Worlds Day 6

Day 6 of the worlds dawned clear and cold. As we drove to the club we could see that the windmills were cranking, and the conclusion was that it was a brisk westerly wind. This wind had been blowing all night, so we also thought there would be some waves.

In yesterday's windy racing, the American teams did very well, taking 1st, 2nd, 3rd in the first race and 3rd in the second race. There were several other American teams in the top 10. The regatta leaders Wolfgang Hunger and Holger Jess had done relatively poorly yesterday and since the American team of Martin/Falsone had claimed first and 3rd in the 2 races yesterday, they were only 11 points out of firstplace in the regatta. All but one American boat is from the West coast, and these guys live to sail in big breeze and huge waves. This is their brier patch, so today the question was: could Martin/Falsone win big enough to take the title away from Hunger/Jess. Everybody was thinking about it.

The sail out to the race course was puffy, and indeed, the breeze was big, even bigger than yesterday. It was cold too....about 55 degrees. With water in the 60 degree range, and wind over 15 knots, this was like sailing in late October or early November in Annapolis after a cold front has come through and a northwesterly is cranking out of the Severn, except the waves were much bigger. OR, it was like sailing pretty much any day in Santa Cruz except the waves were somewhat smaller...

Team Ötzi was feeling good after yesterday's performance in breeze, and we felt like today would be our chance to jump some places in the pecking order. We were sore from yesterday and the conditions were punishing, but we wanted to stay the course, finish the race, and wear down our competition. We were only one half point ahead of the Italian team, and about 10 points behind the Poles, and we wanted to run those guys down. Plus we had a score to settle with the guys who fouled us resulting in the hole in our boat. So we were determined to make a good show of it in the big breeze.

The race was carnage. There were massive capsizes, gear failures, and all kinds of craziness. The waves were punishing. A couple of times we were doubtful about whether to continue competing, but we were steeled and determined to compete and to do as well as possible. Our goal was to break into the top 100. We capsized 3 times, twice dumping gybes, and once when Andreas mistakenly backed the jib in our last tack before the finish (cost us 2 boats!). But we completed the race. Over 50 of our competitors did not complete the race. This was a victory for us in itself. When we crossed the line, I asked Andreas whether he thought we had broken 100, but he said no. There were not more than 20 boats behind us.

After the results were posted, we found that we got a 99. Our best performance of the regatta so far. Let it not be said that Team Ötzi is afraid to get out and rumble in big breeze and waves. We had an absolute blast and hit the dock with nothing left. Fortunately Andreas did a great job of wrapping up our sandwiches, so we collapsed in a heap on the dock and ate a huge lunch. Then we packed the boat up.

In the end, Martin/Falsone didn't quite win big enough to take the regatta away from Hunger/Jess, but they made a truly valiant effort. If it hadn't been for some flukey conditions earlier in the regatta, they might have been world champions. As it is, they will stay hungry.






















Team Ötzi is all packed up and ready for the long slog back to wet and sloppy Switzerland. We are hoping that no bridges are out. Remember...No news is good news!

Worlds day 5

The 5th day of the worlds also dawned dark and stormy. However, this time, the southerly system wind really materialized. We had two epic races in breeze ranging from 12 to over 20 knots. There were several squalls which came through and made for interesting racing. A lot of folks went swimming. Team Ötzi was going great in the strong breeze. We seem to be much faster in the breeze than in light air. In race 7 we posted our best finish so far at 104. The results of race 8 are not yet posted, but we lost several boats on the last run when we dumped the last gybe of the race. this was the only time we went swimming. We still pulled the kite back up for the rest of the run.

Anyway, it was an epic day of sailing in big breeze. The sail in to the club was a 2 sail reach and we pretty much blasted it the whole way. We hit the dock tired, sore, wet, and really really happy.
















