Nary is there a sailor (or boat owner in general) that does have small catastrophes happen while out on the water.
We discovered while I was scrubbing the bottom of happy that the centerboard was dragging on the ground as we swung back and forth on the anchor. The pulleys on the line were tight to the block but the board was not tucked into its trunk. We weren't sure how long it had been that way but we were lucky there was no damage to the boat, centerboard, or pivoting brackets.
This most likely was caused from the knots tightening on the new line we installed (http://www.kaseyclyde.com/2014/11/project-hunter-h26-centerboard-saga.html) or perhaps even a small amount of stretching, It was something we hadn't even thought to check and this is a video of how we fixed it.
It's been a while but my local cigar shop, Garvinos, had my favorite cigar, Carlos Torano exodus 1959 box pressed, on sale for only 5 bucks! I had to grab some even though there is no room in the humidor. Delicious!
Part school, part vacation. That sums up the week we spent in Fort Lauderdale taking the STCW95 training course. The STCW95 is a basic course for safety at sea and is required for anyone working on (or wanting to work on) a commercial vessel. This could be any kind of vessel like mega yachts, oil rigs, research vessels, etc,
The course was split up into 3 basic parts. Day 1 and 2 covered safety at sea with day 1 being in the classroom and day 2 being practical evaluation in the water. Day 2 was cool because we were in a lake with life jackets and immersion suits, flipping and boarding life rafts, and practicing life saving techniques as a team.
Day 3 and 4 were covered firefighting at the Resolve Maritime Academy with day 3 in the classroom and day 4 actually fighting fires. There is a video showing parts of day 4 below. It really was amazing donning full bunker gear and air tanks crawling around through smoke filled buildings.
Day 5 was introductory first aid. This was something that I had always wanted to learn anyway. One of our instructors, Rex, was very entertaining and very competent with his knowledge and techniques. It made for a fun and very informative lesson. I had always wanted to be taught these skills and we all got to preform CPR on dummies.
Besides school there really wasn't as much time for play like we had hoped there would be. Especially on the practical days we were pretty whipped after. We did eat well though. We kept trying interesting restaurants around the area. Some notable ones were
Trata Greek Taverna: Which was our favorite restaurant of the trip and Louie the bartender was spot on.
Burger Fi: with amazing, non greasy, delicious burgers
Redcow: Pretty good BBQ and interesting decor.
Quarterdeck: Beach shack with good food
Da Big Kahuna: A passable burger
Lulu's Baitshack: Awesome mahi reuben
Pei Wei: decent pan-asian diner
There were ups and downs throughout the week but overall the experience was fun and memorable. We met a lot of really cool people from all over the world and in all sectors of the marine industry. We wish everyone we met during class the best of luck in their future endeavors!
What a wicked awesome time! We had only planned to be out on the Gulf for 1 night and ended up staying for 2. The water was just warm enough for us to get in a do a little swimming and explore Anclote Key. We can't wait to do this again!
