Majesty of the Seas

Did a little on-line sleuthing and found that RCI's "Majesty" is the ship I saw passing. She's due at Pier B in Key West this morning. Amazing that I can sit in an RV on the beach and use the Net to do that!

Passing in the night,

It's 0350 and I can't sleep. The hum of the airconditioner and quiet rattle of the awning flapping in the wind aren't enough to keep me in bed. Outside there's a cruise ship passaging south. I'm estimating her to be 12-15 nautical miles out. Twelve and beyond would make sense. At that distance off-shore she can still discharge. Even though the image of the sewage from a small town being dumped in Mother Ocean is upsetting to many "greenies", it is a really big ocean out there. But it's not the human effluent that causes problems. Anything discharged from us is seen as a great treat by the fish population. It's the plastics and oils that cause trouble. I have to admit that laws on dumping have really cut down on all the jetsam on the beaches. In the 70's I remember the tide lines were full of plastic bottles and smashed styrofoam junk mixed in with Japanese fishing floats and nets. Some folks made artistic displays of the junk at their houses. This beach is clean. Except for the glass. Bottles cast over float in and break on the hard bottom. Eventually, the shards show up mixed in the sand. Met an older couple walking the beach and just clucking away about all the glass and the danger to kid's feet. They'd collected a handful or so.
I can see what appears to be a stylized blue anchor 60% aft in the binoculars. You've just gotta love great optics and electronic stabilization. I think that's Royal Caribbean. No matter. Just a glittering, sleeping, landlubber's casino making turns for Key West.

The Tree

Got up this morning and walked the beach. There's a wonderful wind-sculpted mangrove down the beach. this is exactly how more land is formed down here.

Sunsets

Very rarely does any state or federal government do something right. There's a gate in the fence at Long Key to let you cross US1 to this marvelous little seawall and watch the Sun set.

Today's was especially good. No low clouds on the horizon blocking the view. The sun got that melted candy-apple bottom and then shimmered and slithered down in waves of liquid fire. After the last glimmer winked out with an almost audible "Aaaaahhhhhh" what was left was a thin contrail directly over the spot where the sun disappeared. The closing parenthesis for today.

The Palm Tree Upgrade.

Remember that great campsite we were on yesterday. That place was just wrong! So we moved. To the site next door with the postcard-quality coconut palm. I guess we're just picky.

This park has a great ranger named David Carroll. Schmoozes all the ladies and constantly jokes. He made changing sites very easy. The trick is that a percentage of the sites in all the parks are not shown or available on ReserveAmerica (a Canadian company). They are kept back for late arrivals and walkups. If they are open after checkout at 1 pm, it looks like you can go to the rangers and change sites. Which is what we did!

The move was not without problems. The sand on this site is so thick, that when I pulled in and then wanted to back up, I thought it might take a wrecker. Having dual drive wheels and a tag axle worked in my favor this time. But on the good side, I didn't even have to readjust the satellite dish to get reception. All in all a good move.

Sunrise in Long Key

Sunrise was, as expected, beautiful. I'll bore you with a few more shots of how close to the water we are then move on.

I met our neighbors this morning. Alex is a software engineer from
Antwerp, Belgium. He and his wife flew over for two weeks camping in a tent in the Keys. He, and I, are a little disappointed that the wind is too strong for the snorkel boats to go out and for kayaking , even in the protected lagoons. Twenty knots equals horrible directional control and no gliding at all. You just paddle like hell the whole time, most of which is backwards.

I'm enjoying my amateur radio rig down here. The water gives the antenna a great ground plane.

Last night I got a call from my friend Jim for advice on an autopilot problem is an aircraft I've worked on since it was new. In fact this plane had around 300 hours on it when a mechanic started the engines with the gear handle in the UP position. Predictable result. All the little antennae on the bottom punched up through the skin, but very little other damage. The Commander has an absolutely flat bottom and "took to the ground" very well. Didn't even touch the props.

But that was in the early 80's. And that's exactly the kind of aircraft I'm best at--OLD!

Why we came here......

We moved from Pennekamp to Long Key today. And this is what I get! The tide is just coming back in and it's getting dark, as you can see we are parked dead ON the beach. At high tide we're no more than 50 feet from the water. I'm really looking forward to every sunrise from now to May 3rd. Heard from our friend John Edwards that he's bringing his 17-foot Montgomery sailboat down this week. It'll be great to see and feed him before he takes off sailing the Keys.

Our trip down was uneventful. Except for the part where I grazed one traffic cone and knocked another over in a bridge construction zone. They really got those lanes too tight!

We pulled over on the Tea Table Relief and made lunch. What a way to live!

This may be the best campsite ever! Right now the wind is blowing around 20 knots. The sand is blowing about 2 feet off the beach and stings when it hits your legs. There's a few lightning flashes in the dark cloudy skies. It spit rain for 2 minutes. I talked to a campground host up in Pennekamp who'd traveled for the last two months all the way from Wyoming. She said that in that entire time she'd seen 4 hours of rain. This may also be the beginning of the driest 'rainy' season ever in South Florida.

