It looks like a late season hurricane...

Rick is now a category 5 hurricane and heading toward us.

We've been watching this developing storm for the last 4 or 5 days, when we caught wind of it from one of the sailmail weather sites. It's now due south of Puerto Vallarta and moving northwesterly at about  11 knots, with winds gusting to 170 knots and seas of around 48 feet (that's waves as high as the Green Flash standing on its nose). Most of the models have it hitting Baja, and crossing the Sea of Cortez near Topobolampo, 200 miles south of us.

We just got back tonight from Tucson, where we bought sandbags (among other things). If this thing dumps more water on San Carlos, we'll be a little better prepared. But there's still plenty of roads and bridges that are still out, and still plenty that could go wrong. Pray and prepare.

Mulligan Approved Music™ and Damn Purists

The 1st Mate and I played the Captain's Club on Sunday night, using our new equipment and song list. I recognized Mark Mulligan (markmulligan.net) sitting at the bar with a couple of friends. We were between sets and I stopped to say hello on my way to the head. Mark thought my "guitar work" was really good. He stopped at the 1st Mate's table and gave her a compliment on his way out the door. Nice man. 1st Mate didn't know who he was.

I think the voice harmonizer is a great device, and gives us a lot of optional songs we couldn't do without it... but the one piece we did that didn't use any effects, drum machine, or synthesizers (T. Monk's 'Round Midnight) got the greatest response from the audience. Damn purists.