Florida Sea Base News

Yesterday I was medically cleared to resume scuba diving.  I was banned from the water due to hernia surgery.  But now I’m good to go again.

We had on-again-off-again showers yesterday; nothing significant.  We are expecting less rain today and a nice 4th of July weekend.  The wind is forecasted to be from the east or southeast at 10-15 knot for the next week.  That’s excellent for sailing and very good for scuba.  Rain chances are 20-30% each day.  The water temperature is about 84º.

Tropical Storm Arlene has made landfall in Mexico.

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The National Hurricane Center’s Atlantic Tropical Weather Discussion noted:

CARIBBEAN SEA...
BUOY...ISLAND...AND ASCAT OBSERVATIONS INDICATE THAT THE CENTRAL
CARIBBEAN HAS SURFACE WINDS OF 20-25 KT WHILE THE EASTERN AND WESTERN
CARIBBEAN HAVE LIGHT WINDS.  ASIDE FROM THE AFOREMENTIONED TROPICAL
WAVES PRODUCING SOME DEEP CONVECTION...THE REMAINDER OF THE CARIBBEAN
SEA IS EXHIBITING NO SIGNIFICANT CONVECTION.  IN THE UPPER LEVELS...A
NORTH-SOUTH STRETCHED UPPER LOW IS LOCATED SOUTH OF HISPANIOLA WITH
RIDGING EXTENDING OVER BOTH THE EASTERN AND WESTERN CARIBBEAN.  SOME
INCREASED CHANCE OF DEEP CONVECTION IS LIKELY OVER THE NEXT DAY IN THE
WESTERN CARIBBEAN AS THE TROPICAL WAVE MOVES WESTWARD.

Capt. Rich spent all day yesterday on Stock Island trying to get the Schooner Halie & Matthew ready for USCG inspection.  He called me around 2130 last night as he was heading back to base.  He is optimistic that the vessel will pass inspection on Friday.

Some late, but good news on the Florida Sea Base campus is the concrete for the walkway at the new shower facility was poured yesterday despite the rain.  The revised, revised, revised, and revised again occupancy date of 01 July (tomorrow) may become a reality if the final touches (like doors and railings) can be completed today and the inspectors give final approval tomorrow.  I’ve been up since 0400.  I thought I was going to get back to sleep but I have an unpleasant personnel issue to deal with this morning.  But what really jolted me awake was a concern with the bathroom project.  Hopefully it was taken into consideration and there is a plan for dealing with it.  I’m not sure I can describe the issue well, but here goes.

The new bathroom facilities are a part of the building that houses our Galley (kitchen).  The roof on this building is flat.  One of the major drain points for the roof is adjacent to the Galley entrance.  This used to be a non-issue because the torrent of water ran off the roof and into the flower bed.  The flower bed is now part of the concrete ramp.  So the rain will come off the roof and splatter on the concrete; still not a big deal.  Until you consider that the rain will splatter on folks as they wait in line to enter the Galley and it appears that the ramp was engineered so the rain will drain onto the deck at the Galley door. I’m sure all of this was addressed in the design and I am loosing sleep over a non-issue.  I’m just a trouble making worry-wart.

Our local radar is currently clear (0445).  The wind is out of the northeast at about 4 knots.  The feels-like temperature is 84º.  Two days or rain has the mosquitos swarming.  Hopefully the wind will pick up just a little to encourage them to stay in the mangroves and away from the program areas.  There are no mosquitos out on the boats.:)

Capt. Steve Willis
Aboard S/V Escape

It was raining hard at our 0730 staff meeting yesterday.  General Manager Captain Paul Beal (also known as birthday boy yesterday) reported that 2″ of rain fell at the Florida Sea Base between 0530 and 0730.  Fortunately the rain eased up by 0900 or 1000 and program was back on track.  We had a little rain during the remainder of the day but I don’t think we had any rain from noon until around 2000 when we had a brief shower.  We are expecting periods of rain through Friday.  This is very typical summer weather for the Florida Keys; generally brief periods of heavy showers.

Here are a couple of blurbs from the National Hurricane Center Atlantic Tropical Weather Discussion page that are of interest to the Florida Sea Base:

...TROPICAL WAVES...

