portraits at sea

so i have this old mamiya c33 camera - it shoots medium format film and i believe it's older than i...but it takes damn crisp photos. this might be the best crew ever for a long boat trip...at least the most photogenic.

ross

ian

rp

me (shutter released by ian)

the boat life

Many of the previous posts have been about sailing, specifically the 10 day sail we went on for Ross's birthday. I feel the need to give a bullet point presentation as to why these trips are the best using holga photos from a trip we took in late September. This will help many to understand the boat life, but more importantly, this will hopefully inspire more to embrace the boat life.

This is the standard wake up, at least if it's clear and you have a straight shot towards the eastern horizon. The shot above is a sunrise over Anacapa...this trip I actually woke up and had to pee, and when I went up top, this was my first view of the new day...not bad. And think of the night time sky - shooting stars, the milky way, and usually bioluminscence (spelling??) all around the boat. But back to sunrises (or sunsets), if it's magnificent, there's water to reflect the sky making it twice as intense...kind of like night time during rain - light and color everywhere and that's how the end and beginning of every day are for the boat life.

This is Ross's family's boat. We are very lucky to be on it, but even luckier to be able to take the helm. The horizon above is level - that's how sideways you can get when sailing...and this is sometimes for hours - something you can't do in the car. Besides, there's no engine on, which means no engine sounds - just the gentle wanes going kshhhhhhh against the boat. Also, you can't drink beer while driving a car - well...I should say it is illegal to do so in the U.S. To demonstrate the stoke, let me point out the fact that Ross is throwing out double shakas - he is PUMPED!!!!

Now this is a treat - we got to sail right beside our friends on the way back from surfing together...again, the whole car drive thing is shit compared to this and look at the scenery behind - marvelous!! After sailing side-by-side to our anchorage, we threw a dinner party on our boat. We combined forces - there was a full moon in the sky, a hot breeze coming off the island, and we all sat on the bow drinking beers, eating freshly made green thai curry, while listening to jams and shooting the shit. I think Randy even went for a naked swim after dinner. The truth is, sailing trips are mostly eating trips where we get to sail, hike, surf, dive, etc. in between meals and snacking.

So after eating, diving, sailing, surfing, jumping off the boat, dancing, sleeping, or just chilling - there are things you can do on land...mostly our favorite seems to be hiking (after pretending we are spanish explorers or taking care of business on the sand...you who have experienced this know how maigcal it is). But when you can hike up a steep hillside, huffing and puffing as you get to the top due only to see the fog lift, clouds part, and boat become visible as it sits alone in of the many pristine coves at the island...it is beyond most things peopl have experienced. No, you can't drive a car here. and there are no foot steps on the beach except for ours.

I think these points more than adequately demostrate the superiority of the boat lifestyle. This is in no ways trying to bum anyone out. This post is meant to help others understand, and hopefully inspire many to seek out the boat life and at least some of the many adventures it has to offer.

10-day - santa rosa island revisited - B&W holga shots

After staying at San Miguel for 4 days, the northwesterlies came up and we pushed to the backside of Santa Rosa using sails and the sweet free power of wind.

...while ignoring the fact that ross is on his cell phone, check out the seemingly dreamy softness and glow of sailing (for those of you who have never sailed, it's always like that)

Ian sitting pretty portside

We got around South Point and the wind died. We motored to Ford Point where it was sheet glass with no other boat in sight. There was a pristine 100 foot tall sand dune to the east...it was decided that our surfing that day would be done on land.

After taking the kayak and lil visitor to shore, RP and I climbed up the dunes with body boards while Ross and Ian hauled up the kayak...such a fun ride. We all traded, standing up on body boards. Ross even went down standing up on the kayak! When we thought we were done from the exhausting hike back up the dune, we'd get pumped watching a buddy come down and run back up. We ended having 6 'last goes' each because it was tiring but too much fun to stop.

Ross and Ian on the kayak test run - fresh powder - first tracks

That's our beloved Corsair in the background, with lil visitor on the beach. This was also the same day that we did the cliff jumps and hung out around the secret elephant seal pool on San Miguel...maybe the best day of the trip?...we definitely slept quite well that night.

TIMF

There is a music festival in San Francisco called Treasure Island Music Festival. Last year, Randy and I went, and it was the best music festival ever - very organized, free parking, free shuttles, the music was great and all the people that attend are cool as shit.

When it got to be mid summer, I started telling anyone and everyone about it in hopes of gathering a big crew. My friend Nikki recently moved to SF for grad school. She is a bad ass. She is super chill. She's funny as fuck, and she dances incredibly well. Turns out everyone else bailed, and Nikki was the only one that bought a 2 day pass (other than me)...basically we were partners in crime for the weekend.

Nikki posing in front of the burning man style dandelions.

Both days were a blast. The first day was the more electro pop dance day, while the second was the indy rock/folk rock day. There were various artworks from burning man. There was a little gypsy carnival with games to play. They had a ferris wheel which allows one to take in the postcard cityscape of the downtown SF complete with Bay Bridge, the Golden Gate, and Alcatraz. They also had a huge arts and crafts tent where you could make wind chimes, wallets, and beer cozies for free. This is all in addition to the normal clothing/nicknack booths, beer tents, and food carts.

Sweet ass ferris wheel - we went for a rainy ride, day 2.

