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!
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Sunday, May 3, 2015
STCW95 Training Course
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!
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| The Las Olas Food and Wine Festival |
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| Our accommodations were....pretty rough :) |
Spring break kids! To the Boat!
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!
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| Got a little Captain in you? |
Friday, April 17, 2015
Unearthing a diamond in the rough
The twin to the blue rat rod has been sitting in the woods for years now. If the license plate is any indication the last time the vehicle was registered was in 1992. With a pending sale of the property the white truck is sitting on the time to get the truck out of the woods and home is now. the plans for the white truck is to do a full restore. The truck belonged to my mom's husband's father who passed just a few years ago. It will not be a project finished any time soon but it will be a worthy venture.
So far the truck has been dug out and jacked up out of the dirt. Both rear brakes were completely seized and had to be pried apart with a crowbar. I haven't yet tested the front wheels to see if they spin. I will steal the tires and rims from the rat rod, air them up, and then I should be able to get the white truck home on the car dolly next visit.
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Review: Yamaha EF2000is generator / inverter
A not so short video testing our yamaha EF2000is inverter / generator. Pretty good info for someone looking to use a generator on their boat or trying to run a portable AC unit on their boat.
Friday, April 3, 2015
Me, my love, and a mustache
Buddy helped us bring the boat down from New York last year and now we were finally getting to go sailing on her all together. It took too long for this trip to happen but it was worth the wait for this awesome outing. We went out and did and overnight on the gulf that was filled with fishing, beer, music, more fishing, and more beer! Perfect!
Highs and lows, overnight on the gulf
The bottom paint was finished, "Happy" was back in the water, and the weather was warming up. (but not the water) It's time to go sailing!
One thing we have discovered is sailing is always an adventure. It is pleasure boating for sure but with a considerable scoop of work and danger tossed in also.
We motored some and sailed some about 15 miles south of Hudson to a small island called Anclote Key. It was getting late so we decided to go ashore, walk the dog, and watch a beautiful sunset that would have been perfect if not for the 50 other people that had been dropped off on the beach by ferry for the exact same reason, It took us several times to get the delicate balance of anchoring scope, wind direction, and water depth right so we could get out and walk ashore in the cold water. We ran aground once and had to gun the motor to get unstuck. It was still a beautiful sunset.
After dark we loaded back on the boat, pulled anchor, and motored into the shallows. It was very calm and when we tossed the anchor and line just sat there, We went about our business of cooking and eating. It was later on in the night we started feeling an odd tugging every now and then. Not the normal jerk of the anchor line. At first we thought we were anchored in too shallow of water. We discovered that the anchor line was actually stuck underneath the boat somewhere.
So then I had two choices. Dive down in the cold water and dark to try to free the line or cleat the line short, hope we stay hooked through the night with the short scope and fix it in the daylight. So my fear of diving under the boat in the dark and cold won and we cleated the line and waited until morning.
During the night we were treated to Hercules using the bathroom on my legs, I don't know if he was scared or what but he had just went on the island hours before. He has never acted scared on the boat. He is always calm and relaxed. Regardless I woke up in a panic thinking that it was raining and starting closing hatches in a half-asleep stupor. Oddly enough it was sprinkling (even though the weather apps said that it wouldn't rain) but barely enough to merit closing hatches, It was then that I realized that my legs were tucked up in the v birth where they could not get rained on anyway. Needless to say when I discovered the cause of the wetness on my legs I was not a happy guy. Bad wiener!
In the morning we pulled the anchor up into the boat and with the rest of the line wrapped under the boat still we motored into deeper water. Following my hunch we released the centerboard line which did not free the centerboard. The line was wedged in between the trunk and the board. Finally after bouncing around in the waves for a minute the weight of the board overcame the wedge and the line was free.
Then after barely scraping over a few extremely shallow parts on the way away from the island everything was hunky dory. It was enough adventure for one trip so we slowly tooled our way back north and back to the marina. We would still choose the adventure over work any day.
One thing we have discovered is sailing is always an adventure. It is pleasure boating for sure but with a considerable scoop of work and danger tossed in also.
We motored some and sailed some about 15 miles south of Hudson to a small island called Anclote Key. It was getting late so we decided to go ashore, walk the dog, and watch a beautiful sunset that would have been perfect if not for the 50 other people that had been dropped off on the beach by ferry for the exact same reason, It took us several times to get the delicate balance of anchoring scope, wind direction, and water depth right so we could get out and walk ashore in the cold water. We ran aground once and had to gun the motor to get unstuck. It was still a beautiful sunset.
After dark we loaded back on the boat, pulled anchor, and motored into the shallows. It was very calm and when we tossed the anchor and line just sat there, We went about our business of cooking and eating. It was later on in the night we started feeling an odd tugging every now and then. Not the normal jerk of the anchor line. At first we thought we were anchored in too shallow of water. We discovered that the anchor line was actually stuck underneath the boat somewhere.
So then I had two choices. Dive down in the cold water and dark to try to free the line or cleat the line short, hope we stay hooked through the night with the short scope and fix it in the daylight. So my fear of diving under the boat in the dark and cold won and we cleated the line and waited until morning.
During the night we were treated to Hercules using the bathroom on my legs, I don't know if he was scared or what but he had just went on the island hours before. He has never acted scared on the boat. He is always calm and relaxed. Regardless I woke up in a panic thinking that it was raining and starting closing hatches in a half-asleep stupor. Oddly enough it was sprinkling (even though the weather apps said that it wouldn't rain) but barely enough to merit closing hatches, It was then that I realized that my legs were tucked up in the v birth where they could not get rained on anyway. Needless to say when I discovered the cause of the wetness on my legs I was not a happy guy. Bad wiener!
In the morning we pulled the anchor up into the boat and with the rest of the line wrapped under the boat still we motored into deeper water. Following my hunch we released the centerboard line which did not free the centerboard. The line was wedged in between the trunk and the board. Finally after bouncing around in the waves for a minute the weight of the board overcame the wedge and the line was free.
Then after barely scraping over a few extremely shallow parts on the way away from the island everything was hunky dory. It was enough adventure for one trip so we slowly tooled our way back north and back to the marina. We would still choose the adventure over work any day.
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| Bad wiener! |
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