About Me

My photo
Alaska, United States
I am owned by Pauline and Mark Blasky. My hull was built at the Duncan Marine Yard in Taiwan and launched in Dec of 1980. It is a William Garden design based on the Pixie Design and called by Duncan Marine a Freedom 45. They are the fourth owners and have owned me the longest. They have done extensive refitting to me including replacing my entire deck structure and rig. My masts are roughly 10% taller than original and now are made of aluminium as opposed to the original wood ones, which, though pretty, were always problematic. You can read more about me under "MORE ABOUT SARI TIMUR"

June 27, 2012

Bachelor

I will be a bachelor again.  Well only for a week.  Pauline is off to Hong Kong to celebrate her nephew's first birthday. 

Sounds like a mini family reunion will be happening there.  Oh well I need to stay behind and take care of same ole same ole!

June 13, 2012

Kid's Optimist Sailing Class

Hey the MYC just ran a 5 day Optimist Class for the kids.  It was taught by Cindy Bell.  But me as the laze around doing nothing club member got conscripted to volunteer to help.  We had 16 kids from 6 to 14 years old and they all did well and had a ball.  We also got some help from some other members part time and with out them the two of us would have been probably suicidal.  Instead it turned into a great five day program and all the kids were sailing by themselves by the end of the course.  One of the parents took a lot of photos and put them on a CD for us.  Pretty impressive about 300 pictures of smiling kids having a ball learning.  Thanks Cindy and the club for volunteering me into this active service!  Also thankyou to the tropical depression that decided to split into two and slow down enough to let us finish the course.

June 10, 2012

Dolphin Watching

Through Pauline's work we got a chance to go out on one of the dolphin watching boats.  There are a few pods of dolphins that hang out in one of the bays north of Agat Marina.  So for the tourist they offer a cruise out to watch them.  These are Spinner Dolphins so they get into doing some flips and spins when they play in the boat wakes.  Sorry we forgot the camera but certainly enjoyed the day out on some one elses's boat.  We had one large pod with two small dolphins that played with us for most of the morning.

June 4, 2012

The Rota Race/ Cruise


Every year for Memorial Day weekend the Marianas Yacht Club holds the race up to Rota.  This is roughly 60 miles away and the race consists of two legs, one up and one back.  There are two divisions, a racing class and a cruising class.  But it seemed to us the cruising class had no rules, they could leave when they wanted, they could use the engine, they didn’t even need to follow the course marks.  So we tried to enter under the racing class.  We submitted our measurements and asked for a rating.  There is no club rater and therefore ratings are rather loosely based on similar boats rated elsewhere.  There is a similar boat to Sari Timur here in Guam and he had a rating so we said no problem we will take the same rating.
Tropical Storm Sanvu passed by just 2.5 days before the start of the race and upset the normal trade wind balance so we were expecting light and variables for the race up hoping the trades would build somewhat for the race back.

So at 4 pm the crew were briefed and we headed for the start line for a 6 pm start.  We had on board a seasoned veteran of this race and he advised us where to head for local conditions.  The challenge was going to be to get out of the harbour entrances on one tack and through the gate which was set there.  There is a large high point that blocks the winds coming from the south, but we had enough way on to drift through until we again picked up the wind from the other side.  The lighter boats left us in their wake at this point but pretty soon the winds filled in a little and we were able to start to keep up with the fleet.  The crew did a marvellous job even though we nearly lost the wind three times.

Sunrise over Rota
Wedding Cake
As the sun rose in the morning we had Rota and several sailboats in sight (one was even behind).  The outline of Rota is quite nice when coming from the sea.  There is a large high area that looks a lot like Table Mountain in Cape Town and on the south-western peninsula is a unique feature they call the Wedding Cake as the hills form a steep high edged area that looks like a layered wedding cake.  Anyway we managed to cross the line at 8:59 am just shy of 15 hours.  After tying up and clearing customs we began to realise the attraction of this race.  The people of Rota are friendly beyond means and it is a chance for the Guam inhabitants to let their hair down so the beer started to flow.  REMEMBER I MENTIONED THIS IS JUST AFTER 9 AM!  Anyway at about 11 we got responsible and got the crew checked into their hotel and went for lunch.  After lunch most of us crashed for a couple hours in order to be able to at least make the main party for the day, if not the after party or the after, after party!  This party was put on by the local resort and a great spread of food, music and a show by the local youth dance group.  Note there were no provisional results so we should have tweaked that the organisers were not, shall we say, really organised for racing but were so for the social activities which hey “when in Rome!”  Pauline and I elected to head back to the boat after the main party and left the remainder of our crew to wave the Sari Timur pennant and we have reliable information that some did just that.
It's getting closer!

