Sailing is great... In port a

So the sailing has been fanstastic! I hit a record 15.1kts!!!!!!! I sailed some 40 miles the first day in 3 hours and 31min!!! Im flying!!!!!!!!! I flipped in the padre islnd yacht club channel. I write more later....

Texas200 and the skippers meeting

Here are some shots of the skippers meeting this morning and 2 boats, one badass homemade proa and a homemade cabin cruiser. Quite a turnout!!

As i was setting up last night more and more boats started arriving. 4 anchored off the bach after launching in the marina and 5 (including me) await the start tomorrw as we sit on the beach. My immediate neightbor and awesome source of ideas and warm budlight is in a PDracer. Basically a boat about the size of a dining room table, 8ft overall. Its awesome to be surrounded by all these small boat cruisers and even moreawesome to know that around half the boats in the fleet were owner constructed!! Ill post more later.

Headed to Port Mansfield

Headed down for the start of the cruise. Im geting there slowly but im worried that ill be setting up in the dark. O well, ill figure it out. Feels good to be driving this route again, feels like im headed back to mexicoooooo!!!!!

Your view for today

Looking west off the garage.

Ahhhh its been too long and i need to update! Ive been frantically trying to get ready for my cruise coming up in like 4 days. Not a cruise cruise, im talking sailboats. Ive mentioned it before but im sailing my 14ft hobie cat up the bays and intracoastal water ways of texas for 200 miles with around 50 othe boats. Ive been rerigging everything and making sure she is up for the trip... Man i sure hope so. Ill post more later. There is work to be done.

At sherlocks in cleeeeearlake

Here is a mobile blog. I havent blogged in a bit and i have some very interesting tails to write about including a trip to jail!!! Yes! Ur host Dave Rich did some time, a measly 8 hours for inciting a riot/public intoxication. Yup yup. Anyways.... Have a good a good night my fellow surfers and hackers and geeks and sailors.

Me working!!!

A typical texas summertime storm

A small front from the ENE. Cool air collides with warm air.

The trimaran

Just looking at her for right now...day dreaming.

Been awhile

Man, i was doing so well with blogging this time around but i fell off again.

I went and looked at a boat this weekend that was just amazing. Its a Norman Cross 38. Thats a 38ft trimaran and its super badass! They are asking for 25k and i have half of that already. The problem is, because of the size of trimarans, the slip fees in marinas are very expensive. Typically in the kemah area id be looking at 300-500 a month to put her in a marina! Thats insane! If i bought her, id have to work another 3yrs or so before id have enough cash to set out. Ughh...... I cant ever make a decision.

Ive had a few accidents on the hobie lately. Ive flipped her a few times and the mast keeps filling with water making it literally impossible to right her. So ive purchased a few new parts (300 worth) and she should be in good running shape for the cruise. I dnt know if i mentioned or not but ill be sailing her on a 200 mile cruise of the texas coast on the bays and intracoastal waterways. www.texas200.com Is the link and I can be seen under the "whos coming" section of the site under David Richey, Hobie 14 Perdido.

Well im at the dentist office right now doing all that fun shit so ill have to post some pictures of the trimaran later.

New Video

Here is a video I have been working on the past few days. This is when I sailed down to Port Aransas with friends back in March 09. Make sure ya click the HQ icon in the corner for the supa dupa high quality.

Not much else has been going really. Ive been gearing up for the texas 200. I had some crazy sailing in the Hobie last sunday and Im super sore because of it. I sailed over 30 miles and just blasted across the bay on that thing. Its amazing how much ground you can cover when your running 10+ kts occasionally hitting somewhere near 15! I need a GPS confirmation but Im pretty sure Ive been there a couple of times but we shall see what the GPS says.

Texas tea party

Well today they had the texas tea party across the state (nation?). We went over after work and checked it out. It was pretty decent but i still felt like there were unanswered questions. I mean, what was the point? At the hours of 4pm-8pm all the elected officials were at home and what not. We stood and listened to some readings and other things yet i feel like they accomplished nothing. Its time to rally the people against big government. Against big spending. Its time to hold elected officials responsible and make them play by the same rules us "normal folk" do.

