Brando, how kind of you to deliver us a chocolate popsicle shaped USB drive to stave off the summer heat. For sure, children are going to choke on this. [ Brando via Giz.jp ]

I’d never been envious of Tom Perkins’ giant sailboat, the Maltese Falcon , until it received a deployable submarine in its belly. The sub, called the Deep Flight Super Falcon , is a 21-foot electric vehicle, bringing aerodynamic principles to the sea. John Markoff got a ride recently, and reported the craft as being interesting, even in the plankton fog of Monterey Bay, CA. Each time the 21-foot long electric-powered submarine plunged, my loosely buckled five-point harness left me sliding out of my seat.

The Finish: The Pegasus Open 50 sailboat just set the Transpac record of 7 days, 19 hours, 38 minutes and 35 seconds for a double handed monohull ship. Previous Record: 10 days, 4 hours and 4 minutes. Over the Last Night: Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone , and decodes human motion . He’s also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz . He’ll share his Transpac 2009 sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50. He and Richard Clarke set the race record for a double handed team in 2008 with a time of 7 days, 15 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds , besting all boats in overall time for that year.

July 12, 5:15 AM PST Sailing along fast. Found faulty regulator and alternator. Good start. July 12, 6:17 AM PST Update: We expect/hope to be fully recovered by Noon. Then we’ll jibe for a lay-line to the tip of Molokai and have our final jibe there. Trying to minimize jibes

July 11, 9:20 PM PST Lost all ways to recharge batteries, down to emergency battery. Just like an airplane. July 11, 9:42 PM PST July 11, 10:15 PM PST Just enough power to send emails. We have not regained anything yet. Lost some more.

The wind is picking up, and at the same time, the boat has to Jibe to port to adjust its path towards Hawaii. Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone , and decodes human motion . He’s also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz . He’ll share his Transpac 2009 sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50. He and Richard Clarke set the race record for a double handed team in 2008 with a time of 7 days, 15 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds , besting all boats in overall time for that year.

Scientists believe that bubbles are made of sugar, spice, and everything nice. Or maybe they don’t, but I do. These are called Zubbles, and they are the world’s first stainless color bubbles. Summer blowin’ on the beach, here I come. Zubbles were invented in 2005 , but they have been in commercial limbo until now. Kids and adults can now buy two bottles for $15 at the Zubble web site

July 9, 5:30 PM PST Today we are living within the realm of Squalls. Squalls in the the Northeast sub-tropical Pacific are different. They are small, concentrated and powerful. The rain lasts ~20 minutes under them if you’re stationary.

July 8, 9:00 PM PST This is what a sunset looks like in the middle of the ocean, from a sailboat racing from California to Hawaii. Course 265° T, Speed 13.5 Knots, Lat 26° 03′ N, Lon 135° 00′ W July 9, 2:15 AM PST Windy tonight. On edge and don’t trust the pilot on 20+ and big waves. No horizon. Been steering for 3 hours

A short break in the shakey cam tour of the boat’s tech; here’s a clip of the Pegasus Open 50 Sailboat going 16 knots and throwing up the spinnaker (a large, kite like front sail) outside of Santa Cruz, CA, on a pre race trial run. It looks slightly faster than the race videos posted the other day, but its hard to tell visually, since they could be going against or with the current and wind. Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone , and decodes human motion . He’s also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz .