We Have Wheels. Good or Bad?

Saint Augustine, FL

Well, we did it.  We took the plunge.  Yesterday, we went out and bought a car. A Toyota Camry, very nice.  Fanciest car we've ever owned. We have 60,000 miles left on the warranty!  We also test drove a Prius.  The Prius is very nice, and I love the idea of getting 50+ mpg, but it can't hold a candle to the Camry in terms of comfort and luxury.  I guess we arrived at the age where a luxurious car can't be resisted.

We did it for a specific reason.  I hurt my back, and I don't feel up to the 5000 mile round trip voyage up to Lake Champlain on Tarwathie.  Therefore, we'll leave Tarwathie on the hard in Green Cove Springs, and drive north this summer.   

But we also plan to keep this car indefinitely, so it represents a significant life-style change.   Libby and I both have serioius trepidations.   I could say that we now have one foot in the grave, but that sounds morbid and it overstates the reality.  It is more accurate to say that, it feels that we now have one-foot in the CLOD domain (Cruisers Living On Dirt).   But we love our cruising life so much, that being a CLOD and being half dead sound the same to us.

Benefits: 

• We can take side trips and extend our range (same reason for having an outboard on the dinghy.)  
• We can hopefully attract more family visitors in the winter if we can offer to pick them up at the airport.

Disadvantages:  

• The last time we owned a car (2012-13), in only six months our physical conditioning went to hell.  That is despite our efforts to use the car less and walk more.  Once again, I plan to resist that trend, but success is not guaranteed. 
• Our 4 months spent on our annual north/south migration were our favorite parts of the year.
• There is another temptation to use the car as a garage to aquire and store more stuff.   Owning less stuff is one of the primary benefits of cruising.   Now we have one very big "thing" to be responsible for (the car), and we must avoid having more.
• We'll have to learn a way to handle getting both the car and the boat from Green Cove to Marathon next fall.  Other cruisers do that regularly, but we are novices on that part.

So, please don't leave messages of congratulations or condolences as comments to this blog.  We're not sure which applies.

Don't GO! Don't STOP! LOOK BEHIND!

South Daytona, Florida
29 05.50 N 080 56.97 W

We spent last night at the public floating dock in New Smyrna Beach.  Libby likes that spot because it is close to the farmer's market.   Last night we had special entertainment.   Several hundred senior prom couples came to the waterfront to take pictures.  Lots of very beautiful women and very handsome men.

Immediately upon departing this morning, we had to go under the George Manson drawbridge.  That reminded me of a bloggable topic.

Nearly all captains have the instinct to never stop directly under an open drawbridge.  That bridge is like the sword of Damocles. It could close at any second.  Typically, boats accelerate and bunch up as they go under a bridge to minimize the opening time.

Once in Saint Augustine, we were heading north.  The sailboat in front of us wanted to anchor on the north side of the bridge, but he couldn't see the anchorage from the south side of the bridge.  What did he do?  He stopped dead directly under the bridge to look around.  I was behind him going fast.  There was not enough room to go around him.  All I could do was emergency stop.  No time to even reach for the horn or yell.   DON'T STOP UNDER A BRIDGE EVER.

When should you shout DON'T GO?  When backing out of a slip or coming out from a blind side passage into the path of passing traffic.

A third safety tip is the one I believe is most often violated.  LOOK BEHIND YOU.   That man going under the bridge did not think to look behind before stopping.   Big sport fishing boats that leave huge wakes, do not look behind them to see the havoc that their wakes cause.   Of course you are supposed to look where you are going, but there is a secondary responsibility to look behind also.  In cars or trucks, we have mirrors that allow us to glance behind in just a fraction of a second.  On boats, rear view mirrors are not common.  You must turn your head and body to look back.   Regardless of difficulty, DO IT!

Libby and I must stand up 100% of the time when under way (and not out at sea).  We stand to see over the dinghy.  That makes it easier for us to spin 360 degrees to look all around.  We do so every time we are about to change course or speed, plus once per minute  otherwise.  

Drawbridges require maximum alertness and situational awareness.  There are often squarely currents that move you from side to side.  Traffic might appear unexpectedly from the left or right before or after the bridge.   Other boats may do unexpected things, and the bridge tender may decide to close the bridge. If you approach the opening from any direction other than 90 degrees, your vulnerability to currents and surprises is increased. When passing under a drawbridge with traffic in front and behind us, I spin 360 degrees nonstop, alert and ready to take evasive action.  Because I am nervous, I usually do it at high speed to get through as quickly as possible.

Morfarfar's Privilege

Vero Beach, Florida
27 37.70 N 080 22.24

Morfarfar's Privilege.   It is the privilege of grandparents to brag and show off pictures of their offspring.  This jewel shows our granddaughter Sara, and Sara's daughter Anna.  Aren't they both just too  beautiful for words?

