Shuttle shuffle – May 2010
Wed. May 12, 2010
Sunset Harbor Yacht Club – Daytona Beach, FL
Today we headed back out on the boat, and are headed with four other boats south to Titusville to watch the shuttle launch up close and personal. It was an uneventful trip to Daytona which worried me because I know, there has to be at least one mishap, each time we go out. The boat Gods did not disappoint, and saved the adventure for our docking at the Marina. We arrived at the Marina just behind our friends Jim and Danette. They did not have that, “relaxed – hey we are here on vacation’” kind of look about them. It took about three minutes to find out why. As we approached our slip, the winds and current grabbed us swiftly, sweeping us about 8 feet sideways. Luckily, Jon and allowed for some wind, but the stern of our boat clipped one of the pilings, and ripped the dingy off of the hinged bracket. We had about five people all pulling on lines trying to help get us in, and finally we were somewhat secure. We had to still get a stern line on a piling to our stern, that was about ten feet away. Jon and Jim remedied this by getting into the dinghy, and rowing over to the piling – it was not easy though, with two grown men in a tiny dinghy trying to lassoo a piling, while being swept around in the current like a toy boat being flushed down a toilet. The “men” accomplished their mission, and we were finally secure. Jim, bless his heart, then went into the water to check our prop for us because we were worried that dinghy line may have wrapped around the prop when the dinghy got ripped off of the boat. Luckily, no lines were wrapped around the prop.
Jon, the tool guy, just happened to have packed his angle grinder, so he went to work grinding the old adhesive off of the dinghy, and used a one step prep to reattach the hinge so we do not have to tow the dinghy behind us. Hopefully this will hold for the round trip and we can repair again when we get back.
Crew, did not attempt to get down from the bridge, I think all of the commotion made him a bit edgy. I pray this will not lead to another case of stress colitis. Four of the five boats all have dogs, and Crew has met the other dogs and likes them, so hopefully a play date will calm him down.
The people plan is to meet at the pool for an evening of heavy h’ordeuves and cocktails, then off to Titusville tomorrow AM.
Wed. May 12, 2010
Sunset Harbor Yacht Club – Daytona Beach, FL
Today we headed back out on the boat, and are headed with four other boats south to Titusville to watch the shuttle launch up close and personal. It was an uneventful trip to Daytona which worried me because I know, there has to be at least one mishap, each time we go out. The boat Gods did not disappoint, and saved the adventure for our docking at the Marina. We arrived at the Marina just behind our friends Jim and Danette. They did not have that, “relaxed – hey we are here on vacation’” kind of look about them. It took about three minutes to find out why. As we approached our slip, the winds and current grabbed us swiftly, sweeping us about 8 feet sideways. Luckily, Jon and allowed for some wind, but the stern of our boat clipped one of the pilings, and ripped the dingy off of the hinged bracket. We had about five people all pulling on lines trying to help get us in, and finally we were somewhat secure. We had to still get a stern line on a piling to our stern, that was about ten feet away. Jon and Jim remedied this by getting into the dinghy, and rowing over to the piling – it was not easy though, with two grown men in a tiny dinghy trying to lassoo a piling, while being swept around in the current like a toy boat being flushed down a toilet. The “men” accomplished their mission, and we were finally secure. Jim, bless his heart, then went into the water to check our prop for us because we were worried that dinghy line may have wrapped around the prop when the dinghy got ripped off of the boat. Luckily, no lines were wrapped around the prop.
Jon, the tool guy, just happened to have packed his angle grinder, so he went to work grinding the old adhesive off of the dinghy, and used a one step prep to reattach the hinge so we do not have to tow the dinghy behind us. Hopefully this will hold for the round trip and we can repair again when we get back.
Crew, did not attempt to get down from the bridge, I think all of the commotion made him a bit edgy. I pray this will not lead to another case of stress colitis. Four of the five boats all have dogs, and Crew has met the other dogs and likes them, so hopefully a play date will calm him down.
The people plan is to meet at the pool for an evening of heavy h’ordeuves and cocktails, then off to Titusville tomorrow AM.
Jim and Jon lasooing the piling
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Titusville Marina
Last night was mucho fun. We all congregated at the pool in the afternoon for cocktail thirty. We then regrouped on the dock at our boats, and delish h’ordeuves and cocktail hour (or two…) We agreed to set our own pace this morning. The cast of characters for this trip are: Jim and Danette on Peace, Pat and Dave on Indecision, Vern and Lee on Lovelee, and Dave and Elaine on Lorelei. We are all members of MTOA.
