Black Bag Operations Network » sailing

James Gray Still Missing

todd — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 01:54:56 +0000

This is a puzzler. Jim Gray disappeared while making a day trip to the Farallone Islands. I did this same trip a few years ago when living aboard in Sausalito. It was fun but didn’t seem at all dangerous or difficult.

The Farallones are 27 miles offshore. You can’t see them from the coast – they appear on the horizon about half way there. The California coast is pretty high, what with Mt Tam there so you never lose sight of that. We set out around 8:00, crossed under the Golden Gate bridge about 9:00, completed our rounding of the islands about 5:00 pm and ran back to get home about 9:00 pm.

Wind is nearly always onshore so it is a beat out, and run back. Progress is futher slowed by a current that set us south about 1.5 knots. Which is why we made it back about sunset even though we didn’t arrive until 5:00 pm.

It sounds like Gray had similar conditions so I really can’t imagine how he was able to disappear unless he meant to, perhaps hugging the coast and heading south, which would throw off the search.

In one of the most imaginative uses of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, volunteers examined satellite photos to try to locate his boat. Ongoing info is at http://helpfindjim.com/

Gnomedex is imminent

todd — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 22:39:32 +0000

And I am psyched. Should be lots of fun. I’ll be staying at Bell Harbor Marina aboard my sailing yacht Aurora on B-Dock. It’ll be the one with the hammock on the foredeck.

I’m still looking for the killer startup idea and ideal partner(s). Perhaps I’ll stumble onto something there. If you are going to Gnomedex and want to talk about doing something cool, find me. Look for the loudest Hawaiian shirt you can find.

Don’t pull that thread

todd — Wed, 31 May 2006 18:59:29 +0000

Boat remains in the yard having its innards scrubbed (fuel tanks opened and cleaned – engine pulled – new prop shaft, stuffing box, engine teardown/service).

Hopefully I’ll get her back by the weekend just in time for the next set of rain storms.

Boat Maintenance Season Kickoff

todd — Sun, 09 Apr 2006 12:19:30 +0000

Its time – warming up a bit I’ve got a boat-load of boat projects to get cracking on. Not quite warm enough to begin working on the brightwork, but there’s that forward hatch cover I started to rebuild last fall, I want an autopilot for motoring (have a Monitor for sailing), radar for the fog, and a new diesel heater for the nights. Lots to do and I hit it today with a vengeance. With luck, I’ll have the hatch cover torn down and ready to build back up by end of day today.