This Sunday we sailed out for SBYC 2019 CHRF Spring 2. We knew that there was a gale and small craft warning during the race. Santa Barbara forecasts tend to be iffy. You really cannot decide till the time of the race and sometimes afterward.

Issued: 2:32 PM Feb. 16, 2019 – National Weather Service

...GALE WARNING NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 3 AM PST MONDAY...
...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY WILL EXPIRE AT 3 PM PST THIS AFTERNOON...

\* Winds...Northwest winds 20 to 30 kt with gusts to 40 kt are

expected when winds are strongest.

\* Seas...Combined seas of 8 to 10 feet with periods around 9
seconds are expected when waves are largest.

SEE THE COASTAL WATERS FORECAST (CWFLOX) FOR MORE DETAILS.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A Gale Warning means winds of 34 to 47 knots are imminent or
occurring. Operating a vessel in gale conditions requires
experience and properly equipped vessels. It is highly recommended
that mariners without the proper experience seek safe harbor
prior to the onset of gale conditions.

We were a little lite Sunday. Could have used an extra 150 to 200 pounds on the boat. I am still happy that everyone wanted to go out. The call to go in was because I did not feel we could hold the boat down with just the main alone.

Some wind stats from Sunday:

Lighthouse 4 on Sterns Wharf

SB East Buoy

Just a notice to anyone sailing races with me on my J70 Escape. I try to run a safe boat. I rarely call off sailing based on a weather report. I use weather reports more as advisement. The reason is that weather reports in the Santa Barbara area are not that accurate. Also, SBYC always runs a race. The responsibility is on the boat owner. To quote the SI for CHRF:

Immediately prior to any race, the decision to race or not race is the sole responsibility of the boat owner or the owner’s designee. At all times during a race, it is the boat owner’s responsibility to continue or to retire based on unexpected conditions or equipment failure. Boat owners must advise crew members of their responsibility to decide for themselves whether to race or not based on their own competence level

I take this seriously. Example, the first Hot Rum of 2019, I did not fly the kite. I was not confident that it would be safe to sail with it up. I think we were very close to last on a day where j70s screamed with the kite flying.

This is the text I sent to my crew this morning. This verbiage will tend to apply to almost all races:

There is a forecast for heavy wind. Problem with SB is that forecasts are not very accurate. I plan to sail unless actual conditions say otherwise.

I mention this, because I have had crew cancel because of a weather report, and it turned out to be a fun day.

Video of the SBYC 2019 Hot Rum Regatta race #3. Another fun day. There were two other J/70's sailing that day. We traded over the race. It was also a lesson in why the lines should be kept neet since we lost because of an assshole in the spinnaker halyard. We thought it was flaked.

The race had a reverse start. We were going to do a classic start on the outside and sail to the shore. The wind shifted to make the other side of the start line favored.

The wind was shifty, especially close to shore.

The wind was between 10 to 20 knots.

There is a trend of using continuous lines. I am not particularly fond of the continuous spinacker sheet. I think it makes it harder to keep the deck clean. But it is what it is.

Video of the SBYC 2019 Hot Rum Regatta race #1. All I have to say is we had a lot of fun that day the wind gusts up to 25 miles per hour. We did not fly the spinnaker because I was concerned that we would probably either broach or shrimp the spinnaker. What amazes me was that while we were going out to the starting line, we got up to 9 miles per hour with just the mainsail J/70 that is fast.

I finally figured out how to upload a GoPro video with telemetry, and as one file. The process is not perfect, but doable. The problem is that GoPro saves files as chapters or four-gigabyte files. The normal way is to create a playlist that puts the file together or put the file together with music. For me, that is not acceptable.

In GoPro Quik, open each file in View one at a time. Added the gauges, then create a clip. Save the clip. You have to that with each file. This will make an MP4.

Then use MP4Joiner to merge all the files together. Fun? (not). What I got were an hour and two-minute YouTube video.

Just did a report on my garmin connect. It is good to look back at what you did because it puts what you do into perspective of what one has accomplished.

I did not include "other". Cycling I had just started in late last year. My goals for 2019 most likely will be a lot more than 2018.

I have been a caretaker all my life. I learn how to give a shot when I was 17 years old. What I've learned over time is that you do have to listen to what your doctor says but you need to read up on the conditions of the person that you're taking care of. This last year I have been taking care of an older diabetic person. The person has a mild cognitive disorder and bad kidneys and diabetes 2. By reading up on person's condition, it also makes what the doctor says more sense it allows you to know when to call the doctor and when not to also allows you to set up protocols that I make sense to you also it helps you understand what is going on

The problem with the Internet is that many articles just do not make sense or there too academic. Even worse they come and go. I have found several websites that made it easier to explain to my friends the situation that I'm going through however over time they disappear. One was called: My Aging Parents.

Many blog sites will cut and paste different websites. I wish I could since the information was helpful to me. I believe it would be helpful for others.

However, in the United States, we have to deal with Copyright our laws. Even under the theory of fair use, I have already learned the hard way about justice sometimes is a matter of how has a better lawyer. When I say that, I do not claim victimhood.

My recommendation is that you decide on a notebook such as OneNote and copy and paste the information so that it will always be there and is available to you. I am choosing OneNote because when push comes to shove when it counts, I turn to Microsoft Office. I do use other Office Suites such as Google Docs, just that Microsoft Office is a lot less frustrating.

I hope that over the year, I can synthesize the information that I find so it can be available to me and hopefully useful to you.

A lot harder than than it should be.

“Show respect to people who don’t even deserve it; not as a reflection of their character, but as a reflection of yours.

—Dave Willis