Team Ötzi after racing on day 5 of the 2005 505 worlds. Wet, tired, but not cold, and STOKED.

worlds day 4

Day 4 of the worlds dawned grey and stormy. We thought this would result in good system driven wind but were sorely mistaken. It was cold and rainy but not particularly windy. Team Ötzis performance continued to be mediocre at best. We are not fast in the light breeze.

The bummer of the day was that we got sandwiched in a leeward mark collision and our boat was damaged. A hole was punched in the outer skin. We protested the outside boat for not giving enough room under rule 18.2, and the jury found that we were in the right and the other boat was disqualified. This is good because it means that we don't need to worry about paying for the repair, but protesting is not fun and it really put the damper on an otherwise nice day.

















Two shots of the hole in Team Ötzis boat. This fleet has been really bad about violating rule 18.2. Lots of folks have been talking about it. Normally its not an issue in 5o5 fleets because the boats are expensive and difficult to fix, but here its a real problem.

Worlds Day 3

Day 3 of the world championship was a blast. We had great seabreeze after some initial variability and shiftiness. The breeze settled in at around 30 degrees and 12-15 knots with a bit more in the puffs. It built as the day went on. It was a great day of sailing, and a great day of racing. The leaderboard took another changeup since the conditions were so different.

Team Ötzi posted our best score of the regatta with a 121 in race one, and we were doing even better in race 2, but we broke our tiller just before the 2nd windward mark rounding, and had to retire. This was a huge disappointment, because we felt much faster in the breezy conditions, particularly going downwind.

Tomorrow is our lay day and we plan to fix the tiller and maybe install a gybing centerboard.

Worlds Day 2

The 2nd day of the 2005 worlds regatta began with a postponement because of lack of wind. We had noticed during the car ride over to the regatta that the wind farms which we pass on the road were not making any power this morning. Normally the turbines are turning, even on the days when breeze has been light, but today, not a single wind turbine was moving. The postponement was okay with us though because we had work to do on the boat. Andreas had moved the spiro fitting down when he rerigged the mast for the big kite, but this was unnecessary and the lower fitting was affecting the angle of our pole and the geometry of the foreguy and topping lift so we decided today was the day to fix that. We were really glad that we did this because it really improved our ability to project and trim the spinnaker. In addition, Doug Hagan had pointed out to me that we should make sure that our mast base was all the way back in the step, or at the minimum distance (10 feet) from the transom. When we checked this, we found that the mast was 10 feet 2 inches forward of the transom so the next project was moving the mast back in the step and recalibrating. We couldn’t go all the way back because our partners are too close to the back of the mast. This might be a modification that the owner should undertake. Once we changed the mast base position, we recalibrated for rake and bend and made sure everything was copasetic. We did notice a big change in the position of the jib lead angle (more vertical) as a result of the movement of the mast base, and we also noticed a big increase in the amount of weather helm that we experience. The boat felt a lot better.

Another observation that Ethan made while he was helping us with the boat is that our centerboard is not a gybing board. Forget high aspect ratio. Our board won´t even gybe. So we went looking around to see if there was another board around that we could borrow. Doug Hagan said he has an extra HA 480 waterat blade that we could borrow, but it would require drilling a new hole in the boat, so we are not sure that we can get away with this. Andreas may ask the owner.




















The postponement flag and hoisted spinnakers drooping as we wait for the wind.

By the time we had finished all that and writing the tuning guide on the boat so I can see it while sailing, the breeze had filled in and people were starting to launch. Once again we wanted to get out early and make sure everything was working, and this is exactly what we did. Out on the course, we checked the boat, looked to see what the wind was doing, and got everything set up. The race committee set a course for 000 again, and the breeze was pretty up and down. The first start was abandoned because somebody hit the rabbit (again!) and when they got going on the second start, the wind just died off. So the start of the race happened in pretty much no breeze. We gated early and were in the neighborhood of Ethan, Mike Martin, and several others, but we were in the second row. We actually got pretty screwed at the start, were unable to lay the pin, and had to tack out and then back, and the already light air was really chewed up. We were not the only ones who couldn't lay the pin though. Lots of people got screwed at the early end of that gate start. As soon as we could we escaped to the left. The only consolation was that there were a lot of really good sailors who got nearly equally screwed on that start. It was not pretty.

