’m doing it yet, mainly from the need of having a crewmate. I’ll see.

Sailing to Ocracoke

Posted on by luken7

Wow, talk about a trip. Our annual Memorial weekend cruise is eventful in one form or another every year. This year is the story of a missed forecast, wind on the nose and five foot rollers at one second intervals. The last two+ hours was wearing me out. All my single handed skills were put to the test.

The bow was breaking waves, first seeing sky, then walls of water, then sky, then water. Even with the dodger, connector and bimini, I still got soaked, completely drenched. The inevitable “what the hell am I doing here?” question did pop into my mind from time to time, but was well past the point of no return. The thought of turning around was tempting but I would then have those waves on the starboard quarter and I’d be rolling like hell. No worse feeling. The last time I felt this bad on a crossing was when we brought the boat down from Noank, CT while crossing Delaware Bay. That didn’t work out to well, lost it all.

I kept my lunch down this time (because I didn’t eat much). But when we got to the top of the channel headed down to Ocracoke, the wind was coming from the northeast, we’re headed south and then we were rolling.

So here’s some photos including Seaglass, the boat I paired up with doing the crossing, starting off with the course, finishing with a fantastic omelet the next morning at Dajio’s.

Ocracoke Bound

Posted on by luken7

Well, busted butt most of the weekend to get everything done for Ocracoke. All set. Dilithium crystals replenished, anti-matter containment field calibrated, and course plotted and loaded into the course computer. Hemispheres is ready. About eight hours and will be a full day of single-handed sailing. Should have great wind as Wednesday shows it being out of the north for most of the day, an excellent beam reach. Just need to grab a twelve pack of Red Stripe to have while out there.

Tropical Storm Ana – an early start

Posted on by luken7

The first named storm of the year is here and according to several weather related sites, is the strongest tropical storm to hit NC this early in the season. In fact, it’s not even officially storm season yet, not till June 1st. I’m sorry but pre-season only belongs in sporting events. So no sailing this weekend, just prepping for Ocracoke in a couple of weeks, and securing Hemispheres a bit better for the storm. So as there’s no sailing photos to share, here’s some pending storm pictures.

Things that only mom did

Posted on by luken7

Today is Mothers Day and I’ve been thinking about my mom most of the day. To say the least, I really miss her. Every year I remember just how special she is and how fortunate I am to have had her for a mother. So here’s some things that only mom would do.

  1. Solving all the problems with Vicks Vapor Rub. When I was silly enough to play in the snow in just a light shirt and get sick that evening, mom would do the vapor rub thing. She had a knack of putting the right amount on her fingers and hold them over a candle, getting the temperature just right. Then rub my chest…all was right in the world
  2. Walks up to Highland Park looking for me after dark, then point and send me home
  3. Gets up early, make a pot of cornmeal porridge and go back to bed
  4. Absolutely forbids you to go to a Henry Rollins with Black Flag concert after seeing the advertisement in the Village Voice. A nun on her knees with her arms wrapped around a priest’s leg. (I will neither confirm nor deny if I was in attendance at that concert)
  5. Allows you to go see Iron Maiden in concert, go figure
  6. When the smoke alarm goes off while you’re making breakfast and you freak out, only mom can calmly walk into the kitchen, take the pan of burning bacon off the stove, place it in the sink and go back to bed
  7. Sends you a check for $20 although you have a job, just in case you need it
  8. Covered up for you, so your hard-headed ass didn’t get a worn-out ass from dad’s belt (on many occasions)
  9. Let you have a band in the basement
  10. Actually listened to your band, featuring the best of the Stones, Judas Priest and The Ramones, for a whole hour
  11. Bought you that pair of Jordache jeans so you could impress that girl…it didn’t work
  12. Gets you your first job
  13. Gets you your second job after you sucked and were too lazy at your first job
  14. Tells you no, you’re not getting that sheepskin coat because it will get stolen. But you did get the sheepskin gloves, they got stolen.
  15. Made you go to Sunday School and church. EVERY Sunday
  16. Stays with an abusive husband to keep a family together for you.
  17. Teaches you empathy and compassion
  18. Lets you argue with her
  19. When you’re asked, she seems to already know what you did and where you’ve been

And the best thing about mom. Just being mom. Her grace, love, dignity, compassion, strength and courage. Being the example and showing me all the attributes to look for in a spouse and mother of my children.

Innovate or say Bye-bye

Posted on by luken7

Truly an eye opening stat. You would think that a Fortune 500 company has the resources and money to last forever. Well, since 1955, 89% of Fortune 500 companies no longer exist. Innovate and disrupt or be disrupted and die is the message and the lesson. This is more true now than ever before as the pace of innovation is mind blowing. #emcworld

Internet Ads are out of Control

Posted on by luken7

So below is a link to a video of Microsoft’s new browser called Microsoft Edge. It’s a quick video lasting about a minute. But as with everything on the web, you have to watch an advertisement first although the Microsoft video is essentially an advertisement.

 

So we’re now to the point that we have advertisements in front advertisements. Anyway, enjoy.

This is Microsoft Edge, the replacement for Internet Explorer | The Verge.