Light Show

We rented a car to go visit good friends in Punta Gorda this weekend (thanks again for the respite Dave and Dee Dee!), and on the way back we stopped at the Siesta Key Drum Circle which is held every Sunday night on the beach there. It's one of our favorite things to do. Last night, a storm built to the southeast of us during the time we were at the circle. By the end of the evening, the lightning show was so dramatic that I took this video. It was a wonderful merging of the power of nature and the primal notes of the drums. Enjoy!

Odds and Ends

Just a few odds and ends photos and videos from the past 10 days while the kids were here.

Boys love lizards

Boys also love crabs and anything else that creeps or crawls

The Osprey babies that were born just before we arrived aren't babies anymore

We've seen some amazing skies recently. This one was from the Siesta Key drum circle 7-17-16

The sun was at my back and was reflecting off the clouds and aiming down at the opposite horizon

Sunset at the drum circle

Everyone had fun at the drum circle. Even the littlest who insisted on putting sand on the drum head and watching it bounce
when she hit it

Mama and Papa got to take a short stroll while the kids napped in the van with me

With all the heat and sunshine, napping is the order of the day

Playing Peek-a-boo under Grampy T's table

Waiting for the engine to pick up the train at the train museum in Parrish, FL

Waiting for the train ride to start

Random sunset at the marina. The view from the cockpit of our boat.

Seriously?

With Daughter Youngest and Grand Daughter still in Siesta Key, the crew of Kintala deemed it okay to rent one of those motorized four wheel coaches for a couple of more days. It even seemed reasonable to tempt the fates and join them in Siesta Key...on the Fourth of July weekend. Such a visit is the social antithesis of our current mode of living, dwelling on a boat as the near lone residents in a boatyard, occasional bike rides into a non-tourist town, with most of our off time spent hiding from the heat in our modest – but still air conditioned – salon.

Siesta Key on the Fourth of July weekend is 10,000 cars trying to fit into 8,000 parking places. It is hoards of pale skinned visitors laid out on the beach like so many lobsters at a bar-b-cue, slow roasting in the near tropical sun. It is also adorable little kids splashing around in the shallow surf, enthralled by an ocean many of them are seeing for the first time. It is families having fun and people taking a break from their work-a-day lives. It is THE BEACH, that mythical place of bikinis and brews, a touch of heaven that can often be pretty close to the mecca all the vacation advertising makes it out to be.

One of my favorite parts of this beach is the Drum circle, the every-Sunday celebration of the Sun Going Down. It is a good thing to celebrate in that the Belenus (as the sun is known as in Celtic mythology) is, in these parts, a bit of an overbearing god. Oh, he brings light and life, makes the plants grow lush, warms the sea to temperatures that sea life and swimmers find agreeable, all that good stuff. But he gets a bit enthusiastic about it all during the summer, lashing anyone who has reason to dare direct exposure with a heat and humidity that will make a long day of work seem nothing short of day of punishment. Watching him settle behind the horizon for a few hours break is a relief.

Besides, it is as good an excuse as any for a bunch of people to gather around and pound some drums, for people young and not so young to laugh and dance in the sand, for people to enjoy being people without anyone getting hurt or offended. It is a big beach with lots of room, so anyone who finds the whole thing a bit too primal or ancient can find their own place to watch the sun set, worshiping (or not) any kind of god they like in the process.

It is, after all, part of what the Fourth of July is supposed to celebrate, the birth of a nation where choice and individual liberty rule.

And then this jack-ass and some friends showed up.

It was easy to ignore the wanker from my place in the midst of the assembled. He was, after all, trying to shout down 30 or 40 drummers using a little, battery powered, megaphone; clearly not the sharpest knife in the drawer. And though I, given my general lack of faith in all things requiring faith, would certainly qualify as hell-fodder for this guy's god, demographics suggest most of the people surrounding me would self-identify as Christians of one sect or another. (Well, maybe not the guy wearing the gorilla mask and pounding out – with a good amount of talent I might add – a riff probably never heard in any cathedral.) It isn't clear to me what the wanker with the megaphone thought he was accomplishing. Most of the people around him likely shared, at least in some part, a belief in his religion. Exactly who was he trying to impress?