By the way, I like the Swedish system better than the English one.  Instead of great grandfather in English, I am mor-far-far in Swedish, i.e. mother's father's farther.  That is more specific, logical, and rhythmic.  The only trouble is that most Swedes don't really say that, they say gammal morfar,which translates to the old granddad.  I don't like that version at all. :-)

LOL, The Joke is on Us

St. Lucie River

27 10.85 N 080 15.86 W

Regular readers know how fond I am of claiming that out lives are governed by seasons, not be the calendar. Well, last night at the St. Lucie Lock park, we saw the vessel Annies Song anchored behind us. I recalled that last year, in the same place, we also saw Annies Song. Libby checked the log book.

Surprise, we are hitting the same locations on exactly the same dates as the year before. By checking the log books more, we see that pattern repeated. In fact, popular stops like Oriental, NC, we hit twice every year; 20 stops in 10 years. But our log book shows that more than 50% of the time, those visits are on exactly the same calendar date as the year before.

It seems that the truth is that we don't ignore the calendar at all. Instead, we have unwittingly developed a rather accurate sense of date that does not refer to the written calendar. Historians will say, "Duh. People have been doing that all through history. Especially sailors and farmers. In fact, the way calendars became refined and accurate was that sailors and farmers told the authoriities that their calendars were wrong. The joke is on us.

Re: this year's journey. It has been unbearably hot. Thunderstorms threaten every day. The other night I made a big error in judgement. We wanted to cross Lake Okeechobee, but we could not arrive on the eastern shore before the lock closed for the day. Rather than wait, I chose to go anyhow, and to anchor near the Port Mayaca Lock.

Crossing the lake was fine, but just before arrival a thunderstorm passed close. Winds from the strom whipped up waves in this shallow lake. By the time we anchored, the waves were 3 feet and growing towards 4. It was one of the most uncomforable nights we ever had on the boat. I even had to take seasickness pills, something I don't recall ever doing before. Fortunately, by midnight the lake settled back down so that we could get some sleep. My decision to go and not wait, violated my own Box Canyon Rule.

 

 

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Borscht Belt South

Caloosahatchee River, Florida
26 47.33 N 081 14.76 W

Libby and I lived most of our years in upstate NY.  Therefore, we were familiar with The Borscht Belt as something quasi-local.  The Belt was quite famous in American folklore.  It was known best for the stand up comedians who worked there before Las Vegas became big, and also for the movie Dirty Dancing.

Well known resorts of the area included Brickman's, Brown's Hotel, The Concord, Friar Tuck Inn, Gibber's, Gilbert's, Grossinger's, Granit, the Woodbine Hotel, the Heiden Hotel, Irvington, Kutsher's Hotel and Country Club, Lansman's, the Nevele,The Laurels Hotel and Country Club, The Pines Resort, Raleigh, Silverman's River View Hotel, Stevensville, Stiers, the Tamarack Lodge, and the Windsor Regency.

Well, I was hired once  by The Concord, to teach a week-long course on computer programming.   It was quite an experience.  The first thing that surprised me were the size of the closets in my room.  There were two closets, each big enough to hold a billiard table.   

Next, I was shocked when I ate in the dining room.  It was low season so I sat alone at a table for 12.  The shocking part was the mountains of food, and the behavior of the waiters who kept pestering me to eat more more more.   They kept shoveling more food onto my plate even though I protested, "No No No."

Finally, I figured the whole thing out.  The patrons of The Borscht Belt  were mostly Jews from NYC.   They came to places like  The Concord as the final act of pleasure in their lives.  The closets were so big because people brought all the clothes they owned.  They didn't plan on returning to their Manhattan apartments ever.  Instead, they would eat themselves to death while enjoying entertainment.   The truth was that The Borscht Belt  was actually a refined form of assisted suicide.

I was thinking of The Borscht Belt  last night as I ate my meal at The Log Cabin BBQ in Labelle.  I was enjoying my fried catfish, and I also enjoyed most of Libby's prime ribs, as I studied the rest of the menu and fantasised over eating everything listed.  The menu concluded with:

Cabin Feast: includes cole slaw, baked beans, Texas toast, and choice of potato: baked, sweet, french fries, or daily vegetable.  Whole smoked chicken, ribs and pork ... enough to feed all your kids. Served family style.

My fantasy was to eat that Cabin Feast, at the end of which my arteries would be completely blocked and I would die with a smile on my face.   Now I truly grok  The Borscht Belt .

Libby and I manage to find an excuse to visit The Log Cabin BBQ at least once per year, hopefully twice.