Ham overload

This is completely off topic, I realize.  But more of a foody entry.

We had to prepare to be the back up Christmas dinner for Tim's mom in case his family went...family.
Long story short, I wound up with a 8lb ham for just Tim and I.

I now have more uses for ham.  Luckily it's been a delicious ham and we've enjoyed every creation I can come up with.

1. Ham au natural---when it's first cooked. 
2. Ham sandwiches---hot/cold/made into ham salad
3. Pasta and ham--carbonara style
4. Potato pancakes with ham
5. Snacks--ham on crackers, ham rollups


I think you see where I'm going with this.  I'm the Bubba Gump of ham right now.

I hope next year we are back on a boat for the holidays somewheres.  Cross my fingers.

Safety at sea: Expect the unexpected

I had a bit of a shock during the trip.  An asthma attack while swimming to shore.  I am a pretty strong swimmer, and I've done plenty of swimming in the ocean.  I do not have a history of asthma--only when I've been sick with acute bronchitis.

We decided to stop off at this pretty little island to play around.  Since there was a bit of surf, we thought we'd swim to shore.  It wasn't that far, there was a little current, but no problem thinks I.

I started off great, nice pace, stop float on my back.  However about half way to shore I suddenly felt like somebody grabbed my bronchial tubes and started squeezing very hard.

More floating, trying to get my breath, swimming little by little.  I make it about 30 more feet and now I am really fighting to get some air.  Not only is it essential for consciousness, having a couple a full lungs of air really helps your bouyancy.  Once again, I roll over to float on my back, but since I can't get a breath, I now have to work to keep floating.

At this point, I think, OH SHIT.  But, I know the last thing I need to do right now is start panicking, so I kept it together.  I start slowly crabbing my way to shore, taking advantage of what air I can get.  However, I know pretty soon push is going to come to shove, because if I can't get enough oxygen, I will start having major muscle cramps. Then...it's going to be all over.

However, by this time, I got close enough that I could holler for Sabrina who had her fins on.  She comes to my rescue.  I get rolled over on my back and she promptly proceeds to pull be to shore...by my throat.

No really, I'm grateful for her help, but it was funny.  Because at this point, I am actually thinking, cool I won't die by drowning, Sabrina is going to choke my ass.  This is funny.

Some other folks helped her get me the rest of the way in, I was in full rasping for air mode at that time and I could feel my calf muscles getting ready for a full fledged revolt into Charlie Horse Land.

I was able to start breathing easier, but it was several hours later until I could really get a good deep breath.

Yes, a doctor's appointment for rescue inhalers is on my list.  And always travelling with my snorkel gear, and Sabrina evidently wants to retire from saving my ass, because I received a lovely low profile inflatable snorkle vest the other day.  THANK YOU ESS!

The irony of this story is that I am Safety Bob when people are in the water. Have a buddy or have a watcher.  Then I about bite it.  Damn.

Beautiful place to have an asthma attack.

Jost van Dyke

We did more of the expected tourist stuff on Jost Van Dyke.  Namely visit the Soggy Dollar Bar and Foxy's.  There is also entertaining video of our dinghy ride from point a to point b.

That can also be found here.  The water wasn't cold, but it is still funny.

Soggy Dollar Bar is purported to be the inventor of the Painkiller.  (Not Pusser's...no no no).  And I do like their version much better than Pusser's.  I had to have at least three to be sure! 

After that, things were pleasantly hazy, although I do remember enjoying dinner and Foxy's.

The boys working the ladies.....

Hiking Norman Island

After getting some feedback from Tom and Sabrina's fellow Salty Dawg, we decided to do some hiking on Norman Island, namely to the opposite shore where nobody was at. 

Beautiful hike, some off roading, but nothing too bad. (Except the first instance that I may have a slight asthma problem, more on that later).

We you do get to the windward side of the island, there is a monument to what plastic consumption is doing to our planet, lots of trash washed up.

Start of our hike.

At the top of the island.  Bay looks pretty from here.

The boys say, let's take this way.
The boys say, I don't think this is the way.

The girls wait and take pictures of cactus.

THIS is the way down.  What could go wrong?

Made it down in one piece.

Boys foraging through the flotsam.
Tim will learn later to not kick things.

People making little conch shell monuments (I guess).

What's Tom up to?

Hi, bird!

Holy crap, look what Tom found.
The story of Norman the GPS can be found here.

We amateur biologists determined that seagulls would grab shelled critters
and drop them on this flat rock.  Escargot for dinner!

The breakers be cool.

