Political Theater

Marathon, FL
No LL

There seems to be delicious political theater is about to unfold. Thursday's NYT said, "With every delegate precious, Mrs. Clinton’s advisers also made it clear that they were prepared to take a number of potentially incendiary steps to build up Mrs. Clinton’s count. Top among these, her aides said, is pressing for Democrats to seat the disputed delegations from Florida and Michigan..."

Meanwhile, the WSJ the other day published an Op Ed by Theodore Olsen. Mr. Olsen is the former solicitor general and he represented Bush in the famous Bush V. Gore Supreme Court Case.

Mr. Olsen anticipates (with apparent relish) that the spat about seating Democratic delegates from Florida and Michigan will lead to litigation. He says, "Surely no one familiar with her history would doubt that [Clinton's] take-no-prisoners campaign team would do whatever it took to capture the nomination, including all manner of challenges to Obama delegates and tidal waves of litigation."

Senator Clinton will be arguing "Count every vote" while Senator Obama will argue "Don't change the rules after the election." In other words, it would be a replay of Bush V. Gore.

At that point Mr. Olsen says, "The array of battle-tested Democratic lawyers who fought for recounts, changes in ballot counting procedures, and even re-votes in Florida courts and the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000 would separate into two camps. Half of them would be relying on the suddenly-respectable Supreme Court Bush v. Gore decision that overturned the Florida courts' post-hoc election rules changes. The other half would be preaching a new-found respect for "federalism" and demanding that the high court leave the Florida court decisions alone."

He further wonders, "... would Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, the dissenters in Bush v. Gore, feel as strongly about not intervening if Sen. Obama was fighting against an effort to change a presidential election by changing the rules after the fact?"

Finally, he makes an offer. "If it does happen, I'd be more than happy to loan Sen. Obama the winning briefs that helped secure the election of the legitimate winner of the 2000 election, George W. Bush."

No matter what your politics, you must agree that this would be political theater at its most dramatic.

R.I.P. Pup

Marathon
No LL

We got a call from Alaska today. It was Dave. He had sad news to tell us about our dog Pup. Pup died yesterday.

Oh dear. It's hard to express the sorrow one feels with loss of a beloved pet. We had Pup since 1997. He was a wonderful pet and companion.

Pup was a very athletic dog. He loved most running free in the open fields. In West Charlton, we lived out beyond the leash law restrictions so he was free to run almost every day. Pup never learned to not chase cars. I once clocked him with my own car. He ran 35mph for 1 mile.

When it came time to retire and begin our cruising life on Tarwathie, we had to give Pup up. Pup hated boats. On the few times I took him sailing on our previous sail boat, Pup cried and whined the whole time until the trip was over.

Dave and Cathy and Bobby up in Alaska took him for us. They took wonderful care of Pup right up to the end. Dave said that they went out last night for 1 hour and when they returned he was gone. Pup had been suffering from a tumor but it is not at all clear what killed him. Thank you very much Dave, Cathy and Bobby.

R.I.P. Pup.

Sopping Wet

Marathon Public Library
No LL

"Here I sit broken hearted ..." No, no no. Wrong rhyme. Here I sit in the library sopping wet. Drops of water drip off my clothes on to the floor leaving a budding puddle under the place where I sit. No, I didn't fall overboard (wouldn't that make a fun blog article?). It's just a rainy day.

We had an ambitious agenda for today and tomorrow. I'm working on varnish and trying to fix the anchor light. I also have a new battery monitor system to install, and I want to put in a starting battery. To do that, I need to redesign all the battery cables. Given the sky high price for battery cables nowadays, it deserves some careful consideration. Tomorrow, Wednesday, we had plans to go to Key West again.

Anyhow, it turned out to be a rainy day. Real cloudbursts. This must be one of the top 5 rainy days we've seen in the past 500 days.

During a lull in the rain, I set out in the dinghy and the bike to buy gas, to go the library and to the grocery store. I should have counted on Murphy. The skies opened up. I had a rain jacket on but no pants, so I'm really really wet.

Oh well; the rain is sorely needed down here.

Anchorage Archive

Marathon
No LL

When I recently sent away our GPS for repair, the vendor warned me to back up our way points first. If they replace the unit, then we would lose all the way point data. I'm glad they made me do it, because for a long time I've wanted to extract those way points to see if they might make a good blog article. You may enjoy looking it over just for general interest sake.

First, look at the pictorial depiction below. It shows actual positions of 175 places where we actually anchored. The scale it much too small to be able to read the names. It looks funny without an underlying map, but stare at it for a while and you can make out the East Coast of the USA, plus the Saint Lawrence Seaway, plus one outlier in Mexico. You can also see two gaps showing places we've never anchored. Those are, New Jersey and South Carolina south of Charleston.



Now for the raw data, sorted by location North to South.

