Air Travel is Glamorous

I don’t plan to make this blog a rant about how airlines suck, but,  man, I’ve not been lucky lately.

So, my airline du voyage was United. Never been a big fan of United, but hoped after the merger that they would have a better infrastructure.

Besides, the round trip ticket was dirt cheap.  And my illustrious employer finally okay’d extra leg room seats for economy, something American got rid of but United has.

I didn’t realize the ticket would be dirt cheap because the AIRPLANE was optional.

So, heading out to Singapore, my KC-Newark-Hong Kong-Singapore flight became…you just won a free overnight trip to Hong Kong!  Enjoy!  We were delayed in Newark for three hours, as a result we missed our connection.  However, due to the excellent organizational capabilities of folks in Hong Kong, I got off the plan to receive my packet containing my new ticket for the next day, a voucher for a hotel room and a meal credit.  Okay, this isn’t so bad, I’ll deal.

Finally get to Singapore, delighted that my luggage made it also and have a great week in Singapore.

Trip home sucked.

Trip home was originally: Singapore-Tokyo-Chicago-KC

Then it became Singapore-Tokyo-Honolulu-Houston-KC

Then it became Singapore-Tokyo-Honolulu-LAX-Denver-KC

We started off fine in Singapore, next thing I know I’m grabbing my backpack to hear: Flight 882 to Chicago has been cancelled.  Be prepared for hell on earth.

So, over THREE HOURS later, standing/sitting/pacing in line I finally get my new tickets.  I’ll be spending the day in Honolulu.  Aloha Oe.  Mahalo.

So, United’s Tokyo crew very much screwed up here, because my notification about the flight said it came through in the morning, after I was one hour into my 7 hour flight to Tokyo.  So, they had 6 hours to re-book a couple of hundred people.  And probably in a more efficient manner since they wouldn’t have to deal with a hostile crowd screaming their bloody heads off at them.  But no, let’s wait until they all get here and then try to pull this off.  Better yet, they couldn’t put anybody up in a hotel because it was a Japanese holiday and no hotels were available.   Which is probably just as well, even though I was able to conjure up the limited Japanese I had learned as a child while living in Okinawa,  Japan is second only to the United States with the centralized language thing.  Which got me on my “Speak Japanese or get out” self -induced hilarity.

So, they finally got me on a plane to Honolulu. It was a old, crowded, and hot 757 and very uncomfortable.  Now that I’m pretty much in my first 24 hours of no sleep, I’m starting to get punchy.  As we are landing in Honolulu I look out on the wing and notice that All Nippon Airways has the Rising Sun on their wing.  Just like the Zero’s had in WWII.  And we are landing in Honolulu…right over Pearl Harbor….awkward…..(dude, I’m not really with them, you know that right?). 

So, I land in Honolulu get through customs, about weep to see that my bag made it---asked the customs folks if I could grab my shorts, swim suit and flip flops out—I could! Yay! Happy day.  So, now my Saturday starts for the second time.  I’ve gone BACK in time, I’m a time traveller, whoo hoo.  Turn on phone. Ding. You have one voice mail.

“This is United Airlines, your flight to Houston has been cancelled”

F*****--well, I’m technically in the United States, so it should get better.  So I proceed to get a hotel room, take a very long shower (that was worth the price of admission right there) and stretch out.

Ding. You have another voice mail.

“This is United Airlines, your flight to Houston has been reinstated but is now four hours late”  (I’m not making it home to KC tomorrow)

So, when life gives you taro root, you make poi and have a Mai Tai. (Actually, don’t ever have poi, it’s gawdawful—you’ll thank me for this advice)

But I did make the best of it and had a lovely hunk of Fresh Ahi at Duke’s on Waikiki beach, strolled around, went shopping, and later that evening headed to the airport.  In which I was about to find out what more fun I was in store for.

I get up to the counter and Curtis, my NEW best friend asks how can he help me. I said, I’m a bit of a problem child, but here you go.  10 minutes later, Curtis is in the fetal position whimpering.  Apparently, Tokyo didn’t do my tickets correctly, so technically I entered the country illegally (no binding contract of carriage), not only that I was on 12 different manifests for flights.  

So, my buddy Curtis has to set me aside and go to the special back room and get with United central and fix the cluster-f**k that is my itinerary.  About half hour later, Curtis says, okay, here we go, you won’t be flying through Houston. You’ll have to go LAX-Denver-KC.  But that’s the only way I can get you home tomorrow at a reasonable time.  I’ve got your itinerary fixed so TSA won’t be taking you aside for a special body cavity check or you wind up needing a redress number for the rest of your life. Here’s some food coupons, now have a safe flight and go away, Aloha.  (I love this guy).

Except for a late arrival and tight connection in LA (in which I probably would have finally snapped), the rest of the flight went smoothly.  And miracles of miracles, my luggage made it also!

