My friend Captain Sean lives up in Pasadena, near Houston. Last year he bought a Choy Lee 32 named Sea Pearl. Since then he's gotten the cruising/sailing disease as bad as any of the rest of us. I talked with him yesterday and we briefly discussed the swell that arrived on the Texas coast last week compliments of Hurricane Dean. Sean is also a surfboard shaper, and world class surfer. He rarely misses the opportunity to get out there.

I don't get to see him as often as I'd like to, but we stay in pretty constant touch on the phone and email. I must confess, he get's down here far more than I get up to big city. Pearl is currently moored in the Kemah boardwalk marina, an upscale forrest of thousands of masts.....sailboats ranging from vintage cruisers to multi million dollar racing machines.

We met about ten years ago in a hazardous waste operations certification class, and became instant friends. Sean shapes the best sufboards that I've ever seen, calling them Force.

I spoke with him yesterday evening after having delivered 'Div back to the Island for her final week or so before my high dollar slip rent runs out and I return to Port Isabel, like some sort of migratory animal till next summer.

"Yea, the swell finally came in here" I told him. "The channel broke, and there were about 75 guys out. I didn't even bother, just stood on the jetties and watched."

"It broke up here too" Sean said. "And the wind got real good, so I decided to go sailing with my friend on his big old Catalina. We had the rigging almost in the water. It was awesome...." His voice trailed off as we discussed chart plotters, autopilots and  different boats.

"As a matter of fact" I continued, "the commander and I brought 'Div back to the Island yesterday under power. I still have the sails off, and because of my carelessness, broke a batten in the main which I have to replace before I can put it back on the boom, so we just used the iron genny. Needed to be run anyhow. It was a relaxing trip, and I got some video of it with 'Divs latest toy....a tiny handheld digital video camera. I'm gonna post one of the better scenes on Monday on my newly acquired YouTube account. Opens up a whole 'nother dimension for the site....can you imagine the potential for mischief?"

So true to my word, here it is.... the first 'Divideo.... and, as soon as I can install the editing software, stand by for some true madness.