One of the fun things about this is that all the preparation and thought that went into putting the camper and load together is working fine. We didn't do any packing last night and still got off the site in good order by 1300. I especially enjoyed loading the kayaks with Micky. We had very little trouble getting them up and tied down. Makes you feel good when the system works. And the air conditioner blows cold too!

Why I shoot squirrels.

About three hours before we got to Key Largo, the dash airconditioner in the RV stopped blowing cold air. I bought refrigerant and checked the pressures. Found that the compressor was not turning. The air conditioning in the RV is an after-market high output job. Luckily, I bring all the maintenance manuals with me. Looked at the wiring diagram and found that to turn on the compressor you had to go through a pressure switch and a thermostat.
Today, I decided to troubleshoot the wiring. found the pressure switch in the refrigerant line and while looking for a spot to meter the voltage I found four wires chewed through. Teeth marks on the water fill cap helped me verify that the culprit is my hated enemy - Sciurus carolinensis-- the Eastern grey squirrel.
These Klingon rodents and I have been doing battle for years. Some folks think it's barbaric to kill these miscreants. Let me rant a minute about the weak-minded logic that has somehow given these "nut cases" qualms about eradicating these vermin "nut cases".
Most of the blame can be laid in two places- Walt Disney and Winn-Dixie!
Walt and his crew of animators have done a fabulous job of giving human characteristics and 'cuteness' to all sorts of animals. Pigs sing. Spiders have separation anxiety. Bambi's mom is whacked by unseen hunters. And squirrels not only dance and sing, they have names!
This anthropomorphosizing of animals has screwed up the logic of an entire generation of baby boomers and their children and grandchildren.
Winn-Dixie and the American supermarket industry has so sterilized and packaged our food that most adults are squeamish about the details of that food. My grandparents thought nothing of grabbing a chicken in the backyard and processing it into delicious Southern Fried Wonderful that same afternoon. Squirrels were a mainstay of Brunswick stew and rare as a vegetarian was then. All the kids in my neighborhood were armed with all sorts of pointed stuff that would take down any squirrel or other vermin. We were praised and fed for the same act that today causes the screaming willies in our teenage population.
Squirrels destroy millions in decorative shrubbery, chew electrical wires causing house fires, and will thoroughly pillage an attic.
So I say, we all need to shoot squirrels.

Wild Tamarind Trail

This morning we hit a really crappy flea market at the U-haul in Key Largo. They just rent out the storage units and these folks just open the doors on Saturday and Sunday. Picked up a cookbook and some fruit, but was disappointed that it didn't have a lot of neat nautical stuff.
Walked the entire park this afternoon. It's very popular with the local hispanics. They take picnics seriously. One pavillion was full of musical instuments and they had a generator going for the sound system. Micky and I did the merengue down the Mangrove trail.
We walked the Wild Tamirind nature trail. Micky spotted a beautiful Florida Tree Snail. Not at all what you'd expect a tree snail to be. It was gorgeous! Harlequin orange on a white glossy shell. I regretted not having the camera along, but we'll get another chance tomorrow.

Dancing in the Keys

Last night Micky and I went to a ballroom studio Friday night dance in Islamorada. The normal schmaltz and glitter with the teachers dancing with the students. Micky and I haven't been dancing much in the last three years while I dealt with my knee replacement. Now's the time to get back on that horse! We enjoyed the evening, short as it was. And driving the convertible in the Keys at night is wonderful. The cool sea breezes and starkly clear skies make the simple act of transportation enchanting.
This morning, we're going to check the local flea markets and yard sales. Several years ago we found an artist at the Big Pine Key flea market making mangrove themed furniture from copper tubing. That's when we brought home the side table lamp in our living room. And we're hoping that hard economics has brought out some really good boat junk!

On the importance of 'pace'.

I've just come in from finishing a great cigar from a local shop and enjoying a cool breeze thinking about the pace of life. There are times when it's very important to get everything done. Other times the pace needs to be slower. I've lived my life at a very fast pace. Education and jobs are always time-intensive. If you don't keep up the pace you won't succeed. But then you need to step back and slow the pace down to a more human speed.
By human speed I mean stopping to consider the whole cycle of life and your place in it. Move too fast and you won't see the things around you.
In back of our camp site here in Pennekamp park is a tidal mangrove swamp with a thicket of intertwining roots resting in brackish brown water. At first glance not very appealing. Slow down and you start to see the squirrel slowly picking his way through the roots making a living by eating whatever it finds. The geckos are constantly darting from one place to another bobbing frenetically and displaying their neck flaps. They have a flap of skin with brilliant maroon skin rimmed in bright yellow. Mating and territory set the pace for them.
Today our pace is slow. Tomorrow the need to explore and enjoy will make the pace faster.

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Late night in Paradise...

I've just decided to start doing my journal as a blog. This should be fun!