A TROPICAL WAVE IS ACROSS THE CENTRAL ATLC ALONG 13N41W TO 8N45W
MOVING W NEAR 15 KT. VISIBLE SATELLITE IMAGERY SHOWS CLEAR LOW
LEVEL CYCLONIC FLOW ABOUT THE WAVE AXIS. THE WAVE IS EMBEDDED
WITHIN A SURGE OF DEEP LAYER MOISTURE EVIDENT IN TOTAL
PRECIPITABLE WATER IMAGERY. SCATTERED MODERATE CONVECTION IS
FROM 10N-12N BETWEEN 42W-45W AND WITHIN 45 NM EITHER SIDE OF THE
WAVE AXIS S OF 9N.  [This is a ways off but bears watching. SW]

A TROPICAL WAVE EXTENDS ACROSS MONA PASSAGE INTO THE ERN
CARIBBEAN FROM 14N-23N ALONG 68W MOVING W NEAR 15 KT. THE WAVE
LIES IN AN AREA OF MODERATE DEEP LAYER MOISTURE THAT IS ACROSS
THE ERN CARIBBEAN BETWEEN 64W-72W. AN UPPER LEVEL LOW JUST S OF
THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC IS PROVIDING DIFFLUENCE ALOFT ABOVE THE
WAVE AXIS. THIS COMBINATION IS CAUSING A CLUSTER OF SCATTERED
MODERATE/ISOLATED STRONG CONVECTION NEAR THE NRN EXTENT OF THE
WAVE FROM 23N-24N BETWEEN 64W-68W. POSSIBLE ISOLATED SHOWERS
COVER THE AREA FROM 15N-23N BETWEEN 65W-73W. THE UPPER LOW IS
FORECAST TO DRIFT SW AS THE WAVE MOVES W-NW WHICH WILL CONTINUE
TO PLACE THE WAVE UNDER DIFFLUENCE ALOFT. EXPECT CONTINUED
SHOWER/THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY OVER THE CENTRAL CARIBBEAN OVER THE
NEXT 24 HOURS.  [This system is between Cuba and Haiti and is effecting our local weather. SW]

Invest 95L is now Tropical Storm Arlene and is still located in the Bay of Campeche and poses no concern to the Florida Sea Base.

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Captain Rich, assisted by Divemasters Nathaniel Erwin and Aaron Phoebe, Scuba Instructor Justin Cardiff and others, spent all of yesterday further preparing BSA Scoutmaster II for USCG inspection on behalf of the Brinton Environmental Center.  Captain Rich plans to spend all of today (and possibly tomorrow) on Stock Island, doing what he can to get the Schooner Halie & Matthew prepared for her USCG re-inspection so the Open Oceans Adventure can finally get up and running.  I am perplexed that the persons who are supposedly responsible for the vessel are unable to manage their own business.

This is unbelievable.  I was approached by an adult leader yesterday morning.  He said all he wants to do is sit on the base and read while his kids participate in the Coral Reef Sailing Adventure.  He informed me that he was NOT here for the kids, but on his own agenda.  Fortunately there was an extra adult with the crew.  I tried to encourage the stay-behind adult to just go home but he complained that he did not want to pay the difference on his plane ticket or else he would be happy to do so.  What a role model!  I am amazed by the dedication of the volunteer adult leaders that make the BSA what it is.  These men and women are remarkable.  This is the first time I’ve encountered a leader like this.  I’m still in shock.  Why did he come?

Some of the permanent staff of the Florida Sea Base had dinner at the General Manager’s residence in celebration of his birthday yesterday.  GM Captain Paul Beal’s daughter, Caitlin, was there.  She recently graduated West Point and was commissioned in the US Army.  She will spend six months in Virginia for training and then is headed for upstate New York for the winter and her first duty assignment.  (Brrrrr!)

We are having a brief period of showers right now (0600) but I am optimistic they will clear in time for morning flags.  Have a good one!

Capt. Steve
Aboard S/V Escape

Did you know Jimmy Fallon reruns are on TV at 0400?  Me neither.  But I woke up around 0330, flopped around in bed until 0400 and gave up for the night.  So I relocated to the salon on Escape and flipped on the TV and computer.  I expected a news show to be on but instead got Jimmy Fallon trying to throw pizzas through a basketball hoop.  So I will get this post knocked out and spend some time on a research project for a future post.  (Satellite TV and high speed internet on a sailboat, plus a portable device that fits in my pocket, makes phone calls to anywhere in the world, sends and receives text messages and emails and allows me to “surf the web”.  What’s next?)