Anyways.... This week Garnett and i havebeen providing assistance to Chester, the guy who hitched a ride with us when we sailed back to Galveston from Port Aransas. He won a 30ft gemini catamaran in a hurricane salvage auction and is taking it down the ICW to port a. The boat wasnt ready but deadlines had to be met. They are in Matagorda as we speak with about 90 miles to go.

Well thats about all folks...

Catch Up!

Well its been a while since I have written anything and now Ill have to play catch up. You know.. I have noticed that when a lot starts happening in my life and I havent blogged in a while, I actually dread blogging everything. So, I procrastinate and just let it build up a little more and then the next thing you know, I havent written in a month! So, Im going to take it easy on myself and recap quick and dirty and well, skip a bunch of parts.

I went sailing a few times on the hobie cat the past couple of weekends and its safe to say Im really addicted to it! The speed is hard to describe and when you get everything trimmed perfect and your body weight is perfect you just flyyyyyyyyyy!!! I really want a Hobie 16 so I can take another person in comfort but it just isnt in my budget right now. We shall see what happens :)

So... I went sailing down to Port Aransas like 3 weeks ago and we spent 2.5 days offshore on our way down and about the same on the return trip home. This was my first bad trip offshore and it showed me just how crazy it can be out there. I realized just how hard single handing is going to be and just how important certain things on a boat are ie. an engine. Near the coasts the commercial traffic is just incredibly dangerous and engines and other people on board help make it a tad safer... I dont know. The other thing is just how violent the world seems to be getting. Cruisers are being killed everywhere and that makes me nervous too... imagine that? Me... Dave Rich actually a little nervous by all the cruisers getting chopped up with machetes.

Ive decided to focus a little effort back into just driving for my getaway and I already feel like Im betraying the faith. I love the ocean and I love sailing... I dont know.. Maybe its just not my path for right now. I found an awesome mini-bus for sail in the Kemah area that has been converted into a small motorhome. Its a 98 chevy 1-ton with 36K miles on her! The owners are asking $3500 and it has hot water, sink, stove/oven, small bed, fridge with freezer, and rv ac! The problem? around 10mpg...... UHHHH!!!!!!!! I plan on driving over 100K miles and at 10mpg and $3/gallon, thats $30K JUST IN GAS! So, now Im looking a little more "15-20"ish.... that will help a lot! Plus the van simply will not fit into a shipping container for shipping overseas when Im ready to get off this continent. Just have some thinking to do....

DAMMIT... I always say that! thinking is just getting me no where! Ugh... I need to start acting instead of thinking. Ive got 12K stashed... and by this time next year Ill be sitting around 30K. So Ive set may 1st as my tentative quit date... we shall see how it goes.

Last weekend

Didnt do too much.... Mostly this.

Hobie Sailing!

I finally sailed the hobie! Basically... it HAULS ASS! We sailed in about 15kts of wind and we had her on GPS doing about 11kts! Not bad for my first time.

In other news... Im about to head to Kemah because tomorrow morning we set sail for Port Aransas! We are going to head about 80 miles offshore into the gulf to check out one of our favorite bouys (The main bouy I use for surfing!) and then head back in. Total trip 1 way should be around 240 miles. We will hang out in Port A for about 2 days before we head back out to sea and return to Galveston. I cant wait!! Im bringing the fish and a wetsuit as well and there should be some small surf later on in the week. Yeeehaw!

Daylight savings ruined my fun!

Yup... Cant post sunset shots now.... Im not going to hang out at work until 9 just for you guys!

Im an uncle!

Well, little Logan entered the world today around 5:20pm at 8lbs 1oz. Im super excited for my little brother!!!! He literally cried for a few hours afterthe delivery. Im pumped!!

Getn down and personal with Dave Rich

Well, my elemenrary friend (in her mind) kelli said i should get more personal like i used to with my bogging. I do agree because day after day it just seems like im blogging the monotony of my days. I mean, working the 8-6 makes it a little hard to get in crazy adventures even for yours truely. So here goes, a basic recap of last week (i think).

