Downtown

Tin and I took a trip downtown today.  He needed a doctor to check out his eye.  Some type of infection was making his eyelid all puffy.

While we were there we had lunch at Tom's Hot Dogs and stopped by Books by the Sea.  Sitting on the shelf at books by the sea was Echo written by Dana Smith,  Tin's Mom and my best friend.

Go out and buy a few thousand copies at IndieBound.

Description

Having a Gypsy dancer living in the basement and a practicing witch as a guardian, River Valiente thought nothing in life could surprise her. A vengeful, murderous father and a psychotic sister she never knew existed proved that River’s life was much more complicated than she thought. Magic, romance and prayer prove not to be enough to save her from the life she is destined to live. With a murder plot unfolding, River is forced to seek help. Raine, River’s intuitive, lesbian, pregnant sister, becomes her only chance to survive.

Love Ya

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The fisher king now has his own blog...

As part of his Creative Writing the Fisher King now has his own blog.  This is part Boat School part passing the adventure on to others in his age bracket that may be wondering how it is living on a sailboat 24/7 and having to be home schooled.

The Fisher King's Blog

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We had the GoPro out for a splash today

Took a few photos of our "lawn".

Typical growth under the water in St Andrews Bay

Typical murky bay views

While we were taking photos I thought a look at our underwater grocery store would be good too.  Maybe you  have noticed in our blog we have categorized the Sheephead and now include the portions from each .  In the dock we have seen several Major Stripes but have not seen any of the larger off shore sizes hanging out.  If we do that would be a good post and a great dinner for a few days

1. 15" Private Stripes (2 plates)
2. 18" Sergeant Stripes (4 plates)
3. 21" Major Stripes (6 plates, yes on fish feeds us both 3 times)
4. 24" Colonel Stripes (?)
5. 27" General Stripes (?)

 Sheephead!  Hopefully we will put a spear in a few of these and try some sushi

Bad photo but you can see Major stripes hiding behind the Sergeant in the center.

One day I will get the Fisher King during one of his Fish Dances on video.  But for now he keeps busting me when I try to take a photo.  

 The Fisher King in one of his fish dances

Well we now have underwater photo and vid capability and with some tweaking of the hardware we will be able to jazz up your part of our adventure.

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Time to go spear some Sheephead, I hope!

Today was a grab bag of mixed projects..

First was getting the on board WIFI set up.  Last spring I set up the Bad Boy WIFI antennae atop the mast and plugged straight into the on board computer.  That has all been good except Bad Boy WIFI and Chrome don't play well during set up and channel changes.  Every new port I have to go to IE long enough to pick a station.  I could leave it on random but a lot of "available" stations in the Keys are actually only an entry portal to Pay Connections.  One other thing that has been driving me crazy is the reception at water line!  Being on the laptop is an act not unlike being on AOL years ago!  You just never hear the "GOOD BYE!"  as you loose connection.

Bad Boy Unleashed! I had been looking at this for some time now that Tin is aboard.

Today, to save a hundred plus bucks, I dug out the old Netgear wireless and found it was 12volt, yehaaa!  That makes connections much better than having to run an inverter.  So the morning was spent looking up passwords from 3 years ago and getting the Netgear wireless to broadcast the signal it was receiving from open WIFI ports.  Now I am typing this with my "pirated" (actually free from the dock but you know what I mean) and rebroadcast of the signal from the laptop.  I now have a glitch free connection to the laptop and can move around the boat when the available signals are weak.  If I find the need for more power (taking the laptop to the beach etc.) I can always upgrade later.

 HERO 2 Sequence of greedy bird with Blondie in back ground

Also on the list today was getting the old spinnaker pole rebuilt and as soon as I get some crimps that will be done.

We tried making Sushi last night, key word tried.  I was so worried about the rice not cooking well on the grill that we kept putting it off.  Well... rice on the Magma Kettle came out perfect.  One cup sushi short grained rice, 1 1/4 cup water and cook on med hi with lid until water is absorbed and set to rest for 10 minutes!  Stir in sushi rice sauce and place into gallon zip lock and put in cooler, I hate hot rice on sushi.   The rice was perfect but the Sea Bass was tough and not that good raw.  Now that the "ice" is broken we can experiment more!


Tin grumbled through his "Monday" in Boat School but is doing well overall.  He is now on Math 6 before Christmas in his 5th grade class.  He is regretting the fact that he chose a book with 438 pages to read.  But for most everything else he is on track, by June he will be 1/2 way though 6th grade lessons. with only a couple hours +_ each school day.

Fisher King and his mom from water level. 

I also managed to get the long postponed installation of the Solar Vent complete.

