Winter Weekend

The boat parade thing went pretty well. It was a long day, but I got to cruise the waterways of Fort Lauderdale. This area has over 300 miles of waterway - so no wonder it is called "the Venice of the United States". By the way, those 300+ miles are all deep enough for decent size boats. I am not talking a shallow canal here.

I was not really expecting what I saw. There were more mega yachts than I have ever seen before. Mega yachts were everywhere. If your boat is less than 100 feet, it really does not stand out much. I have found sources that claim 80% of the world's mega yachts are sold from Fort Lauderdale. I know that the world's largest in water boat show is in Fort Lauderdale. The Miami Boat Show is larger, but the Ft. Lauderdale show features more large yachts.

Another cool thing is Port Everglades. Due to Homeland Security restrictions, the Port Of Miami is closed most of the time. At least the Government Cut side is. The cruise ships are there, and if more than one cruise ship is in port the cut is closed.

Port Everglades is on the intra-coastal waterway (ICW). The ICW can not be closed down, so you can still motor through Port Everglades. The exclusion zone for cruise ships is a lot smaller. It has to be. So you can still get pretty close to them. Close enough to see all the rust anyway. People get on those things?

I think there are more cruise ships at Port Everglades than the Port Of Miami.

The photos of the boat parade itself did not turn out so well. They were blury. The new camera is cool because it is waterproof - but it is also crappy because not all the features can be used all the time. If I go to "anti-shake" mode then I can not select the ISO. I can also not select shutter speed. I think the older Sony camera would have taken better photos but I did not bring that camera.

Lets see...what else?? Should I have some photos? OK fine. Here you go!

This is the helm of the boat. You can see part of the steering wheel and the throttle control. On the "dashboard" there is (from left to right) a magnetic compass, a GPS chartplotter, a Humminbird depth sounder, a Sirius satellite radio receiver, and my marine VHF radio. If you click the photo you can see the GPS and sonar unit display, which will tell you my exact location, speed, course over ground, and other stuff. The sonar will tell you the water depth. Through the windshield you can see some ships in Port Everglades.

And then there is this. I created this image for use one some forums as part of a signature line.

Ill have more photos later, as I get them ready. And by "ready" I mean resized, cropped, and uploaded from the camera.

Songs Of My Deeds

I cleaned up my Iguana Music links. The ones that no longer work were deleted. I was able to replace some links - others I was not able to replace. The way the Iguana Music works is with links. The MP3 files are not on any web space I have any control over. I simply find links through Project Play List. So if I can not find links through the play list thing I have to do a little more work.

So needless to say, the selection is somewhat limited. Oh well. With all the broken links gone, I have more open spaces. So I can find new music!

I am up for some kind of award. It seems that songs of my valor have been made, and spread among all the lands.

Monday morning I get a call. Someone wants to know the name of my boat (Seagull) and my registration numbers. Words of my valiant rescue at sea of 4 idiots who were dumb enough to jump off a fishing bridge reached someone who wants to give me a certificate. So I got that going for me. I can adorn some wall with tapestries depicting my deeds.

Crazy Ass Weekend

Wow what a day. I was up fairly late Friday night. And then Saturday I had to go to some really cool pollution investigation training at the sea port. Of course this had to start early in the morning. Then I get home and a few hours later I had to go to the party thing. And then I started to watch The Black Hole.

Today at 0830 I plan to launch the Seagull to head off to North Key Largo for some snorkeling. It is really a spy mission to the reef. I ran into someone who just got certified for scuba diving. This is handy because I happen to be certified too. But up till now, nobody I knew was certified or interested in getting certified. Diving alone is a really super extra horrible idea. Too many things can go wrong. So now I may have a dive buddy. Pretty slick. In fact I may have found a group of three people that are new divers. So with me making 4, that is two buddy teams. One team can remain on the Seagull while the other team dives. It is a good idea to keep someone on board to monitor the boat and make sure it does not break its mooring or sink or whatever. Anyhow that would work out great.

But today is just a spy mission to show one person just how great the reef I selected is. It is a safe place for a new diver, and one who has not dove for many years, to gain some skills. It is not very deep, the water is clear, there is a ton of stuff to see, and if there is any current is it weak.

Holy crap I am going to be beat tomorrow afternoon. But it is OK. Boat missions are always worth it. I can always sleep later. Sleep is over rated anyway.