Moored Naples Florida. Doing?
Working@ Ridgeway Bar & Grill
Moving to California in May. Why? Click HereFor a more complete history of me and sailing click here.
Untitled from Christian Allaire on Vimeo.
Capt Chris
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Short Video Clip of Sailing in the Florida Keys
For a more complete history of me and sailing click here.
Untitled from Christian Allaire on Vimeo.
Capt Chris
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Scenes from a Morning Beach Stroll
Moored Naples Florida. Doing?
Working@ Ridgeway Bar & Grill
Moving to California in May. Why? Click HereFor a more complete history of me and sailing click here.
One of the great things about my situation in Naples is the short distance to the beautiful beach. Sometimes I run the beach and other times I take a stroll with the ladies. I prefer the stroll. This day, we hooked a left and headed south along the Port Royal section of town as far as the Port Royal Club. You want to see some money spent, just click on the Port Royal Club link. Bam! It's nice.
For all the northers thinking were soaking up the rays at the beach in south Florida, think again. Just check out our attire. But I can say the threat of flurries was not a concern.
Capt Chris....Happy in Naples
PS: You can double click on the images to expand them to see the full 10 mega-pixel capabilities of the Canon G11.
PS: You can double click on the images to expand them to see the full 10 mega-pixel capabilities of the Canon G11.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Wordpress Coming Soon to christianallaire.com
Moored Naples Florida. Doing?
Working@ Ridgeway Bar & Grill
Moving to California in May. Why? Click HereFor a more complete history of me and sailing click here.
I have thoroughly enjoyed learning about blogs and blogging over the passed three plus years. The original idea for a blog was planted by Tom & Amy from Sandpiper. They used Blogger for their journey from California, west-about to St John USVI where they now call home. I had to have one. And so I do. The blog has become an enjoyable labor of love. I always say, I love that folks take the time to read the blog, comment and send me emails. Please keep it up! But the main mission is for my own personal gratification. It's my log book of life. The blog has pushed me in different areas that I never imagined. It has forced me to think a little more deeply, to observer a little closer, because I may have to put what I'm thinking or feeling or observing into words. A daily event or situation forces me to assess, is it blog worthy? At one point I was getting tired of writing so much, so I thought well I'll just take more pictures and let them do the talking. Picture is worth a thousand words type of thing. This pivot hurtled me into an interest in photography, or a re-invigoration more accurately, because in 7th grade I loved the photography club. I dug the old school dark room development process. Of course now I needed to learn about management of a digital library and digital photography which lead me into the world of High Definition video and editing. All this sprung from my simple desire to let the folks back home know where I was and how I was doing on my sailing voyage. This is life.
My evolution continues. I originally started out on Sailblogs and still have my sailblogs site up and running. I found sailblogs limiting (has since gotten better) but became aggravated when I found out that Google Adsense revenue generated from my blog (granted, pennies) was going into the pocket of the owners of sailblogs. I decided to go the way of Sandpiper and start a blog on Blogger. Blogger has many more options and is easier to personalize and I could use my own domain name, christianallaire.com. I thought I was on it like Blue Bonnet, but since have learned that Blogger is still considered rookie ville.
Enter Wordpress.org This is where the more serious go to to crank it up a few notches. Wordpress.org is a publishing platform that creates websites. It is all very complicated to new folks, me included. The learning curve is steep and I'm still on the first hill. Over the past month I have been working on this project. I have a Wordpress.org website now being hosted on a sever I pay for each month. Files are transferred via FTP and once a theme is downloaded, I can manipulate the layout and color and feel of the website to my own liking. The rub is, you must start to learn how to write CSS Code. I have no idea how long this will take me. But when you click on a professional website like Nikonfestival or Queens College you know you've logged onto a professional product. In terms of making the switch, from the reader point of view, you'll never do anything different. When the new christianallaire.com is ready for prime time, I simply assign christianallaire.com as the domain name for my new blog and you'll automatically see the new site. The new site will of course have all my archives and what not.
