Florida Sea Base News

Saturday was quiet at the Florida Sea Base.  The weather was perfect (a little too warm for those who must have some point of contention).  The staff did their usual great work.  Capt. Dennis Wyatt, Dan Mikalian and Ellen Wyatt drove BSA Tarpon to Marathon so it could be hauled out to have the engine oil and lower unit oil changed.  Capt. Alex Bergstedt assisted.

Capt. Alex Bergstedt and Gwynne Carpenter were able to plug into the live video of the opening ceremonies at the National Jamboree so interested participants and staff could watch.  I appreciate their efforts.

I slept in a bit, made a nice breakfast and in the afternoon I saw “Dinner for Schmucks”.  It was pretty funny and I would recommend it if you like mindless movies.  It did have a moral, but the one liners made the movie.  The plot was very predictable.  This is my kind of movie.  I don’t need to pay for a movie to be made sad, or mad or taught a lesson.  I just want to be entertained for a while, laugh out loud, and leave with nothing more than maybe a little indigestion from the popcorn.

I’m still keeping an eye on the tropics.  We’re okay for now.  The system in the far Atlantic has been officially labeled Invest 91 (a.k.a. Invest 91L or 91L).  It is too far out (about 3,000 nm) to make any reasonable projections but it definitely warrants our attention.  I am beginning to be more concerned about September, October and November.  Those are the months that I usually travel for training and to see family.  It is very difficult to just tie up the boat and leave it behind when SERIOUS weather is threatening.  My mom, sister, granddaughter and I all have birthdays the third week of September so I always try hard to be home then.  I hope I can make it this year.

Back to the present – all is well.  The New York Times has an article regarding the Deepwater Horizon situation.  I hope they get it permanently secured very soon.  And I hope the government, politicians, news media and public see this situation through to the end.  I worry that our A.D.D. society will leave this behind in search of a new shiny object.  The lingering oil and chemical agents will need attention for a long time to come.

Sundays and Wednesdays are big scuba arrival days.  We will have our usual 07:30 staff meeting followed by flags and breakfast.  The remainder of the morning schedule pauses for about a half hour for Sunday chapel services and then it’s back to the regular routine.  A Scout is reverent.

Capt. Steve
Aboard S/V Escape

Good afternoon from the Florida Sea Base.  Just hours after I made this morning’s post NOAA recognized another Invest system, 94L.  We had Invest 92L last week and now 93L and 94L simultaneously.  It looks like it will be and active season in the North Atlantic as predicted.

From Weather Underground

From Weather Underground

We certainly had an active day at the base.  In the morning, Capt. Kim on S/V Rainbow Connection broke a steering cable and was towed in by Capt. Rich for repairs.  This afternoon, Capt. Geoff was unable to start S/V Silent Harmony to return to the Florida Sea Base so Capt. Rich and I towed him in.  Then one of the little sailboats blew out its mainsail and ran aground so Capt. Rich and I towed them back in.  While we appreciate all of God’s gifts, including the wind, we are experiencing just a little too much wind currently.  It will slow down to zero before long and we will be lamenting the lack of wind.  So we do our best to take what we are given and make the best of it.

We received another load of sand for the volleyball court today.  Added to yesterday’s delivery, the court is much better.  If we get really lucky we might get one more load.  We also received a third washer/dryer for the staff laundry.  It’s not connected yet, but we are looking forward to the expansion.

That’s about all for right now.  Tomorrow is my scheduled day off.  I have a lot of personal projects that need my attention.  I may not post tomorrow.  If not, I will certainly be back at it on Sunday.

Capt. Steve
Aboard S/V Escape

The strong winds will dominate for even longer at the Florida Sea Base.  NOAA forecasts 20 knot winds from the east through Saturday and 15 knot winds through Tuesday (the end of the current forecast period).  The wind actually shifted to the east-northeast (ENE) yesterday and gave us a very tolerable day of diving.  As I have mentioned before, the wind has been okay for the sailors.  They are reefing sails and staying mostly on the bay side.

EHre’s the morning report on Invest 93L from Weather Underground:

Credit: Weather Underground

Capt. Alex Bergstedt and Matt McClure are off today.  I am “recovering” from yesterday afternoon and last night.  Without being too graphic, I will just say that I have spent more of the last 12 hours on the toilet than off.  I haven’t felt “bad”; no nausea; but I obviously found some type of bug somewhere, somehow.  I’m doing my best to stay hydrated.  I fixed dinner on the boat and ate well (although it was a challenge to not burn anything while running back and for to the head).  Things seem to have slowed down so maybe the worst is over.  But believe me, I will do my best to not stray far from the bathroom today.

