Weekend Trip to Maryland

We got tired of the extended winter in our area, so we took our stir crazy selves to the Spring Annapolis Boat show.  A good show for brokerage boats.  We saw some possibilities, but we are not ready to pull the trigger yet.

We stayed at the Marriott again because we like to throw our money away with joy.  They are currently remodeling and part of the remodeling is renaming all the floors.  So, you can imagine that made my little engineer boy's head pop right off.  After a couple of drinks we thought it would be hilarious to start taking the temporary signs off and moving them around, but..alas, we didn't.  But you can see by the pics below it would have been really easy to do.

Our room number before….

….and after.

Opening Day…the swamp

Today was opening of the pool day.  Not always a fun day because you get to find out what crawled down under your cover during the winter and didn't come out.  Yuck.

This year seems especially yuck, no dead animals were found, but the pool is an unusual shade of green, there's enough gunk on the bottom that it's turned into some primordial ooze. 

I'm not sure, but I think the pool crew found Jimmy Hoffa and the Loch Ness Monster. 

But, in some miracle of pools, in two weeks (after a lot of scrubbing, shocking, vacuuming and scooping)  it becomes a crystal clear pretty blue pool.

Sail Loft Time

With a little pixie dust, a lot of f-bombs, possible bleeding and a couple of glasses bottles of wine, there shall appear:

1. Binnacle cover. (not mine)
2. Sail cover for Catalina 30. (also not mine)
3. Awning for the mother-in-law's porch.

I'll probably post an album on Facebook (because I'm lazy, and that seems like a good place to put my projects).

No, I didn't order a first aid kit from Sailrite, that's just standard operating equipment for me.

It's early in the morning, and it's cold, and I didn't wanna go...

I'm actually quoting Ron White above.

But out I went I did. 2:30am Monday to be exact, and it was 20 degrees.   However, clear and no wind.

Why would I do this?

To see the lunar eclipse of course, or the blood moon.  The cold kept our resident pagans in their warm little apartments that night or else you can hear chanting and drums floating through the air.

(It's a Lawrence thing……)

However, I was kinda impressed with the shot I got on my little point and click camera.  I could have drug out Big Boy, but uh, well, uh, yeah, I don't know how to use it really.

I think it's blurry because I was just out in my sweats and flip flops in 20 degrees
and mild frost bite started setting in.

shake down cruise….finally

To define what a crappy winter we've had, our traditional St. Patrick's shakedown cruise was postponed almost an entire month.

However, we are finally here…and yes, we are forecast for some nights in the upper 20s next week.

Despite our marina's attempts to destroy our boat in one way or another, I am happy to report that steering/autopilot and rudder still seem to be functioning fine.

However, you would think that if you had employees at a marina, you would teach them line handling 101.  First lesson.  The simple yet elegant cleat hitch.  Most of our commissioning time was trying to get those freaking tie offs off and redone.  We still have one more to do, but we need a marlin spike to get the line off the cleat.  I'm not kidding.

But in a model of efficiency, Tim and I were sails up in two hours. Sails up for the first time in the season in Kansas usually means 'DUCK' as mud dauber nests and bird's nests come flying our of the sail. (We don't take our sails off every year).

Everything was ship shape, fridge is waiting it's beer/soda/wine/water provisionings and let's get rolling!

The first of many sunset sail to come this summer.

A launch off party, shots of rum and a little pirate ditty via the card.
(yes, the boat was out in the lake sailing itself with the autopilot while we were down below
some things never change)

Wendover, NV aka the Combat Air Museum Tour(s)

My parents invited us to go on a trip with them to Wendover, NV.  Basically, it was a three day gambling trip.

The price for Tim and I was $350 total, including 3 nights hotel and airfare. Okay, we can throw a few pennies in a slot machine for that.

It's something my parents like to do, and alcohol on the casino floor is free if your gambling.  I can make this work.

Long story short, the flight leaving Topeka was very late.  So now we have to decide whether to chance going back home (a 20 minute drive) or entertain ourselves.

Thus we went to the Topeka Air Combat Museum.  It was quite a pleasant surprise, these folks have a lot of crap stowed away.  And since it's a bit less regimented than the on-base museums and the Smithsonian air museum, they pretty much let us have run of the place.  And yes, Sabrina, CompyComp got touchy feely with the various orifices of an airplane.  Thankfully he just had his tetanus shot renewed.

Hard to do it justice, this was one of two hangars of planes.

Always loved the WWII era nose art.

Hard to see, but the plane says KILROY is here.

This is the original weather station for the Topeka airport during the 40s and 50s.
Try reading that radar.

If you got a lot of old planes, you got a lot of old plane parts.
This was in the hangar where they are doing restoration.

They let you go inside an old AWACs plane.
It's last mission was in VietNam and the coordinates are still
listed on the boards.

If you can read the tag: Raft Pneumatic service tag.
Last inspected 05 Aug 45.

