Florida Sea Base News

Happy Thanksgiving from the Florida Sea Base.

I hope everyone has traveled in safety, didn’t get groped too much by the TSA folks (Remember the guys and gals on the line are just doing hat they were ordered to do.  Try to be pleasant with them.  The problem is at levels above them.), and is enjoying time with family and friends.  The weather across the country is generally harsh.  But what a day in the Keys!!! Sunny, mild breezes and a high around 80.  I wish my friends and family would come to the Keys and visit me instead of me having to travel to crummy weather to see them.  (I think they are sending me a message; one that I choose to ignore.)

While we have this special day to express our thanks, it is important that we give thanks every day.  I am thankful that I still live in a Christian country.  I am thankful for the soldiers around the world protecting my freedom.  I am thankful for my family and friends.  Our societal evolution of being a nation of mass transit, technology and prosperity has caused strain for our personal bonds with family and friends now scattered about the nation and even the world.  Today may be a special occasion to be mindful of those who we cannot be with.  Keep them in your prayers.

Florida Sea Base’s General Manager, Paul Beal, may now be addressed as CAPTAIN Paul.  He has received his US Coast Guard Merchant Mariner Documents and is “official”.  Congratulations boss.

The Florida Sea Base and Brinton Environmental Center are closed until Monday.  I will be away for another week, likely returning to the base a week from tomorrow.

A reminder to the Divemaster Academy candidates: study, study, study, swim, swim, swim.  I will see most of you in 23 days and you will be taking written exams 24 days from now.  You are going to have a great two weeks.  There will be stress, mental challenges, physical challenges and many opportunities to improve.  Each of you will leave a better diver than when you arrived.

I am thankful for those of you who take the time to read this blog.  Have a safe day.  Don’t over indulge.

Capt. Steve
Alive and well in cool, rainy, Midlothian, Texas (The Cement Capitol of Texas)

I’m sorry for not posting anything for the past two days, but I have been on the road.  I woke up at 03:22 Friday and left the Florida Sea Base at 04:30 Friday for a doctor’s appointment north of Miami.  (Getting around Miami traffic in the morning is a killer.  You have two choices; get there too early or get there late.)  I finished with the doctor around 10:30 and hit the highway for Texas.  I drove until 20:00 and stopped in Pensacola, Florida.  I stayed at the Motel 6 for financial reasons.  It was old but clean.  The bed looked like the linens may not have been changed in a while.  Everything else was reasonable for the $37 I paid for a few hours sleep.

I was up by 04:30 Saturday and underway around 05:00.  I arrived in Midlothian, Texas at 16:30.

Capt. Rich and Capt. Carol returned from their Caribbean sailing adventure Thursday afternoon.  Friday was a work day for them and then Saturday they departed for a week long cruise with Richie and Capt. Rich’s mom.  I’m pretty sure they will be back to work on the 29th (Richie probably has to be back for school).

I frequently comment on Laura Kuras working on the regulator overhauls.  Here are two pictures of the parts laid out for just 12 of 84 regulators she has to complete.  This is a major undertaking.  [If you recall, Capt. Alex Bergstedt rebuilt over 200 regulators last year.]  CLICK ON THE PHOTOS TO ENLARGE.

12 regulators awaiting reassembly.

A close-up view of some of the tiny parts.

That’s all for today.  The postings will be spotty for the next week or two but I will try to keep you informed of any significant issues.

Capt. Steve
In the Mother Country

Several of the permanent staff of the Florida Sea Base were off-base yesterday.  Chrystene went to Key West (thanks for delivering the package to the Conch Pearl for me).  Paul and Nancy are at Philmont discussing (or maybe just cussing) the new database/internet/registration system for the BSA.  And I spent most of the day getting my physical for my US Coast Guard Masters license renewal, waiting at the post office to mail the renewal packet to Miami, and running errands.  Keith seemed to be in and out (I have no idea what his list included for the day). Capt. Rich was still in the Caribbean (he’s headed back today I believe).  So basically Rob, Cheryl, Ali and Maria held down the fort at Sea Base.  At the Brinton Center Capt. Scott is away on vacation with Lizzie and I think (but not positive) that Capt. Lenny is also on vacation.

