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Monday, November 21. 2011

From Green Bay to San Diego Bay

The Green Bay Packers are 10-0! Believe it!

Okay, Sunday’s game wasn’t a Hall of Fame performance, but it was a win. Championship teams win games when winning looks, at best, iffy. Well, Aaron Rodgers had another Hall of Fame performance. But let’s be honest, as great as Rodgers is, he needs receivers to match his talent and Aaron Rodgers has a stellar receiving corps.

Jordy Nelson is coming up big in that list of receivers, judging from this season and last, but Rodgers still has Gregg Jennings and the great Donald Driver. Not to mention, all those tight ends and running backs.

A win is a win, no matter how ugly and the ugly ones count just as much as the sweet ones. Hell, I’m one of the ugly ones, but some people think I’m pretty sweet too! I hope.

As is often the case in the National Football League, it is often one of the least likely opponents that topples an undefeated favorite and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers came pretty damn close to doing that Sunday. The Bucs are only 4-6 this season, not the worst in the league, but definitely not one of the elite teams. Not this season anyway, but next year they could be true contenders.

This Thursday, on a short week, the Pack plays division rivals — their most dangerous division rivals — the Detroit Lions in Detroit. Well, not actually in Detroit, but a suburb. The Lions started the season on an undefeated tear, but took a couple on the chin. Still, they are for real and the Packers need to play better Thursday than they did Sunday, otherwise the undefeated season ends.

The other team the Packers need to play at the top of their game is the San Francisco 49er’s. From the start of the season I thought the 49er’s were the best team, next to the Packers.

There are six more games this season, ergo, six opportunities for some enterprising and well-prepared team to end the undefeated season and that’s not even counting the playoffs.

But, I didn’t watch the Packer game Sunday. Didn’t even watch the Chargers game. Hell, that was an awesome game — if you’re a Bears fan! Of all the teams the Chargers need to beat, from a Packer fan’s point of view, the Bears are at the top of that list. But they didn’t, losing by 11 points to Da Bears. What the Hell has happened to the Chargers this season?

Fuck … glad I wasn’t in front of a TV for that one. No, my buddy, Captain John Smith, Terror of the High Seas invited me to go sailing with him around San Diego Bay, mainly to watch the America’s Cup World Series. Okay, first off, what I know about the America’s Cup … err … races … you could put in one of Barbie’s teacups.
 Does Mattel make teacups for Barbies? I know even less about Barbie dolls than I do about the America’s Cup.
 Just checking their Barbie website. A Barbie has to have all the right accessories.
 Okay, just got distracted by Mattel’s Hotwheels. That was my last great toy as a child. Just a holiday programming note: I like Hotwheels!

So, there we were, Captain John and I, sailing up, down and around San Diego Bay, getting up to nearly six knots per hour! Apparently that’s pretty good time for a 33-foot Beneteau with only the main sail unfurled. We didn’t put out the jib, that’s the one sail in front that’s like the jet burner in the Batmobile. Captain John thought we could possibly get another two to three knots if we let the jib fly!

No jibs were flying for us Sunday as we wangled our way around San Diego Bay. In fact, as I recall, there was only one spectator boat sailing with the jib and they were flying over the water. We wanted the best spot to watch the competitors racing up, down and across the course. Some New Zealanders bumped our boat with theirs as they pulled along side to tell us where the boundaries were for spectators. They were a jovial pair of chaps.

The New Zealand team won the last America’s Cup so they provided many of the race “officials” and safety patrols, but the Harbor Police, Coast Guard and Navy had their patrol craft cruising in and out of the constantly moving Clusterfuck of boats. Twice the Navy Patrol chased us out of their secure areas.

And because the New Zealanders won the previous America’s Cup World Series, they got to choose the type of boat used in this current AC World Series. Which is why everyone is racing catamarans.

To be honest, I have no clue who won the event. We were just watching, hoping to see one of those catamarans tip over during some wicked heel.

“What’s a heel,” you ask? That’s when the boat is tilted to one side, sometimes to the verge of tipping over. We did it often in that Beneteau. There are these little windows in the cabin and during a few of the more extreme heels, those windows were nearly under water.

So, back to the America’s Cup. There are nine teams and ten boats in the race. Yep, Americans are a different breed and billionaire software tycoon Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle Software, has two boats in the series. But that’s okay, they’re representing the United States.

Both of the Oracle boats did well Sunday, the Coutts boat, named for skipper Russell Coutts, won the speed trials and the other, Spithill, named for skipper James Spithill, won the fleet race.

Ellison was at the races Sunday. His big honkin’ yacht was parked right in the middle of the Bay. So we cruised by twice to take a look at it. Once the racing was over, we could sail up and down the Bay at our leisure, but that was after 3 p.m., so we didn’t have much leisure time left. It was nice and peaceful though, only the sound of the water hitting the hull of the Beneteau.

We cruised past Seaport Village and my favorite restaurant, the Pier, the Navy Pier and the U.S.S. Midway Museum, the harbor with Anthony’s Fish Grotto, all the way back up to Harbor Island where the boat we were sailing is berthed. In all, it was about five hours of sailing, one of the nicer Sundays I’ve had in a while. Thank you Captain John! Let’s do it again! .

Posted by Tim Forkes in Sports at 12:01 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

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