I love my Blogger blog and spent a good deal of time learning how to upgrade it. So why switch again? I would like to improve and with Wordpress.org, I can endlessly tweak the website as new technology is created or improved upon. But the biggest reason is that Blogger (owned by google) owns my content as the blog resides on their servers for free. So now I control and own my own content, but have to pay. So I have now gone from worries about squalls to worries about File Transfers Protocols. And of course I worry about bread trays to.
So keep a sharp eye. One issue that I'm not sure I will be able to over come is, when I make the shift I may loose my followers as the RSS Feed may be broken. If you are a follower via RSS Feed, I may ask for you to re-sign up for the feed. That's it from a chilly Naples Florida.
Capt Chris
Monday, February 15, 2010
Rigors of the Job
Moored Naples Florida. Doing?
Working@ Ridgeway Bar & Grill
Moving to California in May. Why? Click Here
For a more complete history of me and sailing click here.
As some may know I took a job as an Expeditor at a restaurant here in Naples. It has given me a whole new view into life in America after 20 years in the Coast Guard community. Once I'm done my tour of duty at Ridgeway Bar & Grill, I'll give a more thorough review of my experience. It is a low level job in the grand scheme, but one should never adopt the view that they are "above" a certain occupation. Having a job is a blessing. Having the opportunity to aspire higher is even more of a blessing.
An Expo is the coordinator of the galley. In my case, there are two of us and even then at times two Expo's become overwhelmed. On the busiest of nights the restaurant has 13 chef's working behind the line and 300 to 500 meals are pumped out between 5 and 9pm. Ensuring the meals come out timely and with a crisp quality is the Expo's bread and butter. Speaking of bread and butter. One thing I do many times per night is take a hot tray of bread and discharge it into the bread warmer. I've burned myself twice doing this. You can see above the latest scorch job. When the latest burn happened I didn't even know it, but when I looked at my arm a few minutes later, we had bubbleage! Medic! Medic! No one paid attention, so I went and got some ice and dove back into the Expo mayhem.
Capt Chris
PS: Happy Presidents Day! And I'm driving across the country in late May through early June time frame. You can read about that in a blog entry by clicking here. I wanted to thank everyone who have extended an invitation for me to "camp" out on there couches. It really really is appreciated and I'm excited to meet blog readers! So thank you and see you soon!
For a more complete history of me and sailing click here.
As some may know I took a job as an Expeditor at a restaurant here in Naples. It has given me a whole new view into life in America after 20 years in the Coast Guard community. Once I'm done my tour of duty at Ridgeway Bar & Grill, I'll give a more thorough review of my experience. It is a low level job in the grand scheme, but one should never adopt the view that they are "above" a certain occupation. Having a job is a blessing. Having the opportunity to aspire higher is even more of a blessing.
An Expo is the coordinator of the galley. In my case, there are two of us and even then at times two Expo's become overwhelmed. On the busiest of nights the restaurant has 13 chef's working behind the line and 300 to 500 meals are pumped out between 5 and 9pm. Ensuring the meals come out timely and with a crisp quality is the Expo's bread and butter. Speaking of bread and butter. One thing I do many times per night is take a hot tray of bread and discharge it into the bread warmer. I've burned myself twice doing this. You can see above the latest scorch job. When the latest burn happened I didn't even know it, but when I looked at my arm a few minutes later, we had bubbleage! Medic! Medic! No one paid attention, so I went and got some ice and dove back into the Expo mayhem.
Capt Chris
PS: Happy Presidents Day! And I'm driving across the country in late May through early June time frame. You can read about that in a blog entry by clicking here. I wanted to thank everyone who have extended an invitation for me to "camp" out on there couches. It really really is appreciated and I'm excited to meet blog readers! So thank you and see you soon!
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Across the United States in the Green Hornet
Christa and I are Moored in Naples Florida
Moving to California in May. Why? Click here.
Along with a move to California comes a very enjoyable project. And that is a cross country trip in my Honda, with great time flexibility. I've now started to do some real thinking about my path and what type of adventures I'd like to create. I'd also love to see friends that have scattered like splitters along the way. I just hope I don't get so excited about getting back to the Bay Area, that I blast west in three days time. I generally plan on leaving mid May, after getting Christa on a truck and pointed westerly.