Today is the birthday of the General Manager of the Florida Sea Base, Captain Paul Beal. Happy birthday boss.

We experienced a very brief shower late yesterday afternoon at the Florida Sea Base.  The wind is forecasted to clock from southeast to east or northeast and bring a better chance of rain for the next four days (50%).  It will still be hot with moderate wind.  East winds will make conditions a little rougher for the divers, but if it stays below 15 knots it won’t be bad  The system on Campeche Bank is official now and has been designated Invest 95L.

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It looks like it should have little to no impact on Texas.  It should bring some much needed rain to Mexico.  Yesterday’s post by Dr. Jeff Masters should be of interest to anyone from the Mother Country (aka Texas).

The brand new BSA Scoutmaster II arrived at the Florida Sea Base yesterday for USCG inspection.  Once inspected, the vessel will be transferred to the Brinton Environmental Center for program use.  You may be wondering why the staff at BEC are not preparing the boat for inspection.  Good question.  The boat was manufactured by Corinthian and delivery was scheduled for mid-May (prior to the beginning of the summer program season).  The delayed completion required us to lease a boat for the BEC and cost us several thousand dollars.  We had plans to buy another Corinthian in 2012 or 2013 but I am sure there will have to be some concessions from the company before we spend another $200k with them.  They have no conception of the negative effects this build delay had on BEC’s operation.

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There are 61 days left in the 2011 summer program season.  09 July will be the halfway point in our 99 day season.

Capt. Steve Willis
Aboard S/V Escape

Our weather remains typical for the season.  I drove to town late yesterday afternoon and saw three of our ketches sailing along the reef line under full sail.  At the same time the wind was gentle enough to allow a great day for scuba diving.  At 0530 this morning our heat index (feels like temperature) was 93º.  The chance of daily showers lingers until Saturday.  We had a little storm cell come through between 0100 and 0130 this morning.  We did not get any rain during the day yesterday.  There is a tropical disturbance near the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico.  It may better organize tomorrow.  It poses no threat to the Florida Sea Base but will likely bring heavy rains to parts of Mexico and south Texas at a minimum.  The rest of the Atlantic/Caribbean remains quiet for at least the next two days.

Sunday is always a big day for Dr. Ellen due to the arrival of scuba crews.  As far as I could tell everything went smoothly.  Capt. Rich and Capt. Dennis were off and Sunday was Capt. Bruce Payette’s birthday (S/V Barefoot).  Capt. Dennis and I both got our clothes washed PLUS I got the week’s “lost-and-found” clothes washed.  Sunday is usually a busy day at the staff laundry but it was pretty tame yesterday.  The three washers and three driers sit outside.  I spent about an hour wiping down the machines and folding tables, picking up dryer sheets, throwing away empty detergent containers, sweeping, and generally cleaning up the area.

I’m running short on time this morning.  I have one adult leader to talk with this morning about his disqualification from the scuba program due to medical issues.  We had a youth participant check in for scuba yesterday who barley made the weigh in at 298 pounds.  (He is NOT a professional football player.)  I have lost about 80-85 pounds since November and I got the choices that this young man is going to face.  It’s not fun.  (I had three strawberries for breakfast this morning.)

Anyway, I ‘ve got to go.

Capt. Steve Willis
Aboard S/V Escape

I HATE nightmares.  I woke up around 0215 and couldn’t get back to sleep.  I’ve been reading about parenteral glucagon to prepare for a discussion I expect to have later today with an incoming Scuba Adventure participant.  Unfortunately the participant submitted his medical very late and has been denied participation because he has Type 1 diabetes and does not fall within the parameters set by the Florida Sea Base.  I was hoping the reading would be boring enough to let me get back to sleep.  While it’s not very thrilling, it didn’t put me to sleep.  So here’s today’s post.  (Maybe this will put YOU to sleep.)

