Several of the "loopers", myself included, complained of being tired today. This "going back to school"-like environment is exhausting. Our first session started at 8:00 a.m. today, and the events for the day concluded at 9:00 p.m. Up until 3:30 we were in classroom-type environments. I really struggled to get through the last hour of being "in class" even though the last session was a moderately interesting demonstration on fuel filters and impellers.
The Great Loop routes covered today included the West Coast of Florida, the Florida Keys, and the East Coast of Florida. The material presented pertained to navigation routes and obstacles as well as places to go and attractions along the way. The speakers are very familiar with the areas they discuss as are some of the attendees who also contribute input, so a large amount of information is shared during each session.
The Florida Keys instructor told us that we had to learn the jargon before visiting so that we would not stand out as tourists.
- Conch (pronounced Conk) has two meaning
- a shell
- a native of the Keys i.e. born and raised there
- Keys Disease
- the desire to do nothing work related and just sit back and relax every single day
- Marathon Midnight
- 9:00 p.m. since that is when everything shuts down for the night
- Sunset Celebration
- an event that occurs every day at sunset whether the sun can be seen or not
- people meet at sunset to talk and watch the sunset or just talk if the sun is not visible
- Conch Republic
- In 1982 the Keys seceded from the United States after which war was declared on the Keys. The war lasted approximately 1 minute, but a commemorative celebration happens every April and lasts for a full week. The Conch Republic flag says "We seceded where others failed."
The final travel session of the day provided detailed information on the side trip to the Bahamas. We are interested in visiting the Bahamas, and Clark purchased the chart book, cruising guide and courtesy flag for the country yesterday. Today's session helped educate us on what to expect should we make our way over there come spring.
The instructor for the Bahamas class taught us a couple of new definitions as well.
- Cruising - fixing your boat in exotic places.
- Yachting - Paying someone else to fix your boat in exotic places.
After the classroom sessions completed, we all adjourned outside for the "Looper Crawl". For those folks familiar with the term "Pub Crawl", this is similar but instead of moving from pub-to-pub, folks move from boat-to-boat to see what the various boats on the loop look like inside and out. Clark put our boat on the "come see us" list for today and tomorrow. I decided to leave the boat clean, tidy, and looking like we live here. In other words, I made the bed and made sure no dirty dishes or laundry were on show. I visited one boat where the owners had stashed all their stuff away so the boat looked immaculate like one you might see at a boat show for sale.
While Clark was busy entertaining the crawlers on our boat, I chatted with some folks on our boat but also escaped for a while to go visit some boats on the crawl. Because we were busy with the looper crawl, we missed two other events going on this afternoon. One was the life raft demonstration. The other was the kayak races. I did catch a glimpse of the two kayaks being rapidly paddled, but I do not know who was racing or who won.
After the looper crawl, we attended the 6:00 cocktail hour followed by the 7:00 dinner. Maybe someone from the kitchen read the complaints in my blog since tonight we had fresh cooked carrots and steamed broccoli. Those vegetables plus the baked chicken were tasty. The best however was the pecan pie for dessert which was delicious!
We finally got back to our boat some time around 9:30 or so, and I started right in on my blog. Tomorrow is another long day with our first session at 8:00 a.m. and, once again, running all day including another "looper crawl" until 5:30. It might be fun to attend the dinghy races scheduled for 4:00, but that overlaps the looper crawl and will depend on how busy Clark is entertaining visitors to our boat. Some time between 10:00 and 3:00, however, when the van is running from the park into town, I need to go in and get some groceries. It is not clear just how fresh that milk was I poured on my cereal this morning, and it is not getting any fresher! Looks like another tiring day!
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