I have driven across the country before. After my first tour in the Coast Guard aboard CGC Polar Sea (WAGB 11), homeported in Seattle, I was transferred to USCG Station Point Judith Rhode Island. In January 1991 I took off in my 1989 rag top Jeep and decided to take the northern route. Recall youth breeds poor decisions. By the time I was in northern Idaho I was in a blizzard. But my little Jeep cruised very well through snow drifts on the highway. I kinda loved it. But all hell broke loose when my Jeep, with 5,000 miles had a catastrophic failure. A rod burst and penetrated the side of the block right at the exit to Miles City Montana. This started a 3 week adventure that burned up all my leave. Miles City is a real cowboy town, they had never even seen a Coast Guard guy and were just baffled at my presence. Once I got towed, I checked into a Budget Inn and headed to the Bison Bar.
This is the place where it all happens. They have actual western saddles for bar stools. Folks still could gallop on up and lash up there horse outside. My second day in town I plopped down next to a Federal Judge, having a noon cocktail after a tough morning of lawyering. He became agitated that a service man was staying in the Budget Inn. Well a couple of days later I was packing my stuff and moving in with the Judge and his wife on there ranch. Well it was later on during my first night, that I met the Judges daughter..... all 275 pounds of her. She took a shine to me and was coming on strong. I sounded retreat and left around midnight and walked the two plus miles back to the Budget Inn. Temperature was well below zero. I rapped on the proprietors door, who I now was on a first name basis with (small town), he answers the door, I say "I need my room back" and he says "you met the Judges daughter." I was set-up and all hands in town just wanted to see how this little piece of entertainment would play out. Word on the saddle at the Bison Bar was that the daughter worked as a bouncer at the only strip club in eastern Montana.
The next day I went to court, hat in hand and explained to the Judge it may be best if I bivwac at the Budget Inn. He roared with laughter, he knew. I'm just happy I didn't end up in a hole in the Great Plains, after dishonoring the Judges family. It took a smooth 3 weeks for the dealership to get a new short block and drop that sucker into my Jeep. Mom and Dad to the rescue. I didn't have the scratch to pay for 3 weeks in a hotel. They footed the tab.
View Larger Map
This go around I don't anticipate the same type adventures as I did in Montana, but I really would like to experience the south. I hope to visit places I have always wanted to go. Austin Texas is high on my list of what tickles me. I hope to see the LBJ Presidential Library and check out some good music while in Austin. I also would like to check out the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library in College Station Texas. Further west, the four corners region, Sedona and Flagstaff are on the agenda. Maybe the Grand Canyon, which I have seen, but maybe this time I'll pitch a tent. When in LA I plan on the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. I have been to the Reagan Library before, but now Air Force One is on display. Then onward to my final destination of Sausalito and the Presidio Yacht Club. So if anyone who may be near these destinations would like to put me up for the night, well I would appreciate that!
Capt Chris
Moving to California in May. Why? Click here.
Along with a move to California comes a very enjoyable project. And that is a cross country trip in my Honda, with great time flexibility. I've now started to do some real thinking about my path and what type of adventures I'd like to create. I'd also love to see friends that have scattered like splitters along the way. I just hope I don't get so excited about getting back to the Bay Area, that I blast west in three days time. I generally plan on leaving mid May, after getting Christa on a truck and pointed westerly.
I have driven across the country before. After my first tour in the Coast Guard aboard CGC Polar Sea (WAGB 11), homeported in Seattle, I was transferred to USCG Station Point Judith Rhode Island. In January 1991 I took off in my 1989 rag top Jeep and decided to take the northern route. Recall youth breeds poor decisions. By the time I was in northern Idaho I was in a blizzard. But my little Jeep cruised very well through snow drifts on the highway. I kinda loved it. But all hell broke loose when my Jeep, with 5,000 miles had a catastrophic failure. A rod burst and penetrated the side of the block right at the exit to Miles City Montana. This started a 3 week adventure that burned up all my leave. Miles City is a real cowboy town, they had never even seen a Coast Guard guy and were just baffled at my presence. Once I got towed, I checked into a Budget Inn and headed to the Bison Bar.