It all started with my new obsession of riding my bicycle to the bar. This bar is around 6 miles from my home in each direction. I started riding because my DL is expired and its also a great workout. So one night i was getting thoroughly hammered and things got outa hand. They serve big ass beers (a 24oz) beer at this bar on thursday nights and well, i was just keeping track of glasses. Somewhere around glass 5, i decide its shot time. After a shot of patron, it dawns on me that he girl sitting next to me is cute. In fact, i really just wanted to taste her lips. Being the shy guy that i am, i leave over to kelli after said girl goes to the bathroom and proceed to inform my supposed friend just what i want to do to her lips andhow bad. Kelli decided to announce this to the rest of the table right as the victom came walking up. I got up like fucking flash gordon and headed for the bathroom and hid. I decided to come bak and face the music and thats when the girl, who by now wasfilled with whatever in the world kelli was tellingher, decided to grab me for a makeout session.

Anyways, i got pulled over that night on the way home with my bike but the cop sped off after he couldnt find me (sitting right where he told me to wait) so i guess i got away lol. There is another story of drunken bandit makerouter and bike riding but ill save that for another time.

So what do you think readers, more personal? I hear crickets.....

Another day behind me

Yay! Had a fun weekend. The weather didnt work out for sailing this weekend so we just hung out and drank and looked at boats. Damn pirates! I stumbled across the perfect mexico mobile and the price is beyond perfect. Might trade my sails for wheels!

Sunset transition

I transitioned from rooftop skating and sunset pictures to here... Right down the street to the local bar. Im just drinking my beer and thinking about my life. One of the few times ive sat in a bar by myself and enjoyed it. This is Dave Rich, signing out.

sunset

Here it is, the sunset for today. Another beautiful day in texas. Unfortunately, still in the land and society of greed.

Today is TUESDAY!

Awesome...

So last weekend was pretty damn fun. I had a blast friday night at Damien's house when Rami showed up on his bike. He let me ride it and it was my first time on a street bike and wow did I have a blast! Its a 98ish Suzuki Bandit 600 and its not even a true sport bike but ohh man that thing is fast!

We commenced to drinking after that and playing rockband like we were the real deal haha. We all get together sometimes and do this and its a blast! Me on bass, Rami on guitar, Damien on drums and whoever on the mic. We also played some Wii and I showed them how bowling is done. Actually, Damien smoked me.

Saturday I really didnt do much. I hung out at my dads all day and we fixed the electrical problem in my car. Thank God it was just a fuse I missed when I went over everything. We reqired my trailer harness due to some exposed wire and he thinks the wire could have grounded it out causing the fuse to blow in the first place. I really hope so!

Sunday morning my cousins and aunt showed up. They are moving in with us for a bit until they can get on their feet. Her husband, my uncle, has been living with us for a little over 1 month now and hes working and doing great. Its a little crowded in the house right now but its not bad having family around plus they are cool. Im really glad we could step up and help them like this. I did take my cousin with me on a run to Kemah to drop off the last parts from my Catalina and I got a few more parts for the hobie cat. I got a new cam cleat with a pad eye for the furling line. My old one is stuck and not working all that well. I guess I could have taken it apart but I was feeling lazy and just picked up a new one for $18.

Well thats about it, Ill try and get another sunset shot tonight from the garage.

Thursday has come and gone

Today was a great da at work. Xp worked fine. Everything worked fine, just small work things to do. ahhhh..... How nice.

I had some beers last night with the Dman and Raminator and we had a good time. I think we might meet up again tonight for big ass beer night at mollies in the woodlands, but we shall see. Here is your sunset shot of the day. Ive been thinking of starting a seperate blog for all my sunset shots i will start taking from the roof of the garage.

Another day in the office

Well, today was a hellacious day. I spent a good part of last night tearing into the electrical system of my car trying to find a short. I failed but i havent given up.

We decision was made today to roll our first Vista x64 machine back to xp x86. We are just having too much difficulty with autocad 2009 and its only going to get worse once the entire department adopts Vista. So we are gearing up to demote the machine back down.

I just got overwhelmed today. I questioned what im doing with my life, always running in circles. I feel that im wasting my precious time here on earth. Many people feel our time here is punishment and that the end goal is death and meeting our savious in heaven to live out our lives in eternal bliss. This does have plenty of merit with me but its not a solid foundation for me to adopt that will allow me to swallow what is considered "the hardships of life". I cant drudge on everyday in a pointless manner just to try and ignore it, biding my time until i die, get hit by a bus, or the apocalypse happens. so.... Ill do what i always do. Drink a beer and drudge on. That miraculous liquid, kept legal because it gives us faith and keeps us plugging away. If you drive drunk or act stupid, they fine you, and get what they wanted anyways. Money. The end goal.

