Zingaro – Caro Babbo

Fame: ‘‘Dennis and Me saw this boat on the back page of Wooden Boat Magazine…’’

After a few minutes of repeated mentions of Dennis, I asked, ‘‘Who is Dennis?’’

‘‘Dennis Conner, everyone loves Dennis.’’

I responded, ‘‘I lived in San Diego when he lost it.’’

He parried, ‘‘Won four, lost two.’’

Port Townsend, WA 14-MAR-2023 – What was unsaid, of course, was that Dennis Conner was the first American to lose the America’s Cup. It was said that the head of the first skipper to lose the Americ’s Cup Trophy would take its place at the New York Yacht Club.

Waiting for (car) parts in Todos Santos Mexico.

Todos Santos, BCS, Mexico, 5-Feb-2023 – The long and the short of it is that Celica is parked in a dirt parking lot across from a group of restaurants outside of the town proper in Todo Santos Mexico.

Jennifer and I are on a trip from Port Townsend to Todos Santos to visit our friends Dennis and Lisa, stopping along the way to see friends, both boating and non-boating.

And my mind is preoccupied with repairing the Celica. A busted car on the side of the road where I don’t have the means to repair it bothers me. It eats at me. Lately, I let other people work on our cars with mixed results. Even the best return the car with things not quite right to be discovered by us a thousand miles away. No, this breakdown is unrelated to any work we had done, but the brake pads we had installed before we left are not seating correctly. It has little impact, but it is that worm in the back of one’s head.

The drive down was a contrast of the beauty of the country we drove through, the people we met, both new to us and old friends, and the disparities of the developing world where so little works and so much is abandoned – in the rural areas. Vibrant cities, supposedly cartel-controlled cities, like La Paz blot that all out. Anglo communities like Todos Santos, where real estate prices exceed Seattle, blot that all out. But it is there. We’re in a developing nation here in Mexico.

Safety of Life at Sea – SOLAS – Death of a friend

Port Townsend, WA, 23-DEC-2022 – A phrase from years ago, which was repeated to me with annoying frequency, was that sailing was safer than driving a car. I’d never really given it any thought.

Back home, in Mount Sinai Harbor, every year or two a drunk would fall into the water at the Mount Sinai Yacht Club and drown. But as Jennifer and my sailing years progressed, we came into direct and indirect contact with people who died on the water.

I get voted off the island, twice

This is the last post of my time with James Everson on Zingaro. The series starts here.

Port Townsend Washington, 10 February 2020 – “I’m flying out tomorrow. You can stay on if you’d like…” There were a number of sentences that followed, but that’s the only one that really matters.

The Greeks, or someone like that, said start a story in the middle and then work out to the edges. Instead, let me start with where we left off, and work to the end.

Congress Pressures Social Media Companies, James suffers; I feel like we’re stapled to the dock.

Renaissance Marina, Aruba, 28-JAN-2022 – There is an invasion of thoughts and observations as I’ve sat here on a dock for two weeks. The cross-cultural jump feels tectonic, like the two plates of the earth that are my life and experience shearing against each other and moving me to this Neverland.
If you stay with me for this, I’ll try to build the three-dimensional terrain that I find myself parachuted into.

Waiting for parts in Exotic Locations

Renaissance Marina, Aruba, 20-Jan-2022 – The parts were in Miami last we heard. From there they should have gone onto a ship and then come to Aruba. Directly? We don’t know. How many stops along the way? We don’t know. How long might the parts sit in customs? We don’t know.

I’m on an Oyster 485-03: a 48.5 ft British-made boat, built in 1993 in Wroxham, Norwich, Norfolk, UK.*

Some background: The owner of the boat is James Evenson who I have known virtually for five years and in person the last two years. After the literal breakup of the catamaran Zingaro, James with the help of his Patreons and through a Kickstarter campaign purchased this boat in Curaçao.

Other people’s boats

SEATAC, 17-JAN-2022 – I was speaking to John Riley not too many weeks ago. I was telling John that being away from my boat meant that I don’t have much to write about. John said, write about other people’s boats.

And so I shall.

Why are we still in Hawaii? We leave in the morning.

Hanalei Bay, Kuaui, HI, 25-JUN-2020 — If you’re asking why are we still in a Hawaii, it is the proper question.

We were to have left Tuesday, but will leave tomorrow instead.

I’ve wriiten that in a cruising boat, you, the skipper/owner/crew are the weak point: the boat will protect you. I am the weak link. I have been injured and then suffered from Vertigo. We waited while I healed.

We meet James, but not Kimi

Ko Olina Marina, 12-MAR-2020 — It’s always interesting meeting someone with whom you have corresponded but never met.

I’ve been writing professionally, in one form or another for something approaching forty years, but I find I still get spooked writing for a new audience, and so I did writing this. The obvious audience is followers of my blog, but this post will also get read by the members of the WhatsApp group of Zingaro Patrons and other invitees. They know James better than I do. James is a celebrity with this group who are fiercely loyal. I find myself worried that I’d somehow lose face with them, or even with James.

James and I started corresponding off and on just after I discovered his Zingaro YouTube channel. There were few enough episodes that they could easily be watched back-to-back in a couple of hours. I think he had met Kimi by then, but perhaps not. James figured prominently in a piece I wrote about why there would never be a Caro Babbo Youtube channel. He has an easiness about him, mixed with competence that make him interesting and easy to watch. The first few episodes could have been titled this week’s pretty girl, because there seemed to be a new young woman in every episode. There wasn’t any mystery about why these women would spend time with James.

And then, at some point, an 18- or 19-year old named Kim shows up and James loses his heart. He and I corresponded about what a lucky man he was.

When we saw James this past week he talked about how much money he blew through in those early days of the romance. Unlike the eighties pop hit, Kim stayed after the money was gone.

It’s All About Prep… and Dreams

DL2680 ATL-SEA 18-FEB-2020 – We’re our way back to Port Townsend before making the hop to Honolulu on the 20th.

Jennifer and I often think we have few friends, but our week was full of seeing friends. It was a busy week with full days of house maintenance and full evenings with friends.

We’ve been following the travails of James and Kimi on Zingaro, and the dreams following my father’s death have begun.