Place	State	Latitude	Longitude
St Lawrence	Quebec	N 45 51.99	W 073 016.29
Lac St Louis	Quebec	N 45 19.34	W 073 052.65
Richelieu	Quebec	N 45 09.48	W 073 015.46
St Regis	Quebec	N 45 00.30	W 074 039.23
Deep Bay	New York	N 44 46.58	W 073 022.86
Prescott	Ontario	N 44 40.59	W 075 033.47
Valcour	New York	N 44 37.81	W 073 025.54
Valcour Spoon Bay	New York	N 44 37.79	W 073 024.41
Valcour Sloop Cove	New York	N 44 37.37	W 073 024.41
Valcour Smugglers Harbor	New York	N 44 37.09	W 073 024.52
North Burlington	Vermont	N 44 29.93	W 073 014.97
Appletree Point	Vermont	N 44 29.79	W 073 014.95
Searsport	Maine	N 44 27.02	W 068 055.30
Demello's Camp	New York	N 44 26.22	W 073 023.19
Shelburne	Vermont	N 44 25.58	W 073 014.97
Belfast	Maine	N 44 25.41	W 068 059.51
Shelburne Bay	Vermont	N 44 24.23	W 073 014.26
Willsboro Bay	New York	N 44 23.90	W 073 023.63
Bounty Cove	Maine	N 44 19.00	W 068 053.98
Endymion	Ontario	N 44 18.24	W 076 005.75
Picton	Ontario	N 44 16.75	W 076 004.26
Porter Bay	Vermont	N 44 13.78	W 073 019.01
Andrews Island	Maine	N 44 08.81	W 068 042.13
Rockland	Maine	N 44 05.84	W 069 005.76
Isle Au Haut	Maine	N 44 03.22	W 068 038.77
Port Henry	New York	N 44 03.05	W 073 027.10
Sackets Harbor	New York	N 43 57.00	W 076 007.12
Bath	Maine	N 43 54.17	W 069 048.30
White Bay	New York	N 43 52.32	W 076 013.80
Boothbay	Maine	N 43 50.84	W 069 038.05
Ticonderoga	New York	N 43 50.31	W 073 023.33
Chipman Point	Vermont	N 43 48.04	W 073 022.54
Jewel Island	Maine	N 43 41.33	W 070 005.39
Lock 11	New York	N 43 28.12	W 073 026.07
Fort Edward	New York	N 43 15.55	W 073 034.99
Elliot	Maine	N 43 06.51	W 070 047.57
Little Bay	Maine	N 43 05.96	W 070 051.67
Kittery	Maine	N 43 04.90	W 070 043.40
Gosport	Massachusetts	N 42 58.74	W 070 036.81
Lock 4	New York	N 42 56.00	W 073 039.23
Waterford	New York	N 42 47.16	W 073 040.69
Albany Yacht Club	New York	N 42 38.36	W 073 044.91
Gloucester	Massachusetts	N 42 36.67	W 070 039.31
Marblehead	Massachusetts	N 42 29.75	W 070 050.99
Shady Hbr	New York	N 42 27.09	W 073 047.18
Schodack	New York	N 42 26.09	W 073 046.46
Coxackie	New York	N 42 22.09	W 073 047.84
Middle Ground	New York	N 42 15.92	W 073 048.03
Thunderstorm	New York	N 42 13.90	W 073 050.63
Hudson	New York	N 42 09.28	W 073 054.09
Duxbury	Massachusetts	N 41 59.97	W 070 036.94
Kingston	New York	N 41 55.19	W 073 057.92
Warehem	Massachusetts	N 41 44.31	W 070 042.67
Monument Beach	Massachusetts	N 41 43.18	W 070 037.18
Fall River	Massachusetts	N 41 42.49	W 071 009.60
Hospital	Massachusetts	N 41 40.36	W 070 038.42
Bristol	Rhode Island	N 41 40.01	W 071 017.16
New Bedford	Massachusetts	N 41 37.46	W 070 054.75
Buzzards Bay	Massachusetts	N 41 34.27	W 070 056.52
Dutch ng	Rhode Island	N 41 29.89	W 071 023.31
Banerman	New York	N 41 27.36	W 073 059.21
Judith Point	Rhode Island	N 41 24.29	W 071 030.34
Nyack	New York	N 41 05.14	W 073 054.73
Liberty Island	New York	N 40 41.77	W 074 003.93
Havre de Grace	Maryland	N 39 32.85	W 076 005.00
Bohemia	Maryland	N 39 28.81	W 075 056.04
Bohemia Better	Maryland	N 39 28.58	W 075 056.33
Turner	Maryland	N 39 21.94	W 075 058.77
Fredricktown	Maryland	N 39 21.82	W 075 053.54
Cohansey	New Jersey	N 39 21.23	W 075 021.62
Still Creek	Maryland	N 39 19.97	W 076 008.52
Baltimore	Maryland	N 39 17.09	W 076 036.71
Chestertown	Maryland	N 39 12.30	W 076 003.70
Annapolis	Maryland	N 38 58.40	W 076 029.22
At Sea		N 38 58.23	W 074 037.91
Kent Narrows	Maryland	N 38 57.77	W 076 015.19
Back Creek	Maryland	N 38 57.48	W 076 029.09
Cape May	New Jersey	N 38 57.00	W 074 053.24
Rhodes	Maryland	N 38 52.95	W 076 031.61
Washington DC	DC	N 38 52.61	W 077 001.55
Rhodes 2	Maryland	N 38 52.50	W 076 031.39
Goose Creek	Maryland	N 38 45.04	W 076 015.70
Laplatte River	Maryland	N 38 37.95	W 076 007.17
Potomac	Virginia	N 38 34.74	W 077 012.13
Cambridge Municipal Y B	Maryland	N 38 34.58	W 076 004.41
Cambride	Maryland	N 38 34.34	W 076 004.43
Mattawoman	Virginia	N 38 33.86	W 077 011.83
Back Creek	Virginia	N 38 20.39	W 076 027.54
Deep Creek	Virginia	N 38 16.26	W 076 043.39