Our weather was perfect yesterday; clear skies, 83 degrees, mild breeze.  There were no reported deaths or injuries at the base.  As far as I know, there was not even any drama.  I was remiss in reporting that Sargon Smith has returned to the base (on Monday I think).  He had returned to North Carolina and was making good money with a construction company – until the job ended.  So he is back with us, working for Chrystene, filling the opening created by Dom Alesandrini’s departure.  (Dom’s last day is this Friday.)  Laura slaved away on regulator rebuilds, the rangers worked on maintenance projects and the rest of the seasonal staff worked on inventory of the Ships Store and warehouse.

I want to say thank you to Rafael Arrom, our Head Ranger, for the work he and his ranger team did on the shower chickee.  If you’ve been here, you are probably aware of the shower chickee between the Commissary and the T-Dock.  It has been there since way before my time.  Rafael and company replaced the rotted wooden deck and increased the shower heads from one to four.  [For those of you not familiar with the word "chickee", it is a structure built by the Native American tribes that inhabited South Florida.  The roof is made of woven palm fronds.  They are very hurricane resistant.  For many years only Native Americans were allowed to construct chickees.  But it seems that maybe that law was changed a few years ago.  The shower chickee has a single upright pole in the center with an inverted conical roof.  It looks like a giant umbrella.]

It’s 04:05.  I’m going back to bed.  Thanks for reading.  By the way, I will likely be driving back to Texas over the weekend so I may not have internet access to post anything for a few days.  If so, I apologize in advance.

Capt. Steve
Aboard S/V Escape

General Manager Paul Beal and Registrar Nancy Wells are on their way from the Florida Sea Base to the Philmont Scout Ranch this morning.  The BSA National Office is considering a bid from Dell-Perot to manage our computer systems including our websites and registration systems.  Paul and Nancy are meeting with Owen McCulloch and other BSA personnel and representatives from the Dell-Perot group to discuss our needs.

I have an appointment at 09:00 in Key Largo for the physical required to renew my US Coast Guard Masters license.  I hope to get back to the base, make photocopies of everything (always keep a copy for yourself) and then get to the post office to mail the packet to Miami before noon.

It was warm enough yesterday to require running the air conditioners.  Our high was near 85.  It was a splendid day here.  Invest 94 had a bad day; it swallowed enough dry air to cause it some real issues.  It may still be a significant rain maker for Jamaica and Cuba but it has less than a 20% chance of developing into a tropical depression.  This may be finally be the end of the 2010 hurricane season.  Hope for the best!

Capt. Steve
Aboard S/V Escape

Monday started out with an email from Dave Ball, lead Scuba Instructor for the 2010 Divemaster Academy, at 05:54.  (No worries Dave, I was already up.)  About two weeks ago (during the BSA Aquatics Workshop) I finally caved in and routed my Florida Sea Base emails to my iPhone.  It’s interesting to me that the messages appear on my phone faster than on the computer.  Then shortly after 08:00 Sea Tow called asking permission to drop a disabled sailboat at our facility.  Sea Tow is a private company that is essentially a wrecker service on the water.  They help us out from time to time so we told them the distressed sailor could stay here for the day.  He has a minor problem and should be underway by tomorrow morning.

Then, a little after lunch, a real blast from the past.  Former Florida Sea Base staff member Joshua C. Tipton stopped by the base with his fiancee, Heather.  Josh was on staff for several years starting around 1999 and leaving in 2001 or 2002.  Josh is an Eagle Scout from Diboll, Texas.  Diboll is a small town towards the southern end on Angelina County.  I started my law enforcement career in Lufkin, Texas, the county seat of Angelina County.  Josh came to the Florida Sea Base staff shortly after graduating high school.  He worked his way up to Dusky Captain (although they weren’t Coast Guard licensed captains back then).  But he is best known as the First Mate For Capt. Hal MacMinn aboard the BSA Tarpon.  He left Sea Base and enlisted in the US Navy.  After serving four years, he got out and now captains boats off Brazil.  He is in Florida taking a celestial navigation class to upgrade to his 500 ton Master license.  He looked very good and seems to be very happy.

