Race Time

The Cruising Division race start will be at 1100 on 14 May, inside Pensacola Bay near Bayou Chico. We'll be out on the water by 0800 most likely vying for position and getting all the screaming and yelling out of the way. It's a pretty tight start out in front of the bayou and through the bay and out the Pensacola Pass, not hitting the sand bars, the Russian freighter and the USS Massachusetts (BB-2) that just break the water, and a couple of other hazards to navigation. But once we're past that we have the entire GOM at our disposal.

The Race Committee is employing some pretty cool technology this year that will enable anyone to track the location and progress of boats in the race. We mount a transponder to ARGO and it reports our position and speed every 15-30 minutes, all race long, provided that we are not stove in by a kraken or captured by bandidos.

You can watch the whole thing from your computer with graphical internet access, stubby in hand, at www.iboattrack.com . If you follow the links to the racing section, you can look at the results from a race that just finished, the Regata del sol al Sol, not to be confused with our race, the Regata al Sol. Long story. I'll try to post the specific URL when it's made available to us.

28APR08 - Official Gear

Costa del Mar sunglasses are now the official sunny's of ARGO for the race. Mainly because I just bought myself a pair. And I'm buying Mary a pair too. I, in an uncharacteristically un-seamanlike fashion, failed to yell "heads"when heaving Mary a dockline on Saturday, and, in addition to hitting her on the head, I knocked her Smiths into the water. Those Smiths saw heavy action in Australia, outback, Flinders Ranges, Eyre Peninsula, Whitsunday's, you name it. They went down fightin' and now I owe her a new pair.

But, I have promised to dive the Smiths up from the bottom this weekend. The best part is that in the aftermath and slow rebuilding progress of Hurricane Katrina, there are no local pumpout stations for onboard blackwater (sewage). So, I need to tell the other boaters around the marina not to flush for an hour or two.

We also need an official beer, rum, and rum drink of the race, and I'm open to suggestions.

Tuesday 21APR08 Bienvenidos

Welcome to the blog of Sailing Vessel ARGO, call sign WDE3361. This is her, there will be much more to come in the following weeks documenting our race in the Regata al Sol from Pensacola to Isla Mujeres, Mexico. Yes, that's the Island of Women.

Check out the link to the NOAA website, you can look at the map of the Gulf of Mexico that we'll be sailing straight through the middle of. Only 12,000 ft. deep.

http://www.charts.noaa.gov/OnLineViewer/411.shtml