Canoe Neck	Virginia	N 38 15.59	W 076 043.74
Tangier Island	Virginia	N 37 49.80	W 075 059.66
Sandy Point	Virginia	N 37 49.50	W 076 018.59
Onancook Creek	Virginia	N 37 43.52	W 075 049.50
Onancook	Virginia	N 37 42.65	W 075 045.49
Wareh Creek	Virginia	N 37 42.29	W 076 021.25
Myers Creek	Virginia	N 37 41.50	W 076 029.66
Corotoman	Virginia	N 37 40.78	W 076 027.59
Dymer Creek	Virginia	N 37 40.11	W 076 020.87
Yopps	Virginia	N 37 39.05	W 076 025.92
Urbana	Virginia	N 37 38.23	W 076 034.14
Antipoison	Virginia	N 37 37.87	W 076 020.96
Jackson Creek	Virginia	N 37 32.75	W 076 020.00
Fishing Bay	Virginia	N 37 32.28	W 076 020.03
Jamestown	Virginia	N 37 13.41	W 076 047.44
Hampton	Virginia	N 37 01.43	W 076 020.43
Hampton	Virginia	N 37 01.14	W 076 020.55
Marina Waterside	Virginia	N 36 50.63	W 076 017.53
Portsmouth	Virginia	N 36 50.30	W 076 017.79
Deep Creek	Virginia	N 36 44.87	W 076 020.29
Dismal Swamp Canal	North Carolina	N 36 26.65	W 076 019.58
Pasquotank	North Carolina	N 36 23.14	W 076 017.19
Elizabeth Creek	North Carolina	N 36 18.19	W 076 012.40
Little Alligator	North Carolina	N 35 55.99	W 076 001.53
Alligator River	North Carolina	N 35 52.18	W 076 002.15
Alligator River	North Carolina	N 35 40.31	W 076 005.61
Belhaven	North Carolina	N 35 32.20	W 076 037.62
Bath, NC	North Carolina	N 35 28.59	W 076 048.92
Bath, NC	North Carolina	N 35 27.52	W 076 048.99
Eastham Creek	North Carolina	N 35 17.83	W 076 036.34
Eastham Creek 2	North Carolina	N 35 17.82	W 076 036.30
New Bern	North Carolina	N 35 06.15	W 077 001.92
Broad Creek	North Carolina	N 35 05.79	W 076 035.76
Broad Creek	North Carolina	N 35 05.41	W 076 037.41
Neuse River	North Carolina	N 35 05.31	W 076 034.34
Oriental	North Carolina	N 35 01.41	W 076 041.86
Oriental	North Carolina	N 35 01.40	W 076 041.84
Oriental	North Carolina	N 35 01.18	W 076 041.74
Adams Creek	North Carolina	N 34 56.00	W 076 039.31
Beafort	North Carolina	N 34 43.54	W 076 039.97
Swansboro	North Carolina	N 34 41.16	W 077 007.04
Thoroughfare	South Carolina	N 33 30.79	W 079 008.71
Winyah Bay	South Carolina	N 33 15.48	W 079 015.06
Minim Creek	South Carolina	N 33 11.63	W 079 016.67
Santee	South Carolina	N 33 08.77	W 079 018.89
Inlet Creek	South Carolina	N 32 47.11	W 079 049.49
Turner Creek	Georgia	N 32 00.91	W 080 059.41
St Catherine	Georgia	N 31 41.47	W 081 009.27
Wahoo	Georgia	N 31 36.16	W 081 012.84
Hampton	Georgia	N 31 17.07	W 081 022.79
Brickhill River 2	Georgia	N 30 53.79	W 081 026.73
Brickhill River	Georgia	N 30 53.30	W 081 027.05
Delaroche	Georgia	N 30 51.60	W 081 030.24
Fernandina Beach	Florida	N 30 40.35	W 081 028.15
Alligator River	Florida	N 30 34.52	W 081 028.30
Blount	Florida	N 30 24.19	W 081 030.77
Matanzas 2	Florida	N 29 49.08	W 081 017.59
Matanzas	Florida	N 29 48.45	W 081 017.14
Daytona	Florida	N 29 14.12	W 081 001.45
Daytona	Florida	N 29 11.82	W 081 000.29
Space Center	Florida	N 28 38.96	W 080 048.01
Titusville	Florida	N 28 37.53	W 080 048.40
N A S A	Florida	N 28 31.50	W 080 046.25
Merrit Island	Florida	N 28 31.16	W 080 046.32
Cocoa	Florida	N 28 21.15	W 080 042.93
Melbourne	Florida	N 28 05.08	W 080 035.06
Melborne Harbor	Florida	N 28 04.66	W 080 036.11
Malabar Rd	Florida	N 28 00.44	W 080 033.48
Malabar	Florida	N 28 00.13	W 080 033.38
Rock Point	Florida	N 27 59.33	W 080 032.73
Pine Island	Florida	N 27 43.47	W 080 023.98
Vero Beach 1	Florida	N 27 39.76	W 080 022.35
Vero Beach 2	Florida	N 27 39.35	W 080 022.24
Fort Pierce	Florida	N 27 28.09	W 080 019.45
Thumb Point	Florida	N 27 27.42	W 080 018.17
Fort Pierce	Florida	N 27 27.16	W 080 019.10
Stuart	Florida	N 27 11.48	W 080 016.03
St Lucie	Florida	N 27 10.74	W 080 011.55
Lake Worth	Florida	N 26 45.56	W 080 002.59
Miami	Florida	N 25 47.91	W 080 008.97
Camden	Florida	N 25 43.46	W 080 009.42
Hurricane Hole	Florida	N 25 41.22	W 080 010.42
No Name Harbor	Florida	N 25 40.62	W 080 009.80
Marathon, Ball T2	Florida	N 24 42.42	W 081 005.67
Garden Key Dry Tortugas	Tortugas	N 24 38.00	W 082 052.30
Yucatan	Mexico	N 21 36.00	W 087 045.00

