Going, going, gone ...

Off to CABO on an 800nm race aboard the J/35 Predator. 'Starts in Newport Beach 28 March ... finishes in Cabo San Lucas on ??? Check here for dispatches and a link to the official website and position reports ... and please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. GO NAUTI CHICAS!

BBC: Fish key to reef climate survival

By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC
"A healthy fish population could be the key to ensuring coral reefs survive the impacts of climate change, pollution, overfishing and other threats.
Australian scientists found that some fish act as 'lawnmowers', keeping coral free of kelp and unwanted algae."
Read the whole story from BBC

Kick ass boots ...

... for kick ass chicas!
Denise models Coco's and my new wellies from J.Crew

Good News, Bad News

A bunch of us went to see Walking on Water (free) at the Arlington Theater tonight: an inspirational docu-feature about two kids who go surfing around the globe with the masters of the sport. Along the way - visiting what surely must be God's favorite places - they discover that kids everywhere are 'just like me' (although much more grateful, with so much less).
Driving home, the car jouncing as the girls and Joe-Joseph-Joey dance to the blaring music, we see a low hovering helicopter off Padaro Lane, accompanied by several boats with blue strobe lights. Clearly a Search & Rescue. I get home and read that the USCG is looking for a man who swam out to his boat, which had broken loose from its mooring in the gusty conditions. Now, seven hours later, they continue to search for him in an obvious grid. The water is about 55°. Sobering. Life is precious.

It's all about the accessories ...

First it's the boots, now it's the right white wine ... to me, it's all about the accessories!
For GCLA's March meeting I've selected six wines (all but one from Santa Ynez) of various varietals for the gals to taste, in our ongoing quest for the perfect fish-worthy white. I purposefully snubbed chardonnay and sauvignon blanc; picking rousanne blends, viognier, albarino and others, to get out of that chard/sauv blanc rut. In London, I hear, they say "ABC" at the chi chi bars ... "Anything But Chardonnay". Well bring it on!

The Lure of Alaska

[as seen in FOOD & WINE]
The Lure of Alaska
The small, grasshopper-like plane makes one final loop around the lake, then disappears behind a ridge of blue-green mountains, leaving me standing in the frigid, waist-high waters of Crab Slough, near Glacier Bay, Alaska.
All is silent, save for the whispering of the tall grasses. When the plane returns this afternoon, I'll be a fly fisherwoman, I resolve. In the back of my mind, I simply hope it returns.
Continued here ...

Shoot!

Whew! Our tidepool shoot at Cat Rock -- an inhospitable lump of lava and barnacles seething with icy suck-you-out-to-sea-
water -- is done and I'm glad to say we returned with the same number of kids we left with.
Taking "other people's children" on a shoot is sheer terror: especially if you don't know the parents. Otherwise you can threaten the children with death and explain half-assedly to your friends and neighbors why their kids are not home on time, why their best sneakers are wet and their jackets are torn; but the kids of strangers provide a strange conundrum indeed - starting with how curious it is that these nice people let me take their children out of school and transport them on a film shoot to an offshore island in the first place.
Luckily these children were polite, enthusiastic, and were not pukers (they did, by contrast, eat voraciously). After picking them up at school and driving them across town to Ventura, we boarded the research vessel and made a quick crossing to the south side of Anacapa.
The scientists we were tagging along with debarked first, for their thrilling studies of intertidal species within the established transects <yawn>; then the film crew left to 'search for the perfect location' while I was left aboard to entertain children. Within a couple of hours though we were snapping on lifejackets and transferring the kids to the rocky shore in an inflatable.
Hours passed, but in sum: while the rest of the crew set up we played on the rocks, with the directive not to get hurt as bloodied children would make poor documentary subjects. The filming commenced and the kids, truly, were delightful, and played their parts well - handling sea hares and sea stars, crabs and urchins, all the while with waves surging at their ankles (knees ... thighs ... hips ... ) The sea was particularly unruly and despite the low tide, south swells came barreling in at random, flooding the tidepools -- at which point we hollered for the kids to HOLD ON as mountains of seawater rushed in. "One...two...three...four..." we counted the sets and then resumed filming. This continued until we felt a) we'd got the shot and b) the tide was coming in so swiftly that a hasty retreat was prudent.
By then the calm-ish pools on the west side, where we had debarked, were underwater, so we half-crawled out amidst the slippery rocks to the arriving dinghy. I held it in place as the kids pawed their way out then flung their bodies into the inflatable, and returned to the R/V where we had them change to dry clothes; after which they ate everything in sight.
All in all the shoot was a success, in a stunning location that most mere mortals only dream of visiting. Score another one for the lucky people.
[Personal note: I've had three very physical days and continue to be amazed/thankful/thrilled that I have been blessed as such:with the ability to heft a zillion cases of wine for two days then have such an active day crawling & climbing around Cat Rock ... I think tomorrow I'll take it easy at the gym: maybe bench press a small sumo wrestler and stationary bike 100 miles ... and YES - this is work: I *did* get paid for this job today :-D ]