This Is The Hurricane That Never Was, Never Was...

Oh wait I think it may be... Finally Cat 1 just before landfall.

Hurricane Tracking     -     Sailing Weather

After watching a forecast track for days that showed Panama City in direct fire... Isaac started doing the Texas shuffle, heading evermore to the west.  As it neared Key West it took a big westward step and forgot that the weather man said it would be a H1 by then.  Then it forgot to increase again as it passed north of Alligator Alley latitude.  Then as it neared PC it once again slept overnight and forgot it was supposed to be a Hurricane.  Then once the path was NO again and we were supposed to get 6-12 inches of rain, we received HOT BREEZES, no rain!  Well maybe a couple of drops.  So as I sit here in the cockpit with a hot breeze on my shoulder typing away the news media would have you believe the worst.

Sticky note:  Have you ever noticed, and this is especially true of naturally occurring weather events, that people would rather be hypocritical than honest.  I don't know how many times this week I have heard "I hate to wish it upon someone else but, ..."  If you wish a hurricane was somewhere else other than on you then you are wishing it upon someone else.  Just get your head out of the Sunday School sand and be a big boy and say what you really think.

The reality is...

No not this, this is actually out on the beach.  Seems like a world of difference.

 What it looked like at Panama City Beach today

Three little Vegas all nestled in the bayou are safe and sound with just a really big tide and a stiff breeze.  Yes there are three Vegas at our dock!  Check out the waves here compared to the beach!

s/v Raindrop

s/v Mini Pearl

s/v Gemini Dreams floating higher than the planks

Without it's typical dock tarps and sun shades that Espin rags us about! lol

High tide today, there really is a finger pier there somewhere.

So what else has been happening since our last post a month ago?

1.  Well after riding around for over a year and a half under the starboard settee the winches are on.

Now coaming our winches match the Lewmar self tailing on the cabin top.

crusty old winch

Upside down in the lazerette.  I wish I had new jam cleats to complete the project.

All that holds the original winches on. 

2.  We have been enjoying happy hour and the company at the dock. 

It's past 5 O'clock somewhere!

 Get a picture of me with this bottle of sauce I will look important!

 Bamm!

Simi-organized Pot Luck, thanks to all who contributed!

Can you see the ghost of the Fisher King?
Look close at the shirt and dinghy

 You would think he was the teacher at art class

 The center of attention

 Is it how to make a rose or how to eat spaghetti?

Gigi and her rose

 Kids!

3.  The fisher king has purchased a new camera for his next adventure.  He was able to do this with the money from the shells he has sold.  And of course a lesson in patience and thrifty shopping.  His new camera is a Nikon Coolpix .  It has a 22x zoom (his favorite feature), 14 megapix, a 32g card, and a new Lowe Pro case.  He saved $172.00 from the original price by waiting for a close out.  I hope that this addition adds more "good" photos to our blog.  Several of the photos in this blog post were taken with it.  Thanks Bill for your patience as you waited longer than anyone.  He still has more shells to sell!

Ayrton sells sea shells by the sea shore

Ayrton sells sea shells by the sea shore

Ayrton seels sea shells by the sea shore

A comparison of full aspect to zoom/22
Both pics taken with camera in same atop same post.

4.  I am leaving #4 blank until it is actually finished.  This would be the hard dodger that keeps being delayed due to the rain and hurricane.  It will have it's own page and post once it is complete. 

5.  The "family anchor" that keeps us here in PC is moving to snow country!  This means no more reason to hang out in PC!   (If you know us we have been biting our blogging tongues this season about the Emerald City!  But I have a true story to share with you.)  If all goes well we will be cruising once the hurricane season winds down.

My baby girl is growing up!

 Spending time with his sister

 And being a bratty little brother!

6.  Boat school has been slow to start up this year but it is now going.  We will also honor it with it's own post soon.  I know all the others that are thinking on embarking on a journey are curious.

W

For some reason this continues to be our number one post: Carlos' grand scheme of things 5-01
Cartel, Norman's Cay Medellin Lehder transporting cocaine Bahamian  

Wish I Could Fly Like Superman

Now how does that title have anything to do with our little sailboat? It goes like this....

