Off to Florida - Fun and Friends

It's been a hectic, crazy whirlwind of a time in Florida. We took a red-eye, non-reclining seat, uncomfortable Frontier flight from Vegas to Orlando. The usual … it sounded cheap, but by the time we paid for baggage, reserved seats together (in the back of the plane, no less), it ended up being fairly expensive. Bleary-eyed and tired, (although I still had time to pose with Snow White… after all we are in Disney territory), we picked up our rental car and made our way to Davenport, just south of Orlando to visit old cruising friends, John and Nicole, whom we'd first met in Tahiti.

Nicole and John are most excellent hosts and very hospitable folks and excused us early the first night so we could catch up on our zzzzz's, and we did. They live in a gated community with lots of walking paths lined with live oak trees, draped with Spanish moss, aka old man's beard. We walked each morning we were there. The inhabitants in these marshy wetlands and lakes are a bit different than we're used to seeing in the Las Vegas desert. We saw a sign warning us not to swim, feed or touch the alligators. As if!!!

Then we saw the alligator. Yikes! Watch out, poodles!

Our visit centered around eating, chatting, drinking, eating, drinking, eating and local exploration. Recovered and rearing to go, our hosts whisked us away first to lunch at the Cherry Pocket, a local, well-known hole-in-the-wall restaurant that served up excellent seafood in a rustic sort of atmosphere.

We ate on the deck, enjoying the warm Florida sun and watched anoles and geckos skitter across the floor. A big turtle dawdled near the water's edge and wood storks plied the nearby waters for lunch.

One day we visited Winter Park and took the scenic lake tour on a pontoon boat. There's lots of old money here and the “cottages” spoke to early 20th century wealth and luxury. The shallow-draft boat wended its way through circuitous, narrow canals lined with lush trees and foliage that connected one lake to another.

We were surprised, as was the tour guide, when David spotted a bald eagle perched on a treetop.

Lunch was at Bosphorous, a Turkish restaurant that John and Nicole knew well. The surroundings were Turkish antiques and the authentic food was awesome. The desserts looked tantalizing, but the appetizers and mains in which we indulged didn't leave room. Maybe next time?

Not far away was the Morse Museum, the foremost collection of Tiffany glass in the world.

We waltzed through the galleries of exquisite stained glass windows and lamps and art deco creations. The lighting was perfect to take advantage of the rich colors and intricate designs. It was almost dreamlike.

We headed back to John and Nicole's in time to watch the election returns together. In years past, David and I had a tradition of ordering in Chinese food and sitting in front of the tube to watch the news coverage of the election and our hosts were only too happy to oblige us. We noshed on Chinese and watched as the results of this most contentious contest rolled in. Though unhappy with the results, we were oh so happy it was finally over.

And then, just like that, it was time to leave and head to the upcoming SSCA gam. Our presentations were still not completed and we were feeling a bit of angst as we hugged John and Nicole goodbye and caught up with reality during the drive to Melbourne, Florida.

Stay tuned for more angst as we “gam it up” in Melbourne.

The Blue View - When Blue Does Pink

We're in Florida and I'm up to my eyeballs in preparation for my SSCA presentation on anchoring and have put my battery evaluations on hold for a week or so. I thought it might be a good time to interject a bit of past BV humor into the mix. Not all of my projects go quite as planned. When we divided up the various boat chores, some were arbitrarily assigned as blue or pink while others just naturally fell into one of the categories. Just because a job is labeled pink doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to do it, however, it’s just that it is usually Marcie’s bailiwick.

A case in point is the laundry, which on Nine of Cups is definitely a pink job. Now that Marcie has been back in the States for a few weeks, I’d re-worn my underwear about as much as I could get away with, and the laundry bag was full. My choices were to go buy more or do the laundry. Now, it isn’t as if I’ve never done my own laundry. I was a bachelor several decades ago, and if memory serves, I did wash my clothes back then. How hard could it be?

I asked around about where the laundromat was and whether anyone could give me a lift. Gillian, a friend of a friend stopped by, and said she’d be happy to give me a ride.

Gillian is a pretty big gal, about 6 feet, 200 pounds, and works as a shipwright at a boatyard a few miles away. I suspect she is probably big and tough enough not to take much guff from her co-workers. We seemed an odd pair as she went off to look for boat parts while I was washing the clothes. We climbed into her 3/4 ton 4WD pickup and headed over to the laundromat. She said she’d be back in an hour or so, which would be perfect.

I separated the light clothes from the dark, added the appropriate amount of soap, inserted my coins, started the wash, and read my Kindle for a half an hour. Other than a colossal waste of time, this didn’t seem too difficult.

Once the wash was done, I loaded it into the dryer, set it to high (cotton) and resumed reading my Kindle. I checked on it about 10 minutes later. There was an odd smell in the air. The clothes were extremely hot. I couldn’t even handle them. So hot, in fact, that two of Marcie’s panties had literally melted to the sides of the dryer. I was pretty sure this wasn’t normal. I turned the temperature down to medium and when I checked again in five minutes, the clothes were only slightly warm. So the blue in me kicked in and I then ran it on hot for two minutes, then on medium for two minutes and so on until they were dry.

