A Daysail on a Pogo 40

 This has been one of my dreamboats for a while, the Pogo 40.  I learned about this boat a few years ago while watching people race around at incredible speeds on monohull boats, and found that there is this design class, the "Class 40" that came into being when this boat was designed and created, and it is a ocean racing boat, that can do non-stop sailing around the globe, with one person aboard, and be very very fast. 
So when I learned that there was one in Long Beach, California, I asked about the owner and if I could find out his email address, and then I got to talking to him and he offered to take me out sailing for a day.  Christmastime!  I felt giddy with joy.  So after dropping Mike off in San Diego, I drove on up and met with Brad and we went out on his wonderful boat. 
First off, you look at the boat and it looks long and boat like, and very white.  Its 12 years old and he has owned it the whole time, it doesn't look that big from the dock, or from the pictures, but when stepping aboard...

 the first thing you think when you get into the cockpit is that it is very big.  Enormous.  Vast.  There is tons of deck space, tons of room to sit and you feel like there is room for 12 people in the cockpit without much trouble.  In all the looking online of these boats I've done I never really understood how big the boat was.  Here is Brad in the cockpit.

 Down the stairs, its like a normal boat, but a bit more spartan.  This one has a stove and kitchen and sink and things, even a fridge!  But everything is simple and mostly plastic, which makes it lighter weight and easier to clean and also longer lasting and for that I like it more than the luxury things.  This interior is actually the ideal for me, since I don't need much and don't want to have a lot of extraneous things that will rot or go bad or need upkeep.

 Here is a look at the starboard Quarterberth.  Imagine you came down the stairs and turned to your right and did a near 180, and now you are looking back aft under the cockpit and there is a berth there.  Altair has the same idea, but much smaller.  This one just less than standing headroom at the entrance and very high sitting up headroom on the bed, with room for two easily on the bunk and maybe three if you snuggle.  Bigger than any bunk I am used to.  The cushions (which come with the boat normally) are very comfortable and feel great.

 The forward berth is huge.  In this picture I'm lying on the bed and have my legs spread wide and I have nearly 4 ft above my head (and feet) and the bed is queen sized in the aft section and slightly smaller in the forward part.  Its a triangle of sorts, but since the boat has a blocked off section in the very front, the trapezoid small part is still quite big.  I'd say this is twice the size of my bunk in Altair.  And the volume of this room alone is equal to the entire volume of Altair. 

 The main cabin is vast as well.  It might have 4 Altairs worth of volume in it, with a big long table down the middle of this room.  The table keeps you from falling across the room when the boat heels over, and heel over it will.  Its handy not having much stuff so that you don't have to pick up much as it falls on the floor.  There is a center nav station that has a great seat and a spot for instruments. 
The floor of the boat is the hull, so that allows for inspection easily, and I noticed that the floor was not very cold, which means the hull's core makes for decent insulation.  I was curious as to how warm the boat would get in the tropics and how cold in the north, but with good insulation, it should stay nice easier. 

 The mast is carbon and nice looking, with a very simple and basic rig, two spreaders and the shrouds are led aft so there is a strong triangle of stainless steel wire, but far less wires than Altair has.  No fixed backstays.

 There is a really big lazarette (storage in the back from the cockpit) That I never had seen or realized these had before, from pictures of other boats.  Its huge as well.  The boat is widest in the stern and this space is about 12 ft wide and 3 ft thick and 3 ft tall.  The rudders are mounted here and you can see them and work on them if you need. 

 Motoring, the boat can go about 7 knots, but is happier at 6, which is a far cry from Altair which is able to do 4.5 and happiest at 4.  The tillers are easy to use and steer the boat easily and if you let go of them, the boat keeps on going straight.  Amazing.  Altair never does this.  Its easy to see around the boat, but this one doesn't have much of a dodger.

 Sailing is where you really notice the smile on your face.  My cheeks hurt a little from all the smiling i've been doing.  Here I am sitting and sailing the boat, easily doing 12 knots in about 14 or 16 knots of wind.  The boat is forgiving and fast and stable and if you let go of the tiller at 12 knots and wait 20 seconds, the boat is still on the course that you left it on.  I'm going to make a video, and then hopefully you can see the speed.  Its the ease of the speed that is the most amazing thing.  We never flew the spinnaker, so our top speeds were somewhat limited to about 10 knots upwind and 12 knots downwind.  With the spinnaker, I figure we could have pushed it to 15 or 16 with the winds we had. 

 And we came back after a day of sailing and grinning like bandits.  I'm in love with the class 40 idea, and I'm going to start wishing for santa to put a Pogo in my stocking this christmas...

Mexico Wrap up Part 2

As a continuation of the last post....

So after coming back from La Ticla, I then took Altair up to San Blas to haul out and store her for the summer.  Altair is in Summer Camp now.  But this time I went on this jungle tour to a crocodile place.  

 The Crocodiles are along the sides of the estuary, but also there are some big ones in cages at the end of the ride.

 Also there are lots of turtles there. 

 In the cages, there are also some cool animals that are local to the area, Lynx

 Crocodiles!  See how the teeth are worn away by the concrete they move across, also look at the sensory bumps on the nose.  Those are good for sensing vibrations while in the water or in the air and they have really good feelings (who says reptiles don't have feelings?) of what is going on around them, even if they can't see.