The first beat went from bad to worse. Most of the fleet had a huge advantage on us because the breeze filled in from the right and we were going left. I think we went around the windward mark in about 170th position. Then to make matters worse, as we were trying to catch the rest of the fleet, this French guy behind us decided he wanted to start a fight for breeze and we had to head up to keep him off our air. I was kind of annoyed that we were so deep and still this guy thought it would be a good idea to sit on our air. But we did gain some boats on the first run. The second beat was a farse. The wind completely shut off and we were nearly dead in the water. Fortunately for us everybody was dead and we actually mustered a lot of speed relative to the boats around us. Towards the top mark, the beat turned into a reach and we actually flew the kite into the ´windward´ mark. Once we were around the top, the northerly breeze started to fill back in and we were able to sail down to the reach mark. We had a good gybe and passed a few boats, then headed for the bottom, basically maintaining the status. The 3rd beat was better in the freshening seabreeze. Andreas was on the wire pretty much the whole way up and we had good speed. I think we passed another 5 or 10 boats on that beat. The 2nd run was great. The breeze had built to wire running conditions and we were both fast and deep. We hourglassed the kite during the gybe though, so that slowed us down a bit. In any event, we had a good final beat and the best sailing of the day was the sail in to the club in decent breeze.

In the end, the race was an even bigger shake-up than race 1. Some really great sailors finished with much higher numbers than I had expected. It was a really tough race. Team Ötzi basically maintained position by finishing with a 2nd 141. We still are not where we would like to be.

2005 505 Worlds Day One

175 boats is a lot. As the sun began to rise over the dinghy park in Warnemünde on the first day of the world championship the tension in the air was pretty palpable. Team Ötzi decided that we wanted to get out early and test some of the changes we had made to the way our jib leads run, and make any last minute adjustments with plenty of time before the start of racing. We also wanted to be sure that we had a good picture of what the wind would be doing. Since the forecast called for a southerly which is contrary to the thermal, we thought that the wind could be doing some monkey business. So we got off the dock before 9 AM and were the 2nd boat out of the harbor. When we made it out to the racing area, we did in fact notice that the southeasterly breeze was very shifty. It was back and forth in 30 degree increments, which is a lot. By the time the 10:55 start arrived, the breeze had completely shut off and the RC had to postpone. After about another half hour the northerly thermal breeze showed up, but we spent a lot of additional time waiting around to see which breeze would stick around. It wound up being the thermal and the RC finally started race one around noon.

Ex post facto, race one was pretty hotly contested. The leader board was pretty shaken up by race one, and there was a lot of talk of throwing it out because someone hit the rabbit. Ethan Bixby was the rabbit. I don’t know who hit them. There was also a shortening of the course after the 2nd reach leg which resulted in a lot of confusion at the bottom end as some people were finishing at the same time as others were rounding the leeward mark. Apparently a number of folks sailed across the finish line without sailing the last 2 legs of the course. There was some grumbling about the RC work which allowed this to happen.