Also did a little fishing and caught one White Trout.  I spent more time playing with the new HERO 2 camera to see what I think.  I had the frequency set to quick so I never got any underwater photos of the trout or anything else.  I will change the settings and try again on another day.  If all goes well by the time we get to crystal clear water I will have a good lens for the GOPRO.  I was able to use one of the boat poles for a 12 foot extension to make different point of view photos.  We also found out that among all the fishing gear we have I need more light weight braided line.  Oh well more things too do.

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Hanging out in PC for Christmas

Well day 5 did not produce a sunset but surfing the web produced Kepler-22b

Today in homeschool, I mean boatschool we learned about Kepler-22b

Kepler-22b

NASA scientists have identified a new planet they believe to have several similarities to Earth.

Kepler-22b, named for the Kepler planet-hunting telescope it was spotted with, is the first planet to be confirmed beyond our solar system in what the Guardian called the "Goldilocks zone:" not too hot, not too cold, and therefore possibly habitable.

The planet is 2.4 times the size of Earth. It orbits a star similar to the Earth's sun and is believed to have a surface temperature of around 22 degrees Celsius, according to NASA.

Astronomers say Kepler-22b's temperate climate makes it possible that it possesses liquid water, CNN reported.

More from GlobalPost: Double sun "Star Wars" planet discovered by NASA

Kepler program scientist Douglas Hudgins described the discovery as "a major milestone on the road to finding Earth's twin."

NASA still does not know what the planet is made of, however;  continued

Us military pays SETI to check Kepler-22b for aliens
"Space situational awareness" cash for Allen Array  story

more on Kepler-22b here

Tonight we will be watching Jodi Foster make "Contact"

have a great day, a full week of great fishing on the lunar calendar starts tomorrow!  But, so does the cold.

wes

dAYS 2,3 & 4

dAYS two and three were almost the same.  We were out fishing on day three so...

We borrowed the day three photo from Salt 'n Sand's blog, that is our roller furl in the corner

Day two came and went without much to write about.  This is the week during the month where the Sheephead stay on the bottom.  They must have shrimp for dinner or the barnacles react to the moon phase and don't seem appealing to them.  Too bad as the new pole spears need broken in.  

Day three consisted of organization and fishing.  We caught about 27 fish,  12 for him and 15 for me,  that were worth mentioning as we there were several Lizard fish we just don't count.  We did catch more white trout than ever but through them back as trout isn't our favorite.  We kept 6 Black Sea Bass for the day.  

Day four was cleaning the bottom of the boat and getting some engine maintenance done.  Of course there was fishing since this is supposed to be "vacation" time.

Tin was practicing with the Conch Horn at sunset day 4.

Tin hates honey and dislikes cheese but somehow he has a new favorite meal.  Honey Teriyaki Seabass and Mac and Cheese or Honey Teriyaki Seabass and just about anything else.  Too bad we are out of honey.


The Fisher King's Teriyaki
3 oz Kikkoman Ponzu
2 oz Honey
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 a lime juiced use the rest for garnish
      Suate' or grill firm white fish (we like lightly floured and pan suate'd).  Remove fish and any oil, add Ponzu to hot pan and start reduction.  When the Ponzu is all bubbles add the honey and ginger stirring constantly.  Once mixed reintroduce the fish to coat.  Serve with your choice of sides.  It's that simple

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dAY one of 2012 Cruise...

December 1st was our departure date for the last few months.... however December 1 came and went and s/v Gemini Dreams is still tied to the dock  At this point we still have some details and engine maintenance to take care of before we leave the dock.  But it didn't mean we couldn't start living the cruising life.


Today we fed and saved a brown pelican from the nemesis of poorly disposed fishing line.  Perhaps it was even just cut as the pelican tried to take a bait.  Either way he was struggling to compete with the other birds due to two stainless treble hooks, stainless leader and mono all wrapped around his beak and wings.  He was unable to fly due to the web that surrounded him and the hooks that had his throat connected to his tongue.  Tin asked to save him so it was but to do...

1st step 

 Clipping away at the leader and line

Trying to remove all the line

One of the stainless treble hooks

 Success and Freedom

4:42 pm I sounded the Conch Horn as the sun set,  the wind in less than 5 knots for the first time since Thanksgiving.  Pasta is cooking on the kettle and freshly caught Sea Bass is waiting to be grilled.  With margarita in hand the horizon is turning from orange to peach and then as always to the steel blue that proceeds the black.

Yes the sun sets in PC early!  Already 4:42 and 12 days to go until winter!

Our largest Sea Bass of the season! Enough for two meals

I will attempt to keep a journal of fishing and expenditures for those budget minded cruisers, especially with children.  It is so hard to cut the dock lines with the crew on board.  I must play father and be responsible for the little man.  Last winter it was exploration and learning.  This year it is caution with a side of adventure.  Trying to fit everything we need for 6 months or longer into a 27 foot boat is beyond a puzzle.  Actually I am looking for a magic bag to store items into that doesn't require any space.

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