Our hike back had some casualties.  As in, Tim's big toe right, and Tim's big toe left.  One was self-inflected as he decided to kick a old fishing float or buoy.  Except it was wedged very tightly in the rocks and did. not. move.  I turned around to see Sabrina bent in half laughing her ass off and Tim hopping around like a maniac.  One severely bruised toenail.

The second was a bit worse as we hiked back up we crossed over some old washed up coral covered in vines, Tim step on a loose piece of coral, got caught up in the vines and bam on his other foot.  This one was a bit worse and required first aid treatment back at the boat (rum/bandages/ointment).  However, as of this writing, big toe is healing nicely, no amputation was necessary.  :-)

More BVIs

Been busy with the holidays, so I have been remiss in updating with our adventures.

While waiting for our failed attempt to get Tim and I some snorkel gear for the week (place was closed).  We walked around Trellis Bay on the beach. 

Truly love that crystal clear water!

Escaping to the BVIs

Thanks to our pals on s/v Honey Ryder, we got an invite to escape to the tropics.  Thanks to the fine folks at Southwest Airlines, most of our airfare for me was free.

After a brief layover in San Juan to start getting into the island mood--meaning walking on the beach, drinking rum drinks, etc.  We arrived Saturday morning in Beef Island.  Great little flight on Seabourne Airlines except for the last 10 minutes of stomach dropping descent as we made our way through a squall line and fresh breezes to land.  At which point, I briefly thought, hmmmm, it will be really ironic if we LAND on Tom and Sabrina's boat instead of the airport.  I don't think they'll be amused.

View of USVIs by plane.

Arrival in BVIs was fine.  A little adventure in customs, but nothing bad.  They didn't have any BVIs customs forms in PR, so we had to rush and fill one out at the BVI airport. As a result I guessed probably a little high on all the stuff we were bringing in for Tom and Sabrina. (Or maybe not, as we starting thinking earlier).

So, then I get to explain it to the very nice, but ex-NBA player customs agent, and let it be told, there are not a lot of people taller than me out there, so I was sir, yes, sir.  In a moment of brilliance, I had stuck all of the receipts with the items we were bringing in.  So, when the customs agent saw the Racor filters, he knew EXACTLY what they were. (Oh…crap).  However, even though I explained I probably guessed high, he said, you claimed $500, and you signed it, so you need to pay 10% of that.  OR….I can go through your bags and I will charge 15% of what I think the value is.  $50 it is sir, and thank you very much.  

But let me make this clear--he was very, very polite and nice about it, but no nonsense.  I can respect that.

Now we needed to wait for Tim to pick up a wireless router in case there was some emergency at work he needed to take care of.  We weren't sure if he'd have a good data connection or not on the iPhone (he did), but the rest of of took advantage of the router during the week.  We rented our router from Renport, and things went really smoothly.  Tom showed up while Tim was sitting in the Renport guy's truck doing the paperwork.  So we pretty much started off the trip with the first joke: Where's Tim? Oh, he's over there conducting a drug deal.  Totally, what it looked like. Money exchanged and a bag handed over.  Nice.

Waiting for Renport, and for the squall to pass through.

So, a short walk to the dingy dock and we managed to fit us, our bags and make it to the boat in one piece.  Whoo-hoo.  We were created with muffins and rum drinks.  Rock and roll.  

Of course, I had to do my manic, need to get crap unpacked and put away NOW mode before I could settle down.  I don't think Sabrina minded because she was awarded with my former paperweight, I mean camera that is shock proof and underwater proof.  And yep, took her about five seconds before she was operating it better than I ever could.

Later in the day, the squalls passed, so we headed to shore to explore Trellis Bay a bit and have some afternoon drinks.

I see dead people

One of my little hikes around Key West was to explore the cemetary.  I'm not creepy, but old old cemeteries fascinate me, a lot of history can be told through the tombstones.

Key West Cemetary is one of the most fascinating I've been to, and that includes the ones I have visited in Europe.    I can't believe it's taken me 16 years to finally walk through it.

Even the description of its location is iconic Key West.  "Located in the dead center of Key West".  Really, I did not make that up.

It's like New Orleans, with the graves above the ground.  As you walk through you see the founding fathers of Key West, a couple of wreckers, a couple of pirates, a couple of Cuban revolutionaries, Joe 'Sloppy Joe' Russell and much, much more.

At the entrance you can pick up a map with the more notable graves listed and described.