Crew Quarters
The first beer at the Party!
Sunset at the Rota Resort
The next morning we went back to find the crew suffering a bit but ready to do some site seeing, that was after a breakfast of left over burritos on board Sari Timur.  The first stop was to see Kurt and Christine at their home.  We had met Kurt and Christine at the Home Depot on Guam and had struck it off with them right away.  They are a German couple that used to cruise and eventually decided to settle in Guam, then Rota after their world cruise.  The crew all knew them and so we crashed their house for a late morning visit.  Their house is off the grid.  This means there is no power and water piped in and they have to provide that for themselves.  They have built a house that works great with natural ventilation, have a grid of 32 solar panels which keep them in electricity and have just about every kind of tropical plant and orchid growing on their property.  They also have chickens ad ducks for eggs and grazing.  The fruit selection made our mouths water.  They have custard apple, pineapple, bread fruit, limes, Madagascar cherries, Soursop, Guava, beautiful papaya as well as several dozen kinds of vegetables.  Not to mention a beautiful view of a bay on the east side of Rota.  After the tour we sat on the veranda and sipped fresh calamansi juice, and nibbled on passionfruit and soursop all picked within a few minutes before eating.  Finally at 12 we were loaded up with some fresh limes and papayas and headed back to check on our last remaining crew who needed a bit more sleep earlier!
View from Kurt and Christine's place
View of the bay
Custard Apple or Sweetsop
papayas
Madagascar Cherry
Madagascar Cherry
Pineapple
Passionfruit
Breadfruit with the male pod












orchid

Orchid
orchid
pretty flower



















After determining that everyone was among the living and were going to be able to attend another party that night some of us again piled into the car to go up to the north east side of the island and check the wind and waves as well as see some of the sites. 
I digress here a little but a rather interesting thing happened on the way.  A lot of the roads on Rota are very rural, what we used to call when I was a kid, two tracks.  And the map is only partially correct when showing these roads.  We were first heading to the As Matmos Fishermen’s cliffs which were at the extreme end of one of these roads and we were a little unsure if we were heading correctly.  And suddenly we saw a truck and two guys doing some bush cutting.  We stopped and asked through the window to one of the guys if we were on course and could he direct us.  He said “Not really, I am from Kentucky and do not know where things are here but ask my partner”  It was just the strangest reply out in the middle of nowhere half a world away from Kentucky to find a guy cutting the bush.  Anyway his mate did know the way and we were indeed on the right track.  We soon found the cliffs.  These are pretty spectacular and the water clarity is fantastic.  We could look down a long distance and see fish swimming directly beneath us.  It made the angler among us pretty upset he left his rods and reels on Sari Timur.  The pictures don’t really do the cliffs or the spray justice but if you look at cliffs with the people in the background you start to get a perspective on the heights.  I know when I peered over the cliff I was struck badly with vertigo.




As Matmos Fishermen's cliffs
As Matmos Fishermen's cliffs
As Matmos Fishermen's cliffs
As Matmos Fishermen's cliffs
As Matmos Fishermen's cliffs
As Matmos Fishermen's cliffs
As Matmos Fishermen's cliffs
As Matmos Fishermen's cliffs
After leaving the cliffs behind us, we backtracked to one of the regions’ significant historical sites.  It is an area full of latte stones in their natural state.  Supposedly one of the largest and most important sites in the North Pacific.  Latte Stones are a symbol for this part of the world.  They are carved foundation stones that sort of look like an inverted vase.  Many of the older topstones have fallen off supposedly due to the large number of earthquakes in the region.  This particular site is carbon dated prior to 1300 and supposedly was occupied until the late 1700s.  All over the ground are pieces of old pottery and it is interesting to think how the village was set up.

Machong latte stone ruins
Machong latte stone ruins
Machong latte stone ruins
Machong latte stone ruins
Anyway after a while the mozzies suddenly arrived and we figured it time to continue on.  We took the coast road and followed along seeing the famous swimming hole area and other sites before finally coming back to the resort.  We quickly showered and headed off for another party.  This was hosted by a couple that used to live in Singapore so Pauline and I talked to them a bit about that.  We came to find out that he was a former Oceaneering diver and know some of the same people as us.  Small world.  Anyway they put on a great spread including a roast pig that was fantastic.  We tried to take some pictures but the lighting was all wrong.
The race start for the following morning was 7 am so Pauline and I headed out at 11 to get some rest and be ready to prep the boat for departure at 6 am.  The evening was full of showers and the wind died off completely.  During the start sequence we just put our engine in neutral in case we go into any situations but everyone stayed out of our way and we were able to drift across the start line ok.  We coaxed up the spinnaker and were riding a favourable current while we waited to clear Wedding Cake and hope for some wind.  And sure enough it happened.  I have never flown the spinnaker as shy as we did.  Usually about 75-80 degrees but we were able to carry it for almost 2 hours before the wind came around so much that we had to go back to white sails.  But we were back with the fleet and the wind had piped up.  We were having a glorious trip.  We even passed 2 boats!  Again our tactician had us steering a great course and we came around the entrance at 4:10 pm or just over 9 hours right on the heels of another boat.  About 20 minutes to go and we are battle ready.  But alas, what is that over there? Is it 2 kids on a disabled jet-ski asking for help?  Cannot be, because if so, surely the other boat in front of us would have seen them.  But after some quick signalling we soon found out they were indeed panicked and worried that they were drifting towards the Philippines and being ignored.  So we retired, dropped sails and tossed them a towline. We were hoping to gain redress from the race committee.  After towing them for a while we saw a whole search party was out for them and that even the Coast Guard had been called.  The searchers finally spotted them behind us and came over to bring them home.  
Anyway after clearing customs we went ashore and grabbed some spouses, children, dogs and spectators and did what Sari Timur is famous for, that is we held an impromptu party.  All in all a great weekend and thanks to a great crew we sailed a great race.
See Kelly, I never even mentioned about the buxomy babe crew we had that lost her chap stick for two days, only to find it in a secret compartment in her bra!
Final note.  Apparently we did really well, so well in fact that we caused all of the other racers to protest our handicap.  As they figured out it was indeed close, it was starting to cause friction so we withdrew our entry.  But we still had fun and got to see Rota.  However we do know something about how racing works in Guam and will not take part again.