Part 3 – The Race The Hamachi Transpac crew began arriving in southern California on July 6th ahead of our July 12th start to attend mandatory crew briefings. While perfunctory, looking around the room made it clear that this was not your local race – in attendance were some of the best crews and skippers from around the World….
Racing a Sailboat to Hawaii – Part 2
Part 2 – Preparing the Boat and Crew: Dreaming of sailing to Hawaii is one thing, actually embarking on the journey is entirely different. The amount of details that go into such a campaign is truly overwhelming. Such an endeavor takes time and money, and we were short on both. This segment focused on what…
Racing a Sailboat to Hawaii – Part 1
Part 1 – The Journey to Transpac: We are all about adventures. In the world of sailboat racing, participating in a Transpac (Trans Pacific) yacht race from Long Beach, CA to Oahu, Hawaii is one of the ultimate adventures. The bi-annual race covers 2260 miles of distance and attracts the biggest boats and most accomplished…
Bali, Indonesia
Bali is someplace I have wanted to visit for as long as I can remember. It conjured images of tropical bliss: green rice fields, black sand beaches, warm blue waters, friendly local people. When we planned this trip to Southeast Asia we knew we must go to Bali, and it seemed like the perfect place…
Nusa Penida, Bali Indonesia
The Penida Islands are clustered southeast of Bali about 30 km (20 miles) offshore and are comprised of Nusa Lembongan, Nusa Ceningan and Nusa Penida, which is the largest. The islands were very sleepy and undeveloped until Instagram made Kelingking Beach, which is located on the southwest side of Nusa Penida, famous. Since then tourists…
Ballooning Over Bagan, Myanmar
I suppose everyone needs to fly in a hot air balloon once in their life. It might as well be over Bagan. It was expensive – let’s just get that out of the way. And it’s not a long flight – around 45 minutes. I had buyers remorse for a day or two. However, those…
Bagan, Myanmar
Bagan is a magical place. We have not been to the valley of the pyramids, or Machu Pichu, or Angkor Wat (we skipped it to go to Bagan). But Bagan has to rank among the ancient marvels still remaining on this planet. It’s incredibly photogenic – we have more content from Bagan than some countries…
Mandalay, Myanmar
After the overcrowded streets of Hoi An where tourists far outnumbered locals, Mandalay was a refreshing change of pace. We came to Mandalay from Vietnam to get off the well worn tourist track and it took just a few hours in this country to validate that we had. Mandalay feels relatively untouched by western influence….
Hoi An, Vietnam
Hoi An is (was?) a quaint fishing village located at the mouth of the Thu Bon river. In historic times (around 1000 years ago) it was an important port for the Cham people who controlled the spice trade in the region. It later became a local center for the production of rice and silk. It’s…
Ninh Binh, Vietnam
Ninh Binh is someplace I’ve wanted to go since the last trip to Vietnam. As is typical, it all started with a picture. Ninh Binh is stunning. It is called the Ha Long Bay on land and that is an accurate description. Ninh Binh is located south east of Ha Noi (Hanoi) near where the…