There’s actually a punchline to this.  My spouse picks me up at the airport, happy to see me, I’m now about 48 hours without any discernable amount of sleep and he says:  “Where do you want to go for your birthday?”

I was too tired to punch him.

Duke's Oh Duke's, you are a tourist trap.
But I forgive you.

Because Duke's you got fresh Ahi and this view.
Hello Diamond Head!

Perks of the Job

And since I’m NOT a government employee working for the GSA, my perks aren’t that much.

However, I do work for a University that provides continuing education to engineers around the world.  So I’ve got a chance to pretty much dabble in every continent except Antarctica over the last several years.

My latest trip took me to Singapore. Although my trip was questionable, more on that later, Singapore itself is a delight. The people there are warm, friendly, there is a huge western expat community, and the city itself is clean and very safe.

The city was buzzing about their new botanical accomplishment Gardens by the Bay, so I thought it would be a good day to venture out and shake off the jet lag.  It opened just the week before, so things were still pretty new.

The basic concept was they wanted to create a biodiverse park that was essentially self sustaining.  There was the gardens themselves which are free to the public, so you can wander through areas that are designed after different parts of the world.  There are two lakes that are designed to catch rain water and supply the needs of the park.

Dragonflies with stained class wings

More dragonflies in the Lake

Lake, with super trees and one of the conservatories

The part that really appealed to the geeky side of me was the SuperTrees.  These manmade structures are designed to provide power through solar cells, collect rainwater for the lakes and conservatories, act as heat exchangers and exhaust vents.  One of the ‘trees’ will eventually have a restaurant in it for some fantastic views of downtown Singapore.

Restaurant coming soon

There are two conservatories that charge admission.  The first contains flowers and plants from several different types of the Earth’s biomes.  As you walk through the conservatory you see Africa’s baobob trees, the American Southwest Saguaro catus, a palm grove from the south pacific, and plant life from the African savannah and Australian outback, the air is full of the smells of the fresh flowers and orchids that are part of the flower gardens.

Olive Oil me Please!

The second conservatory is nothing short of awesome, it was a six story rainforest complete with waterfall.  You start at the top of the waterfall and work your way down via a series of catwalks.  I’m not a big fan of heights, but the views made it worth my while.

My vertigo ain't reserved for heeling boats!

Hard to see but one crapload of cargo ships out there

The last ‘paid’ part of my ticket was to walk the sky walk among the supertrees, this actually did get me a bit freaked out, but I managed to snap a few pics before heading back to terra firma.

For the rest of the day I wandered Singapore a bit more, got to the water front where they were having a huge practice kite fest – the ‘real’ kite festival would be in a few weeks.  I got the joy of dodging about 100 little beginner kite fliers as a sponsoring company decided it would be very cool to give 6-8 year old kids their own cheap kites and let them go nuts. 

I cleared out after the second attempt of decapitation.   And I did have my moment with a cute little girl who was about to lose it cause she couldn’t get her kite to fly, I helped her get it into the air (nothing short of a miracle considering how many yards it had been dragged back and forth against the ground), and was awarded with a smile that could light up the world. 

This sculpture was called 'Controlling Nature's Forces' or something like that
It was pretty cool

Kites, kites, everywhere there's kites

The two conservatories from a distance

The Sands Hotel and Casino with their boat shaped restaurant, lounge and observation deck

But not to escape my sailboat moments, here is the Singapore Sailing Club!

Fresh water conchs say A bientot.. for now

So, after we got Hemi D stowed, we planned to stay at a hotel in Key West the last night for our flight out the next day.

One of our favorite 'splurge' hotels was nearly empty so I got a great deal on a room with a balcony overlooking Mallory square.

And about fainted in happiness when I saw that the white wine in the mini bar was a half bottle of Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc.

Tim decided to treat himself to a machine (of course it was on MY credit card!) and I took a luxurious shower, nap and completely chilled for awhile.  It's the simple things that can really do it for you.

So we decide to watch the set up for the Sunset Celebration and this sudden thunder cell forms and rolls through, it was pretty awesome if you are a weather geek like me.  It even had the decency to hit, cool the area down and leave in time for sunset, very polite if you ask me.

One of the old wharf buildings converted to shops and restaurants in Mallory Square.

The incoming storm.

Our going away present from Mother Nature.
A beautiful double rainbow.

Pulling Hemi D

Normally, the prevailing winds in the Keys will be from the East.  Which means, going from Key West to Marathon is Dead. Into. The. Wind.

However, thanks to TS Beryl kicking up her heels north of us, she was taking all the air with her and we wound up having good southerly winds, calm seas in the channel and pretty much a kick ass ride up to Marathon.

So in the process of such a smooth sail, we did....(husband suddenly hits delete key)... I mean Compy Comp starts working on our stainless in the cockpit.  And a fine job he did at it also.

