Free Stuff
The past few weeks, I keep being given free stuff and keep turning it down. The first time was in Jacksonville. I filled up with 15 gallons of gas. The dockmaster only charged me for 5. Actually this time I did take it. I didn't realize I'd been undercharged until I was on the boat and looked at the credit card receipt.
The next time was in St. Augustine. I filled up with 20 gallons of gas. The first pump shut off at about 19 gallons, and wouldn't restart. The attendant and I got a second pump to start and got the last gallon. I went to the marina office and the woman only wanted to charge me for the last gallon. It was a whole thing figuring out how to get the bill right.
When I dropped off Fred, I had to resupply. We had drank all the beer aboard. I went to the marina office/bait store to buy a couple 12 packs. I put them on the counter to pay, the woman was on the phone, looked at me and said you're all settled. I think she had somehow confused me with Fred, whom I later found out had also just come in to buy a couple 12 packs to resupply the boat before he left. I straightened out the situation and paid.
Today, I ordered some take out from a Mexican joint. It took about ten minutes to prepare. Again, the woman just handed me the bag and said "here you go". Again I straightened out the situation and paid.
I don't know what's going on. It's very strange that I'm being offered so much stuff for free. My honesty is preventing me from taking it, but I keep telling myself that I should just take it. If this keeps up, at some point I am.
Steering
Here's something I posted on Sailnet on a thread about monohull versus cat steering:
I have an older Gemini 3000 catamaran. I love to hand the wheel over when I have guests aboard. Singlehanding as much as I do, I'm pretty tired of being at the helm, but it's a thrill to guests. I have a hard time prying them from the wheel.
One thing I've noticed is that people tend to over-steer my cat. I know that if I have the sails set right, not much steering is necessary. On a broad reach she'll steer herself for as much as an hour at a time. She'll drift a few degrees back and forth, but pretty much stay on course.
New helmsmen always seem to be furiously turning the wheel back and forth to stay on a constant course. I try to assure them that isn't necessary. But it's hard to convince them of this. And unfortunately, the wheel doesn't give feedback like the tiller on my old Pearson Ariel.
I overestimated how much help Fred would be on the overnight passage. This is no slight to Fred. I think it would be true of anyone unused to sailing at night on a strange boat in the ocean. The conditions seemed very easy to me, but then I've been on this boat for about 6 months now in all sorts of conditions. There is a learning curve for people who come aboard, and I need to respect that.
Here's a link to the entire thread, if you are interested. Bill, I know you are a trawler guy, but I think you would find some of the threads on sailnet interesting, and the guys who hang out there are very knowledgeable and have a great sense of humor. There are a few motorboat guys on the forum.
Hull 108
I'm in the Cocoa Village anchorage. It's a nice anchorage. There are at least two other Geminis here. Maybe three. I met Al who owns Hull 108. I didn't think I'd ever meet anyone with an older Gemini than mine. He bought it in Arnold, MD in November and sailed it down here with a buddy. That's the same time I left Arnold with Glen and Fred. Weird. He has the same fiberglass rudder cages I had, and they are also falling apart.
Somehow the launch has crept up on me. It's tonight. I was hoping to go ashore today and explore Cocoa Beach. But that's not possible. I was even thinking of stopping by Carla's place of work and possibly getting a tour of the ship. Carla, I don't think I'll be able to stop by and say hi now, but maybe Amy and I will cruise up while she's here. Or I'll stop by on my way back up, when I have a looser schedule. I definitely want to take a couple days exploring my old Cocoa Beach haunts.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Odds & Ends
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8 comments:
Too bad in missing out on Cocoa Beach today. It looks like you've corrected your GPS to show your location more correctly. If that's true, you are probably pretty close to where the Coast Guard will limit you any further travel north during the launch (at 5:50 pm), just south of the NASA Causeway. I think I remember someone saying you had to stay south of the powerlines crossing the Indian River.
I don't know that I will stay up to see your view, so I hope you are able to capture it via video.
There is a local radio station that broadcasts the communications during countdown. You might try scanning the dial at about 2 am if you have an am radio on board.
I think that info relates to the Banana river. I'm just off the icw and there are a bunch of other boats around, so I think I'm fine.
If anyone is up after 2am and has my cell phone number, please give me a call. At some point I'm going to go to sleep. I'll have the alarm set on my cell phone and on my computer. But it wouldn't hurt to have a wake up call.
Oye,Fufarufu,
I don't think that one is in the spellcheck. Looks like you are well positioned for the launch tonight. I am going to set my alarm clock for 2AM and will give you a call. Once again, thanks for all. My only regrets are not being more helpful during the all night sail to Cocoa Beach.
Your very right about the over-correcting. I am so used to motor-boating and pointing it in the right direction and flying. It just takes a feel that comes with time.
Thats all. Talk to you at 2AM - plus or minus.
Fred
Talk to you soon Mr. Fred!
In that area I think the ICW is the Indian River. Check your charts.
BTW, don't allow worrying about the camera angle to interfere with your enjoyment of the launch with the Mark 1A eyeballs.
Looking at the pic from your "Memories of Cocoa Beach" post, I'm pretty sure my boat would be in the picture, if I were here in 1969.
I think you are right. We were on the Titusville side of the Indian River, and your boat would surely have been in the foreground. I had the same thought when I saw about where you were on your gps. As I recall, although we were on the shore of the river, we were about 20 miles distant. I'll have to check that using google earth. But you were closer by the distance across the river from Titusville.
Google Earth says the Apollo 11 viewing site was about 11.5 miles from the launch pad, not the 20 that I had mentioned in my guest post.
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