This is the place where it all happens. They have actual western saddles for bar stools. Folks still could gallop on up and lash up there horse outside. My second day in town I plopped down next to a Federal Judge, having a noon cocktail after a tough morning of lawyering. He became agitated that a service man was staying in the Budget Inn. Well a couple of days later I was packing my stuff and moving in with the Judge and his wife on there ranch. Well it was later on during my first night, that I met the Judges daughter..... all 275 pounds of her. She took a shine to me and was coming on strong. I sounded retreat and left around midnight and walked the two plus miles back to the Budget Inn. Temperature was well below zero. I rapped on the proprietors door, who I now was on a first name basis with (small town), he answers the door, I say "I need my room back" and he says "you met the Judges daughter." I was set-up and all hands in town just wanted to see how this little piece of entertainment would play out. Word on the saddle at the Bison Bar was that the daughter worked as a bouncer at the only strip club in eastern Montana.
The next day I went to court, hat in hand and explained to the Judge it may be best if I bivwac at the Budget Inn. He roared with laughter, he knew. I'm just happy I didn't end up in a hole in the Great Plains, after dishonoring the Judges family. It took a smooth 3 weeks for the dealership to get a new short block and drop that sucker into my Jeep. Mom and Dad to the rescue. I didn't have the scratch to pay for 3 weeks in a hotel. They footed the tab.
View Larger Map
This go around I don't anticipate the same type adventures as I did in Montana, but I really would like to experience the south. I hope to visit places I have always wanted to go. Austin Texas is high on my list of what tickles me. I hope to see the LBJ Presidential Library and check out some good music while in Austin. I also would like to check out the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library in College Station Texas. Further west, the four corners region, Sedona and Flagstaff are on the agenda. Maybe the Grand Canyon, which I have seen, but maybe this time I'll pitch a tent. When in LA I plan on the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. I have been to the Reagan Library before, but now Air Force One is on display. Then onward to my final destination of Sausalito and the Presidio Yacht Club. So if anyone who may be near these destinations would like to put me up for the night, well I would appreciate that!
Capt Chris
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Easy Like Sunday Morning
Moored Naples Florida. Doing?
Working@ Ridgeway Bar & Grill
Moving to California in May. Why? Click Here
I try and stuff in an hour or so of reading a day. Taking advantage of the surroundings, the amenities and the lack noise, I plunked down in a chair right off Christa's starboard quarter for some reading this morning. I took the opportunity to futz around with my Canon Power Shot G11 and took a series of pictures.
The camera is one of these gizmos that has such capability, one almost needs a course of instruction to maximize even a scratch of its functions.
Later!
Capt Chris
Monday, February 1, 2010
Trucking Christa Across the USA
Nailed to the dock, Naples Florida
Weather is rain, high 70's
As many know, I am in Naples picking up some work over the winter time to try and offset the cost of trucking Christa, my Westsail32 to Sausalito California, in the San Francisco Bay area. The short version of why I'm am heading west via the continent vs water is explained briefly here. It did occur to me moments ago, their may be some curiosity about the process and the expence involved. So I'm plan on documenting everything in the blog.
I am not a novice at the trucking game. Pictured above is Christa being lowered onto the bed of a tractor trailer in San Francisco in July 2005. I had always intended on leaving on trip around the planet from the West Coast post retirement, but the Coast Guard had other plans for me on my last tour. So I was forced to truck Christa from San Francisco to Wakefield Rhode Island. Everything with my first move went very smoothly, but there was a learning curve no doubt. The trucking charge in 2005 was about $5800 and roughly $1000 to haul-out and then re-launch. All of the prep work was done by me. This saved a fortune. It was about a week solid of 10 hours a day removing everything necessary for Christa to become legal for transport. I remember feeling sick to my stomach watching Christa's stern rock down the road aboard that flatbed.
