cock-eyed optimist

“I think this is going to be very liberating for Republicans in Congress.”

With Democrats firmly in control of both chambers of CongressRepublicans have a chance “to get back on offense.”

Sen. John Thune, a South Dakotan who is eyeing a leadership role in the new Congress and is seen by some in the party as presidential timber.  

Rounding Antarctica clockwise - The Vendee Globe

The Vendee Globe - November 9, 2008 >>>> o/a February 9, 2009

The rules are simple:

Depart Les SablesD'Olonne, France

Sail around the world 

Single-handed

Non-stop

No outside assistance

Leave Antarctica to starboard

Return to France

For the route, click here.

The French are obsessive about this.  But others have tried their hand: the amazing Brit Ellen MacArthur (at the top of the mast) [2000-2001 - 2d - 94d4h25'40"]; a Mainer transplanted from California - Bruce Schwab in Ocean Planet (a cold-molded woodie)[2004-2005 - 9th, 109d] ; and now Rich Wilson (once a speechwriter for Michael Dukakis seen here with the day after election day French paper in hand) has tried his hand for the 2008-2009 rendition.  [Rich will not be on the Obama transition team.]

It's not easy to beat extemporaneous inventors - people like Michel Desjoyeaux [2000-2001, 1st, 93d3h57'32''], a Frenchman who jury-rigged his diesel motor (needed for electronics and water ballast pumps) to start with wind-power via lines from boom to engine, a line wrapped around the flywheel, like an outboard motor!

The most dramatic parts are the southern ocean (the seas surrounding the white continent) where appalling storms and icebergs threaten the Open 60 skippers.  Don't ask why someone would undertake this voyage.  Just be grateful that someone else is doing it, and you can see the pictures and hear the tales via email and transmissions from the lonely planetary travelers.

For all the race news click here.

from slavery to freedom

>Victory speech

OBAMA

Racial Barrier Falls as Voters Embrace Call for Change

Fired up Ready to Go

Obama's last night of campaigning - in Virginia
Fired up. Ready to Go!

Voting in Manhattan

Maurice (Mickey) Carroll, Director, Quinnipiac University Polling Institute:

Forgive me for putting on my ain't-it-great-to-be-an-American act, but Election Day brings that out. There was a 15-minute line of neighbors at the school on West 84th Street and Columbus Avenue in Manhattan waiting to vote, a mother with kids in a stroller, a shaky old lady with a walker, people I ride with every day in the elevator at 241 Central Park West. Some paused at the school bake sale. Everyone was in a good mood. "In New York, it's Obama in a landslide." I told the woman in line behind me. "I know," she said, "but I still want to do my duty." 

The Agenda

www.Politico.com

Personally - I was disappointed that we didn't get ink stains on our forefingers to prove that we voted today.

I want physical evidence that I voted for Obama and Biden.

I have never before walked up to the polls fighting back tears.

I keep thinking about Frederick Douglass, and DuBois and King, and even Booker T. Washington.

And I think about Robert Kennedy - the only other candidate in my lifetime to whom I attached so much hope.

- George

Friendship, Maine 04547

When I was 10 my father took me out for a sail on his friend Lou Peretti's Friendship sloop, which he moored in Hempstead Harbor. I remember two things about it - the wide teak decks and the graceful, reassuring movement of the boat as the wind built. The beamy gaffer, a stable platform conceived for fishermen in much tougher seas reassured the nervous boy. In June 1994 when we were compelled to change our summer plans I saw a little mid-week classified ad in the Times for a house in Friendship, Maine. The memory of Lou Peretti reassured me and an afternoon sail on Gladiator, a Friendship carrying passengers, did the same for Taisy, if not quite for Marilyn.

Yesterday, Halloween 2008, Marilyn and I closed on a friendship - a cottage on "the Back River, so-called" says the warranty deed. The post office says it's the Cushing Road in East Friendship 04547. We'll take posession from the tenants, Gabriel and Misty, earnest Nicholas and sweet Corinne, in May. But we started shopping today - a new stove and icebox at Lowe's in Thomaston. Maine in late fall is beautiful. Here are some shots of the Back River, the cottage, James J. Muldoon's splashdown, Marilyn at our lawyer Jim Strong's in Thomaston (the Halloween capital of the Mid-Coast), the Friendship United Methodist Church, and Wallace's store.

View My Saved Places in a larger map

Change in Course - equipment failure in the South Atlantic

Issuma took off from the Canaries a few weeks back with two replacement roller furling devices on back order for delivery to Capetown, SA.  A roller furler?   (Think of the spindle on a yo-yo, turn it horizontal, extending the spindle so that it is a 40' axle around which the  sail is wrapped. )   Now two of the units have failed.  So the next port will be someplace in South America for repairs.  They are following a familiar path: go west, curve around under the "south atlantic high pressure" zone.   You'll get more details here.

The Panama Canal - is that half-way...or far enough?

Jesse and Andy have reached the Panama Canal. That's a landmark. The Miraflores Locks. They have a lot of mosquitoes, don't they? Next stop Colombia. but you can't get there from there. You need a boat or a plane. I think Pascale joins them there, then it's off to Quito. Is that far enough for a motorcycle diary? Anyway you can stay posted by clicking on Southbound 650

My Private Idaho

It's getting clearer that what this blog is about is envy.  My mountain biking days never came and they have definitely went.  God I miss it.  Here's the Pioneer Mountains in Idaho.  The slide show tells you why and the Times travel story tells you how.  

Chi. Tribune Endorses Obama, 100,000 in St. Louis, and Colin Powell!

For the first time in 160 years the Chicago Tribune has endorsed a Democrat for President. No reason to hold Lincoln, Grant, or TR against them, at least. But like the Prodigal Son all is forgiven now. As conservative public intellectuals like Brooks, Sullivan, Hitchens, and Christopher Buckley (son of William F., National Review founder) bailed out on McCain and embraced Obama I wondered if the masses would go the same way. Today's 100,000 in St. Louis to hear Obama may be the answer.
And then there's the Colin Powell endorsement:

Coast Guard: McCain, Palin, and Biden each has a child in Iraq. We've got one on shoreline defense duty - the head of Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron - where you can almost see Canada, which is, as Sarah Palin reminded us, a foreign country! Taisy is a field organizer for Obama in Bay City, Michigan.

If you want to help: Volunteer.