a home for pino

We left Shimizu on a sunny morning, pushing off the dock at 6am. Early. We wanted to make sure we'd arrive at our destination on time. There was 126nm between us and Shima Yacht harbor, a distance we needed to do in part at night. This wasn't ideal. We knew that. Many people warned us about sailing at night in these waters, but as the Japanese say: 'Shoganai' (it is what it is!). We needed to cross a big stretch of water called Enshu Nada, an area with a lot of traffic. In truth, the entire coastline is full of...

2019-06-09-DNA-SNP-workshop-09-running-the-PCR

bioajp has added a photo to the pool:

tools ecosystem

How did the Hundredrabbits ecosystem come into being? It's a long story, but here's a summary.

In 2016, we left Canada, armed with our two iPhones and 2 MacBooks Pros. We didn't know the wattage of any of the devices we owned, and even less about the amount of solar needed to power them. When living on land we didn't pay attention to how many amps our devices required daily. Electricity felt limitless.

When we started sailing in BC, we had no dinghy and so we'd go from dock to dock. When we purchased Iggy in Nanaimo, we spent more days...

Going Critical

Background: This is an interactive blog post. I wanted to host it here, but don't know how to make it play nice with WordPress. So I decided to host it on another part of the site instead.

Click here for the full experience.

A teaser:

Distracted Drivers Causing more Deaths than Drunk Drivers.

There are now more people dying in car accidents from distracted driving than from drunk driving,  particularly teens, and that is not factoring in drugs in the states where cannabis is legal. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration  indicates that the trend is going up.
Distractions are not just texting but include activities where your attention is focused on phone conversations, (even hands free), eating and drinking beverages, applying makeup, and any non-attention activities. It is sobering, (pun intended), to remember that a vehicle traveling at 55MPH will travel the length of  football field in 5 seconds. The two most...

Harry Potter Play and a Meetup in New York

I’m a huge fan of Harry Potter since I was like 11, I grew up with the books. In school I even organized a Club of Harry Potter Fans, which later morphed into a book club “Magic”.

Last year I went to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in New York. I’ve mentioned the book before on the blog, it left me with some mixed feelings. But the play puts everything in its place (which makes sense, because the book is just a published script for the play.

Attention to details is astonishing, beginning with the entrance.

Lobby.

Cloakroom.

All of Lyric Theatre has been re-resigned for the play.

There are two parts of the play, two hours each, which is a lot. There’s a break for about three hours — I went to work for a bit and had lunch. You can buy tickets just for one part, it’s...

Спектакль по Гарри Поттеру и митап в Нью-Йорке

Я большой фанат Гарри Поттера с 11 лет, рос вместе с книгами. В школе я организовал Клуб фанатов Гарри Поттера, который позже вырос в клуб любителей чтения «Магия».

В прошлом году ходил в Нью-Йорке на спектакль Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Я писал в Дайджесте про книгу, она оставила у меня смешанные чувства. Так вот, спектакль расставляет все на свои места (что логично — эта книга и есть пьеса к спектаклю).

Продумана каждая деталь, с момента входа.

Вестибюль.

Гардероб.

Весь театр Lyric Theatre переделали специально под спектакль.

В спектакле две части, по два часа каждая, что довольно много. Между ними перерыв три часа — я ходил поработать и пообедать. Можно купить билет только на одну, так лучше не делать, но если вдруг делать, то на первую. Она мне понравилась больше второй. Билеты,...

hello fujisan

It's 8h00 pm on a cold dark winter night, we are outside of Shimizu harbor motoring in circles and waiting for a response from Shimizu Port Control. The temperature is 4 °C, the wind is blowing hard and our clothes are wet and caked with salt. We’re tired and hungry, waiting for permission to enter the Port. Prior to this, we had a rough 4-day passage, riding under 30-40 knot winds on the nose. This passage was a true test of strength, for us and for Pino... but first, let’s go back and see exactly what happened…

We'd planned to go...

goji no chaimu

After a long 21-day passage, seeing the shape of the island of Chichijima in the distance was unreal; this was our prize, our first step onto Japanese soil. We used to make many trips to Japan by plane, but getting there by our own efforts — by sailboat — is a lot slower and harder. If we had stuck to our plan of sailing there via Hawaii, we would have been there sooner, but I’m glad we took the long route. We passed through 9 countries, learned a lot about the world and, through it all, we've surpassed ourselves.

During that...

Дорожные путешествия и страна амишей

В августе сдал на права. В Нью-Йорке это довольно простой процесс: учишь сам теорию, идешь в DMV сдавать. Допускается до 6 ошибок на 20 вопросов. Много вопросов про то, что делать, если ты покурил травы, и хочешь за руль. Варианты ответов: встать под душ, полежать пару часов, выпить пива. Бывают и сложные вопросы: можно ли поворачивать направо на красный свет? Правильный ответ: да, везде, кроме города Нью-Йорк. В штате уже можно.

После успешного прохождения теории, вам дают Lerner’s Permit — это специальные права, с которыми уже можно водить, при условии, что рядом сидит человек с настоящими правами, и вы не выезжаете на трассу (правила могут разниться от штата к штату). Все заточено под то, чтобы мама или брат в 16 лет научили вас водить,...