A Mundane Day In Photos

Yesterday was just a typical day here in Isle of Hope, Georgia.  Nothing really special happened that this blog should highlight, yet it was a really nice day.  Maybe these non-special days are the ones that define our lives, the ones that are more special to us as we get older.  We learn to appreciate things that we used to consider mundane in our younger years.

Yesterday started off with Livvy removing every single toy from the doggie toy box.

She then discovered Ruby's bell. As a puppy, Ruby used to take great delight in flinging it at the cats. Livvy was alarmed by the noise a bell makes and barked her disapproval at it.

It's a good thing that puppies are cute.

Jamie, our HVAC guy, called about our non-functioning A/C cooling pump.  He's booked solid, and until he could arrive suggested that I take the pump apart to see if it was packed with muck.  It was not.  Hopefully, he can come today to check out the pump's motor, which I believe is the problem.

Gertie is still recovering from having all of her organs removed and reinserted.

Gertie spends all day sleeping in the master stateroom head.  Poor kitty.  The operation really took a toll on her, but she's definitely better and no longer struggles for each breath.

It was a hot day yesterday, and since our A/C is broken, we took the dogs up to the yard and let them swim...

and roll in the grass.  I don't know why dogs do that, but they seem to enjoy it immensely.

We only let the dogs swim at high tide so that they don't step on the razor sharp oysters.  Chevy's accident in March is how we wound up staying here.  We didn't let Livvy swim since she's only a puppy and doesn't know basic voice commands yet such as "come here" and "don't make me come down there young lady!".  She apparently doesn't know the command "stay" either because she vanished.  Pam and I, as well as Ruby and Chevy, searched all over the yard for her for a good fifteen minutes to no avail.  Ben happened to be in the pavilion and heard Pam calling for her and pointed to the doggie water bowl there.  It seems that Livvy decided that if she couldn't swim, she was going to hang out there and get something cool to drink.

It was still really hot so we dared to take the Whaler out for a ride.  It was high tide and there was a small sandy spot on Burnt Pot island where we stopped so the dogs could swim again.  Livvy got her first dip.

She's a bird dog, not a water dog, and pulled and pulled to get out of the water and up onto the island, where there are probably birds.  We let her off leash and made her stay in the water, much to her dismay.

The dogs seem to enjoy riding in the boat.  There's much to see...

like this Osprey.

Back at the marina, I was fortunate to get a few photos of a Green Heron.

He was sitting on a dock line, waiting for fish to come by.

Missed.

Pam and I sat outside on the dock where there was a slight breeze.  I had helped a transient come in, and Jeff and Grace from Seaglide joined us in watching distant thunderstorms while enjoying a few docktails.

Jeff and Grace just bought Seaglide and were delivering it from Florida to Myrtle Beach.  They intend to do the Great Loop next year.  They're really nice folks, lots of fun, and they will fit right in to the cruising community.  They started a blog, which will be great fun to follow as they get ready for their big adventure.   You can read it here at http://www.seaglide.blogspot.com/.

It was tough sleeping last night and I was up at 5:30.  I surfed Al Gore's internets for a bit but took time to photograph today's beautiful Isle of Hope sunrise for you.

I went back to bed where I promptly fell asleep, over sleeping until 10 AM.  And that, my friend, is why this blog is late today.

Dirty Gertie News

Gertie went with Pam to the vet's office yesterday.   She's a very small cat, and has been losing weight at an alarming rate.  She also can't breathe properly, struggling for every breath.  Last week, the vet ran all kinds of tests and did x-rays and everything looked normal, except for a mass in her stomach.  It was time to cut her open to see what was wrong.

Pam is a vet tech at this hospital and stopped by the surgery room while Gertie was being worked on.  The doc had her organs laid out on the table, inspecting each one.  As Pam explained this to me, I asked if it freaked her out, seeing her kitty all apart like that.  No, it did not.  Pam frightens me sometimes.

Everything looked fine, until he inspected her pancreas.  It was white and has a lesion on it.  This is good news, said the doc.  This is treatable.  Just how, exactly, we're not sure, but he put all of Gertie's organs back and stitched her up.   Pam brought her home along with some antibiotics, and she actually looks like she's doing better.

Yes, that's an improvement.