So, we finally get an airplane (charter flight).  But the Topeka TSA doesn't start sending people through security until after the plane arrived.  We were first in line, thankfully, because after the fifth retiree went through the X-Ray with their metal knees/hips/shoulders/backs, etc.  They switched over to hand patting everybody down.  No offense to my bionic friends, but when you have a plane of geriatrics going to nowhere Nevada, I think you can back down the terrorist level check threat.  But, it provided no end of entertainment for Tim and I, particularly since the lady in front of us told her story of how they went through her billfold to. every. person. that. boarded. the. plane. after. her.  

It took 1.5 hours to board a MD-80.  OMG.  I flew to Australia on a A380 and they got that sucker boarded in 40 minutes flat.

So, Wendover. ... Wendover, Wendover, Wendover. It's about 2 miles long, tops. Literally on the Utah border and it's sole purpose is to let the Mormons have a place to gamble. I swear.  It's also a good stunt double for Karachi, Pakistan we decided. Very desolated.

But, onto Air Combat Museum trip, Part II.  Wendover Airfield is where all the Air Force/Army Air Corps trained in WWII.  It's also where the Enola Gay took off for it's fateful trip to Japan.  The place is falling into disarray and they are trying to get money to save it.  In it's glory it was a city upon itself. But most of the old airbase facilities have been torn down or sold.  They are in the process of restoring the Enola Gay hangar.

We checked in at the small museum and the lady said we could wander anywhere we liked if it didn't say restricted or off limits.  Tim's eyes lit up like it was Christmas.  Finally, he gets to do some UrbEx (Urban Exploration).  However, Mother Nature had other plans, and we got hit with rain and squally weather as soon as we started hiking about.  We did go up into the tower and I snapped a few pics.  The airfield has been in several movies, she mentioned ConAir and Independence Day.  Oddly enough Independence Day was just on TV and sure enough, at the very end, they show the airfield and the Bonneville Salt Flats (another thing we didn't get a chance to get to because of weather).

One of the planes used in the movie Con Air.

The old military base that's pretty much leveled now. In the distance
are old barracks.  The tan building in the center we did root through.
Don't know what it was, but it had a serious vault/safe in it at one time.

All in all, we had fun, we made our own fun as usual.  Caught up on sleep. We played penny slots in a truck stop. Yes. Yes, we did. Scratch that one off the bucket list…..  I forgot to have Tim take my picture of me standing over the Utah/Nevada line that they have on the street.

However, if I'm going to gamble for free drinks, I think I'd rather have the Venetian in Vegas serving me Santa Margarhita Pinot Grigio for free than the Wendover Wine box I got last weekend.

Trip to Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas

We've been wanting to go out to Fort Jeff again for a while, it hasn't worked out.  Mainly, we never made reservations.

There is only two ways to get to Fort Jeff if you are not travelling by your own boat (or seaplane).
Why is Fort Jefferson so special:  I'll let the fine folk at the NPS tell you.  It's 70 miles west of KeyWest, virtually the middle of nowhere.
Fort Jefferson National Park

The high speed ferry or seaplane.  We've done both, but I told Tim I wanted to do the water approach this time since we've become such big sailors :-).

There used to be two ferries, but one must have went out of business. It is a chunk of change to go out there. However, they do include breakfast/lunch/snorkel equipment.

The remaining company just recently built a new cat and put it into service in 2012.  She may not be the prettiest thing in the world, but she is smooth.  Although I was prepared for sea sickness, it never happened.  That there is good boat building.  They are also very proud of their boat. See here.

I highly recommend this trip to anyone and everyone. 

The rest will be a pictorial with commentary.

Getting buzzed by the seaplane going back to get more guests.
Our boat captain also flies the seaplanes.
I really don't think this would be approved of.

Approaching the Dry Tortugas.
Fort Jeff in front.  The light house on Loggerhead in the background

Walking along the moat wall.  Really good snorkeling in these waters.
However, we weenied out with the cooler water.

One of the bricks from the fort worn down by the waves.
That there be a 170 year old brick!

More of the bricks worn down to almost nothing.

Further along the beach we found a area of washed up 'people trash.'  We were told we can't take the bricks or any sealife off the island, but they didn't say anything about 'people' trash.  So I loaded up on a stellar load of sea glass.  Hey, didn't take the historical stuff, cleaned up.  Right?  And no, we didn't find a washed up Garmin.

Yes, it really is as cool as it looks.

The Tortugas are really good for bird watching also.  But, this time, I noticed a lot of dead birds, including three pelicans.  I thought, oh, great, what kind of killer virus is on this island.

This dude is a Royal Tern.  Love the crest on his head.

These guys. Awesome.

Close up.  Intensive research (wikipedia) informs me that they are Black Skimmers.
See how the lower beak sticks out further?

It's always good to know where to park your seaplane.

The beast.