50 knots - under sail

Not So Fast: Kiteboarding Dispute Sinks Sailing Record

By CHRIS MUSELER

Published: November 27, 2008 - New York Times

The World Sailing Speed Record Council belatedly decided to dismiss the mark set by Sebastian Cattelan in Namibia because he broke the 50-knot barrier on a kiteboard.  Here's the video.  The headline above gives you the NY Times story.

The Gates Pick

In a TPM post on the Gates pick.  I support it.  He was plucked from the Iraq Study Group, which called it straight - as this NY Times  archive piece shows.

Late to the party

I was late to the Obama party.  I feared a weak candidate - thin resume, the Rev. Wright problems, feared the war hero's appeal, etc.  So I didn't exult in the big crowds, the youthful followings, etc. that were the first stirrings since 1968 that felt and looked like a genuine popular mass movement.  

The Boston Globe has put together a photo essay that cures that problem.  It is photo-hagiography at its best.  Huge crowds, closeups of the candidate, private moments, casual moments, joyful, hopeful, adulatory faces, a youthful candidate in full stride on the basketball court (didn't do John Kerry any good to scrimmage on the ice with the Bruins. Oh well.  Spilt milk, etc.)

How to dress in New York - Bill Cunningham `On the Street'

Bill Cunningham has a great eye: the classic way to dress in New York - in Manhattan that is when the good, cold weather arrives, is a jacket, scarf, and gloves.  And for me, of course, a hat.  Bill Cunningham sees it On The Street.  

Southbound 650 reaches Peru

Pascale, Jesse's embarazada girlfriend, met Jesse and Andy in Colombia.  They headed out on the 650 for Quito.  Fortunately after more than 40 miles of bad road she hopped a glorious looking bus.  They did get to Quito without mishap - despite passing through the tail end of a Columbian riot and other hazards.

And Jesse and Andy, after Pascale flew back to N.H., headed south to Peru where this latest post was made.  Still southbound - and maybe splitting up - Andy to Bolivia, Jesse to Patagonia via Chile.  Here's the rest of a spectacular array of shots.

Diving 1,200 feet under the earth - The Rondout Tunnel

The Rondout branch tunnel which carries most of New York City's water from the Catskills, is now leaking 36 million gallons/day - and flooding a lot of people's homes, too.  The New York Times describes the lives and work of the men who are living in a diving bell - in a helium and 2% oxygen atmospere, so that they cann work in the tunnel, 1,200 fee below ground. Here it is.  

The photos depict the Delaware Aqueduct tunnel under constructoin in 1937, and the diving bell in which the men live full-time - except when they are diving in the tunnel.

VOR - It's really got a hold on me...

Volvo Ocean Race, leg 2 - Capetown to Cochin - the old fashioned way - under sail.

November 21, 2008    

6 days out of Capetown 

2,300 nm to Cochin

12 - 14 knots - Fleet Average Boat Speed   (8 boats)

78 nm - Distance from front to back of fleet 

Data from Team Data Centre

Team index page

There's email, audio, video, commentary.

There's passing footage to die for, mishaps and astonishing skill and competitive spirit.

Highlights of the week:

Video

Ericsson 3 passes Telefonica Blue - in rough seas in the Indian Ocean, November 16

Team Russia: Chinese Gybe 

Delta Lloyd: Hits a whale

Puma: 2d longitudinal frame crack video

Green Dragon: racing with no boom.

Email

Ken Read, skipper of Puma reports on day 17  out of Capetown, Tuesday 18 November 2008 10:57 GMT -  3,000 miles from Cochin:

"We got about as vertical in a sailboat as you would ever want to be when...we found another beauty of a wave, except this one had no face in front of it and ---whoosh. Take off!  

"The inevitable silence of a boat that feels like it is literally flying, followed up with a massive SMASH into the not very soft Indian Ocean. But this one was different than the other 10,872 smashes that have occurred over the past 48 hours or so. This one had a horrid CRACK along with it. I was working with Justin on the sail at the time and had on my headlamp and ran to the bow to quickly find several cracks in our longitudinal frames in the bow section. "

 See  Puma Team email for reports of fabricating carbon fibre splints underway, more damage, despair, and recovery.

Bonfire of the Vanities

Tom Wolfe, the right wing cynic, made the phrase famous.  But the people who deserve the appellation, the bull marketeers, have only recently gotten their comeuppance (at least on November 4).   (We now have to revive the fallen beast.)  Michael Lewis (Liars Poker) has this acccount of  'The End'  on Conde Nast Portfolio.  Thanks to Brad Meehan for the tip.

Volvo Race - mid-Indian Ocean mark

Torben Grael, the great Brazilian Olympian, and America's Cup sailor leads the fleet at the mid-Indian Ocean scoring gate - an imaginary point about 3,000 miles southwest of Cochin, at India's southern tip.  The VOR now takes the northerly trade route - not the traditonal southern ocean route.  Check out the  VOR site.  

Obama, Afghanistan and the `Yes, we can' Trap

My friend Russ Hoyle has a new, cautionary post on The Daily Beast, the new webzine edited by Tina Brown, with political editing by Sid Blumenthal, long-time Hillary friend and adviser.

Russ's message is: "The danger is that Petraeus’s full-blown, can-do, war-fighting doctrine will so dazzle the usually cautious but change-minded new president that Afghanistan policy could well turn into a “Yes, we can!” trap."  The essay is here.