Yesterday's gig.

This photo was taken by another sailor and then made its way to me. 

My all lady pirate crew.

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Shore leave - Egmont Key.

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Note to an old friend.

Just finished a good week of teaching ASA curriculum.  Today I'm to skipper the Leopard 44 catamaran on a daysail.  It's been chartered for a bridal shower.  I've been warned that I'll be out there with 12 women.  God knows what this day will be like.  Weather will be sunny and warm.  Light east wind. 

 

Yesterday after saying goodbye to my three students I walked to the condo where I met Cathy.  We wanted to see the new hardwood flooring and the new kitchen countertops.  It really does look terrific.  We're both becoming excited by the thought of moving in our new space and making it our home.  The contractor will soon return to put in tile kitchen backsplashes.  I'll install new vanity countertops and sinks in both bathrooms.  We have a lot of touch up painting to do.  I'll change all the wall switches and outlets.  There'll be a dozen other details to take care of, but we are getting very near the end.

 

Leaving the condo we walked a block and a half down to Beach Drive, which is always bustling, but last evening was particularly busy.  This weekend is the St Anthony's Triathlon.  There are thousands of people in town for the event.  We walked along the Drive and found a sidewalk table at one of our favorite new spots – Tryst – for drinks, appetizers and people watching.  It was delightful to sit back and enjoy the thought that this is new our 'hood. 

 

We finished at Tryst and then walking back along the busy sidewalk I saw familiar faces – Jeff, a former student of mine and his fiancée Emily.  We chatted with them for a few minutes.  Emily is a chef.  She promised to bring a couple of her dishes to our house warming.  Our next stop was at a chocolate shop that opened just last November - Sweet Divas.  It's half a block from our condo and already we're on first name basis with the proprietors.  They have promised to bring chocolate to our house warming. 

 

Me and my latest graduates of the ASA101 thru 104 program: Greg, Patty and Scott.

Our first few days on the water we had 20+ knot winds, which is not what you'd chose for teaching ASA101. But they all turned out to be strong students and did very well. During our week together I saw their skills and knowledge increase dramatically. They also became my pals.

Yikes!

The AIS app on my Android informed us that this beast was doing 12 knots on its way to New Orleans.

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An ark being towed into Tampa.

Someone taking the threat of global warming serioisly?

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ASA103 students working a navigation problem.

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Early morning walk to work St Petersburg - Florida.

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Student trims sail after tacking in 20 knot winds.

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Letter to an old friend

This is the first morning in a couple weeks that I haven't felt rushed to get going on a busy day ahead.  I don't have to be at the marina until around noon.  I can take some time to write, catch up on a little reading, get in a medium (45 minute) run.  Maybe even watch the Bahrain F-1 qualifying session.  Later this morning Cathy will drop me off at the condo so I can continue painting.  She has an appointment and will join me later.  I'm expecting a couple from Long Island NY to arrive at the marina around noon.  I'll meet them there to show them to the boat they'll stay on while taking sailing classes.  They'll be my students for six straight days of ASA courses, which begins tomorrow.  After getting them settled on their boat (Catalina/Morgan 440) I'll return to the condo to finish up painting.  Today is the last day I can work on the condo for at least one week.  It's also the last day I need to work on the condo for a couple weeks.  The project is going well.  There have been a couple minor hiccups, but just now we're on track to move in mid-May.       

 

Yesterday, like previous days this week, I was occupied with bareboat charter functions and doing diesel repairs and maintenance.  The previous week I took several days off to work on the condo.   I'm way behind in sea time for the month – just five days so far.  This coming week of teaching will help get me catch up.  But Capt Patrick, the other main guy on the dock, leaves next Friday on the annual St Petersburg Yacht Club race to Isla Mujeres.  He'll be gone for a week, leaving me to keep things running on the dock.  When he comes back Capt Dave, the company owner, will fly to Isla Mujeres for a week-long cruise along Central America.  Patrick and I will then both be busy covering for him.  The result may be that I may not get a lot more sea time this month.  I'll be occupied with charter operations, and there are still several main engines and generators that are due or nearly due for service.  

 

Last year after the race to Isla, I was given the job of flying to Cancun to get to Isla, then sail back the boat that had participated in the race.  Three former students were crew for me.  It was my first crossing of the Gulf and for that reason it was technically interesting, despite contrary and light winds the entire trip.  It was my first catamaran delivery – a Lagoon 36.  And I learned about currents in the Gulf, which are strong and change month to month. 

 

A month after that delivery I was given the job of bringing back that same boat from Key West.  It had been sailed there as a participant in another regatta.  Cathy came along on that trip, as well as our friends Carsten and Viola from Berlin who were visiting at the time.  We spent a couple days hanging out in Key West, then took four days for the trip back.  