A great resource is a website called uship.com. This is a auction type site. You plug in the parameters and shipping companies make competitive bids. Last summer I bid out the job, from several different ports just to get a sense of the expense involved and to help me determine how much effort I should make to get to a certain shipping port. Clearly it would best if I crossed the Gulf of Mexico to Houston. This shaves off major trucking mileage. But I simply do not want to cross the Gulf. I am trying to balance out the following. The closer to California I get, obviously I save on shipping cost. But I need to nail a date down to ship and of course sailing and dates don't mesh well. So I'd have to build in a bunch of cushion time wise, which means I'd knock off work earlier than intended. See the conflict? Then where ever I end up trucking from leaves me stranded with-out a car. Then I'd have to pay to transport my butt back to Naples to pick up the Green Hornet. So I could end up saving on transport cost only to have the savings eaten elsewhere. I believe economists call this Opportunity cost. Not to mention crossing the Gulf with all the oil rigs and shipping traffic.
I have likely settled on shipping out of Ft Myers or Tampa Bay here in Florida. I will also consider Pensacola. Pensacola would be a 300 mile dash and could be done easily on one good weather window.
A-1-Haul-A Boat quoted me @ $8400 from Jacksonville to SF Bay.
Able Boat Transport quoted me @ $9200 from Jacksonville to SF Bay
Boat Express Shipping quoted me @ $6,000 to 8,000 from Houston to SF Bay
These are old quotes and unfortunately fuel prices have risen and I will likely pay more. For my own planning purposes I expect to spend $10,000 all in. Maybe I should change my Donate Button from educational expenses to boat trucking!
In the below pic, you can see all the rigging, including the Profurl strapped to the mast. The crane plucked the mast at the spreaders. It took about 35 minutes to do, billed @ 85 dollars every 15 minutes for the crane. So preparation is important. One stuck pin, bent cotter pin that needs to be unbent will cost dearly. This trucking experience was very valuable in terms of me learning my own boat. I had to put my hands on just about every piece of gear on the boat, adding to a already pretty good familiarity with the old girl.
Trucking a boat is a fairly decent under taking, but also an opportunity to do some projects. In future posts I'll lay out some of those projects.
Capt Chris
Weather is rain, high 70's
As many know, I am in Naples picking up some work over the winter time to try and offset the cost of trucking Christa, my Westsail32 to Sausalito California, in the San Francisco Bay area. The short version of why I'm am heading west via the continent vs water is explained briefly here. It did occur to me moments ago, their may be some curiosity about the process and the expence involved. So I'm plan on documenting everything in the blog.
I am not a novice at the trucking game. Pictured above is Christa being lowered onto the bed of a tractor trailer in San Francisco in July 2005. I had always intended on leaving on trip around the planet from the West Coast post retirement, but the Coast Guard had other plans for me on my last tour. So I was forced to truck Christa from San Francisco to Wakefield Rhode Island. Everything with my first move went very smoothly, but there was a learning curve no doubt. The trucking charge in 2005 was about $5800 and roughly $1000 to haul-out and then re-launch. All of the prep work was done by me. This saved a fortune. It was about a week solid of 10 hours a day removing everything necessary for Christa to become legal for transport. I remember feeling sick to my stomach watching Christa's stern rock down the road aboard that flatbed.
A great resource is a website called uship.com. This is a auction type site. You plug in the parameters and shipping companies make competitive bids. Last summer I bid out the job, from several different ports just to get a sense of the expense involved and to help me determine how much effort I should make to get to a certain shipping port. Clearly it would best if I crossed the Gulf of Mexico to Houston. This shaves off major trucking mileage. But I simply do not want to cross the Gulf. I am trying to balance out the following. The closer to California I get, obviously I save on shipping cost. But I need to nail a date down to ship and of course sailing and dates don't mesh well. So I'd have to build in a bunch of cushion time wise, which means I'd knock off work earlier than intended. See the conflict? Then where ever I end up trucking from leaves me stranded with-out a car. Then I'd have to pay to transport my butt back to Naples to pick up the Green Hornet. So I could end up saving on transport cost only to have the savings eaten elsewhere. I believe economists call this Opportunity cost. Not to mention crossing the Gulf with all the oil rigs and shipping traffic.
I have likely settled on shipping out of Ft Myers or Tampa Bay here in Florida. I will also consider Pensacola. Pensacola would be a 300 mile dash and could be done easily on one good weather window.