The highlight of the weekend in terms of festival events was a thing called the silent disco. We had heard people talk about it during the first day, and with our friend Mer, we decided to check it out late on Sunday.

...It ended up being the funniest and funnest thing ever! We walked up and there was a little outdoor patio area where a ring of grass and trees surrounding a circle of concrete. There were black lights, christmas lights, and strobes...but no amplified sound. When we arrived all we could see was the scene filled with a few hundred people dancing there ass off without any music.

The whole idea revolved around wireless headphones, which they handed out at the entrance. A DJ was spinning live, but there were no speakers - everything was played through the wireless headphones. Too much fun, especially when you go from the National which is sleepy folk rock to heavy deadmau5 remixes just by putting on headphones. The best part being when the people dancing would sing choruses and fist pump - without, the headphones on, everyone went from bouncing around in silence to belting out the chorus of a song that no one could hear (without headphones) while fist pumping, then going back to their little groove. Brilliant!! We stayed and danced for hours...too much fun.

Our last view as we left the festival.

Nikki pulled the sweetest move as I dropped her off at home Sunday night. At the festival, there were a few poets with rickety old typewriters. They would write custom poems about any topic. I told Nikki about a guy we met that did that the year before - Randy and I chilled with this guy and he was pretty much the man - super funny, he could write incredibly well, and he travelled around and did that for a living - living the dream. Soo, after she gives me a hug, she hands me a piece of paper rolled up in put in a little bottle. These are the topics she told the poet: a princess, india, a ninja, and an assassin. She didn't read it before she gave it to me...so here it is:

on a mission

for grant

she wore her bindi jeweled

and her sari in gold-lined

silk. no one ever could

have known her heart,

worn on such beautiful

bare sleeves, had been

stolen by a murderous man.

and now, she is on a

mission to get it back.

silvi

10.17.10

treasure island

Thank you Nikki. Thank you Mer. Thank you universe.

lightning!!!!!

we had the craziest lightning storm yesterday...it came over our house, dumped hail and rain with the most intense lightning i might ever see...my buddy jimmy caught one glimpse:

10-day - san miguel island - holga shots

This is what I woke up to our first morning on San Miguel...I don't think I need to say anything else:

San Miguel is pretty lunar and we had to get up and go for a hike. As we got higher on the island, our view got better, and with the powdery white sand beach and bottom of san mig's beautiful Cuyler Harbor, the color of the water was incredible. We hiked up to the caliche forest, which is a graveyard of stumps petrified in salt - very strange, indeed.

The island itself is a trip. There are no trees (that we saw). Most of the plant life looks desert ish and dead. There are subtle rolling hills up to cliff edges that drop into the sea. And there are lines of sand that go across the whole island from northwest to southeast...yes, it's a striped island. Really there's too much to describe, soo:

hiking up from cuyler

the mighty caliche forest

hiking back to the beach

We dove a bit on san migs. The water was nice and clear and calm. We ended up staying for 4 days total, 2 of which had glassy mornings. Ross speared a rockfish. We found some cliff jumps, cruised some tide pools, and had a national geographic moment with this hidden pool full of elephant seals...truly magical!

vicious!

sweet sweet corsair!

nice dive

elephant seal day spa

tidepooling on a rock about 1/4 mile off shore

pretty colors - no, that's not stained glass

So San Miguel was definitely a National Geographic destination...and it's right off our coast. I know that we got really lucky in terms of weather and timing, but damn! them islands are something else.

more to come...

10-day - santa rosa island - holga shots

After spending 3 nights on Santa Cruz, we headed west. Since a storm came through, there were southeast winds and we sailed all the way to Cuyler Harbor on San Miguel...needless to say, we didn't really spend the day on Rosa, although we anchored for a bit to admire the location.

Nice muscles, Birthday Boy!!!

10-day - santa cruz island - holga shots

So we went out on a 10-day trip to the Channel Islands, our means of travel being Corsair, the 36 foot sailboat that sleeps on our dock. It was Rossi's birthday trip, and what a trip at that! We were at Santa Cruz for a few days, then to Rosa, then San Miguel for 4 days, then back to Rosa for a night, then back to Santa Cruz for the last few days.

We were surfing, sailing, hiking, diving, cliff jumping, adventuring, drinking, eating, cursing, kayaking, sleeping, napping, dancing, and oh so much more. It was the best vacation ever: no family to create tension, no women to create tension, and no deadlines/appointments except for start and end dates...boys' trip with so much freedom - oooh, bald eagle!

They were four of us: Ross, Ian Jay, RP and myself. In terms of ways to capture the trip, we were pretty set: 2-jesus phones (video), 2-medium format camera's, 2-35mm SLR's, a digital SLR, and a waterproof digital point and shoot.

I had a Holga, a Mamiya C33, and a Canon Elan 7. Here are a few of the Holga shots from the first leg of the trip on Santa Cruz Island:

Ian, you are the man!

the old rock quarry at Fry's Harbor, and Corsair in the background

RP on dishes in lil visitor - look at them primary colors!!

Most of all - thank you to Bobby Bushnell for letting us use his beloved sailboat Corsair. This was the best vacation I've ever been on, and I/we owe that all to Mr. B. Thanks mang!!

...more to come.

hottest day ever!!!

on this day, the hipsters in LA cried sweat, the sidewalks melted, the record keeping thermometer broke at 113 degrees and we were at the beach all day...sweet ass ross!!!