I slept in until 0630 yesterday.  I washed dishes (I have so few that I try to wait until I have enough to justify the water usage) then cleaned up.  I went to the municipal pool and swam laps for 45 minutes.  Then I went to Tavernier to investigate the possibility of taking some bougainvilleas home to the Dallas/Fort Worth area.  From what I’ve read, they should do okay in hanging baskets or in large pots that can be brought inside during the winter.  They can survive the cold, but stop growing below 60º.  The nice lady at the nursery said they could survive down to about 30º without dying.  We already have plants that get moved into the garage during the winter.  I’m thinking about building a closet inside the garage and putting a heat lamp and grow lights in it.  Next I stopped at West Marine for some plumbing supplies and then drove to the mainland to run a few more errands.

Yesterday was my daughter-in-law’s baby shower.  Destiny is due about the 7th of August I believe.  All is well with her and the granddaughter, Josie.

The Atlantic/Caribbean remains quiet.

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Our local forecast for the next 7 days is again very consistent; 30% chance of scattered showers, lows of 81-82, highs on 92-93.  The water temperature is 84.  We are experiencing very gentle breezes with a forecast for an increase to about 15 knots by midweek.  Overall, these are very typical conditions for this time of year.  The UV level is off the charts and deceptive this week due to the occasional cloudiness.  Clouds do NOT block UV radiation.  Being under a bimini top on a boat does not block UV radiation.  If you are at the Florida Sea Base, you need to have on sunscreen to protect your skin and polarized sunglasses to protect your eyes.  We had a small rain storm hit us about 2200 last night.  It looks like we are going to get smacked for about an hour by a small but potent cell in 30 minutes to an hour from now.  The Florida Sea Base is located right where the Highway 1 sign is on this map.  The cell to our south is coming right at us.

Weather Underground

I checked in with the base a few times yesterday and they reported that all was going well.  Sometimes they fib to me about little stuff when they know I’m trying to take a day off so I will find out later today if there are any issues that need my attention.  I’m going to check quickly on deck before this storm cell hits.

Have a great day.

Capt. Steve Willis
Aboard S/V Escape

My plan is to take Saturday off.  There’s nothing spectacular to report from Friday.  All went well.  No one died.  I didn’t poop my pants.  I did deal with three or four MDs who just couldn’t grasp the idea of zero loss.  Yes, we are more conservative in our practices than the general population.  Safety first.  It’s amazing that the Florida Sea Base has been taking kids diving for over 30 years without a youth fatality.  Safety first.  Did I mention that already?

Capt. Steve Willis
Aboard S/V Escape

Along with the rest of the Florida Sea Base permanent staff, I survived yesterday’s monthly Team Meeting.  Financially all is well.  My budget has taken some serious hits due to complications with the new Open Oceans Adventure, but we have contingency funds to cover such events.  The upgrades to the participant shower/restrooms SHOULD have been completed in February.  Then we were told early May; then mid-June; and at yesterday’s meeting we were PROMISED it would be completed on 01 July.  The only promise I can make is it won’t be finished on schedule.  Who knows when it will be completed?  It appears to me that the contractor shows up when he doesn’t have any other work.  This construction has been a MAJOR participant complaint this year.  The divers have to carry their gear further from the scuba area to the boats and the sailors have to use portable toilet facilities.  I apologize profusely, although the persons responsible for the inconvenience don’t feel your pain as much as Capt. Rich and I.  The only good news is the facilities should be very nice for future participants.:)

After the Team Meeting we had a meeting to discuss the new swimming pool that must be completed before 01 July 2013.  There will be serious repercussions if this project falls behind schedule.  We have the money; we have no push-back from the BSA and approval from the FSB Committee.  The battle will be in obtaining permits from the Village of Islamorada.  Have I ever mentioned that I frequently don’t sleep well?  This is another reason.

Our weather remains stable.  Northern Mexico or south Texas may experience a tropical system in 5 to 7 days but it’s not likely to devope into a hurricane.  Until then, the Atlantic and Caribbean and relatively quiet.

