Football and Freshies

We've written many times about things we miss while we're at sea or just things we can't find in foreign countries. Crunchy green things for salads, fresh blueberries, green chiles, ground turkey … cars … washing machines … blenders. We manage just fine without, but it's always a treat when we get to have these things again. We certainly appreciate them more. For sure, one of things I miss most when we're at sea is fresh produce and I try to get my fix whenever we're ashore. Sometimes, even when we're in port, finding a good variety of freshies nearby is a challenge. When we're in Boston with Lin, we head to Trader Joe's. When in Las Vegas, Mary and I usually head to Sprouts Farmer's Market, first thing. It allows me to OD on the beautiful displays of freshies … unbelievable variety ... apples, oranges, pears, pomegranates and pineapples ... salad makings galore and everything from parsnips to peaches and kale to kiwi.

Instead of planning meals based on what's left in the larder, (pickled beets, lentils and tuna?) we plan more appealing meals and buy to suit our tastes on a given day. “Let's have roasted root vegetables tonight”, Mary suggested. And so we bought golden beets and parsnips, carrots, red potatoes and onions. We threw in some butternut squash and Brussel sprouts for color and good measure. We prepped the veggies, then Mary tossed them lightly in olive oil, salt and pepper and popped them into the oven to roast. She didn't even worry that it would use up too much propane. Oh, my … delightfully tasty, yet nutritious … a winning combination served with basil chicken sausage from the grill.

Though David might miss the food aspect of things, he rarely complains. He does miss the space to work on his projects, access to more tools (if that's possible) and watching football. Here in Las Vegas he has space, several projects he's volunteered to do for Mary and a whole cache of tools. He's installed new LED overhead lights in the kitchen and added more lights over the breakfast counter. He's replaced a temperature sensor in her all-electronic Samsung fridge-freezer. He doesn't like moss growing on his boat shoes.

Especially at this time of the year, however, his passion for watching football comes to a crescendo. On the boat, we never watch games and rarely even get to listen to them. It's one of America's autumn pastimes and he usually misses out. Not this year. It's play-off season and Sunday afternoons are usually spent watching a game … or two. Of course, that requires a TV, as well as access to the sports channels, and luckily Mary has both.

Now, how do freshies and football connect, you ask? Beyond the fact we miss both things while we're at sea is the fact that not only do we eat healthier here and get to watch the football games now, but we eat (not always healthier) WHILE watching football games. We plan our football feast and shop expressly for it … chips and salsa, guacamole, beer, mimosas (champagne and OJ for Mary and me), spicy chicken wings with bleu cheese dip, crudite (that's the healthy part) and whatever else strikes our fancy. Me? Oh, I like football okay - I can take it or leave it, but I enjoy watching with everyone and then there's the mimosas. Did I mention the mimosas?

The Blue View - Frustrated Broncos Fan

Having grown up in Colorado, I have always been a Denver Broncos football fan. Marcie and I have lived in a few places other than Bronco Land in our pre-cruising lives, but I could never get excited about the local teams. I wasn't as fanatical as some Denver fans – but, it's always been the Broncos for me.

Following the Broncos, however, has been a real trial during the last 15 years. When internet is expensive, slow, or non-existent, or Nine of Cups is in the middle of the Indian Ocean on a long passage, or our clocks are upside down and the game doesn't start until 2 am local time, catching even the score of the latest game, let alone a few game highlights, is difficult. Luckily, our youngest son, Brad, is a more devoted fan than I am and can be depended upon to send me a synopsis of the game via email. Not quite like watching, but better than nothing. I confess that in some years, had it not been for Brad, I'd have totally forgotten it was even football season.

A couple of weeks ago, however, we found ourselves in Georgetown, Guyana, in an air-conditioned hotel room with free high speed internet on a Sunday during football season. Our time zone was not so different than Denver time, and the Broncos were playing – OMG - the Boston Patriots! Was this the beginning of a new harmonic convergence? A grand trine? How lucky could I be? Even if it didn't start until 9:30 pm local time, I was up for it.

The only way to 'watch' the game in most other countries is via the internet. Other than the Superbowl, I don't remember ever being in a place in which we could literally watch a Broncos game on TV. Many countries have sports bars with a multitude of TV screens scattered around showing all the favorite sporting events, but rarely does American football make the cut. If you're interested in the local soccer, rugby or cricket game, you're all set, but no NFL games. I guess that's only reasonable – how many people in Denver would stay up till the wee hours to watch the Collingwood Magpies play the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League?

Usually the internet has been too slow or we were paying by the byte, making it far too expensive to try to stream that much data. Instead, we tried to listen to the game on internet radio. In the past, we could listen to KOA radio in Denver and catch the live broadcast. Then, in the post season three years ago, I had rearranged my day, so that I could listen to a Broncos playoff game, Marcie had popped a big bowl of popcorn and I was all primed for the game when I discovered the NFL no longer allowed internet broadcasts of the playoff games. Last year, this extended to the regular season games, and I couldn't find a way to listen to any of the games.