From Team Ötzi’s perspective, it was a pretty bad race. The pressure was light, less than 10 knots of breeze and we had a lot of trouble getting the boat going upwind. We gated about in the middle of an 8 minute gate opening, and worked the middle of the course going up, trying to stay on the lifted tack in the oscillating breeze and keeping a sharp eye out for pressure. In hindsight, and after talking to some other folks, we might have done better to try and work to the left corner and focus more on staying in clear breeze than worrying about angles. We rounded the windward mark somewhere between 60 and 100. We unfortunately got outside of an Australian boat who had a lot of trouble getting his kite up and drawing and he kind of took us to the right when we wanted to get left (facing down). We are also not that fast downwind in light pressure. So when we got to the leeward gate, we had lost about 20 boats. Our position was not looking too good. On the next beat, Andreas noticed that we seemed really slow, so we started adjusting things. We moved the jib leads forward a little bit. That seemed to help. The main seemed to be too full up high so we raked just a teeny bit and pulled on some more shroud tension. This also seemed to help. In hindsight, we probably should have flattened the sail and pulled the draft forward with some more cunningham (our cunningham was pretty loose). But we didn’t think of this until the sail in. At any rate, by the time we had tried these things, we were at the windward mark and ready for the reach legs. The reaches were pretty much a parade, but we did pass a couple of boats at the gybe mark because we had a good gybe and were able to sail over them while they were trying to get their kites full. The RC had shortened the course by this time, so as we were coming to the leeward mark, the upper half of the fleet was sailing to the finish. This made for a very confusing mark rounding, and I am pretty sure that a lot of the folks who were sailing that last reach leg just sailed right on to the finish and nobody was the wiser. It was kind of a mistake on the part of the RC, I think, but I can’t complain too loud. We are a really big fleet! Anyway, the last beat for Team Ötzi was a real disaster. The air was so chopped up from all the boats that it was very light and extremely difficult. Team Ötzi is not at their best in light air, so we were pretty frustrated. The last beat and run were very short, and we wound up finishing in position 150. Not a good result, but also not last!

There was no second race because the breeze was too flukey after race 1 and at 1530 the race committee sent us home.

Measurement

Because the 5o5 is a one design class association, the class rules stipulate that boats have to be built in a certain way. In order to ensure that the competition at the world championships is fair, a significant amount of time is devoted to measurement. This is a huge operation for 175 boats and 350 sailors. Your mast has to be measured to ensure that all of the hoisting points for your halyards are compliant with the rules. Spinnaker poles are measured to make sure they are not too long. Booms are measured, as well as rudders and centreboards, which must comply with the rules as well. All of this gear gets stickered with official stickers to indicate that it is allowed. All of your sails must be measured and stamped. And the whole kit and caboodle has to be weighed after all this to ensure that all competitors’ equipment is at least the minimum required weight. There are a small army of official measurers and helpers who do all this measuring, but the whole process is labor intensive. It involves disassembly and reassembly of all the boats, and moving them around, to, and through the measurement stations. It is not what most people would call a good time.

Since the Team Ötzi 5o5 had never been measured before, we were not 100% sure that everything would be okay. We did have some problems getting our sails measured because they are new and did not have official class stamps on them. Apparently this is a problem for all American boats because we gringos don’t have a good system for getting sails measured and stamped. But everything worked out fine and at the end of Thursday we were all measured in and ready to compete. This was exciting news because it meant we could have all day Friday to rest and work on the boat. We needed this time, because during the PreWorlds we had come up with a new round of lists of things to accomplish and change on the boat. Plus we were pretty tired!





















Now that we´re done with measurement, it´s time for dinner!

About Warnemünde

Warnemünde is a small city on the Baltic sea near the much larger city of Rostock. It is a charming small city with a neat waterfront area and a rich history. Warnemünde and Rostock were part of the Hanseatic league of cities which were powerful trading partners. In more recent history, Warnemünde and Rostock were part of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and were important sea ports for that state. Warnemünde is located at 54 degrees North Latitude and 12 degrees East Longitude. It can be very cold here in the wintertime, and the summer weather can also be quite cool. The Baltic Sea is consistently chilly (it is, after all, the Baltic Sea!) There is a relatively straight coastline at Warnemünde and this means that if it is sunny there is a very good thermal here. Warnemünde is famous for being about the best place for sailing in all of Germany. It is also famous for really big waves which build up during long periods of northeasterly breeye because the northeast fetch down the Baltic is quite long. One of the best things about sailing in Warnnemünde is that the sailing club is right at the mouth of the harbour and so there is not a long sail out to the racing area. In addition, the sailing club has a lot of real estate which makes it really easy for a lot of boats to get into and out of the water quickly. This is a great feature.

