The seasonal staff is performing well.  Tim Stanfill, Food and Conference Director, is the newest member of our full-time staff.  He has, unfortunately, had to send two of his employees home this summer.  Sometimes people make poor decisions.  As managers our options for dealing with personnel problems are limited; we can ignore the situation and hope it doesn’t happen again, we can counsel the employee and give them a second chance, or we can send them home.  Many infractions fall under a zero tolerance policy.  I spend about four hours the first day of staff training trying to explain behaviors that will get people fired, especially the zero tolerance issues.  But sometimes it just doesn’t soak in or the staff members don’t believe us or they think they won’t get caught.  Letting people go is always difficult.  It puts everyone in a bind.  The Divemaster Academy has greatly reduced the number of staff that I terminate each year.  But even the DMA does not guarantee there won’t be issues.  Some people do their best but just don’t work out.

Hopefully no one gets the boot today.  Good weather, good food, good friends, good times, good music, good sailing, and great diving is the order for the day.

Capt. Steve Willis
Aboard S/V Escape

Dr. Ellen rejoined the Florida Sea Base program team early yesterday morning and wasted no time getting caught up, throwing stuff away, and getting the staff in line.  Welcome back Ellen.  You were missed.

In yesterday’s Wunderblog, Dr. Masters reported:

The Atlantic is quiet
The Atlantic is quiet, but several models, including the NOGAPS and GFS, are predicting that a tropical disturbance capable of becoming a tropical depression could form near Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula about seven days from now. In the Eastern Pacific, Hurricane Beatriz is gone, after being torn apart by Mexico’s high mountains during landfall. Beatriz is responsible for at least three deaths in Mexico.

Our local forecast has not changed since yesterday’s post.

For YEARS the majority of our scuba participants noted on their evaluation forms that they didn’t enjoy spending a day in Key West and wanted more dives.  So two or three years ago we invested $600,000 in dive boats so we could increase the number of dives and remove a sightseeing trip from the itinerary.  This past week the divers complained that we made them dive too much and maybe they should take a day off and go to Key West.  You can’t please all of the people all of the time.  If you want to spend your High Adventure experience wandering Duval Street in Key West, please sign up for the Keys Adventure or Sea Exploring program.

The locals frequently joke that the only way to escape a hurricane is to evacuate to North Dakota.  Now North Dakota is drowning.  Is no place safe?  Hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, fires, droughts, blizzards, snow storms, ice storms, icebergs, melting icebergs, no icebergs, volcanoes, sinkholes, ice packs, tundra, Mother Nature has a little something for everyone it seems.

Joy of joys!  We will have our monthly Team Meeting from 0900 to noon today followed by a meeting with the swimming pool company from noon to 1400.  Meetings are fun.  I love my job.

Capt. Steve Willis
Aboard S/V Escape

The weather for this week is pretty stable; lows 80-81, highs 91-92, 20% chance of rain every day, wind east to southeast at 10-15 knots.  No kidding.  The next seven days will be like the movie “Groundhog Day” as far as the weather is concerned.  For us, a 20% chance of rain is more descriptive if you look at from a 80% chance of sunshine.  In yesterday’s Wunderblog, Dr. Jeff Masters reported, “The Atlantic is quiet, with no tropical cyclones predicted over the next seven days by the reliable computer models”.

Everything is going well with the programs and participants.  We received truck loads of new sand for the volleyball court yesterday.  So we put some of the participants to work shoveling sand.  One of our staff members whacked his own big toe with a shovel.  It wasn’t as bad as it sounds, but it could have been.  We probably could have made a game out of “find the bloody toe in the sand” but I don’t know what would have been an appropriate prize.

Yesterday was Nancy Wells’ last day (for a while) of working the check-in desk.  She did a great job of subbing for Dr. Ellen.  I hope Nancy’s real work didn’t suffer too much.  Thanks for your help Nancy!