Other than that, there was only one other slight problem. Apparently something with ink must have previously been in the dryer (or maybe it was the molten panties), because several of our t-shirts now had what appeared to be small blue ink spots on them. I checked all the pockets and didn’t find anything that could have caused it, and I was careful to put the dark and red clothes in a separate washer from the light colors. It remains a mystery to me.

So now Marcie is low on panties and we’re both low on tee’s. I am convinced that these were mishaps that could have happened to anyone and one shouldn’t lose one’s job over something so minor. On the other hand, if I let Marcie think I’m inept at laundry, she’ll probably never let me do it again. That’s a blue thought, ain’t it?

Why join a cruising club ... like SSCA?

We're in Florida at the moment preparing our presentations for the annual Seven Seas Cruising Association (SSCA) gam in Melbourne (Florida, not Australia). We've been members since we bought Nine of Cups in 2000 and over the years we've enjoyed progressing from “newbies” to circumnavigators. Our “just a little further” philosophy has served us well and it's fun to share adventures and experiences with other like-minded folks. We thought it was an appropriate time, once again, to shout the praises of joining a cruising club, like SSCA. Here are our thoughts ...

We’re not usually “club” people. We’re not exactly anti-social. We like to join in once in awhile, but we’re not inveterate “joiners”, if you know what I mean. That said, when we first started living aboard, we joined SSCA … Seven Seas Cruising Association. Quite honestly, we didn’t know such organizations existed until we started chatting with other liveaboards and cruisers and they suggested we check it out. We did, we joined and 12 years later, we’re still active members. Why join a cruising club? Here are the reasons we joined.

1.  Learn from people with more and/or different experience.

Just starting out, there was so much to learn and we were keen to learn everything we could about sailing and “the life”. But we’ve found that no matter how experienced you are, there’s always someone with either more or different experiences. Sometimes gleaning just one little tidbit of useful information is priceless.

2. Share lifestyle notes with folks currently doing what we are doing.

Not everyone embraces this type of alternative lifestyle. It’s interesting to meet other like-minded folks and trade information … and tall tales. “How do you manage your night watches?” “How big was that wave?”

3. Receive ongoing boating/sailing educational opportunities.

A good cruising association will provide opportunities to learn new skills, as well as enhance and hone your current skills whether it be docking, sail trim or engine maintenance. With advances in the internet, many of these learning opportunities are no farther away than your computer. Check out Seven Seas U.

4. Promotes camaraderie.

Again, we’re not party people, but seeing a familiar burgee flying in the anchorage when you first arrive is always a welcome sight. We usually raise our SSCA burgee as soon as we’re settled. Invariably, if there are members around, they’ll stop by to say hi and offer local information. We, of course, reciprocate when we can.

5. Facilitates contacts in new ports.

It’s great to be able to contact people in foreign ports in advance of arrival to find out what services and amenities might be available. If your cruising club is large enough, they’ll have several contacts worldwide that can help you out when you arrive. SSCA has about 150+ Cruising Station Hosts in the USA and abroad and we’ve been in contact with a good many of them.

6. Offers discounts for services, equipment, marinas, etc.

We try to take advantage of every discount opportunity we possibly can. Each shekel saved is a penny for the cruising kitty. Most large organizations can negotiate discounts for their members. We especially like marina discounts, stuff like Sailblogs discounts (25%) and free magazine downloads.

7. Receive unbiased feedback on gear and equipment from other cruisers.

Whenever we’re making a major buying decision for new equipment or gear, David does an inordinate amount of research first. One place he checks is SSCA’s Equipment Survey to see what other cruisers think about we’re thinking of buying. Nothing like getting the skinny from another sailor who’s actually using the stuff.

8. Access to port and destination information.

Commercial cruising guides are great and we use them all the time, but again, there’s nothing like having access to a fellow cruiser who’s been to a port to which you’re heading, especially if he’s documented all the services and amenities he used while there. Using SSCA’s searchable index by geographic location allows us to see what’s been written about a topic or location for the past decade. Quite honestly, it’s a key ingredient to researching where we might go next.

Keep in mind, you tend to get out of something, what you put into it. We’ve remained active with SSCA because we enjoy sharing information as well as getting information. We joined a second, somewhat more exclusive cruising club along the way, but the membership dues were way out of line with our budget. We found that though their quarterly magazines were in beautiful color and on glossy stock, we rarely got to see them because they weren’t digital and we certainly had no intention of paying extra postage to have them mailed to us wherever we were. Before you join, figure out why you’re joining and what you’re hoping to get out of your membership and make sure the cruising organization you choose meets all of your criteria. Also consider what you might contribute to others who follow in your wake.