 

So far this year there has been no talk of me doing an away trip.  And that's okay.  The away trip I am most interested in doing next is one to the Bahamas.  That's one of my favorite cruising grounds and one that Cathy has not yet seen.  But a trip to the Bahamas is a big one - the islands are spread over such a vast area.  It would take a few days just to get to Bimini, my favored port of entry.  Nassau would be a couple more days minimum.  The Exuma chain, 100 miles of delightfully under-inhabited islands with miles of white powder beaches, begins another day's sail from Nassau.  You could easily spend a month in the Exumas. 

 

(Norman's Cay – the island referred to in the movie "Blow" with Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruse, is in the Exumas.  Norman's Cay was indeed a busy trans-shipment airbase for Carlos Lederer's enterprise.  In fact, many of these out islands of the Bahamas were hot with smuggling activity back in the day.  I remember well.  Haven't I told some of the stories?) 

 

Before the Bahamas trip happens I expect Cathy and I will borrow a boat for a week or so and cruise down in the Sanibel and Captiva area.  We've been quickly through there by boat on the trip back from Key West.  And we've visited there by car.  It's lovely.          

 

This is a big weekend for bike racing - World Superbike at Assen, AMA Roadracing at Road Atlanta.  Coincidentally it's also the first weekend of motorcycle road racing for my former home track back in Oregon.  I'll be seeing results from those races via friends on Facebook.  The WSB and AMA races will record on the DVR, but I'll see results right away on my phone.  Road Atlanta is one of two tracks in this region that are on my bucket list to go to for riding trackdays.  The other is Barbur in Alabama.  Both have reputations for being really fun, challenging tracks, with elevation changes as well as professional level facilities.  Florida tracks are flat – like Assen.   

 

You asked about driving on the left in the Virgin Islands.  Weird isn't it?  Particularly as the cars are all left hand drive.  This is a remnant of the days when the USVI were Danish colonial islands.  The Danes originally drove on the left like the English.  (The Danes have since changed to driving on the right, like the rest of Europe.)  The US bought the islands during WW1.  They were strategically important for their location as a submarine base.  The submarines are no longer there, but to this day, there is an area near downtown Charlotte Amalie called Sub Base.  Despite becoming a territory of the US, the VI have never changed to drive on the right.  Among the jokes about the local government and culture – if you think driving in the USVI is dangerous now, imagine the carnage if one day the law was changed and everyone was to start driving on the right.  It would be chaos and catastrophe.     

 

 

Letter to an old friend

Going back to your questions about Hurricane Marilyn, US Virgin Islands, 1995.  The devastation was overwhelming.  It was everywhere, changing place to place merely in degree.  Some neighborhoods looked as if a bomb had gone off, leveling everything for acres.  I remember going around, first on foot and then by car, simply exploring the new world of destruction we lived in.  Taking it all in, but in hindsight, emotionally shut down.  Quite literally, it was stunning.   

 

How did we start the clean up?  How did we do it?  Good questions.  Thinking about it now I realize there's a novel length story to tell.  The physical destruction and the clean up was paralleled by an emotional evolution.  But for now, I'll say the physical clean up began slowly.  One thing at a time.  Pick up a piece of debris and begin a pile. 

 

I remember how for days after the storm, the waters of the Lagoon smelled of diesel from leaking fuel tanks in sunken boats.  There was a thick sheen across the Lagoon.  The smell made some people sick.  You saw in the video how broken up our docks were, with boats from our fleet and boats that had broken away from neighboring docks piled on or sunken next to our docks.  Along with that mess there was a mat of floating and half sunken debris of all sorts.  I recall being on the dock with Gary, the business owner Tommy, and one or two others, looking at it all and realizing that we had to start somewhere.  As always, I had Tevas on my feet.  A moment of resolution settled over me.  I stepped down into the oily knee-deep water in the front of the shop and started pulling out debris.  Branches, parts of boats, bits of lumber, unidentifiable junk.  It seemed like my actions startled those around me.  They were amazed that I would do what I was doing.  But as debris piled up on the dock they jumped in and began carrying it away.  No one said anything, but it was as if a tipping point had been reached - the realization that no one was going to come clean this up for us.  We simply had to jump in and begin. Anywhere.  One thing at a time.  Then everywhere.                   

Letter to an old friend

Thank you for the birthday wish.  You're right.  The dairy farmer hours I keep prevented me from seeing your message until this morning – 4 AM.

 

It was my intention to spend this day away from the marina to work on the condo, but a last minute charter on the Hunter 41 came up and I was asked to handle the briefing.  I spent some time at the condo yesterday instead.  After this morning's briefing I'll spend the rest of the day servicing the Yanmar engine and the Fisher Panda generator on the Hunter 44.  That boat will sail to Mexico in just over a week.  There are a couple more engines I need to work on this week before I begin teaching a six day cycle of ASA classes on Sunday.  And there's more work for me to get done on the condo before then too.         

