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Viking

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by Viking

  1. I worked food service at six flags for 3 seasons and back then they used Sysco (or something similiar). You could eat fairly decent meals (burgers, salads, etc) no problem. I loved that job as a teenager. Made out with a co-worker girlfriend on the spinnaker many a times.
  2. I usually like dark mode in apps but this one looks like shit.
  3. In the words of the great Captain Ron, "Well if anything's going to happen it's going to happen out there."
  4. Getting antsy. We've been in TX since May and will return to the boat in a few weeks. We'll spend 3-4 weeks getting ready and then head down to the Keys. I didn't share in May but while we were docked at the St Augustine Municipal Marina we got hit by 55ft power boat. The current in St Augustine can rip at max flow and some captains underestimate it. This boat was docked directly in front of us and was backing out and quickly got sidewise to the current. They hit us once and were then the wrong direction to get out of the marina so they powered forward, hit another boat, managed to turn around, and then hit us again on their way out. The other boat that got hit was hit again two days later. 😠 The damage was both rubrails on the bows were ripped off, anchor and anchor roller were pulled out of the deck and twisted, bent anchor bridle padeye, and a bent pulpit. Just 5k in damage! Not bad! Fortunately the dude had money and just sent me a check. My insurance broker when I asked him what to do: "Do not get the insurance companies involved! Work it out between yourselves first." Ah insurance companies that don't pay out... it's the american way. BoatCollision.mp4
  5. We renewed in person at the Tarrant County Courthouse in Arlington. One really nice covid change is that the passport office is now on a scheduling system. Previously you'd show up, take a number, and wait hours to be called. Now you show up at your scheduled time and you're the only person there and get help immediately. We chatted up the lady working and she loved it. No longer does she have to deal with customers that are bitchy because they had to wait hours.
  6. We renewed our kids' passports in Aug and it took a month. We paid extra for expedited service.
  7. We went to the Dallas march. Neither the wife nor I have ever been to a march or protest so figured now's the time. It's hard to judge crowd size on the ground but I'd say there were 2-4k people there. The sign game was strong.. my favorite "This is my resisting bitch face."
  8. I've learned that the most dangerous boat on the water is a big ass power boat with an owner captain.
  9. The % of sailors, even seasoned sailors, who don't know how to tie a cleat hitch is way higher than you'd suspect. They think that a cleat hitch keeps it on but it's the wraps that do. Thin dinghy painter + big cleat = you need lots of wraps. Every year in the Bahamas a couple of dinghys get lost. The owners blame the locals on facebook ("Our dinghy was stolen!!") and half the time the dinghy is found days or weeks later by another cruiser on an island with outboard still attached. I never let another boater tie off my painter for that reason. Except one time this year I handed my painter to a buddy who's been a liveaboard for 6 years. I figured he for sure knew how to tie a cleat hitch. We were drinking in the cockpit of his boat (a monohull) and two hours later I noticed that my dinghy was gone. Fuuuuck. We grabbed a flash light (it was around midnight) and set off to find it in his dinghy. Even that alone was a big risk as if his outboard went out then we'd be turbo fucked. It took us an hour but we finally found it about a mile up the island. The current from the outgoing tide kept it pretty close to land fortunately.
  10. If the boat still floats and the crew is all alive then you did good! What was the second crazy situation? Most casts lack backstays, so sailing deep down wind just freaks me out. The swept back shrouds just don't seem like they are back enough to provide that much support for all of the forward forces on the rigging. Yet somehow the masts don't fall down. Fucking magic I guess.
  11. Now I want to go to an art auction on a Carnival cruise. While drunk of course. What's the best piece for sale, a signed dogs playing poker?
  12. Hey the first one had the teak decks already replaced. That's a 50k+ expense that you don't have to worry about for another 20 years! Get a cat. 800-1200k buys a badass 45+ft cat. The newer ones have a ridiculous amount of space. I've got a buddy with a Lagoon 450 and you could put 30 people on that boat and not be crowded. There's room for 10+ forward, 10+ in the cockpit, 6-8 inside, 6-8 on the hardtop. It's just amazing. The sailing, at least comfort wise, is so much better. There's little heeling and even when you beat towards weather it is not as bad. I've got a vid of a mono buddy boat that was bucking into weather and they were fucking miserable. Most of the family was throwing up. Our boat had a little slamming but otherwise it was comfortable.
  13. There's no better anniversary/birthday/christmas present than a boat.
  14. I commented to my wife that this boat is real FU money and I wasn't referring to the cost of the boat. It was doing ~35kts for a few hundred miles (florida->abacos).
  15. Sailed from the Abacos to St Augustine this week. Had a great sail except that the 1st reef line chaffed through so we had to sail on the 2nd reef a lot of the time which is slooow as snot. Bonus of the trip was that we were 25 miles from Cape Canaveral when a Falcon 9 was launched. Pretty cool to see and I'd love to be even closer to a launch next year.
  16. The Michael Trixx magic show at Lorelei's is great. Check the schedule but I think they have it 2-3 nights each week at sunset.
  17. I promise you there's few things more relaxing on the water than sailing along at 5-7kts in a 10-15kt wind. Just heaven. I almost never give up the helm seat on our boat because I can sit there for hours and hours just enjoying the ride.
  18. I had neighbor that did this plus told the listing agent that if his offer was accepted that he'd use the agent to sell his house. It worked.
  19. Been in the Bahamas for three months. Hopefully immigration extends our visas otherwise we'll be illegals for the next month or two. Our anchorage mate for the night:
  20. I would get into the habit of maintaining a real log book now. Probably not a whole lot to log doing small lake sailing (start and end time, wind speed and direction) so it seems silly but do it anyhow. I've just been using a notepad but next season I'm getting a dedicated log book.
  21. I've not been to Eleuthera yet (but will in a week or two) so no recs there. Exumas though are great. Shroud Cay in the Exuma Land and Sea Park is amazing. Anchor on the north end and take the dinghy up the mangrove creek to ocean side. You'll see turtles in the creek and end up on an amazing beach. Just a magical place. The south end of Shroud is also beautiful. Thunderball Grotto at Staniel Cay is also a can't miss.
  22. I'm just now seeing this thread and your question. When's your trip?
  23. Will this training get them to finally remember to include teriyaki sauce with my fucking chicken teriyaki?
  24. We like the Johns Pass area specifically a condo across the street on the gulf beach side. It's an easy walk to Johns Pass (vs having to drive) which has restaurants and shopping. The pizza joint there is pretty good.
  25. That's a shitty instructor. Hopefully that experience doesn't ruin it for your wife or kids. I've had 5 sailing instructors over the years and they've all been fantastic. Three were ASA instructors. My docking training on a 48 ft cat was the complete opposite of yours. The instructor let me have the helm and said not to worry he'd jump in if I did anything really stupid (ie expensive).
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