We watched parts of a documentary today about monetary systems and how they are designed to enslave human kind. I say that agree and always have. I blame parts of my childhood for making me dependant on money. My family didnt have very much back then and i was born into a semi chaotic world of due payments and late bills. My parents did a fantastic job of hiding it but as children we pick up little things, said or not. So im afraid. Afraid of really letting go and throwing that caution to the wind. You can live without or with very little money. Enough to eat, travel, and sleep. I desire this life but im afraid to charge headlong. I look at my savings account, i now have 10K. I tell myself, wait until you have 20 before you quit. Why? Whats the point?

I took that pic while typing this post on the roof of a parking garage where i work. I often stand out here and watch "life". A little city with people, funtioning and living their lives. More often than not, there are fantastic sunset shots here on the roof. Perhaps i should start documenting them and blogging from here.

Pic of the 800 balloons

Here it is, Rami in a shitload of balloons.

My Weekend

Well, I got a lot accomplished this weekend. I finally had a friday off that I didnt have to work or cover for someone so I enjoyed my 3 days and worked hard on the boat. I dont think I worked half as much on my old and much bigger boat but Im hoping I will be rewarded for my efforts.

Friday it was dreary and pretty much crappy weather for trying to work outside on the boat. I called Rami up and learned he was planning something extravagant for his girlfriend for Valentine's. Basically, he bought a little over 1000 balloons and a small handpump and was going to need some help. So for the next 5 hours we pumped and tied balloons and had to call it quits at a little over 850. One balloon had a necklace he bought her and we hid it amongst all the others for her to find.

Saturday I got up early (around 10) and started working on the trailer for the boat again with a new determination to finish up. I learned that Ace Hardware carries the apparently rare rectangular U-bolts I couldnt find anywhere else short of the internet. So after $30 in bolts, I assembled the trailer with the help of my uncle who is living with us right now. We got the trailer almost finished and then the rain set it. I went to the bar that night to meet up with Joe and I learned of a small electrical issue with my car. My step dad said he'd seen it before and it was due to my dual filiment taillights. Thank God someone knew because Im pretty mechanically inclined but I hate tracing electrical issues.

Sunday I finished the trailer and began finishing up the actual boat. We got the new siderails mounted and got the chainplates riveted into the tramp bars. I retensioned the stay that runs over the dolphin striker and fixed a pin that was missing. All my rigging showed up this weekend and I was hoping to rig her but I couldnt find the damn turnbuckle I needed at the local West Marine so once again, Im delayed another weekend. Thats when I noticed that small electrical problem go from small to huge. Basically, the bulbs were not the answer. My dad, who was a commercial electrician once upon a time, helped me trace a little and basically it looks like somwhere 2 circuits have fused together. I have taillights but no dash lights, ac, or brake lights. When switching the fuses, I loose all lights but regain my AC and power windows. Amazing! So, my dad offered to help me tear into it this Saturday which basically ruins my plans to head to Austin to check out a 30ft Allied sailboat. O well....

Arrrrrgggg

Ive been eyeing a boat in Austin and I will be heading up there next weekend to check her out. I wont say just yet what it is, but its a pretty awesome boat. Only around 50 were ever built and this is number 12, which is kinda cool.

Im also pretty excited about finally having my 3 day weekends back after I lost all of my fridays off in Jan. I work a schedule at work where I get every other friday off and this happens to be my weekend so Im pretty excited. Ill be working on the hobie and the trailer all weekend trying to get everything ready. Ive got all the new rigging on order and it should be in sometime next week. Now.. if I can just get a week of 70F or higher weather the water will warm considerably in the bay and Ill be taking her out for my first sail on a hobie cat. Im veryyyy nervous and excited at the same time. I cant wait to feel that speed!

My Weekend

It was pretty exciting i guess you could say. I took my elementary friend Kelli out sailing on a buddy of mines boat. Last weekend we sailed the gulf so we are kind of addicted now and decided to head out again this weekend despite all the small craft advisories. Well the waves were there (4 to 6ft swell) but no wind! Wehad a blast anyways.