 There were some Peccarys there too.  They are cute little piggys

 A real big croc here.  The biggest might have been 16 ft long and very heavy.

 This little heron I got a shot of but I'm not sure what it is....I guess it is a Bare Throated Tiger Heron!

 And the foot of the beast!

 They have Jaguars there, poor sad looking things with not enough to think about or to kill, or enough room to sneak about.  This one was scratching.

 And this one was pacing.  I really like their eyes, very fixated.

 Here is a croc eye.  I love those vertical slit pupils.

 After I got Altair all snug on the boat stands I drove my truck up the coast to Mazatlan and took a ferry across the Sea of Cortez (also known as the "C of Cortez") and as we approached La Paz, I saw some whales in the distance.  These ones, if you look carefully, you will see that they have a blow that is forward, and not vertical.  They are Sperm Whales!  This was the first (and only) time I've seen Sperm Whales, but I was really pleased.  This was as close as we got in the ferry.

 I met up with my friend Mike and we drove up the Baja Peninsula.  On the way we hiked up a canyon and found a hummingbird.

 And an oriole

 And I got a nice beautiful sunrise picture but Mike managed to get into the picture and pee.

 Further north we came upon a nice looking Red Tailed Hawk and I got some shots of it flying

 And sitting on a Boojum tree.

 Speaking of Boojum Trees, we went to this place I call Boojumtown, where there are a lot of these wonderful cactus trees all over and camped out.  Evening came and the sun set and we got our cameras out to take some pictures in the moonlight and the dark.  Here is a Cordon Cactus...

 There is a twisted Boojum that looked great in the moonlight, so I took a few pictures of its weird ascent.

 It looks like a claw!

 We did some light painting too, the rocks here are hollow from the wind blowing around.

 It was a nice trip, then we made it to San Diego and I dropped him off.  Onwards northbound!

Mexico wrap up part 1

 I'm at my brother Jeremy's house and Altair is all wrapped up for the summer, Lord Nelson is running well, and I'm out of Mexico.  Heading north!  So here is a little post about the end of the season in Mexico.
After the trip to Isla Isabel, Lindsey and I decided to go on a short road trip up to an archaeological site, in this river valley, with a lot of carved rocks and things.  Hiking up there was really interesting and there were some nice birds flittering around the trees as well.  There were some small waterfalls and pools in the columnar basalt:

 On the way back we drove down the river that feeds the bay near Puerto Vallarta.  In this valley there was a turtle on the road trying to get run over, but I stopped and rescued it, and we tossed it into a nearby pond to spend its days in water.  It peed on me when I picked it up, as turtles are wont to do, I guess.  We also spotted some Black Bellied Whistling ducks!  They whistled a little and flew around, and were generally beautiful. 

 Here is another view of the Whistling Duck, with a Cinnamon Teal in the background, with a Coot. 

 Then we got back on Altair and went for a short sail around the bay, stopping in Corrales, then Yelapa, and then back to La Cruz.  We also stopped in a small bay with a lagoon that doesn't have a name, and so we named it Crocodile Death Beach, in anticipation of the crocodiles that inhabited the lagoon (we assumed) and the probabilities of our future with those reptiles.  In fact, we didn't see a single one of the armored attackers.  We found these yellowlegs instead.

 At this marvelous beach (and lagoon) we found Frigatebirds diving down and scraping their bellies in the water and then splashing water on their wings, but all of this while still flying low along the surface of the water.  Really fun to watch.

 Here is another shot of the process.

 Then we found a bunch of puppies.  Suddenly, this beach was wrongly named and we found that Crocodile Death really translated into Cute Puppy Beach.  We played with the puppies a little and then tore ourselves away from them to head back to the boat. 

 They were very cute.

 Then we spent a few more weeks on Altair, but then we went on another road trip down the coast to a place called La Ticla.  Its a great spot, just to walk the river and enjoy the atmosphere, but there is also a surfing wave there, so I like to surf as well.  I first went two years ago with my buddy Wes, and this time I drove with Lindsey and also with my friend Jonny.  We managed to find some Black Necked Stilts...

 And a bit of a tube!

 Here are some glamour shots of me surfing.  Lindsey was kind enough to take them.  Its a fun wave with some challenging fast sections but I was really practicing all sorts of fast take off and trying to get my top turn more snappy.  The best part is that you can swim in the river right after surfing so you come out clean.

 There is a left as well, which I didn't feel as quick on, but it barreled a bit more

 And a bit more still!

 The right was decently fast and powerful and really fun when it hollowed out, but mostly a fun fast wall to run down...

 There was a bit of reverb from the shore and sometimes it would come back and hit you, you can see it in this shot, punching up from the front of the board. 

 We walked the river and found a few friendly pigs to say hi to. 

 And some Teals

 Of course my favorite the stilt

 and some Chacalas.  This one looks especially Jurassic.

 Sometimes the waves would close out and you needed to look upwards for inspiration, I had a few high exits where I might have got 15 ft of air as the wave dropped down behind.

 The last day the waves were much smaller but very clean, and I had my favorite wave of the whole trip.