Sure, I could buy an “NFL Season Pass” which would allow me to listen to the game broadcasts, but it is expensive, and we haven't been (and probably won't be) in many places this season that had reasonable internet. I certainly wasn't going to buy the package, so I could watch one game, even if it was the Broncos-Patriots game.

I did find a site that displayed the play-by-play action via a cryptic line of text. Every thirty seconds or so (longer if a timeout was called or a commercial ad was running), a message like “2-10-Den 38 (4:15) 23-R.Hillman left tackle to DEN 42 for 4 yards (97 – A.Branch)” would appear on the screen. It's hard to get excited 'watching' this way. No KOA radio team with color commentary and enthusiastic play-by-play action - no instant replays - no crowd noise... but it was a lot better than nothing.

For the first half, I followed the game while working on a few other things. During the third quarter, I time-shared between play updates and reading on my iPad. During the fourth quarter, and then overtime, I was pretty much glued to the game, waiting patiently for the next play update, cursing the longer delays while a commercial ran. Marcie had long since gone to sleep. It's really hard doing my cheering silently and my fist-pumps and touchdown dances without actually moving, but I managed without waking her. It was a great game, especially since Denver squeaked out the win.

So, soon we'll be in Trinidad. Internet is slow and expensive, and whoever the Broncos are playing, it probably won't be as exciting as the Patriots game. On the other hand, every game is important for the Broncos between now and the playoffs. Maybe I'll just watch a little of it...

The Games People Play

 

People, the world over, love to play games … usually competitively. Games that are popular in one country are sometimes unknown in another. Folks in Fiji rarely play hockey. Folks in the US rarely participate in banana relays. Traveling from country to country as we do, we get a chance to witness games that are different and many that are the same.

Football is an interesting sport. What we call football in America is not the same as Australian football. And actually, to most of the world, football is soccer and not at all like football as we know it in the USA, or Australian football for that matter. Then there's rugby, of course, which isn't like either American or Australian football. Soccer is certainly played in the US, but it's nowhere near as popular here as it is in the rest of the world.

Baseball is played in other countries, but its roots are here in America. Whitman said it's “America's game” and it's hard to find someone who doesn't have a favorite team. Oh, they play it in Asia and Europe, but it's nothing like the Americas (both of them). Little League is big here and if you grew up in the States you probably played sandlot baseball when you were a kid. On the other hand, we have no explanation for cricket. The bat is odd, the games last a long time and we don't understand the rules.

Basketball, both men's and women's, is played in several places throughout the world although the rules seem to differ depending upon the country. One fond memory was a group of young Embera men in the Darien Jungle of Panama playing basketball in loincloths in the middle of their village. It's an image that stays with you.

We've watched polo, a rich man's sport, but it's definitely not a team sport that most folks will ever expect to play.

Chess, checkers, backgammon and dominoes seem to be popular worldwide games. Cruisers in Mexico and the Carib were crazy for Mexican train dominoes, but we never caught the fever. We especially love those huge chess sets in downtown city parks where people have to move human size chess pieces from square to square.

In the Amazon, we played Sapo. Sapo in Spanish translates to frog and the object of the game was to throw a disc from a measured distance into a golden frog's mouth or into specifically marked holes with numerical values assigned to them. The person with the highest point score wins. There's some skill involved, but the novelty wore off rather quickly.

In French Polynesia, we participated in traditional Polynesian games which included stone lifting, banana relays, coconut husking and outrigger races. Needless to say, though the locals provided instruction and encouragement, we were a sad-looking bunch. It was fun nonetheless.

Re-enactments are popular in many countries. Here in the US, we attended several Civil War re-enactments. Depending whether we were north or south of the Mason-Dixon Line determined who won the particular battle. In Vanuatu, we witnessed a different kind of re-enactment where a century ago locals had attacked arriving missionaries … and subsequently eaten them. The re-enactment stopped just before the “having missionaries for dinner” part, but the attack was definitely authentic looking.

On board, we play lots of card games. Cribbage and gin rummy are two of our favorites. We play backgammon on occasion and Speed Scrabble whenever I can talk David into it. As uncompetitive as we are between us, we still keep score and have been for years. At last count, David was ahead 5,345 to my paltry 5210.

We regularly watch young folks in their tiny Optimist sailboats racing through anchorages and adeptly maneuvering around the big boats and the race markers. Though we always claim we are not interested in racing, it is said that whenever two sailboats are heading the same direction, it's a race. Quite honestly, we truly are not racers and we don't care … but we do like to arrive first.