No wind? No problem! Pool's open!

With no wind, grabbing a mooring ball was a piece of cake, I'm glad I still have that ability.  However, the water was so clear, and I kept getting distracting with ooooh, lookee, pretty fishies.

So as my spouse likes to say..pool's open!

And what a pool it is.  However, somebody dropped in about 50 million jelly fish and it was snorkel, dodge jelly fish, snorkel, dodge the jellies.

I'd been stung as a kid and it felt like being whipped with nettles and left a nice welt, I didn't really know if these guys where THAT kind of jelly or what.

Spouse was like .... well, freaked out at first. It was very ironic because I'm all about avoiding any water that I can't see my own feet in while floating around, so me and the lake at home have a dubious relationship - until 100 degree weather kicks in.  However, here?  Bring it on.

We found out later that they are called moon jellyfish and they have a pretty mild sting to them. They are huge and absolutely beautiful. 

But ... for awhile, I did feel like I was in the scene from 'Finding Nemo' 

So, if you want some good snorkeling that most of the downtown charter boats don't go to--head for the Western Sambos.  Make sure you grab the Florida Keys reef map, they are usually free at all the marinas.

My mooring ball skills are still there!

Pools Open!  And what a pool it is!

Some of our jellyfish friends. And yes that's the reef below us, crystal clear
15 feet of water.  Can't beat that!

Marina peoples

Compared to Dinner Key Marina, Key West Harbor is practically a social hot spot.  Which is good.

I think it's because it's become Port Canada for the winter. Seriously, a lot of cars have Ontario tags on them. 

But that's good, Canadians are good peeps.  And...I've been to Montreal in the winter, I'd get the hell out also.

Our new boat neighbors have been coming down here for a couple of years, so they've been filling us in on where to get fresh lobster from the boats and all sorts of little things to help us save a buck or two.

I definitely do like the friendlier atmosphere.  Our neighbor on the other side has the coolest job--chief engineer for a marine salvager.  He works 4 weeks on/4 weeks off. Their last job was lifting a cargo ship in St. Lucia, he showed us the You Tube video, but I've not been able to find it again.

However, you know there's fun to found when you take a walk and find this:

Blender powered like you are driving a motorbike.

The tiki hut out on the point taken over each Sunday for libations and snacks.

Pirates of the Plains convene in Key West

We were lucky enough to meet up with fellow Perry Lake sailors, Pat and Joan on Saturday eve.  They were gracious enough to let us invite ourselves to dinner with them and their family. A great group of people they are!

Duval Street'd again

Ever have that moment when you download your pictures from the night before and wonder what. the. hell?

Well, I have.  In fact this is the second time this has happened off of Duval street, first time involved photos of Tim with a 5 foot tall cartoon elephant statue. 

So's....here ya go.

I believe there was some ass grabbing in this picture.
Please note both of my hands can be seen.

Wasting Away again in Margaritaville

We are back in Key West.  Arrived late Friday night (co-workers didn't appreciate my 'so long suckers, I'm outta here someplace warm) and stayed by Ft. Lauderdale airport so that we could visit the new West Marine store the next morning before heading down.

The new west marine store?  OMG--I actually got weak kneed.  If you are ever in the area, go to it. It's the newest of the 'flagship' stores. 

So a few hours later we finally headed down to Key West.

Places to mention, the Southport Raw Bar, a little hole in the wall joint on a canal just north of the airport.  Good eats in a very laid back atmosphere.

Sports for the rest of us--Volvo Ocean Race

My sailing sister over at Wildcat Sailor Girl has already posted about this also.

But sailor people, it's our time of year.  The Volvo Ocean Race is on, and it's already proved pretty interesting.

Like she says, the coverage is taking full advantage of modern media, so you can get posts from the Media crew on the boats, live footage of the InPort races and scheduled updates on their progress.

Will it be on U.S. TV---that would be a ... no.

The main website is www.volvooceanrace.com. Also, I know there's apps for iPhone/iPad and I think Android.

I really suggest start reading each individual boat's blog, I think they all get translated to English (I did read -- kinda -- Telefonica's update in Spanish. (note to self, brush up on your sailing spanish).

Already, I have been amused by such things as:

1. My husband stating that THEIR boats don't have dodgers. Yeah, and on our boat we don't have to worry about moving 2 tons of crap from leeward to windward and vice versa.
2. Crew members getting seasick and being cured by sausage--which the entire blog made me queasy.
3. New Zealanders--gotta love 'em.  Period.

Best part, the USA port of call will be......MIAMI!!!!

So, will HemiD be part of the spectator fleet?  Stay Tuned.

Lift--Sailboats have it, power boats really shouldn't

People might not be happy with this post.  But two people lost their lives and I need to address something.