We received one load of good sand for the volleyball court yesterday (we need three more).  We expanded from one to two courts this summer and we are having some growing pains.  I expect the courts will be in pretty good shape about the end of summer (of course).  The courts are in near constant use.  I think we could cut out the sailing and diving and just have volleyball and hammocks under the palm trees and most of the kids would still have a blast.

Some of you may remember that 50 feet of chain disappeared from a bucket on the dock by my boat while we were delivering the BSA Centennial Eagle from Slidell, LA to the Florida Sea Base.  I am very disappointed to report that no one has acknowledged borrowing the chain.  Capt. Dennis Dugas of S/V Wandering Star even snorkeled around the dock to see if the chain somehow fell out of the bucket and into the water.  No luck.  I spent $154 to replace the chain.  The new chain is secured on my boat.  When I was a kid this situation would have been considered theft.  But in today’s society it is apparently my fault because I presented some otherwise honest person with too much temptation and caused them to take the chain.  Shame on me.

It’s time to hit the shower and prepare for another “opening day” at the Florida Sea Base.  So far, we remain oil free, there are no imminent threats of hurricanes for the next week and only 60 days of summer program are left.  Time flies when you’re having fun!!!

Capt. Steve
Aboard S/V Escape

I slept in this morning until 07:00 – late for me.  I thought I would do a little composing while I was making my do list for the day.

It’s challenging for Capt. Rich or I to take a day off during the program season at the Florida Sea Base.  We have a very competent staff and great staff leaders; that is not the issue.  I think it’s probably because we have new crews arriving and departing every day, all of the staff members, captains and most vendors have our cell phone numbers, and we physically live on the base.  A sub-issue caused by the every day arrivals is that it is very easy for us to lose track of what day of the week it is.  So even if I tell everyone that I am going to take Saturday off, they forget today is Saturday and call me anyway.  Or if I am trying to do laundry or work on my boat or if I’m messing with my truck and a staff member or participant sees me they don’t really care that I’m “off”, they just want their question answered or their issue resolved.  It’s even worse for Capt. Rich because he has 40 plus captains and mates from the Sea Exploring, Coral Reef Sailing and Sea Exploring programs that have him on speed dial.  So we will see how the day off goes.  First on the list is to fix a nice breakfast for myself.  I’ll follow up with you later in the day.

Okay; so the day went like this.  After writing the above paragraph I fixed breakfast, wash dishes and straightened up the salon & galley areas of Escape.  Then I received a phone call from a couple who wanted a boat that I was helping a friend give away.  That took until noon.  I had lunch at the Florida Sea Base (salad and baked potato bar).  After lunch I changed the linens on the bed and then watched an episode of the TV show “Chuck” that I had downloaded from iTunes.  Then I tried to take a short nap but the phone kept ringing so that didn’t work.  I spent a little while messing around on the computer.  Then I went to Smuggler’s Cove for dinner and had a Cuban dish called Mojo Pork; pulled pork over black beans and rice.  It was excellent.  I was joined by Captains Mike & Kelly and Scuba Instructor Teri from the Tuesday Scuba Liveaboard program.  And now I’m back aboard Escape.

Capt. Rich and Capt. Alex are off tomorrow.  I have a few things to discuss with the staff at the 07:30 meeting.  Thanks for reading.

Capt. Steve
Aboard S/V Escape

ALMOST everyone was off today at the Florida Sea Base.  Andy set out some breakfast items, Clyde dealt with the Sea School folks and Sarah had to put together a food order for the Coral Reef Sailing crew that arrives tomorrow.  Oh, Kathleen and Logan worked in Admin.  As far as I know, everyone else enjoyed a day off.  I saw Ranger Joe riding his sail board, Capt. Carol was working on nursing school assignments, Capt. Kelly was working on the lesson plan for the upcoming Eco Adventure crew.  Capt. Mike spliced some dock lines and prepared S/V Ciao Bella for tomorrow’s Coral Reef Sailing crew.  Capt. Rich is still in St. Petersburg.  I worked on S/V Escape, picked up my laundry, and picked up my dinghy outboard.  I have just a touch of a sore throat so I took some Nyquil and I am headed to bed.