Unfortunately, just a few yards from the drums, at least on that guy's side of the circle, his megaphone was enough. His doctrine was judgmental and hate filled, his rhetoric arrogant and insulting. Police mounted on horses had to force their way in to break up confrontations since, it appeared, some of the celebrants' doctrine surrounding primal sun-god celebrations include kicking a wanker's ass. I'm not sure that's what the megaphone preacher wanted, but it is likely he went back to his church all proud of being persecuted. (According to Christian mythology such persecution will garner him some extra credit when he gets to heaven. Which is one of the many reasons I prefer ancient Celtic mythology, or pretty much any kind of mythology that is openly recognized as mythology, to modern Christian mythology.)

My first thought was that ignoring him or, better yet, laughing at him, would be the best response, that anything even remotely indicating that he was being taken seriously would only make his affliction worse. But then I got to thinking. In today's world, maybe that isn't the case anymore.

How many steps is it between this guy and any of the young white guys who have made the news by shooting people in a church or opening fire in a theater? How many steps is it between this guy and any religious fundamentalist who takes to violence? He worships a god he believes is going to torture, forever and ever in the most barbaric and sadistic way imaginable, most of the people on the planet for the sin of not worshiping in the approved manor. (A doctrine many Muslims share with many Christians.) How bad could it be to shoot a few of them to maybe “save” some of the others? This is a mind already twisted, how much more twist will it take to make him actually dangerous?

And, mind you, this guy could have legally been carrying a concealed weapon. This is, after all, Florida. Had he been carrying such a weapon, “standing his ground” would be more than enough of an excuse for a twisted mind to open fire. Something I suspect, given the speed at which they moved in, the police had in mind as well.

How can you not take such a person as seriously deranged and, potentially, seriously dangerous? Maybe kicking his ass, stripping him naked to make sure his isn't armed, and then throwing him, his megaphone, his signs, and his buddies into the surf to cool off, is the seriously right thing to do these days?

Thus is celebrated the Fourth of July in America, 2016.

Cruising Colors

One of the things I enjoy most about cruising, especially in the Bahamas, is the colors. The water is such a brilliant turquoise that it almost hurts your eyes. The houses are all painted pinks, blues, greens, yellows, purples, and lend a sense of whimsy to the air. Since we're not currently cruising but are sitting at a dock replenishing the cruising kitty, we have to find our colors elsewhere. Boat yards are, after all, not known for being colorful...well...except for the language from frustrated boat maintenance.

We went to the Siesta Key Drum Circle again last Sunday and there were a couple ladies dancing in very colorful costume. It was such a joy to watch so I thought I'd share for your enjoyment as well. I've also included some photos of a beach trip we took that was cut short by a storm.

The conch horn is blown at sunset at the drum circle.

Working my way backwards...

It seems a long time ago now, since we started this blog. In fact, it was a long time ago. As the days, months, and years passed we had a good time writing about the journey from being land dwellers to making it to full time cruiser / live aboard status. And we are still having a good time. For example, first thing this morning I climbed up a ladder into a bare hull that we will soon turn back into a boat. At the moment it lacks engines, plumbing, wiring, navigation, and a helm. It wouldn't even float if we dumped it in the water, for it lacks thru hulls and all of the normally associated bits and pieces that keep the water from flowing freely through the holes.

A little later I climbed back down. After that I climbed back up. And later down.

All that up and downing is just part of the fun. Though that may sound a little odd I think of it this way. Boss New and his bosses have pretty much dumped the task of equipping and wiring this boat, from scratch, in
my lap. I am ordering stuff (lots and lots of stuff), planning on where to mount stuff, and figuring out how to get power to the stuff. There are two alternators, two cranking  batteries, a house bank that will (hopefully) be made up of a dozen 6 volt batteries, a 4000w inverter, a battery charger, two separate shore power plugs, four pumps, water heater, refrigerator, navigation boxes, lights, and other sundry bits, that all have to play together without throwing sparks or melting down any of that expensive stuff. There is stuff like trim tabs, spot light, bow thruster, and underwater lights that I haven't played with before. The DC master panel is being custom designed, mostly by me, through the internet.

