Strictly Sail Boat Show Part I

So, we helped Lisa get the boat over to Jack London Square on Sunday, hung the banner on Wednesday morning, and helped out a little on Thursday. Wednesday, I also had to get my USCG physical and spent 8 hours at West Marine for inventory. Thursday, we wanted to see the boat show while we could, so we wandered around for a few hours. It was amazing to us how many people in the sailing industry we already know after being out here eleven months. We had a difficult time even walking down the sidewalk because we kept stopping and chatting with people we knew.

Under one of the big tents, West Marine was setup. Galen, the District Manager, and the guy I interviewed with for the Oakland Store Manager job, pulled me aside, slapped an inflatable life jacket on me and called all the people in the general vicinity to gather round. "One, two, three..." WHOOSH! I was suddenly in an inflated cervical collar. Fun was had by all, and Kim got a video of the whole thing.

On the other side of the same tent, we ran into the parents of one of Kim's ex's at the Seven Seas Cruising Association. Very nice people, who remembered Kim from across the way, even without seeing her badge. We had a nice chat. It came up that I'm a captain (it's on my badge), and they said they needed help delivering their Pacific Seacraft 42 from Ventura, CA to the Galapagos and said they couldn't pay much. I assured them that the pay rate wasn't an issue. After Kim and I were walking away, we were quite blown away by how small the world is and the opportunities that just randomly pop up.

I stopped by the New England Ropes booth (part of the West Marine family) and inquired about doing some splicing and having them test it so I can get certified. I'm looking forward to that notch on my belt, even if I never work at the West Marine rigging shop.

After saying goodbye to Lisa and Delilah who still had a couple of hours of boat show to work, we ran over to Oakland Yacht Club, where John Guzzwell was the guest speaker. John was one of the first people to circumnavigate back in the fifties, and he did it on a twenty foot, handmade boat. He held the record for several years. He was featured prominently in Miles Smeeton's book "Once is Enough", about their sailing disasters in the Southern and Pacific oceans. He also wrote a great book "Trekka Around the World", talking about his circumnavigation. It also happens to be the fiftieth anniversary of his return. Ironically enough, we saw John's wife in another boat he built back in September in the locks. We got our book signed and a picture. He's quite a guy and he gave quite a presentation. To give you an idea of the kind of people we hang with now, when we signed in at the front table before the lecture, they asked if we were circumnavigators. We said "Not yet." and moved on. If you say "Yes", they give you an "I've Been Around" button. As we were waiting we noticed that a very large percentage of people were wearing buttons. We were also just about the youngest people in the room. We drove off very happy that we decided to do such a cool thing, which is possible out here.

We headed over to Quinn's for dinner and a few drinks, and to say "Hi" to the band. Kim was recruited by some swingers, which resulted in a rather amusing e-mail exchange this morning. All in all, a great day at the boat show. Tonight is the Latitude 38 party, and tomorrow is the Lats & Atts party. We're going to grill on the dock tonight for dinner after working the boat show all day. Wish us luck...

Pics & video to come ASAP. I just wanted to get this off my chest before we find out what happens to our heroes in the next exciting adventure. BTW, Lisa is doing great and already has a few really good prospects for new members. She's only owned the SailTime base for two months and here we are at Strictly Sail - Pacific!

Latitude: 37° 47" 34'
Longitude: -122° 16" 26'