We left this AM around 7:00 AM with Peace. A very beautiful day on the water. The wild life on this part of the ICW is breath taking ! We cruised past New Smyrna and the bridge we watched the last shuttle from, then through the Haulover canal which is one of my favorite little passages, then arrived in Titusville about 2:00 PM. Only Indecision and us are in the marina, the others anchored right outside of the marina. We did after boating chores, took crew for walk, then I had to walk to the grocery store ( and is was very hot – read, I was very hot and kind of irritated) to get the one ingredient I forgot for my curry chutney chicken salad, and Jon grilled up the 3 pounds of chicken for the salad. I then made a big batch of black bean corn salad. Time for a quick shower, then Jim and Danette arrived on their dinghy, and we met the rest of the group. We were joined by Elaine and Fred who drove down from Palm Coast, then split into two vehicles to go to an Irish pub. I was with Pat and Dave, who have a place in Titusville and knew where we were going, Jon was in the other vehicle, who discovered they did not know where they were going, and no one in that vehicle had their cell phones with them. Dave dropped us off at the Irish Pub, where we promptly ordered a pitcher of Smitty’s, and then Dave took off to cruise the streets of Titusville in search of the other vehicle. The other vehicle eventually showed up, and we learned that they had gone to the Scottish pub instead of the Irish pub, so we ordered more Smitty’s and waited for Dave to return. Dave finally returned and we ordered more Smitty’s. We then ordered dinner and - more Smitty’s. This will surprise you about me, and I do not know how I did it, but as we were getting ready to eat, someone at the end of the table asked for some silverware which was neatly wrapped up in napkins in a pile in front of me. I quickly grabbed a bundle, and as I lifted it to pass it down, the fork came flying out of the napkin, and stabbed me on my lip. Now this did not draw blood, but I felt like no one was paying attention to my plight, so I informed everyone of the incident, and made sure they all understood the gravity of the situation, and that it was only the luck of the Irish that I did not poke my eye out. Once I felt everyone was in agreement that it was in fact a very grave incident and that I was lucky to have escaped with my vision, we ordered more Smitty’s and I was happy.
I do not know who thought that since some had visited the Scottish pub that night, that the evening would be topped off with some fine single malt scotch, but since Jim and Danette had to come back to our boat for their dinghy, that is exactly what happened. I do not think I would make it a habit to combine Smitty’s and Scotch, but it seemed to work well for us tonight – now off to bed with visions of flying forks playing in my head !
Titusville Marina
Last night was mucho fun. We all congregated at the pool in the afternoon for cocktail thirty. We then regrouped on the dock at our boats, and delish h’ordeuves and cocktail hour (or two…) We agreed to set our own pace this morning. The cast of characters for this trip are: Jim and Danette on Peace, Pat and Dave on Indecision, Vern and Lee on Lovelee, and Dave and Elaine on Lorelei. We are all members of MTOA.
We left this AM around 7:00 AM with Peace. A very beautiful day on the water. The wild life on this part of the ICW is breath taking ! We cruised past New Smyrna and the bridge we watched the last shuttle from, then through the Haulover canal which is one of my favorite little passages, then arrived in Titusville about 2:00 PM. Only Indecision and us are in the marina, the others anchored right outside of the marina. We did after boating chores, took crew for walk, then I had to walk to the grocery store ( and is was very hot – read, I was very hot and kind of irritated) to get the one ingredient I forgot for my curry chutney chicken salad, and Jon grilled up the 3 pounds of chicken for the salad. I then made a big batch of black bean corn salad. Time for a quick shower, then Jim and Danette arrived on their dinghy, and we met the rest of the group. We were joined by Elaine and Fred who drove down from Palm Coast, then split into two vehicles to go to an Irish pub. I was with Pat and Dave, who have a place in Titusville and knew where we were going, Jon was in the other vehicle, who discovered they did not know where they were going, and no one in that vehicle had their cell phones with them. Dave dropped us off at the Irish Pub, where we promptly ordered a pitcher of Smitty’s, and then Dave took off to cruise the streets of Titusville in search of the other vehicle. The other vehicle eventually showed up, and we learned that they had gone to the Scottish pub instead of the Irish pub, so we ordered more Smitty’s and waited for Dave to return. Dave finally returned and we ordered more Smitty’s. We then ordered dinner and - more Smitty’s. This will surprise you about me, and I do not know how I did it, but as we were getting ready to eat, someone at the end of the table asked for some silverware which was neatly wrapped up in napkins in a pile in front of me. I quickly grabbed a bundle, and as I lifted it to pass it down, the fork came flying out of the napkin, and stabbed me on my lip. Now this did not draw blood, but I felt like no one was paying attention to my plight, so I informed everyone of the incident, and made sure they all understood the gravity of the situation, and that it was only the luck of the Irish that I did not poke my eye out. Once I felt everyone was in agreement that it was in fact a very grave incident and that I was lucky to have escaped with my vision, we ordered more Smitty’s and I was happy.