Once upon a long time ago I was in charge of a crew that rebuilt a King Air that had been turned into a snow plow. It ended up in a ditch with the nose landing assembly torn from its well and both of its engines broken in half from the sudden stoppage. That same crew and I rebuilt a smaller plane that had tangled with a real snow plow, breaking its wing strut in half and tearing out part of the fire wall. Those were big, complicated jobs that pushed the limits of repairing something rather than just taking check from the insurance company and buying a replacement something. Being involved in another job like that is an unexpected but interesting visit back to where I used to belong.

If I have to give up cruising for a while in order to fill the kitty, there are worse ways than being elbows deep in a job like this one. There are some things I question, but there are people around here who know more about boats in general than I do, and they assure me that things like the boat's center of gravity (center of gravity being something I know a bit about) and buoyancy (something I know less about) will be fine. Other
things I find a bit puzzling. Word from the boat world is that two alternators on twin engines don't play well together, it's best if they are not both tasked with charging the same battery bank. We never had such problems on twin engine airplanes, so clearly there is something new to learn here. And even with the uncountable electrical repairs and modifications I have done on airplanes, they were all DC power systems. I am less sure-footed with the 110v AC that will be going into this boat. More fun is that the inverter / battery charger means these two distant power cousins are going to be getting awfully familiar. Which, as one can imagine, has the potential for way too much drama.

Writing abut cruising is a bit of a reach at the moment. We are not cruising. There is no clear blue water around here, no sandy bottoms to catch and hold an anchor, no isolated islands to explore. Sometimes writing at all is a bit of a reach. Fun job or no, it is still a long day's work in a harsh environment. My weekly word output has dropped dramatically since the end of the day is a chance to stop doing things for a while, including writing. Reading the blogs of friends who have sailed far afield is often more attractive than trying to come up with something interesting to say about living at a dock. Living in a Tiny House and working hard to stay one step ahead of a world that is clearly having its problems is, in my opinion, a reasonable and responsible thing to do. But there isn't much more to say about it than that, other than to add that our Tiny House is looking pretty good at the moment, and I am playing a lot of drums.

So if, sometime next year, you are anchored at some isolated island and happen to hear a joyful rhythm being pounded out and echoing over the clear blue water, it just might be me celebrating being back where I belong...again.

Drums and Dancing

One of the things I enjoy most about the cruising community is music. Instruments seem to play a huge part in community gatherings, where everyone brings along a guitar, banjo, or drum along with their potluck. One of the most memorable things I've ever heard was a guy sitting next to us in an anchorage playing and singing for a couple hours by candlelight one night, long after the sun had gone down.

I'm a former piano player and flutist, neither of which we have on the boat, but stay tuned because I'm trying to learn how to make a bamboo flute. Tim is a drummer. When we left, Tim brought along his drumsticks and practice pad, but we've never had a drum onboard. We do try to make as many drum circles as we can while we're traveling, though. There's an excellent one in Coconut Grove at Dinner Key in Miami and, it turns out, that there's a huge one at Siesta Key every Sunday on the beach. The one in Coconut Grove provides extra drums for visitors to use, but the one in Siesta Key did not, so we spent the evening just hanging out listening. I'm including a couple videos from the drum circle for your enjoyment. They are kind of clipped and not really great quality since they were taken on my phone, but keep in mind that the drummers would play for 15 minutes straight without stopping, and I don't have that much bandwidth.

Oh, and by the way, we do now have a drum onboard after being motivated by the  Siesta Key Drum Circle. We found a company that makes snap on drum heads for 5 gallon buckets, something that is almost always on every cruising boat. We bought 2 different heads, one a "comfort sound technology" head, a muted sound that you can play in small spaces like our boat. The other one will only come out of the box for drum circles and secluded anchorages. We did buy their 6 gallon bucket, but they fit on any standard 5 or 6 gallon bucket from Lowes or Home Depot or any other hardware or paint tore. Here's some pics and a link to Remo for you in case you're interested.









The first one is just a general video of the drum circle.



This one highlights a rather creative use of various "drums"



This one shows mostly the dancing on the beach in front of the drum circle.


This one highlights one of the young ladies using the hula hoops as part of her dancing. Sorry about the quality. People kept getting in front of me.