I just can't help being nauti!

The Nauti Chicas go to Long Beach for the 3-day LBRW regatta and Cat37 Nationals! Look here for official details and results!

Tons of prizes at free fishing derby for kids!

Kids compete – for free – at this annual fishing derby Saturday July 5 at Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara, 10:00am – noon.

Registration starts @ 9:00am, fishing starts @ 10:00. Kids will compete in three different age groups (up to 15 yrs old) for tons of prizes. Helpers will record and release the fish; prizes go to the top three anglers in each category, PLUS the first 100 kids to show up!

Sign up at West Marine on Cesar Chavez or at the Harbor beforehand. A limited number of rods & reels are available for loan to those who request in advance - otherwise bring your own gear, bait will be supplied.

Rules are:

1) Children must catch & land the fish themselves

2) One rod per kid

3) One hook per rod

Prizes from West Marine, whale watching trips etc from Santa Barbara Sailing Center, & more. Call 805/564-1005 for details.

Making whoopee

It was bound to happen.
Considering my ambition to get in the water if I’m near a get-in-able body of water that, in particular, I’ve never been in before -- the Indian Ocean, St. Maarten’s Great Bay, the Sarapiquí River in Costa Rica, and several beaches in Mexico (where God-knows-what you can catch) come to mind, along with more recently the Tuolumne River and Pinecrest Lake -- my 'toe in the water' dogma has finally caught up with me, fostering a little souvenir I never intended to take home: a colony of single-celled parasitic squatters whose common goal is to ‘party hardy’ in my small intestines, while creating copious amounts of gas.
Yes, I am a walking-talking whoopee cushion.
Giardia is a not-so-uncommon protozoa found in rural, wilderness and other so-so water supplies that, once ingested (when, for instance, you rip down a water slide and half a gallon of Tuolumne River shoots up your nose) provokes a veritable orgy of flagellates and flatulence. The ‘host’ (why do I not feel ‘hospitable’?) exhibits a feeling of general malaise coupled with a low-grade fever and nausea. I actually feel okay as long as I don’t eat! Then my stomach gurgles and rumbles like a distant thunder storm … even the dog doesn’t want to sleep with me!
Fortunately it’s stunted my appetite (who needs colonics when you can have a parasite?) and added to my cachet as a verified world adventurer. Tally ho!