First, thanks to my aeronautical engineer friends/clients I give you this graphic:

For sailboaters, we learn the basic concepts of this pretty quickly, after all, a plane wing is nothing but a sail set horizontally.  One of my instructors has told me that's why airplanes have the same navigational light configuration as a boat, but I haven't got that confirmed.

So, here's some basics from the above equation.  Density. Velocity (squared!!) Area.

Okay, why am I on this tangent and what does it have to with power boaters? This week is the Key West Powerboat  Races two guys from Missouri died. Normally, down there,  winds would have more of an easterly prevalence to them.  If (sailors) are lucky some southerly to that.  It's been like that for a couple weeks now and couple weeks ago, the 'natives' kept saying it was cold because of the north winds.

The course for the powerboat race is in the harbor right in front of Mallory Square and the cruise ship dock.  Thus, power boats speeding along and extremely high rates of speed will have their noses directly into the wind.


Here's your homework assignment: Next time you are on a plane, see which way they point the plane.
Answer: Into the wind.

Why?  It helps with rotation to get lift and become .... AIRBORNE.

So, I am not a powerboat racer, not really interested in going high speeds over water and getting the crap knocked outta me.  However, I do appreciate those who are into the sport.  And I also, I am not the organizer, but here's my bitch:  Why have the races in these conditions?

You have a boat that can got the speeds of a 737 at take off and nose into the wind at plane (rotation for you aerospace folks).  Yes, the boat is going to launch. In which gravity is going to have its say.

So two people died this week, and there was another crash today.

So I ask you folks that organize this race:  Are you being responsible?  I say no.

The footage for the crash is on YouTube, and it's shot from Mallory Square.  There are children and onlookers about, what if the boat crashed on them?  Huh?  There is also a mooring field (I don't think the course went close enough to it) but what if they landing on some cruisers?

And if you want a lesson in lift vs. gravity, it's very educational.

So, I put forth my OpEd to say, I am very disappointed that it hasn't been suspended. I'm sure this has been done in these conditions before, but I say it's totally irresponsible.

Comments are welcome.  However, respect the deceased, I do not what to have them disgraced.

Miami to Key West Move, Pt 2

So, we take off from Marathon, and the wind is blowing like a mother, and we have a concrete pier to windward.

So, Tim and I sit an analyze our situation and come up with a damn good plan.

Then I notice that two boats down, a sail couple are doing the same thing. Except, she's probably the stellar opposite of me: Petite, beautiful, 90 lbs dripping wet Asian lady and looking way too damn cute for the maneuver her spouse is coaching her to.  I point this out to Tim and he says, I'm so going over there, she'll wind up in the drink.

Well, lo and behold, they are just moving to go on the hard for bottom work so, they and a marina dockhand come over to help us.

And we got our girl out of our slip as a thing of beauty, I still learned a few things. As deck monkey, you need to set up your lines how you want them, Tim had set them up for me, but they didn't work for me.  It was okay, I dropped the line in the water and was able to quickly haul it in as Tim was reversing. The other alternative was to pull Tim off his reverse course, or I end in the water.

And seriously, if you don't have help, practice how it's going to pan out before actually doing it.

So for a reward of heavy rains, thunderstorms and being completely soaked, we were giving a mostly sunny day with 20 kt winds at broad reach.  We still reefed the main for awhile until we knew that we under control, but later we let them out and we were a sailboat bay-bee.

There was some excitement as the winds died a little but got shifty and we'd be heeled way over for a couple of seconds, but amazingly, no round ups.

Tim was down below when I let out a rebel yell at one gust.  We hit 10 kts of speed.  I could hear him down below whooping and hollering also.  While working.  That's my guy.

Oh yeah, to reference Lonely Islands "I'm on a Boat", we saw dolphins doing flips and shit.  :-)

Key Largo to Marathon

The day started out beautifully.  But no wind. However, with the waters calm motor sailing wasn't bad.

At one point, we looked off to the distant storm and saw a waterspout. Now for a midwest girl, that is somewhat alarming, but for the weather geek in me, damn cool.

It wasn't before long we got slammed with our own storms and we motored through some gnarly weather. No visibility, stinging rain, however the seas remained very agreeable, thank god for that reef out there.

So, we finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel and it cleared off.  And lo and behold--we can actual be a sailboat!  For about and hour and then the wind clocked onto our nose. Sigh.

However, it was enough to get us pretty close to Marathon and we pulled in at the Marathon Marina and Happy Hour.

New problem with the engine/alternator/electrics.  A lot of agonizing by my husband because he thought he caused the problem, but found out that he didn't ruin his alternator as he feared, but burned out the regulator since the engine compartment got to hot, so we'll have to reinstall the new one outside the engine compartment.

Always learn something!