Now that we are tied to a dock again we get caught up in the "normal" life, well sort of anyway.  I was up early again this morning, I don't know if that is because of the drift back into central time or dawn's light coming through the companion way.  Anyway after starting on the resurrection of our primary computer (It is an Asus eeeBox with dual core 1.6, we have been on the back up single core eeeBox) I realized we have not posted in a while.  Yes we are getting boring, the water is murky, and the fishing and snorkeling not what we have had.  There isn't really anything we were dying to share.  No big sharks, no grouper, no meeting new friends, no snorkeling, you are kind of getting the picture.  But wait...

You (I) have to remember it is the attitude that makes the difference.  So lets recap the happenings since arriving with a cruising point of view.

We arrived and slipped under the bridge early one morning after spending the night a Dupont bridge.  Riding the inter-coastal from Apalachicola to PC is much better that the other way around.  Going east tends to be too much current and takes us over a day.  We spent two days anchored out in a quite little harbor with a restaurant right beside us.  We broke down on day two and had breakfast at Bayou Joe's.  Beware they put that damn redneck salt curred ham and greasy cheese in their omletes.  And just to keep us on the cruise they have island prices!  We can mark them off as "been there done that" but they make a pretty neon night light.

Bayou Joe's after sunset

Now in the true tradition of the island party there is are the afternoon happy hour here on the dock. We also have the random cook out and dinner party. It doesn't take much to get one of these going, perhaps just someone getting bored. Of course they are mandatory for any event, like returning from a cruise, family visiting, holidays or any other excuse. It is getting close to our turn to host the party, perhaps the Jamaican Shrimp. This alone has has been worth the time at the dock, new friends and social time.

 Happy hour on the dock,  Todays excuse...s/v Mini Pearl returned home.

The Albin Vega crews, s/v Mini Pearl, s/v Gemini Dreams, s/v Raindrop

We also had fireworks on the Forth of July.

 Overlooking downtown marina

Now about those sharks, groupers and other fish.  First, the Fisher Kings has shown everyone at the dock he can catch more and larger fish than them.  He has caught large flounder and sea bass already.  But the dock is too protected for the Fisher King.  He doesn't catch as much fish as he would like to.  I have to make time to get him to some better fishing spots on a regular basis.  This week his moms and his aunt Brooke hooked him up!  Groupers, Lings and Sharks oh my!

The Fisher King and and the all muscle tactic.  

 His moms had a good time from these photos.

 The girls had a great day too!  Thanks Brookie for taking him!

 The Fisher Kings catch of the day!

  

The kissing fish pic and more of the catch behind him.

 The Fisher King says the guide gave all the good fish to his aunt Brooke,

 like this small tiger shark.   lol    I wonder why.

 The not so baby tiger!

finally tired!  Way to go Brookie!

Oh yea...  "Wish i could fly like superman"  After realizing we have not posted I started thinking what to write.  Then I started on the wonder how long we are going to be here tangent, which led to "Should I stay or should I go" from the Clash.  Somehow that passed through the cellular membranes and crashed into the Kinks song.  They were both always in the car or cassette player especially when it was going triple digits or through the dark with no lights.  But now that I have typed this paragraph I have thought about Big Audio Dynamite (remaining Clash) and seeing them open for U2 around 1990.  Celluloid Heroes? oh back to the Kinks.

Wow light bulb moment!   Often I don't know what triggers the random crashing thought in my head.  Much like "voices" changing the radio or tv within.  But today I was able to corner the culprit and have a rhyme and reason.  Last night we watched the 3rd Anaconda movie (it sucked, well Crystal Allen is hot) and in it was John Rhys-Davis.  I remember seeing his name in the credits at the beginning.  John Rhys-Davies  =/= Ray Davies.  Hmmm now the question is "Is it more alarming now that you understand the voices or when they make absolutely no sense?"  Keep a look out from my book "Random Thoughts While Cruising Through Life."

W