Sunday, September 4, 2011

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Scalloping with Bob - West Coast






Bob Poledancing
We got back from Daytona and got the car ready for scalloping in Steinhatchee  with Bob, Debbie his wife, and daughter Sara on their 20 ft deck boat. We followed them up there and unloaded the boat and headed out for about 9 miles into about 4 or 5 feet of water with a really grassy bottom. The scallops were slim pickings and we managed to get enough for a junior cocktail. Lisa saw a nurse shark and decided the scalloping day was done. Then, later, she swore she saw a huge spotted leopard swim under the boat. It was really cool being out there with all those other boats and snorkeling. I just enjoyed the heck just being on a boat and bobbing around a bit. We came back and grilled up some bodacious burgers and kicked back to Bob stories about removing piercings from cadavers. Then, we stopped off at Caseys where I had a pretty decent cup of coffee for the drive back. We unpacked and crashed.

Someone needs to tell this fair lady that this is not a good look. This was taken around a scallop cleaning table and she was the person carting the Budweisers from the cabin back to the cleaning table.

Does it get any better than Dr. Perky?


Monday, August 15, 2011

Windfinder - Wind & weather forecast Ocala Airport

Windfinder - Wind & weather forecast Ocala Airport





This is a cool website.

Yakking Cedar Key with Howard and wife Carla

I met a couple online looking to buy an Adventure Island tandem and wanted to see one, so we lined up a date and met them on Saturday. Good people and we yakked out to Atsena Otie and just sailed, paddled, pedaled around for a bit. Nice day and the wind started picking up. Came home and went to bed. Next day, went to Lake Weir for a place to put 3Sum. Not any good results. I'm now scrubbing 3Sum. Lisa is working late and haven't heard from her all day today.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Crystal River Yakking

Low tides now mean no way. We started out ok, left in the morning after I took care of the horses. We got to Crystal River and found a handy parking spot. We dropped the yaks and decided unhooking the trailer was a good way for jockeying the truck around. MISTAKE!!!! I MADE A MISTAKE AND I AM TRULY SORRY FOR MY SINS AND WILL BE FOREVER PUNISHED!!!

I put the lock on the trailer backwards and we couldn't get the key into the keyhole. Lisa took the truck over to Twin Rivers Marina and had them slice off an end of the key so we could get it into the hole. It worked fine.

We then rolled the yaks over to the sandy shore and pushed off. Our idea was to go up the Crystal River, but it was really hot and shallow because of the offshore wind and low tide. We yakked around the boat ramp and I started going aground. I stepped off to push myself off the oyster bed and my sandals disintegrated. So, I used my paddle to push myself back and then lost the paddle and it was sticking straight up. I circled around with the sail and picked it up and continued my way. Needless to say, Lisa reminded me on numerous occasions about my stupidity. We picked up a chunk of tuna on the way home and grilled it and did some floating in the pool.

I'm trying to convince Lisa we need to go out again tomorrow and get some decent sailing in.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Sailing with Sharks and Snakes

We had quite the adventure Saturday July 10, and took our small kayak out to Cedar Key. They have an island with a lighthouse that is about 3 miles out and they only open it up twice a year, so we thought it might be fun to see it. The weather was overcast when we headed out and it took quite a while to get there. We decided to abort the lighthouse since it was getting late,we were getting tired, so we got off on the east side to relieve ourselves. As we pulled up into this really shallow water, Lisa swears she saw a shark fin and I'm thinking that couldn't be since the water was about 6 inches deep. The tide was almost all the way out so the water is really shallow. We headed back and kept getting stuck in this grass and the water being really shallow, and we kept seeing all these shark fins - little sharks about 1 or 2 feet long. They started circling, so Lisa hit one with the paddle. 

Anyway, we got the h3ll out of there since small sharks make both of us a bit nervous. I had to tow the boat for about 100 yards since the water was only about a foot deep. We loaded up and went home. Lisa did some research and apparently, we went through this area where baby sharks hang out until they get big enough not to get eaten by the bigger ones. Then, the island, Seahorse Key, has a huge population of cottonmouth snakes and there we were with our parts exposed relieving ourselves. Guess we will not be doing that again. 

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Snake-Ridden Florida Island Provides Unlikely Haven for Birds

Snake-Ridden Florida Island Provides Unlikely Haven for Birds

Yesterday, Lisa and I decided to take our Hobie Adventure Island to Cedar Key - more specifically to Seahorse Key where only twice a year they have an open house for their marine laboratory and lighthouse. Lisa sat on the trampoline while I peddled over to Snake Key by mistake, but soon realized we were heading the wrong way. We couldn't read the warning signs as we pulled up to Seahorse Key. We were in about a foot of water when Lisa saw a shark dorsal fin. I ignored her shark ignorance figuring it was probably a sunfish or sea walleye. We decided to relieve ourselves and go back to Cedar Key since I was peddling and there was no wind for the sail and it was getting late. We started seeing dorsal fins - lots of dorsal fins. Then, the drivetrain got buried and we had to push with our paddles to get off the bottom since we were experiencing low tide. More sharks. We kept pushing and neither of us were volunteering to walk in the shallow water to get to deeper water. We ended up zigzagging back to the channel and peddling back in.

Oh, and then the cottonmouth snakes on Seahorse Key: http://www.fws.gov/cedarkeys/wildlife.html

I think in the future we are going to plan a bit better when we do something like that. It was a last minute thought since we were originally going to go to nearby Atsena Otie, but decided to see the open house light house that is only open twice a year on Seahorse Key. We should have brought more fluids, binoculars, camera, whistle, and other emergency supplies. Don't know what the he77 we were thinking.

Monday, July 4, 2011

Sailing Minnetonka

We managed to slip away from packing on Sunday and slip down to SYC and raced with Mark and Rose. We led the yellow fleet, but about 300 yards from the finish, they yanked the mark and said we were over 30 minutes after the first boat. LIARS! Good sail trim and helmsmanship was our secret key to victory. We had a nice dinner out there and met up with all our old friends down there. What a bunch of great people. We finalized the day by going out on Nepenthe with Linny and Marty and watched the sun set. We were quite tired and headed home so we could get up to finish the packing.