I think the one area that grabbed me was the area dedicated to the soldiers that lost their lives in the USS Maine explosion in Havana -- and that would be the USS Maine from 1898.  I think there are a few remains buried there, but most are ceremonial markers.  On the pedestal describing the plat, many soldiers have put the medals of honor.  I saw medals from Iraq, Afghanistan, Viet Nam.  It amazed me that nobody has tried to steal them.

But however fascinating it is, be prepared to have some boo-creepies and try not to wet yourself when you find yourself looking at one of the resident 4 foot iguanas.

USS Maine memorial.
(and I just realized I was there during Veteran's day...duh!)

 

 

I'm not sure I want mini-Godzilla as my grave marker..

I wanted to spend more time, but I had since ran out of my water and Key West was delivering a A+ tropical day with high temps/high humidity/no wind.  And oh, this cemetary isn't a big rolling park either, it's very condensed and little to no shade.

After telling Tim about it, he wants to explore now.
But-and I quote-not on one of those stupid ghost tours.

Key West pre-Thanksgiving

After several weeks of near Springer-esque family drama, we needed a break. 

And we need Southwest points to keep status and companion pass up. Did we succeed? SCORE!

Thus, a quick vacation to Key West. Sans boat. Very disturbing.  Especially since we have a storage locker filled with our crap from the boat.  Did we check on it? I wanted to, but the spouse said, it's either there or it isn't.

Yeah, but..........

It's not that I particularly materialistic, or even I hold on to belonging that tightly.  It's just that it took several years to pick out and acquire the crap for our boat, and I don't necessarily want to do it again at this time.

Southwest cracked us up on the way down.  SEVERAL warnings about the carrier landing at the Key West International Airport.  Yes, it is international, they fly to Cuba.  We are in Orlando and they make the first announcement...before you board...yes, they do.  Of course, people who have never flown there before are suddenly going what? Huh.  Are we going to die?  Those of us who've done it, say, yeah, you better drive. (because we want more seats to ourselves, of course).

Flight was uneventful, but even after doing this flight at least a dozen times, it's still unnerving to watch the tiny terminal go whipping past, because you know at that point how much runway you have left.  You know because you don't have a jetway, you walk from the plane to the terminal.  Very 1950s, very cool.

Nothing new or exciting on this trip, got up, ate, went for a several mile walk, ate, ate some more, drank a lot. Watched sunset, listened to music. Ate.  Rinse/repeat.

One of the newer restaurants that has become popular with the server crowd is 2cents they have recently added a Happy Hour special.  Bacon shots.  Don't get wierded out. Free slices of bacon served in a shot glass as long as you are ordering drinks during happy hour.

As a former marketing person. BRILLIANT. Bacon+delicious+salty=buy more drinks.  BRILLIANT.

We had gone out on a sunset cruise so we arrived too late for Bacon Happy Hour, but we had to get some bacon before we felt left out.

BACON!!!!

 We tried out a new place to stay while in Key West. It's called the Merlin Guest House. It has a sordid history of being a gambling hall (horrors!), bordello, but mostly it's been a rooming house for the Navy.

One of my favorite review about it on TripAdvisor was from a lady that was HORRIFIED that the resident cat drank from the small pool.  OMG. How tragic!  Seriously.  Obviously, this lady has never had pets or never been around a pool with people who've had pets.  Newsflash!  Most pools are so heavily chlorinated they have less microbes, bacteria and other assorted nonesense than lakes or oceans do.  BTW--we have pets and a pool and high heat in the summer. And they do drink from it, wash their paws in it, we are still alive!

That being said, late this summer here's one of our visitors. A young heron who just discovered our pool and was wondering why there wasn't fish in it.

 So, we once again took the lovely America 2.0 Schooner out for a sunset sail.  This is one boat that I do NOT get seasick on, all the canvas was flying also.  Maybe, just maybe, that means I'm starting to develop my sea legs.

We did see the green flash.  I did not try to take pictures, because the captain and I were both convinced that it would happen.  And it did, it was spectacular.  One of our fellow passengers got a great photo of it, because obviously he not only had better equipment, but he had the patience.  He let us see the photo.  Sadly, Tim still couldn't see the difference even in the camera.  Remember the color blind bit?

As we came back, we were treated to the moon rising.  The sun gets all the credit, but a moon rise and moonset is just as spectacular.

Also, coming back we were treated to the cruise ship traffic jam.  Not a place you want to be as a novice boater.  And you better hope to shout your motor works if you are a sailor.

Hey Mallory Square, we just screwed up your sunset viewing. You're welcome.

More to say about our Key West trip in a later post.