Two views of the canal just next to the sailing club in Warnemünde.
















Two views of the sailing club in Warnemünde.

The Warnemünde sailing club is very well organized. They did a great job running the preworlds and administering the measurement. Measurement proceeded so well that they were actually finished 2 hours early. That is a real accomplishment for measurement of 350 boats! The race committee also did a great job during the preworlds setting courses up on time and running smooth races. Running a race committee for such a large fleet is an intimidating task!

PreWorlds regatta report

Team Ötzi was not quite ready fort he first race of the preworlds which started right on time at 11:55 on Wednesday. This was unfortunate, because we got scored DNS since we were still at the dock installing our correctors when the race got started. Perhaps we should have just sailed the boat 20 kg underweight and seen if we could go as fast as the good guys. Somehow I doubt it. ¨Ötzi says our boathandling problems most likely could not have made up for the lack of 20 kg. But we got out and did some practicing and made sure the boat was okay for the second race. Unfortunately the wind shut off during the second race, and Team Ötzi does not do particularly well in the 0-5 knot breeze. So our finish was not very good, and we were really exhausted after racing for what seemed like forever in the extremely light wind. We went home with a new list of little things to fix, but we were glad that we got the first day of tune-up. It was nice to be out on the water in the sunshine.

Day 2 of the preworlds was much more fun with a freshening breeze and lots of sunshine. In race 1, we had a good start and rounded the top mark in about 30th position. Unfortunately we promptly ran over the spinnaker and lost about 20 boats getting it fixed. Ötzi tried to tell us to hold off on the hoist until the pole was out, but we didnt hear him and paid the price. Then to make matters worse when we got to the finish we managed to sail upwind of the pin. Now who could have known that we could round the leeward mark and go straight to a close hauled course and sail above the finish line. Ötzi said we should have done a better job reading the sailing instructions. We agreed and a second DNC did nothing good to help our score.














Boats are filling up the dinghy park here in Warnemünde.

In the 2nd race of day 2, we did a much better job, with only one minor kite snafu which cost us 10 boats or so. We had trouble hanging upwind with the good guys off the line. We think this is probably a combination of my driving skills (or lack thereof) together with the fact that we have a lot of trouble getting our jib leads in the right position with that doggone floating system. That went onto the list of things to fix. But we had good speed going downwind in the building pressure and were able to pass a lot of boats on the downwind legs. By the time race 2 ended, we had a steady 12 knot breeze with a nice swell for surfing on. It was a great day for sailing.

In the end, our preworlds was good because we worked a lot of kinks out and improved a number of the systems on the boat (jib leads, pole launcher, spinsheets, jibsheets, correctors, pole end fitting, and lots of other little stuff).

This is not a nice setup for the skipper to hike on, and to be honest, this is really just too much complexity.

The Team Ötzi 5o5 with mast down and ready for measurement.

Team Ötzi setting up for Worlds

After arriving in Warnemünde, we immediately set about the process of setting the boat up. And there was a lot of set up to do. The team Ötzi 505 is a Duvoisin built about 5 years ago. The owner never races the boat, so there were a lot of systems which were not ready for racing. For example, the mainsheet was about 3/4 inch material and weighed a ton. There were 20 kg of corrector weights which had not been installed because the owner does not sail with them. The boat had not been rigged for the new long luff spinnaker. Fortunately, Andreas had already undertaken the task of rerigging the boat to work with the big kite, but not everything was tuned up yet. This is why we came for the preworlds.

A little bit of background about the 505 class and the boat… The boat was designed 50 years ago by John Westell. It was designed to be a high performance racing dinghy for 2 people, and to be able to be homebuilt. The class has been holding world championships annually for 50 years and this year´s regatta is the 50th world championship. This boat is the best I know of, because its performance is so great on all points of sail across a broad range of wind conditions. This year´s world championship is the largest ever with 175 boats coming from 12 countries to participate. It promises to be a tremendous event. Fortunately for me it does not require qualification in order to participate. If qualification was required, I probably would not be here. On the other hand, for some of the top sailors, this is not necessarily a benefit. It is a real challenge to do well in such a big fleet, and consistency is quite difficult.