A-1-Haul-A Boat quoted me @ $8400 from Jacksonville to SF Bay.
Able Boat Transport quoted me @ $9200 from Jacksonville to SF Bay
Boat Express Shipping quoted me @ $6,000 to 8,000 from Houston to SF Bay
These are old quotes and unfortunately fuel prices have risen and I will likely pay more. For my own planning purposes I expect to spend $10,000 all in. Maybe I should change my Donate Button from educational expenses to boat trucking!
In the below pic, you can see all the rigging, including the Profurl strapped to the mast. The crane plucked the mast at the spreaders. It took about 35 minutes to do, billed @ 85 dollars every 15 minutes for the crane. So preparation is important. One stuck pin, bent cotter pin that needs to be unbent will cost dearly. This trucking experience was very valuable in terms of me learning my own boat. I had to put my hands on just about every piece of gear on the boat, adding to a already pretty good familiarity with the old girl.
Trucking a boat is a fairly decent under taking, but also an opportunity to do some projects. In future posts I'll lay out some of those projects.
Capt Chris
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
The 2009 In Review Movie
Moored Naples Florida. Doing?
Working@ Ridgeway Bar & Grill
Here is my latest video effort. In pictures, a chronology of my year! If you like let me know! I recognize the opening sequence is a little blurry. My Flip HD took a digger and has cracks across the lens. I'll work on a workaround. I've been working on this for 3 weeks and simply didn't want to delay publishing any longer.Capt Chris
PS: To watch the video in HD, the best quality, hit the play button bottom left, then toggle the button on the right and bring it up to 750p. For some reason with Youtube's latest update the HD Video does not come up automatically. Don't know why. But I do know that watching the video in HD and in Full Screen makes a big difference.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
The Splice. The New Bike
Moored Naples Florida. Doing?
Working@ Ridgeway Bar & Grill
Moving to California in May. Why? Click Here
My new job keeps me occupied for 30 to 40 hours a week and thus some of my activities will suffer. Boat projects have been one of them. A few months ago I bought new chainplates from Bud Taplin at World Cruisers as I have had some concern mine are just to old. My intent is to replace them here in Naples. I simply thought I would have dove into that project by now. No joy. So I have now decided to take on smaller projects; ones that I can either finish in an hour or work on for an hour a day. The chainplate project is a fairly large undertaking. Set up and clean up will take longer than my allotment of an hour a day. So, I'm working on carving out some time for the chainplate project, but may delay and do the project during the upcoming trucking of Christa. I have decided to start the replacement of the running rigging which is about 8 to 10 years old. Pictured above is the new main halyard splice. I'll climb the mast today and reave it through the masthead block.
Onto my new Road Bike.
Capt Chris
PS: I guess I should plug Bikesdirect.com. This is where I purchased The White Rino for $359 with free shipping. I had a very positive experience with them. I ordered the bike at 2:30pm and was delivered in less than 24 hours via UPS. Very easy to put together.
PSS: If anyone is interested in learning how to splice Double Braided Nylon line click here. Splicing is not that hard, just follow the directions. There are some tricks an experienced Bosn could could show you, but it is worth a try.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Christa Bashes to Windward/Some History
Moored Naples FloriidaThis is an article that I penned for Latitude38 and was published a few months ago. It provides some history for newer readers of the blog. Plus I'm testing out the very cool Scibe technology. Latitude 38
What is Scribd? Click here. The iPaper document reader is very cool.
Received my Florida plate yesterday for the Green Hornet. I've held plates in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Washington State, California, Hawaii and now Florida.
Capt Chris
PS: Still working on a new article for Latitude38. A reflection on why I cut short my trip. And I'm putting on the finishing touches of my 2009 Year in Review Video.
What is Scribd? Click here. The iPaper document reader is very cool.
Received my Florida plate yesterday for the Green Hornet. I've held plates in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Washington State, California, Hawaii and now Florida.
Capt Chris
PS: Still working on a new article for Latitude38. A reflection on why I cut short my trip. And I'm putting on the finishing touches of my 2009 Year in Review Video.
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