There has been little change to Invest 94L.  It is forecasted to be upgraded to a tropical depression tomorrow.  Our local weather has an increased chance of rain tomorrow and Thursday.  There is a front approaching us from the Northwest that has a decent squall line in front of it.  It may cool us off about three degrees.  That would be perfect.

Back to the grindstone.

Capt. Steve
Aboard S/V Escape

Invest 94 L still appears to be no threat to the Florida Sea Base (or any part of the US).  But the system is continuing to organize and our hurricane season may not yet be over.  Our local weather is warming up slowly.  It was ALMOST air conditioner weather this afternoon.

Capt. Dennis took the shark research group from the University of Miami out again yesterday.  Unfortunately, they were skunked.  No sharks were caught.  The group came back about an hour early.  Capt. Dennis and Dr. Ellen loaded up and headed for Lady Lake, Florida as quickly as possible.  They have an important meeting with their home remodeler today.

I did NO office work yesterday.  I did a few chores on the boat and did some routine maintenance on my truck.  I watched part of the Dolphins game, most of the NASCAR race and some of the Cowboys game.  That was about it; generally a quiet day off.

I saw the youth from the church group out kayaking for a while yesterday.  They left the base around 14:00 I believe.  They seemed to be a good group and they were saying how great a time they had as they left.

I have a fairly substantial DO LIST for today.  But you have to stay flexible when working at the Florida Sea Base.  As always, I will have to wait to see what the day brings.  Make it a great day!

Capt. Steve
Aboard S/V Escape

If we understood correctly, the Florida Sea Base was involved with the first EVER tagging of a Mako shark with a satellite transmitter on Saturday, 13 November 2010.  Capt. Dennis Wyatt took the University of Miami’s R.J Dunlop Marine Conservation Program shark fishing on the Atlantic side of the Keys about 5 miles offshore from Long Key.  The first shark caught, measured and tagged yesterday was a 10 foot Tiger shark.  But the catch of the day was a fierce, 10 foot Mako shark.  The Mako was apparently very uncooperative and they were not able to get it into the boat.  However, after fighting the shark for about 30 minutes, they were able to attach a satellite tag to the shark.  The group leader told Capt. Dennis that this is the first Mako to ever be tagged with a satellite transmitter.

The day was much more mundane for me.  With the assistance of Teri Wells and Dom Alesandrini I took a very large church youth group snorkeling at Alligator Reef.  Despite the weather forecast (see yesterday’s post), the conditions were very good; nice visibility, 1.5 foot seas, and warm water.  It was a bit breezy and cool but no one succumbed to mal-de-mar.

I was again pleased to have dinner with the Wyatts last night.  They will head home today as soon as Capt. Dennis returns from taking the shark research group fishing again.

Invest 94 has changed very little.  I’ll keep an eye on it but it doesn’t look very threatening at this time.  Click on the link for a cool graphic of the computer models for this system.  WunderMap.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Capt. Steve
Aboard S/V Escape

Although the wind was brisk again today, the weather was otherwise perfect at the Florida Sea Base yesterday.  The good news was I had a wonderful dinner with Capt. Dennis and Dr. Ellen.  I enjoy their company thoroughly.  The bad news was I missed a call from Capt. Alex Bergstedt from Slovakia.  Capt. Alex, if you’re reading this, I am scheduled to drive a boat all day today so please try to call after 16:00 EDT if you try again.