One of the really great things about the 505 other than the fact that its the best boat ever is the strength of the class association. The class is made up of enthusiastic participants from many countries who all share one thing in common: love of 505 sailing. These people come together annually and transcend language and geographical barriers to sail together and share 2 weeks of their year. And they have been doing this for 50 years. There are some people at these events who have been here for more than 25 world championships and still they keep coming back. It is really something special. The best part is maybe that nearly everybody is an amateur. They are all just here because they want to be. And it is this camaraderie which makes the class so special. All these personalities who get together once a year to share sailboat racing and passion for sailing with each other is really something special which can only be experienced directly.

But I digress, We were talking about the preworlds. After we arrived and set up the boat, we started to make lists of all the things we needed to fix in order to have the boat ready to race and ready to be measured. These lists just kept getting longer. Ötzi says that lists are very important for a good sailing program. But they do get tiresome, and eventually the jet lag and all night driving caught up with us and we decided we should cut our losses and head for the apartment. Andreas arranged a flat for us in the nearby town of Bad Doberan, which is about a 30 minute drive from the sailing club. Just on our way out, we got a great picture of the moon, and also a good view of some of the British boats arriving. These guys really do their travel in style with a land rover carrying 7 505s at once. Way cool!



















The British contingent arriving with 7 505s being transported by one landrover.





















Andreas, tired after a long day of rigging, enjoying a beer in front of the moon.

Trip to 505 worlds

So I decided to do 5o5 worlds this year because I wanted to experience international big fleet sailing, and I love sailing 5o5s and when I e-mailed my partner in crime Andreas Kindlimann about the possibility of doing the regatta not only was he enthusiastic about it, but he also was able to get us a boat. And so Team Ötzi was born.

Andreas organized the boat and accomodations in the interim between when we decided to do the regatta in May and the actual date of the regatta in August. The boat is a Duvoisin which was rigged for the old 5 meter spinnaker and had 20 kg of uninstalled corrector weight. The owner never races the boat in 5o5 fleets...only in handicap fleets, so even though the boat had been measured once, it was not necessarily rules compliant, particularly with no correctors installed.

I took flight on a sunny Friday afternoon on Air France (because they have better food than Delta).















When I landed in Zürich, we went immediately to Andreas house where Mrs. Kindlimann made us a phenomenal lunch. Team Ötzi really likes to eat good food. The weather was terrible, and we had trouble getting the boat ready. The plan was to leave in the evening and drive all night across Germany with our destination of Warnemünde. Thank god for german keyboards which have all the funny characters. Unfortunatelz, the y and z characters are exchanged, so that makes it reallz difficult for me to tzpe properlz. But I digress.

We eventually got the boat all ready on the trailer and set off on our Odyssey. As you can see in the picture, our new Mercedes turned out to be a slightly used Peugeot.















But I digress. We were still able to make 100 mph with a trailer. And this worked fine until we got near Berlin where the police told us we were only allowed to drive 45 mph with a trailer. Andreas was driving and was fortunately able to get us off with only a warning for 35 euros. This was doubly fortunate because we didn't actually have the insurance for the trailer with us. Big bummer. But the cops seem to think it was cool that we were going to a regatta in Warnemünde, and I think they let us off easy. I thought about taking their picture but decided they might not think it very funny.















After 16 hours in the car, we arrived at the sailing club in Warnemünde. Tired, sore, but very happy to be here. We were greeted by many old friends and immediately started to make new ones. We set to work putting the boat together for a test sail on tuesday before the first day of the pre-worlds. And so the incessant list making began.

