Florida Sea Base News

I drove my boss and his wife to Miami yesterday to see the doctor.  I had a doctor’s appointment 30 minutes later about 20 minutes away.  My doctor was on call at the hospital so my 1100 appointment turned into a 90 minute wait.  Fortunately, there is a McDonald’s about 2 blocks from my doctor’s office and they offer free high speed internet.  So I sat in my car, in the Micky D’s parking lot in the rain and listened to XM radio and entertained myself on the world wide web.  I could have never conceived of such a scene when I was in college.  I guess that’s why Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are multi-billionares and I work for the Boy Scouts.  I woke up around 0500, wrote my post for the morning, worked in the office until the server crashed, left the base at 0800, picked up my passengers, drove to Miami, dropped off my passengers, sat at McDonald’s, went to the doctor, picked up my passengers, delivered used scuba equipment to a buyer in Florida City, had an early dinner, and returned to base at 1900.  It was a long day.

Tropical Storm Katia is churning in the Atlantic.  The forecasted track is showing a pretty good curve towards the north; bad news for Bermuda but potentially good news for the US east coast.

Click to enlarge.

The system in the Caribbean is still not officially designated with a name or number, but is definitely moving towards the very warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico where it could develop very quickly.  The Weather Channel reports:

Closer to the U.S., we have a more immediate concern. Depicted in the graphic below over the northwest Caribbean is a tropical disturbance with collocated shower and thunderstorm activity. Numerous computer models forecast that this system could develop into a tropical depression or tropical storm later this week as it makes a move towards the western Gulf of Mexico.

It’s too early to say what impacts this system may have, but residents and those with plans along the Gulf Coast late this week into the Labor Day weekend should monitor the situation closely, particularly in Texas and Louisiana.

Click to enlarge.

My main chores for today include teaming with Captain Rich Beliveau to “seasonalize” our 2411 budget.  The sailing and scuba programs at the Florida Sea Base are joined as a single cost center.  The actual budget is complete.  Now we have to engage in a process that is bizarre.  We have about a dozen different accounts within our cost center.  We have to decide how much we will spend in each account each month.  Here’s why I called the process bizarre.  The National Office uses the seasonalization to forecast their monthly cash flow.  When we make an error, they get upset.  But SO much of this is beyond our control that this whole process is quite frustrating.  We have to foresee not when we will order something, not when we will receive it, not when we will receive the invoice, and not when we will approve the invoice for payment.  We have to foresee when the payment will be issued by the National Office.  Does anyone have a crystal ball they would like to sell?

Other chores for today include ordering more program equipment and getting Kyle Moran and Terri Wells up to speed on selling the used equipment.

Captain Dennis and Dr. Ellen snuck off yesterday while I was in Miami.  They said they will be back for our Christmas season.  Several more staff are departing today including Captain Alex Bergstedt, Maya, Scott Patton and several others.

Stay safe.

Capt. Steve Willis
Aboard S/V Escape 

Today will be very interesting at the Florida Sea Base.  If you are not aware, IndyCar team owner, Dale Coyne, is a major supporter of the BSA and even displays the BSA logo on his car.   Mr. Coyne, who has formed an alliance with the BSA, and some folks from the National Office will be visiting us today.

Click on photo to enlarge.

We also have two prestigious groups coming to the Florida Sea Base for training; the Society for Ortho-Bionomy and the National Marine Sanctuaries Superintendents.  As I said, it should be an interesting day.

We have a slight chance (10%) of rain and a forecasted high of 73º today.  The wind should be out of the east at 10 to 15 knots, just shy of requiring a small craft advisory.  Capt. Rich is scheduled to take Mr. Coyne and company on a boat ride aboard BSA Centennial Eagle, our newest Newton 46′ Dive Special.  It may be a little bumpy if we go on the ocean side, but not too bad.

I hope your team won yesterday.  It’s interesting that the Steelers and Packers have nearly identical trim on their jerseys.  Yellow is my favorite color.  Both the colored and the white jerseys of each team has yellow trim.  Back in the day I was a Cowboys fan (I no longer consider myself a fan of any particular team).  The Cowboys enjoyed a pretty serious rivalry with the Packers back then.  I think by default I’ll have to root for the Steelers in the Super Bowl.

The local news is on while I’m writing this.  They just announced that Miami is the fourth “rudest” city in the US.  They rank very high in this category every year.  Personally, I feel sorry for the folks in Los Angeles, New York,  and Philadelphia.  I have never been to any of those cities.  But it is hard to image people being more rude than they are in Miami.  I would nominate Miami as the rudest city in the world.

Capt. Steve
Aboard S/V Escape

I had the pleasure of departing the Florida Sea Base around 0730 this morning on missions to Fort Lauderdale and Miami.  We were scheduled to leave at 0700 but the first Florida Sea Base van we loaded up (in the dark) had a flat tire.  So we had to unload, reload and then we were on our way.  ”We” included Capt. Rich Beliveau and Capt. Jeff Peacock and me.  Our first stop was Super Sailmakers in Fort Lauderdale.  Capt. Peacock dropped off the jib from one of the 33′ Morgans used in the Keys Adventure program for them to use as a pattern to make a new one.  To say the old one was worn out would be an understatement.

The next stop was to the boat yard in Fort Lauderdale where the BSA Scoutmaster was being repowered with twin Suzuki 300 horse power motors.  We were disappointed to learn that the vessel was not ready.  And even worse, at 10:30 in the morning the workers had not even showed up yet.  Blood pressure medicine all around, please.  Despite the condition of the vessel, I continued on with running errands while Captains Rich and Jeff waited for the mechanics.

My next stop was E-Marine Systems where I dropped off the wind generator from S/V Ciao Bella.  [Wind generators use the wind to generate DC power.  They do not actually make wind.]  Anyway, the nice man said it should be repaired in a week and that it would be shipped back to us at no cost.  Next was the West Marine store in Fort Lauderdale.  It is much larger and generally better stocked than the West Marine stores in the Keys.  I found all but one of the items I needed.  Next I made flank speed to the Miami International Airport to pick up our Director of Conferences and Food Services, Chrystene Matthews.  Chrystene was returning from a trade show in North Carolina.  Or was it South Carolina?  Sorry Chrystene, I have already forgotten.

From there we went to the Miami office of the Medical Doctor who serves as the Florida Sea Base Health Advisor.  I delivered a package to him and visited for just a few minutes.  Then it was onward to the Florida Sea Base.  Capt. Rich reported that he and Capt. Jeff had encouraged the mechanics to quit piddling and were actually on their way back via water with the boat.

I did office stuff for about an hour and finally gave up and came out to my boat, S/V Escape.  I worked on Escape for about an hour and now I’m writing this blog.  I have another hour’s worth of work in me and then I am calling it quits for the day.  The four hours of sleep I got last night are wearing off.

S/V Escape - Home Sweet Home

The Florida Sea Base administrative offices were closed today for President’s Day.  While George Washington’s birthday is 22 February, the US Congress decided we would celebrate it on the 3rd Monday of February each year.

I was “off the rock” today.  Since the Florida Sea Base sits on a chunk of fossilized coral it (and sometimes the Keys in general) is referred to as “the rock”.  Today I drove to the Miami International Airport and picked up my wife who is visiting for five days.  We had no scuba crews today.  Capt. Rich, the Sailing Director, was in charge of the base.  Crews arrived.  No one froze to death during their swim review.  And no one died today (at the Florida Sea Base) so it was a great day!

It was actually a very nice day with more seasonable temperatures.  The high was in the upper 70s.  It will be cooler again tomorrow and for most of the rest of the week.  But the temperature is trying very hard to get back to normal.