 

Lately, when I'm not working at the marina, I'm working on the condo.  I expect this will go on until after we move, sometime next month.  I can't give myself a weekend at the track, as I'd like.  But I have looked ahead on the calendar and identified a weekend when I think I can get away – May 26 & 27. 

 

I feel the need for a weekend at the track.  Lately I've found myself thinking, I should sign up for a CCS event.  That's the race organizer in this region.  I let my Oregon race license lapse this year, but I applied for and obtained a CCS racing license.  It wasn't really my intention to race.  I simply want to hold on to some credential for racing, just in case.  I've said to myself (and Cathy) that I was done with racing.  Doing track days would be enough.  But recently I've been reconsidering that notion.  The bike is ready, though not very competitive with more current bikes.  Still, I think I could get respectable results.  I'd just need a set of DOT race compound tires.

 

Racing is a lot of fun.  Much more intense than a track day.  You naturally push yourself much harder.  Of course the risk of crashing or getting tangled up in someone else's crash is also much greater.  But I love the close riding, dog fighting intensity of those first couple of racing laps.   I'll do a trackday weekend and hopefully get it out of my system for a while.          

 

Your weekend in Kamloops sounds delightful.  As for winter, well the only part of that I miss is the occasional opportunity to drive in low traction conditions.  Winters in Portland are mild, so there weren't many of those.  Winters in Portland were mostly cooler temperatures, - usually still above freezing - overcast skies and frequent but light rain.  Last winter – our first winter here in St Petersburg – I was surprised by the occasional cool, even cold, temperatures.  I remember mornings when it was downright cold for sailing.  I wore jeans and my heavy foul weather coat to work many times.  This winter has been very different - very warm.  I think I've worn jeans just once, and never more than a sweater and light wind breaker.      

 

That's weird about the shifter on the Boxter. (I've never driven one.  I'll bet it's a hoot.)  I wonder, what's unique in the linkage for 5^th gear/ 6^th  gear shifting?  I hope your enquiries with mechanics yield help.  

 

I'll come back to your questions about Marilyn's aftermath next time.  But I'll say this now – I stayed in the VI for five more years afterwards.       

 

More soon.

 

RR

Trolling Tampa Bay I caught four ladies.

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Just a couple of the charter parties I've had the privilege to assist this week

A couple from Washington state.
And a family from North Carolina.

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Condo in downtown St Petersburg

March was insanely busy with work at Sailing Florida.  April and May appear to be equally demanding, but in different ways.  Demand for my time at Sailing Florida may diminish, but that will be more than offset by the demands of finishing the remodel on the condo we bought, then moving in and getting resettled. 

 

We've been at this apartment complex on Eden Isle for just over a year now.  It's been a good temporary answer, but we decided it was time to buy real estate here.  Plus, we wanted to be back in downtown St Petersburg.  We feel we got lucky finding a two bedroom condo in the Townview, just three blocks from the Vinoy marina where I work.  We'll be just steps from the thriving sidewalk life of Beach Drive with its many fine restaurants, shops and art galleries.  We'll be just a five minute walk from the shops and cineplex at Bay Walk, and Central Ave is just beyond that.  It will be fun living so close vibrant downtown activity again. 

 

We've had a contractor in our unit remodeling the kitchen.  This week I'll take time off from Sailing Florida to paint.  New bamboo flooring is scheduled to be installed throughout the unit next week.  In about a month from now we'll be living in it, surrounded by boxes that need unpacking.    

My most recent and very enthusiastic students: Vicky, Joe and Sandi.

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Schooner daysailing on Tampa Bay.

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Running

I am running to keep up with demands of business at Sailing FL. The guy who usually is responsible for day to day management on the dock, Capt Patrick, has been off on a charter this week, leaving me wearing even more hats than usual.  We have friends from Denver staying with us and day sailing one of our boats, so evenings here are also full.  And in the background is the ongoing condo remodel which requires some level of attention every day.  Next week Cathy and I need to paint the entire condo.  That's the one part of the project we've always planned to do ourselves.  Now the reality of that is pressing in.  It needs to get done and finished before the hardwood floor installers arrive the following week.  I see that I'm going to need a couple days away from work.  I'm not yet sure how that will happen. 

 

I've found myself thinking it would be fun to ride my racebike soon.  I've toyed with the idea of taking a weekend away at the track as a birthday gift for myself.  But with all that's going on, that is entirely unfeasible.  Maybe next month, after we've moved into the new place.

Our friends from Denver - jim and Vickie - sail a Catalina 350 Mk II.

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