Luke's Bachelor Backpacking Trip

One of my closest friends, Luke Shingledecker, got engaged on New Year's Eve, 2004. When he asked me to be his best man, I recognized the importance of this position and the gusto with which its duties should be dispatched. Two things came immediately to my mind: first, what will I say at the wedding? Second, what will we do for the bachelor party? The first thought I forgot about for 6 months, but I immediately began hatching plots for the second thought.

We didn't want to do your typical bachelor outing at a strip club, and Luke being an enthusiastic hiker, we decided to attempt the Bachelor Backpacking Trip. After some lengthy discussion, we decided to check out the Dolly Sods area of West Virginia for a 3-day hike. The plan was for about 20 miles in 3 days. We assembled a motley group of 5 willing souls, and a rather sufficient supply of hard liquor, cigarettes, and cigars, piled into 2 cars and off we went to wild, wonderful WVA.

The weekend was punctuated with interesting events, and the spirit of Ötzi was in attendance. We had a brilliant hike into our campsite on day one, followed by excellent hobo dinners of salmon, london broil, and veggies which Luke prepared in advance. Brian provided us with enough long island ice tea to get a hippo drunk, and we all woke up with a big headache. Ted woke up with a twisted hangover and a surprise breakfast he left for himself just outside the tent. Under sunny skies we departed for the bottom of the valley, which we learned to regret when it began to rain about halfway down. We decided to trudge on to the bottom and see if it would stop. After no small amount of standing around in the rain, it did eventually stop and we were able to dry off in the sun. The only problem was that some of us forgot to zip up the tent flies before departing, so we wound up with a lot of really wet gear. The conclusion was to take off a day prior to our planned departure, which was fine because we enjoyed a marvelous dinner of trout and beer, some of which was free in honor of Luke's bachelorhood.

On the whole it was a great weekend. Luke was appropriately hazed and a good time was had by all. Here's to many future bachelor backpacking trips, in the spirit of Ötzi...no news is good news!















Getting ready to take off.




















Signing In.





















D'ya think all this green means that they get a lot of rain around here?




















Hey check it out...that's a view!




















Why is it that even at my own bachelor party I have to do the cooking?




















Heh heh you chumps think there is water in all these bottles.
















Cheers! We love camping!




















And...We Like the Moon!




















Dude, I need some food to put down all the booze we have been drinking.





















Hey guys check out my firewood technique. Nice, huh?





















I'm still a bachelor, I'm drunk, it's raining, and I can't feel my toes. I love camping!




















Yep, I think that's the spot where I ralphed. Some bear must have come along and had himself a feast! Salmon, steak, and everything!




















Boy, with all these streams around, you'd think they must get a lot of rain out here!





















Yep, sure enough. They do get a lot of rain down here. I need a cigarette!




















Here we are at the bottom of the valley with one sprained ankle, and a whole lot of rain. I want to go home! Camping Sucks!

Welcome to Otzi's Blog!

This blog is named for Otzi, the preserved ancient man discovered in Graubunden canton, Switzerland in 1991 by some hikers. He died in 3000 BC and is one of the most perfectly preserved ancient men ever to be found. He was so well preserved because he was locked in the DEEP freeze for 5000 years.

Otzi has long been an inspiration to me because of his fearlessness. The slogan for my blog is what Otzi said to his beloved wife as he walked out the door to go hunt woolly mammoth 5000 years ago:

"Don't wait up, babe. No news is good news!"

On a backpacking trip in Switzerland in the summer of 2001 with my brother and a friend, we realized this slogan must have ushered from Otzi's lips on that fateful day and we decided it's not a bad way to think about life, especially when confronted with...less than ideal circumstances in the mountains or at sea. Since then, on many an outing, when faced with the prospect of being buried by a snowdrift, or being lost at sea or falling off a cliff, I have thought to myself... No news IS good news.

So this blog is dedicated to news and stories which exemplify Otzi's pioneering spirit. And if you don't see any recent posts, remember...No news is good news!