I do not know who thought that since some had visited the Scottish pub that night, that the evening would be topped off with some fine single malt scotch, but since Jim and Danette had to come back to our boat for their dinghy, that is exactly what happened. I do not think I would make it a habit to combine Smitty’s and Scotch, but it seemed to work well for us tonight – now off to bed with visions of flying forks playing in my head !
Potluck at the marina - Jon, Danette, Lee, Vern, Elaine, Dave, Pat, Dave and Jim
Daytona to Titusville
Jim and Danette on Peace
Jaws
Peace at Haulover canal bridge
Our sweet Crew
Dave and Pat
Jim and Danette
Danette and Jon
Us
Susan and Dave
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Forecasters say there's a 70 percent chance the weather will cooperate for today's final launch of space shuttle Atlantis. Fueling began early this morning for the journey to the International Space Station. Launch time is 2:20 p.m., Eastern time.
We were up and after morning hustle, had no time to spare when Jim picked us up on his dinghy to ferry us to Peace. We decided to only take two boats out to the shuttle, so we split up between Peace and Lovelee. We were joined on Peace by Dave and Elaine, and Jim, Penny and Mylon who drove down for the day from Palm Coast. We were anchored and rafted up by 12:15 PM. We were situated directly in front of the Space Center with a perfect, unobstructed view of the shuttle. We had a great potluck lunch, and an assortment of adult beverages as we prepared for the shuttle take off. If you wonder how we prepared for the take off, it included discussion about if we actually were looking at the right tower for take off, should we leave the food out or take it in, should we continue to drink bloody Mary’s or switch to beer or wine – you know the usual important decisions and preparation that life is made of. Once the big decisions were made, the women gathered and put our creative minds together to develop the “Space Shuttle Shuffle” dance (soon to be trademarked )which included the intitial rumble, lift off, G-force, break off, then floating moves. We were then serenaded by Vern on his quitar with music he written which included some lovely ballads, as well as “island mode” music about a man who did not need anything but “Candy for his eyes” – I could have listened to Vern all afternoon, but shuttle take off time arrived quickly. I do not know how to describe how magnificent the shuttle launch was. We first saw a large burst of smoke , then fire, then the shuttle took off. It was not until about a minute later that we were hit with the sound of the takeoff, and you could feel the rattle in your chest I was so profound. We watched until it was out of sight, and then prepared for our departure back to the marina.
After a day in the sun and on the water, we collectively agreed we were all lazy tired. Jon and I returned to our boat, took Crew out for a walk, did some boat chores, then met up with everyone for a pot luck picnic on the water in a beautiful pavilion with picnic tables. It was an early evening tonight for all us, and we are headed to bed after Jon makes some popcorn with plans for an early start back up to Daytona tomorrow. We will be joined by Jim and Danette on Peace, and Indecision, Loralei and Lovelee are all continuing to cruise south.