We did see a couple of dolphin along the way (the Flipper kind, not the yummy fish sandwich kind) but they weren't up to chasing our bow wake.

Sunset from Lazy Days II at the Marathon Marina and Boatyard
Home of the most awesome Happy Hour specials on the planet

After getting up to Marathon and docking without...too much problem in a temporary slip that was probably meant for the Titanic, we found out that they got their pool done.  And it was freaking awesome.  Beautiful landscape, overlooks the water, just a complete oasis.  The new management company has completely pulled out all the stops to rejuvenate this place.  After a 35 mile sail up the coast, a quick rinse down and splash in the pool and stretch out on the patio furniture was heavenly.

So, before going back to the pictorial.  We cut to next morning.  It's already 100 degree heat index by 10am, so everything my spouse said bad about me when I woke him up at 7am this morning was revoked...cause that's when we pulled the jib.  And I can tell you, there would have been bloodshed and mayhem if we tried that even an hour later.

After finally getting pumped out, helping the neighbor dock the boat (because new guy on the dock wasn't passing muster evidently from the question: "You're new at this aren't you"), cleaning out our screens and doing everything to prep before pull, we plan on me walking down to the travel lift and Tim motoring down.  

In a perfect world, he should have beat me.  In OUR world, the simplest things cause consternation and amusement.

So, I will take blame because evidently I was in one of those uh-huh, whatever you say honey modes due to overheating and blood loss to the 40 million mosquitos and noseeums that would nail me every time I went near trees or shade.  So any question asked of me received that response.

Captain gets blamed because he is the gear head of the boat and should have known better...which he admits.

So, here's what happened.  In our grand scheme of getting as much done on the boat as we could while it was in the water and not on the hard..Tim closed the seacocks.   ALL of the seacocks.  That would be sump pump, head, air-conditioning, galley.....and engine intake.  Oh, yes he did.

So, he gets backed up, into the middle of the marina channel and suddenly the engine is pissed off...meaning not happy, irritated, I'll probably quit working soon.  

I'm walking to the lift so I don't know what is going on, if I had looked over, I would have seen my boat in the marina and nobody up top and I probably would have crapped my drawers.  But Tim quickly realized what was going on and ran (fell) down the companionway to open the water intake for the engine.

We'll find out this fall if we have impeller damage, but we have spares, the engine itself sounded fine after water came flowing through.

After that, it was a simple matter of the lovely gents at the travel lift catching our boat in the slings, and waiting patiently while Tim dilly dallied around--until I said, if you want him off the boat you are going to have to tell him, because I think he's prepared to ride this bitch to the stands.

Needless to say, the boys loved me.

What? Nothing bad happened. May-beee.

In she goes. (And I decided I wanted to be a travel lift operator when I grow up)

Time to check the bottom out!

Baby put to bed and waiting for her tie downs.

Hit rewind button

Well, I have been a bit remiss on posting.  So I guess I'll start with:

1--No I didn't kill any Delta airlines employees.  And I got my ##))??!!  $19 premium seat up charge back.

2--HemiD is tucked away safe and sound in Marathon.

3--Patriot has new doors courtesy of our fantastic dock neighbor Terry and soon will have a fridge installed.

4--I blew up my Sailrite machine.  Don't know how.  I'm sure the good folks at Sailrite can figure it out,  not really the first to do it I'm sure.

5--A/C on Patriot works well. Probably too well if you ask Sailing Sista Sabrina.  (Note too self--get the extra set of blankets on board back berth definitely gets to be -40 deg F.

So, that's that.  Pictures of the sail to Marathon and pull out next.

Hello work, I've got the VOR flu

Remedy is to head down to Miami and see some boats.

Don't think that's going to work.

In the ultimate tease of the lifetime, we were in Miami last week.  Puma and Camper arrived today.

However, I got some pics of the Volvo Ocean Race village construction in Bicentennial Park and promotion.  Just to further torment myself.

PS--Congrats to Kenny Read and the Mar Mostro crew!

WHOOT HOOT!  

Puma's Quad.  It'll have a bar up top.
Yes. Please.

My engineer-type spouse's head exploded on this construction.

Building the docks.

Noisy neighbors that I love

One of the perks -- perhaps only to me former Navy brat -- is the twice daily air show that we get from our neighbors at the Key West NAS.

It's considered the Top Gun of the east coast (original being Miramar, CA just north of San Diego)

So, like clockwork, 11am and 4pm we can sit in our cockpit, turn on some Kenny Loggins and watch billions of of tax dollars come in for landing.  The normal repertoire includes F-16 trainers, F-18, and F-22s.

When you see the tanker come in, you know the show's about to start

Fast flying fighters photograph faultily

Stay STILL!  I'm trying to take a picture here!