Note that about 20% of the time we anchored, I forgot to push the buttons to remember the place in the GPS. Those places, including the whole West Coast of Florida, are missing from the table.

p.s. For my sailing friends, I can send you this data base in .GSX format that you may be able load directly in to your own GPS. I find it useful for planning purposes to know where good anchorages are. I loaded all the anchorages listed in the Skipper Bob book in to my GPS.

Activity Day

Marathon, FL
N 24 42.391 W 081 05.683, (See the map)

Saturday was like activity day at kids camp. It started with a nautical flea market. I scored at the party by buying a foot pump for $5 that is an exact replacement for the pumps we use in the sinks. I can cannibalize it for spare parts, or use it as a replacement. These foot pumps are very tough, but they don't last forever.

At noon was the dinghy race, which I entered. It was not a race for the fastest speed, but rather a race to most closely match the organizer's reference time to complete a course. My strategy was to go as slow as possible. However I was out-slowed by another guy who stopped dead mid course to smoke a cigar. That guy was the winner. We all paid a $5 entry fee, and the winner got 50%. The other 50% was donated to the local sailor's association.

Then we went to the Chili Cookoff competition. Libby made a big pot of her best chili as the Tarwathie entry. With my appetite whetted by sampling Libby's chili in advance, I went to the cookoff ready for serious judging. A few years ago, I had great fun as a judge in a chili cookoff in Sugarland Texas. Yesterday, all the cruisers were all judges. Each paid $5 to get a bowl, money which went to the local sailor's association.

There were 16 entries in the contest. As a consciouses judge, I did my duty by taking a scoop of each in numerical order. In the end, I voted for Libby's chili, but other people won more votes. One of them was spiced with ginger, which gave it a wonderful flavor. Another entry stacked the deck by loading up the chili with numerous shrimp, scollaps and oysters. I really really liked about 5 out of the 16, but in the end I voted for Libby's. The winner confessed that he simply poured a whole bottle of hot sauce in his chili.

In the final analysis Libby had the last word. She said, "Many entries, including the winners, went home with their chili only half gone. My chili was gone; eaten to the last drop."

After the cook off, we returned to the boat. I had a tummy ache from eating too much chili, but I didn't care. I can't think of a better way to get a tummy ache than judging a chili cook off.

Cooking The Chili

Waiting for the dinghy race

Cruisers at the cook off