Capt. Dennis and 1st Mate Laura Kuras took the shark research group out today.  The kids were from Coral Shores High School about 15 miles up the road.  They did not have a very productive day, catching and releasing only one shark (a Tiger Shark).  Another group of kids is coming today to try their luck. Capt. Dennis will drive again.  I will take a group of church kids out in the morning and another group in the afternoon to try their luck snorkeling our reefs.  The wind is rather brisk this morning the snorkeling may not be world class.  The marine forecast from the National Weather Service:

Saturday…Northeast winds 15 to 20 knots…decreasing to near 15 knots in the afternoon. Seas beyond the reef 4 to 6 feet…except higher in the gulf stream. Seas inside the reef 2 to 3 feet. nearshore waters choppy. Isolated showers.

This is the report from Molasses Reef Buoy (National Buoy Data Center) as of midnight this morning:

And a graph that basically shows the wind is blowing like snot and building:

A few days ago I mentioned that there might be another tropical system develop near Columbia.  It is official; Invest 94L is on the map.  The current track forecast indicates that it should be no threat to the US for at least the next week, and maybe never.

I went to bed at about 21:00 last night but unfortunately I woke up around midnight.  It’s about 01:30 now so I’m going to try to get a little more sleep.  Have a great weekend.

Capt. Steve
Aboard S/V Escape

Paul Lipsky, a graduate of the Florida Sea Base Divemaster Academy, and former FSB staff member recently won first place in the NAUI Just Dive Photo Contest in the category “Best Diver Shot”.  The model in the photo is his brother, Alex Lipsky.  (Alex is also a graduate of the DMA, Eagle Scout and former FSB staff member.)  The photo was taken this past summer on a dive at the Florida Sea Base.  If you have visited the official site of the Florida Sea Base, www.bsaseabase.org. you may have seen a photo of a dolphin jumping out the water.  That photo was taken by Alex Lipsky.

It was a quiet day at the Florida Sea Base yesterday.  The Rangers worked on landscaping.  The Conference staff worked on Ships Store inventory.  Laura worked on scuba gear.  I spent the morning in the office and went to the mainland in the afternoon.

Our weather was great.  The wind was a little brisk from the East, but everything else was picture perfect.  I didn’t find any references on the forecasted system that was on the wire two days ago.  I don’t know if it totally fizzled or just isn’t newsworthy yet.  It was projected to form near Columbia and move towards Nicaragua.  I will keep an eye out for any updates.

Short and sweet.  Have a great day.

Capt. Steve
Aboard S/V Escape

The Florida Sea Base will be honored today by the arrival of Capt. Dennis Wyatt and Dr. Ellen Stites-Wyatt.  They are two of my favorite people in the whole world.  Visiting with them will be a treat.  They are also going to be working at the Florida Sea Base this winter.  It will be their first Christmas with us.

I received a commitment Tuesday from a scuba shop owner in Pennsylvania who is going to purchase all of our remaining used scuba gear which includes 147 tanks, 29 regulators and 45 BCDs.  We will resume the sale of used scuba equipment in August 2011.  For now, we are officially sold out.  Laura Kuras’ primary mission now shifts from sales to overhauling the regulators that we will keep for another year.  She has approximately 83 regulators to service.

Haiti has been hammered by rain from a low pressure system in the Caribbean.  The system will not become “tropical” and will head out into the open Atlantic after passing Haiti and the Turks and Caicos Islands as a rain event.  Our weather is stuck in a GREAT rut; clear skies, mild winds, calm seas, warm afternoons and enough UV to tan but not instantly burn to a crisp.  We should start warming up next week as the high pressure system moves away.  We were hoping that the 2010 hurricane season was over – any MAYBE it is.  However, two of the computer models are predicting a strong tropical disturbance will form in the southern Caribbean off the coast of Colombia 6 – 7 days from now, and move west-northwest towards Nicaragua.  Stay tuned!

Yesterday’s edition of a local Keys newspaper, The Reporter, had a photo and article from our Saturday regatta on the front page.  Unfortunately, they did not make the on-line version of the publication so I couldn’t steal the photo or provide a link to the article.

Have a good day.  For the Divemaster candidates, study, study, study and swim, swim, swim.  You will be put to the test very soon.

Capt. Steve
Aboard S/V Escape