Outraged by seemingly endless accounts of Open 60s colliding with whales in the Artemis Transat and other boats likewise elsewhere and fed up with tales of basking sharks sliced in two by speeding sailboats—and get this, ICAP Leopard had to park, drop sails, and back down to remove a sunfish that got wrapped around the rudder on the boat's screaming transatlantic record crossing and people talk about sailboats setting records and how cool that is which is fine, just fine, but who's talking about that poor sunfish's family and oh the nerve of these PEOPLE—the creatures of the sea are mobilizing to fight back.
Their message:
IF WE'RE NOT SAFE WHERE WE LIVE
YOU'RE NOT SAFE WHERE YOU LIVE
Inspired by Japan's Kamikazi, the "Divine Wind," these selfless patriots of the sea are the "Divine Wave."
Dang. It's hard times all across our great republic, and this comes as one more blow. I just checked my homeowner's policy, and I'm pretty sure I'm not covered.
On the other hand, I am assured that the humans are "winning."
In a presentation by The International Seakeepers Society—and I should say that these people are the antithesis of wildeyed reef huggers (check out their web site)—board president Jim Gilbert offered it as a conservative projection that, on present trendlines, with industrial fishing expanding and fish stocks declining, all the fisheries will collapse by mid-century.
Just like the many fisheries that have already collapsed.
I feel so much better now.
For the Record:
The America's Cup and all its little friends return(ed) to court Thursday in New York to renew their frolic regarding the latest appeal. You will not read about it here, not soon anyway. Think of me as somewhere's west of LA but completely surrounded by LAYC. Have fun in New York, everybody—Kimball
P.S. J World San Francisco has an opening through cancellation for a spot on its J/120 in the Pacific Cup, San Francisco to Hawaii, next month. At $10,000 to sign on with two offshore coaches (I'll vouch for them) and six paying participants, that comes to roughly $4.50 per mile to be taught how to get to Hawaii doing the fast thing. Win or lose you'll come back different. Want to skipper, next time, with confidence? More info at J World San Francisco/Puerto Vallarta. You never really know what you will get, California-Hawaii, but it is a benign passage by the standards of ocean passages and halfway across you are farther from land than at any other point on the globe. At the end there's Hawaii. Suck it up and cope.
