Working The Seafood Festival

Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, Florida

As a rule, we eschew festivals and boat shows of all kinds.  An exception is the Marathon Seafood Festival.  The festival is held in the park right next to the marina.   Every year they seek volunteers for various tasks.  We enjoy doing it.  The nice t-shirts identify volunteers and give us free entrance.

This year, we were assigned work at one of the food stands.  Libby took orders and I took money.  Man, I never saw so many lobsters and $20 bills before in my life.  In three hours, I estimate we served 300 people, and I handled perhaps $4000.   We were one of four identical stations in one of a half dozen concession tents.   Lots of food, lots of money, lots of fun.

How To Get A Sailor's Attention

Boot Key Harbor, Marsthon, Florida

 

When a sailor looks to the sky and sees something like this, it gets his instant rapt attention. The picture above was taken by Sharon Thompson on a boat very close to us.

In this case, the weather behind the front turned out to be less than scary. First rain we've had here in nearly a month.

Much scarier was the storm that hit Sydney, Australia a few days ago, see below. The picture at the bottom was said to be taken from the Sydney Harbor Ferry a few minutes later.

 

None of these pictures are mine.

 

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9th Anniversary

Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, Florida

Nine years ago today, we took posession of Tarwathie and began this blog. Thank you thank you for all the well wishes.

Certainly, the ninth year has been the most out-of-character of all the years. We wintered in New Bern, NC and then we spent five months touring the country by car And tent. That was fun but we are grateful to be back home onboard again.

So, what profound things can we say on this anniversary? I think I'll wait until the 10th next year to address that. For now, suffice it to say that the past nine years have been among the best years of our lives. We are very happy with our life style choice.

 

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Future Shock

Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, Florida

When we started cruising in 2005, we had a cell phone and a laptop. To post a blog, I had to find a library or some other place with Internet access. We had no wifi.

Before the year ended, we made a big investment ($1500) in a pactor modem that connected the laptop to the SSB radio. That allowed us to do email and blogging on board the boat, even while at sea.

At some point, we got a new laptop with wifi. That was a major improvement. Then we could stop the boat outside someone's home and use their wifi. In those days fewer homeowners knew how to put a password on their wifi. I invented a word "snagging" to describe finding someone's unprotected wifi to use.

Soon after we had a wifi booster antenna, then another, then another, then another. None lasted very long, and none delivered more than small improvements.

Anyhow, I became adept at finding and using wifi in strange spots. More than once you could find me in some public place with a blanked over my head trying to use the computer with someone's wifi out in the bright sun.

At some point, I guess 2007, we bought a Sirius Sattelite Radio. It became our major source of news and entertainment on board the boat. The quality of the signal was perfect, no matter what our location. It worked in the USA and in The Bahamas. We could even listen to one program while recording another. But eventually, Sirius dropped one favorite info channel after another until we got dropped the service (you see we almost never listened to the Sirius music or entertainment channels).

But then we got our first smart phone. It was great. We could do email and read news without the computer.

In 2009 we bought a portable inch DVD player. It plays for 6 hours on a single charge which is great. We use it to view DVDs borrowed from the library or from our small onboard DVD collection. Whe watching something, we quickly forget how small the screen is. That doesn't matter very much.

But then the smart phones became very much better. We found that we could use the phone as a modem with a USB connection to the laptop and watch entertainment from Hulu.com. But after some time, Hulu blocked most of the free content.

Now, we still use the DVD player, but our staple is the combination of smart phone - wifi hotspot app - unlimited data plan from Verizon - iPad and Netflix. With that, we are able to dish up high quality entertainment whenever we want. In fact, I seldom have need to use anyone else's wifi hot spot any more. I also use the laptop PC less often, perhaps once per week.

FM radio remains a steady source. We like to listen to Morning Edition and All Things Considered on NPR. But whe we travel, the FM signal gets weak and scratchy. No problem, I just use my phone to listen to live radio.

I'm sure whatever we use today won't last forever. We use up to 21 GB of data per month. Eventually, Verizon will find a way to terminate my unlimited data plan. Then we will just have to find something else to use until that too becomes obsolete.

The really amazing part is that new technologies are born, thrive, die and are nearly forgotten in just a few years. The term "Future Shock" applies.

 

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The Swinging Light Show

Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, Florida

It is something familiar to all boaters. Sunlight streams in via a port window, or a hatch, or the companionway. The bright spot in the picture above is from the companionway. Then, the light spot pans left and right as the boat swings at anchor.

Sometimes it is entertaining. For example, when it hits the glass globe on our oil lamps, the refracted ray's form cool patterns and the patterns move all over.

Sometimes it is very annoying. The light shines in your eyes and it blinds you. In that case you move. The same thing happens in fixed structures too. The difference in a boat is that moving only spares your eyes for 10 seconds or less. Then you are forced to move again, and again, and again. Then you are motivated to use a shade in the offending port. But soon the boat swings enough that another port becomes the problem. Eventually, you wind up with almost all sources of light blocked.

The other day I took and afternoon nap and I woke up with a sunburn on the small of my back. As I slept, the boat swung to just the right angle to illuminate that spot.

The point is that we become so accustomed to this behavior that we forget about it. Boats swing, so what? I wouldn't mention it at all except that yesterday we did a video call with a friend. Almost immediately, the caller surprised me with the question, "is your boat swinging at anchor?" He noticed the moving bright spots in the background instantly.

 

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