Florida Sea Base News

Yesterday was very nice and summer like.  Today another front blew through the Florida Sea Base and we are getting our tails kicked AGAIN.  I have put out extra lines to starboard, tightened the spring lines to hold me farther off the dock and I’m having a fit trying to type with the boat kicking around like she is.  The front came through at about 1330 local time.  There will be very – if any – sleep aboard S/V Escape tonight.  MAYBE the wind will clock more to the north sooner than forecasted  Those of us on the dock can only hope.

The weather also blew in hundreds of juvenile Portuguese Man-of-Wars.

Several juvenile Man-of-Wars between S/V Escape and S/V Endeavour.

A large School (?) of Man-of-War off the bow of S/V Vivid.

We have boats on the water but they have all found safe anchorages for the night.  They are actually better off than we are on the dock.  Being at anchor keeps the vessel pointed into the wind and it rides much smoother that way.  We are getting hammered broadside and it is hard on the pilings, hard on the boats and hard on the inhabitants.

The scuba crews made a valiant effort to go diving this afternoon at Alligator Reef.  However, once on site, the conditions were too rough and the dive was cancelled.  The crews will probably go to Key West tomorrow and the wind should be much calmer by Wednesday.

The wind is howling and the boat is creaking in protest.  Nyquil and ear plugs are in order for this evening.

I’m going to try to insert a 10 second video of the wind howling through the palm trees at the Florida Sea Base.  I’ve never done this before so we will see what happens.  Try clicking on the link and let me know if it doesn’t work.

P3290497

Today was our first check-in / check-out day in almost a week.  The Scuba Liveaboard crew returned from their adventure today.  One Coral Reef Sailing crew and one Sea Exploring crew arrived to being their adventures today.  Tomorrow and Sunday business really picks up.

Capt. Ron Kullick arrived today aboard S/V Sudden Impulse.  He will receive a Coral Reef Sailing crew in a day or two.  Capt. Russell Dockery aboard S/V Rosa del Mar is also due to arrive today.  The T-dock is FULL.  After some of the boats get their kids and set sail we can have other boats arrive at the dock to prepare for their crews.  If gets crazy around here sometimes.

At about 16:00 we had a large diesel spill was into our harbor.  The wind is blowing hard from the west.  There is a little key a few hundred yards off the T-dock we call “Bird Island”.  This key is used for storing lobster traps by some of the local commercial lobster fishermen.  My guess is they have some 55 gallon barrels of diesel stored on the key.  One of them may have fallen over or a hole could have rusted through.  I really don’t know what the cause is, but the effect are a swim area inundated with diesel and a lot of headaches on the dock from captains breathing the diesel fumes.  The authorities were notified but they will wait until the diesel evaporates rather than trying to remove it from the water.

We’re having a front move through.  We’ve been flirting with the chance of serious rain all day.  We still may get a hard shower but it looks like it will probably go around us.  We’re still getting the hard west wind as I mentioned earlier.

It’s time for dinner.  I’ll be back tomorrow.

THE news of the day is Capt. Rich.  He had surgery on his leg yesterday to correct some problems with a vein.  They thought the operation would take about 30 minutes but it actually took over three hours.  He says the leg hurts a lot, but he is up and walking on it.  Fell free to email him your get well wishes.

Today’s front moved through the Florida Sea Base between 1400 and 1430.  The rain was mostly light, but picked up for about 15 minutes.  The wind is much more tolerable this time, about 15 knots out of the west.  The temperatures are supposed to be much cooler through Saturday, but nothing vicious.

Several of the staff spent much of today in the 67 degree swimming pool working towards their PADI Open Water Diver certification.  Capt. Alex Bergstedt is teaching the course.  Divemaster Meghann Michalski has enrolled in an upcoming Instructor Development Course at Florida Keys Dive Center so she is assisting Capt. Alex and brushing up on her skills.  Milly McCoy is at Flakeys (Florida Keys Dive Center) again today assisting with the current Instructor Development Course there.  [So Capt. Steve, why do they call the Florida Keys Dive Center "Flakeys"?  Well kids, I was told that many, many years ago when the Florida Keys Dive Center originally opened for business they needed a sign.  So they hired a sign painter.  Apparently the painter thought the name was too long so he decided to abbreviate it.  Now most of you are probably too young to remember this, but the US Postal Service used have three letter abbreviations for every state instead of the current two letter abbreviations.  The abbreviation for Florida was FLA.  So the sign read "FLA. KEYS DIVE CENTER".  That morphed into Flakeys Dive Center and eventually into just Flakeys.  So there you have a bit of Keys history.]

I received a phone call from the owner of Ocean Divers in Key Largo today.  Joe said all of his scuba instructors have been certified as Scuba Diving merit badge counselors.  Check out their website when you have time.

For the prospective summer scuba staff – I am right down to the last 4 decisions.  I will have those finalized in the next day or two.  Thank you for your patience.  Believe me, NO ONE wants the hiring to be finalized more than me.

Yesterday’s cold front did not have near the temperature chilling effects of the January front, but there were some very serious winds.  The Florida Sea Base proper did not see winds over 25 knots from the frontal passage.  But Florida and the Keys saw some intense winds in various locations.  There were several storm cells with winds of 62 to 72 knots (Category 1 hurricane strength winds).  One cell that passed through an uninhabited area known as Shark River (about 40 miles due north of the Florida Sea Base on the southwest tip of the state) had a cell with 87 knot winds (Category 2 hurricane strength winds).  The winds will continue to be breezy for the next few days and the daily highs will cool down to about 65 – 70 for Sunday and Monday.

Our shark research team went out yesterday (before the bad weather of course).  They caught, recorded, tagged and released 11 sharks.  The program is sponsored by the University of Miami and the participants are high schoolers from a magnet school in Broward County.  They come down fairly frequently.  I will get the full details and write a separate post on that topic.

The El Nino front that has been marching across the southern US arrived at the Florida Sea Base today.  At 1300 (1:00 pm) the wind clocked from southwest at 19 knots to west northwest at 29 knots.  It rained for an hour or so and then the temperature started dropping.  A large palm frond was dislodged from one of our tallest palm trees and hit a power line causing us to loose power for an hour or two.  All is reasonably well now.  The temperature is 66 and still falling.  The wind is howling from the northwest (a bumpy nights sleep on the boat tonight).  But the power is back on and it’s past my bed time.

Here are a few reminders:

2011 reservations are open at www.bsaseabase.org.
Goodies are available for sale at www.fsbshipstore.com.
Summer staff applications need to be faxed to Rob Kolb at 305-664-2039.

What a nail biter the New Orleans / Minnesota game was.  To be honest, I was pulling for NO before the game, but it sure was hard to see Favre take the beating that he took and not feel sympathetic for the guy.  Anyway, the Super Bowl should be a good game.  Good night.