Then sunday i drove to College Station to visit my dad and his gf. We had a good time and played a bunch of xbox360. The introduced me to a game called "Left 4 Dead" and i was very impressed. Not only did it have me on edge the whole time but it also scaredme a few times! Awesome game!

Well thats about it. Surf was up but still too cold. Sprightly is almost here so i can hold out. And yea yea i know im a wuss and all that fun stuff lol.

The Day of Vista (x64)

So, today we got to deal with not only the annoyances of Vista but Vista x64 at that. So we got our first lesson in microsofts ass backwards driver insertion of 64bit systems. Not to mention that we also decided to bring online our first server 2008 machine, also x64.

Anyways, enough geek talk. Im working on the possibility of going sailing again this weekend with Garnet. Ive been sailing with him quite a bit recently and ive been all over the place as he refuses to just baysail. We are headed out for another sail into the gulf this weekend with a forecast of 15 to 20kts of wind and 8ft seas! This should be fun as it will be my biggest seas yet. Ill keep you guys posted and have some pics up soon.

New machine install

Today we installed our very first Vista machine. Its running on a Dell T3400 which is a 2.8ghz Pentium Quad core. Thats right, QUAD. Its running vista x64 with 8 gigs of ram. Thats right .... 8gb of ram!!!! We topped it off with a 26" LG lcd display that kicks ass. This machine basically kills anything in its path. Awesome!

Im Back!

In action!

Just got the posting from my phone working again so Im going to make an attempt this year to post like never before, even though Im pretty sure I say that every year. Im just on the go so much that the phone is the perfect way for me to get back into blogging.

A few updates...

1. Work is still good... but as always if your a fan, Im ready to get outa here
2. the step to "getting outa here" is getting much closer now. Literally saving $1500 every month.
3. The Hobie is starting to look good. I sourced some new rails on the internet from a guy parting out his hobie for $50!!! Major painting is going on along with new rigging installation. Getting her ready for the spring time! Also looking for a good name, shoot me some idea.
4. Hobie trailer is 85% done, just need to order these damn rectangular U-bolts from this site on the internet. Belive it or not, Home Depot and Lowes both do not carry said U-bolts.
5. Ive been sailing like crazy on friends boats.. did a trip last weekend where we sailed 20 miles out into the gulf of mexico!

Now...Im going to try hard to stick with one of my new years resolutions, and that is to blog more! Im back from the dead... Dave Rich signing off.

Long Time, No Update

Well... the Catalina is finally gone. I had her picked up with a wrecker and we took her to the landfill. She's gone and now no longer trying to suck cash from me in the afterlife.

Not much else has been going on. I passed my Microsoft exam for windows xp, so I now have my MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional) certification. I got a raise at work for being there 1 year and my review went well. Im trying to get a promotion, we will see how it goes.

Ive been working on my hobie cat and trying to get her ready for the spring time. I was working on the side rails of the trampoline frame when I noticed a large crack in the rail along a hole that developed from the sea/salt eating through the aluminum. New rails are $145 each (2 total) but right now Im investigating the use of epoxy to bond some aluminum stock over the hole and stress crack to strengthen it. Apparently there are issues with epoxy and aluminum due to oxidation and the bond will fail eventually.

Anyways, I will get back to work on updating this damn blog. Im still here. Just dont have much to report.

The New Project

Well, there she is. I mean... there THEY are. I gave Chris the yellow one, mr blue is mine. I picked them both up for $600, they need some work. Hopefully I will be sailing mine this weekend after a few upgrades. They are both Hobie 14 Turbos, meaning they have a front jib instead of just a main. I cant wait, Im super excited!

Harvest Moon Regatta Part 1

Looking forward in Greg's boat

The Tallship Elissa

Cruise ships back at port

Anchored near the Galveston cruise terminal, waiting for Arty to arrive

Looking aft in Greg's beautiful Morgan 382

Cliff at the helm

Greg and Arty discuss life and politics

Approaching the Flagship Hotel, our start. Late.. very late

Finally we made it past the start (tetrahedron)

The boats in the distance is where we were supposed to be, but we were 17 minutes late for the start.

Vagabond 47, stunning.

Bearing down on ya... better shake that reef out

Our first victom getting passed

This is where I slept