A quickie reminder: medications used to treat ADD, ADHD, OCD, and depression are NOT particularly compatible with scuba diving.  While there is no ban on such drugs within the BSA Scuba Policy, please discuss this at length with your doctor before deciding to mix these drugs with scuba diving.  Some people may be disqualified from scuba diving at the Florida Sea Base depending on the medications used.  These drugs can be dangerous under the increased pressures of scuba diving.  My suggestion is you look up the medication on the internet.  I like www.nlm.nih.gov because it is not owned by a pharmaceutical company.  Look carefully at the side effects.  Now think back to what you learned about nitrogen and pressure in your Open Water Diver certification course.  [For the non-divers, what we learned was that nitrogen, an inert gas that makes up about 79% of the gas we breath, poses no threat to us at sea level.  However, as divers descend, the pressure causes the nitrogen to have a greater effect on the brain.  The deeper you go, the greater the effect.  For most people, at depths near 100' nitrogen causes a feeling of euphoria or intoxication.  This can lead to poor decision making.  Even oxygen, the single most important gas to our existence, becomes toxic  under increased pressure and can (a does) cause convulsions and death.]  Now back to the side effects.  Although you may not experience any of the listed side effects of your medications at sea level (like suicidal tendencies), those side effects may be twice as strong at 33 feet, three times as strong at 66 feet and 4 times as strong at 99 feet of sea water.  I have personally been on a dive with a former staff member who was on antidepressants who usually experienced no side effects of his medication, but on this particular dive he became suicidal and tried to drown himself.  Fortunately he survived.  NONE of these medications are tested for safety or effectiveness under increased pressure.  No one, including your MD, can say what response your mind will have to these drugs underwater.  There is absolutely no scientific evidence that they are safe underwater.  Psychotropic drugs are of greatest concern.  And if you have made 100 dives while using the medication and have not had any problems, remember my divemaster dive buddy who could say the exact same thing until the day the medicine caused him to try to kill himself during a scuba dive.  Diving is safe.  Diving is fun.  But diving can be VERY unforgiving.  Drowning is a horrible way to die.

I will conclude with that jolly note.  I hope you have a safe day.  I am going to send 125 to 150 participants out scuba diving today.  I worry about each and every one of them.  Our “acceptable loss ratio” is ZERO.  No one dies.  No one gets hurt.  Everyone goes home safe.  Everyone has a great time.  150 divers a day, averaging 2 dives per diver per day, for 100 straight days during the summer session.  30,000 dives in three months.  30,000 chances for someone’s child to be hurt on my watch.  30,000 reasons why I cannot allow incompetence from the scuba staff.  ONE of the reasons I don’t always sleep well.

Capt. Steve Willis
Aboard S/V Escape

There are three severe weather events on the Pacific side of the world, but all remains quiet in the Atlantic and Caribbean.  Puerto Vallarta, Mexico is experiencing weather from Cat 1 Hurricane Beatriz today.

There are no major weather threats to the Florida Sea Base for the next few days.  We had some small, scatter showers and nearly calm winds yesterday.  Calms winds are (obviously) not good for sailing, but it does enhance the snorkeling and scuba diving.  Calm wind also brings out the mosquitos and other insects and makes the humidity less tolerable.

Nancy Wells did another excellent job of checking crews in and out.  She seems to really shine in that position.  Her help is GREATLY appreciated.  I also want to thank Stephanie Mansburger and Laura Kuras for making sure the leader packets are prepared each day.

Capt. Dennis Wyatt and I were sharing some brief “war stories” about former staff members with Food and Conference Director Tim Stanfill yesterday afternoon.  We really need to write those down before they are lost forever due to “old timers” disease.  We were laughing about an event that involved staff member Lacy Bobo a couple of years ago.  That story caused Capt. Dennis to share a new story with me.  I can’t do it justice but here goes.  A year or two ago we had a crew from a small town in Indiana attending one of our sailing programs. Bo was the Mate (staff member) assigned to the crew and they were in the Chart Room talking about their upcoming adventure.  Capt. Dennis walked into the room and Bo introduced him to her crew.  Members of the crew responded, “Capt. Dennis?  THE Capt. Dennis?  You’re a LEGEND back home.”  Apparently they had sent another crew down previously and that crew shared stories of their experiences that spread around the small town.  Capt. Dennis Wyatt; published author, TV star and a legend in a small town in Indiana.  What a resume.  Stories of Capt. Dennis are told in Florida, Tennessee, Nevada, and Alaska and just about everywhere in between (including Indiana).  He really needs to write a new book.  [The true story of Capt. Dennis introducing the FSB General Manager to a bag of urine is classical.  Although Dr. Ellen (aka Mrs. Wyatt) won't let him share the story that involves a female pharmacist asking, "How big is the baby" anymore, that story is one of my absolute all-time favorites.]  His first book, “The Bald Man and the Sea” is out of print.  Sometimes you can find copies on eBay.  I laughed so hard that I cried reading some of those stories.

Capt. Steve Willis
Aboard S/V Escape