We were up and after morning hustle, had no time to spare when Jim picked us up on his dinghy to ferry us to Peace. We decided to only take two boats out to the shuttle, so we split up between Peace and Lovelee. We were joined on Peace by Dave and Elaine, and Jim, Penny and Mylon who drove down for the day from Palm Coast. We were anchored and rafted up by 12:15 PM. We were situated directly in front of the Space Center with a perfect, unobstructed view of the shuttle. We had a great potluck lunch, and an assortment of adult beverages as we prepared for the shuttle take off. If you wonder how we prepared for the take off, it included discussion about if we actually were looking at the right tower for take off, should we leave the food out or take it in, should we continue to drink bloody Mary’s or switch to beer or wine – you know the usual important decisions and preparation that life is made of. Once the big decisions were made, the women gathered and put our creative minds together to develop the “Space Shuttle Shuffle” dance (soon to be trademarked )which included the intitial rumble, lift off, G-force, break off, then floating moves. We were then serenaded by Vern on his quitar with music he written which included some lovely ballads, as well as “island mode” music about a man who did not need anything but “Candy for his eyes” – I could have listened to Vern all afternoon, but shuttle take off time arrived quickly. I do not know how to describe how magnificent the shuttle launch was. We first saw a large burst of smoke , then fire, then the shuttle took off. It was not until about a minute later that we were hit with the sound of the takeoff, and you could feel the rattle in your chest I was so profound. We watched until it was out of sight, and then prepared for our departure back to the marina.
After a day in the sun and on the water, we collectively agreed we were all lazy tired. Jon and I returned to our boat, took Crew out for a walk, did some boat chores, then met up with everyone for a pot luck picnic on the water in a beautiful pavilion with picnic tables. It was an early evening tonight for all us, and we are headed to bed after Jon makes some popcorn with plans for an early start back up to Daytona tomorrow. We will be joined by Jim and Danette on Peace, and Indecision, Loralei and Lovelee are all continuing to cruise south.
Danette and Jim en route to the shuttle
Danette adn Susan practicing our expression when we see the shuttle
Lovelee approaching
Getting ready to raft up
Lee and her Queen Elizabeth wave
Pat and Fred
Dave, Lee, Fred and Pat
Captain Vern and Buddy
Vern
Dave resting up for the event
Myon
Danette, Penny, Pat, Susan and Lee
Doing the shuttle dance
Vern serenading us
Danette, Penny and Elaine
Pat
Jim
Vern and Dave
Fred and Elaine
Danette
Jon
Jim, Elaine and Penny
And the shuttle gets ready - rumble
Lift off
G-force
Break off
Floating
Lee, Elaine, Pat, Danette and Lee
Sunset at the Titusville marina
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Back at Palm Coast
We were up and off at 7:00 AM. It was beautiful cruising weather with a southern wind and blue skies.
The beginning part of the trip was very peaceful, but as the day progressed all of the weekend warriors began to come out and the ICW turned into a water version of the Daytona 500. I did not get the memo that it was gnat day, and drive your big boat as fast as you can day.
We actually made great time back to Daytona, and after talking with Jim and Danette, we decided to just keep going another three hours back to Palm Coast, then rendezvous at Jim and Dantette’s for dinner.
All was well until one mile from our house. I commented to Jon that the boat felt like it was running rough all of a sudden, and he concurred, but there was no obvious reason for this. A couple of minutes later I told Jon I was seeing smoke from the stern, he told me that that was usual. I told him I did not think this was usual, so he checked and sure enough – blue tinged smoke. White smoke is OK, blue tinged smoke – not OK. We made it back to the house safely, and will keep our fingers crossed that as soon as we can get a mechanic over to the house, our problem will not be as major as blue smoke often times indicates. So, keep your fingers and toes crossed for us, and until next time – We remain – convivially yours !
Back at Palm Coast
We were up and off at 7:00 AM. It was beautiful cruising weather with a southern wind and blue skies.
The beginning part of the trip was very peaceful, but as the day progressed all of the weekend warriors began to come out and the ICW turned into a water version of the Daytona 500. I did not get the memo that it was gnat day, and drive your big boat as fast as you can day.
We actually made great time back to Daytona, and after talking with Jim and Danette, we decided to just keep going another three hours back to Palm Coast, then rendezvous at Jim and Dantette’s for dinner.
All was well until one mile from our house. I commented to Jon that the boat felt like it was running rough all of a sudden, and he concurred, but there was no obvious reason for this. A couple of minutes later I told Jon I was seeing smoke from the stern, he told me that that was usual. I told him I did not think this was usual, so he checked and sure enough – blue tinged smoke. White smoke is OK, blue tinged smoke – not OK. We made it back to the house safely, and will keep our fingers crossed that as soon as we can get a mechanic over to the house, our problem will not be as major as blue smoke often times indicates. So, keep your fingers and toes crossed for us, and until next time – We remain – convivially yours !
Cruising Titusville to Palm Cosat
The big catch in the fishing net
The gants are out in front of us
and the big boats are coming from behind
Boating and beaching on the sandbar
