No boat travel.
Today's GAM session began at 8:30, ran through the day, and culminated in a magic show and concluded with a dinner provided by the Shriner's. Before the seminars began, sponsors and participants in the event introduced themselves.
Two of today's lectures particularly caught my interest - "Maritime Writing and Publishing" and "Making an Interesting Photograph". The writing session covered producing blogs, writing magazine articles, and publishing maritime-related books. We have been thinking about getting a new camera, and from the photography discussion, I got a recommendation for a good choice for boaters the Olympus Tough TG-6. I put this on my Christmas wish list in case Santa is looking!
When I saw the session entitled "Personal Safety While Cruising", I thought the discussion would revolve around flares and flotation devices. Instead, we had a very interesting presentation on sailing in potentially dangerous places. (The primary audience for the SSCA is people on sailboats as a power boat is limited based on fuel capacity.) Given the list of places not recommended, Clark wondered what places were left to visit.
After the day's presentations, we enjoyed entertainment from a pair of pirate musicians / singers / magicians.
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| Performing humorous rendition of the drunken sailor song |
We sat near the front, and when the magician (blue coat above) looked for "volunteers", he spotted Clark and selected him and two others to help with his magic rope trick.
17 November 2019
No boat travel.
Today we had a half-day session with three presentations. The first provided by someone from the Jacksonville National Weather Service office gave a presentation on online weather tools. Both Clark and I find the website difficult to navigate. We learned some tricks to navigating the site, but there is still so much we do not grasp.
Following the NWS presentation , we heard from a member of the US Coast Guard, Lt. Brian Doyle, who told us about Search and Rescue operations. That segwayed nicely into a presentation by two SSCA members (husband and wife) who suffered a perilous accident at sea (150 miles offshore in the Pacific Ocean). They got caught in a weather system that resulted in unexpected 50 knot wind gusts and 30 foot seas.
It is a wonder they survived. Almost all of their communication devices were destroyed when their boat flipped over and then righted itself in the ocean. An activated EPIRB on board notified the USCG of their distress. With everything in tatters and not working, they agreed to be airlifted from their boat by the USCG.
From the emotions displayed as they communicated their story, the trauma of this incident has left them with life-long effects. Amazingly, their boat was found 500 miles from where they left it and, with no insurance on the vessel, they have worked on it themselves for many months and are almost done restoring the boat to its near-original condition. When the boat is ready, they plan on traveling to Mexico from southern California. I admire the fact that they are willing to go out there in the Pacific Ocean yet again! After their emotional presentation, the attendees in the room gave them a standing ovation! They deserved it as they are truly amazing people.
We had lunch at the Shriner's Club and then headed back to Vero Beach and the boat. We got "home" around 5:00. Having spent several days eating out, we had dinner on the boat and chilled by watching our favorite CBS television shows for the rest of the night.
18 November 2019
No boat travel.
In preparation for getting back underway tomorrow, we had a few chores to be completed. I got the laundry and food shopping out of the way and then went for a 3.6 mile walk around Vero Beach. After days of sitting in seminars, it felt real good to get some exercise.
When I got back from the walk, I found Clark putting together a bag of tools and items he would need to do some work on "Home Too". Franklin reminded Clark that the straight pins Clark had inserted into the windlass wires still needed to be removed. Clark said he needed me as his second engineer to come assist with the operation.
We drove to the City Marina and walked to "Home Too" where Clark immediately dove head first into the anchor locker to remove the pins. The problem with this job is reaching, and seeing, the wires. Fortunately, the operation was relatively painless and we were done and on our way quickly.
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| Clark draped over "Home Too" with his head and arms in the anchor locker |
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| Done! Ready to close the cover to the windlass! |
When we got back to the house where we are docked, we collected Don and went out to dinner at Bone Fish Grill. After a delicious meal that started with "Bang Bang Shrimp", we decided to go to an ice cream store for dessert. Don drove us to a local Kilwins where all three of us had cold treats!
On the way to dinner, Clark captured a sunset picture out the front window.
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| Sunset in Vero Beach, FL |
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