In boat news, our A/C has tanked again.  This time, it's the water pump that cools the compressors.  It is no longer pumping.  I pulled the screen out of the sea strainer and it was clean, which it should have been since I had cleaned it just a couple of days before.  Looking inside, though, I could see crud.  It was full of mud which passed right through the screen.  It packed everything.  It must have been due to tropical storm Beryl.   The wind and waves must have stirred up mud which then plugged the pump.

So right after I get done posting this blog, it's down to the engine room to take things apart to see if I can unplug it.   I've got a call into Jamie the marina HVAC guy as well, since I think this is probably beyond my basic mechanic skills. 

Yes, Jamie and I are on a first name basis now.

Health Insurance and Cruising

I don't use this blog as a soapbox to promote my personal views about politics, religion, or anything else not boating related.   I have my views and you have yours.  I'm going to make an exception today.   Please bear with me.  This is a hot political topic but cruising related.  It's about health insurance, something that those of us who retire early to go off cruising can find problematic.

I've done a bit of research over the years about the state of health care in the US and I have to say that I'm disappointed.   WHO ranks the US only #37 in the world, not because of the quality of care here but because of the lack of availability of it to all citizens.  One in four Americans has no health insurance. 

We pay for Pamela's health insurance at almost $600 a month.  I cannot buy insurance at any price.  I'm 61 and have high blood pressure and so have had coverage declined (the portion of the health care reform act that prevents that hasn't been implemented yet).   Once you've been declined coverage by one company, no other will insure you.  Thanks to "Obamacare", I could buy insurance through the  federal government, but paying for two individual health insurance policies rather than a family plan is prohibitively expensive. 

Some people will say that health care is available to anyone who needs it at any hospital emergency room.   That might be true for a broken bone, but does little good for anyone with a debilitating illness such as cancer.

What brings all this up now is that yesterday was Memorial Day, a day to remember those who died in service to this country and to honor those who have served.   A fellow liveaboard here at Isle of Hope Marina is a Vietnam veteran.  He also has no health insurance, and he has a hernia.  The best price he could negotiate at the local hospitals was $10,000 to $14,000 to get it fixed, which is a 65% discount from their standard charges (can you imagine?).  He tried the VA hospital and they refused to do it, saying he made too much money last year when he was working.  So today Gene is flying to Nevada where he found a surgeon that agreed to do it for $5,000.

Basic health care  is a right in most advanced countries, but it is a for-profit business here.  Everyone from insurance companies to hospitals to those employed in the health industry profits, and in many cases profit handsomely.  According to the American Journal of Medicine, 8% of bankruptcies were due to medical bills in 1981.  In 2007, that number increased to a staggering 62% and three quarters of those had health insurance.

Here comes the soapbox part.  I don't think this is right.  A Vietnam veteran shouldn't have to fly three quarters of the way across the country to get a hernia fixed.  Americans shouldn't be flying to Europe, Asia, Canada, and Mexico to get affordable health care.  Hard working middle class Americans shouldn't become bankrupt because of a catastrophic illness.

The Affordable Health Care for America Act was a nice effort, but requiring people to purchase costly insurance from for-profit corporations isn't the answer.   The Supreme Court will soon determine the constitutionality of AHCAA.  Maybe it will be a good thing if it's stuck down.   Maybe congress will then do it right and come up with something better. Yeah, I know, and maybe pigs will fly.

So, if you're thinking about casting off the dock lines, consider your health insurance coverage.  For me, it didn't matter because the company I worked for dropped its health insurance policies due to a sharp spike in cost, mainly due to me.  In Connecticut, it is legal for insurance companies to base premiums on age and pre-existing conditions and when I turned 60 my premium doubled to $1,300 a month.  I had nothing to lose in casting off my dock lines.

Off my soapbox now. 

In other news, Dirty Gertie the cat is at the vet's office.  She's going downhill fast, unable to breathe right and losing weight.  All tests have come back normal, but there is some kind of mass in her stomach.  It's time to open her up to see what's going on.

LI Sound Boater asked what the status of the Whaler is.  Well, we've taken it out four times and have been towed back three.   Although I've been assured that it's fixed now, I'm hesitant to take it out unless we have a buddy boat.   Maybe we'll try this weekend as it's forecast to be really nice here.

TS Beryl mostly missed us

It looks like tropical storm Beryl hit Jacksonville, which is well south of us.  We got brushed by the northern tip of it.  The most wind I saw was a 33 MPH gust.

My Home Cheapo weather station above shows the wind blowing 21 MPH, averaging 26 MPH, and gusting to 33 MPH at 1 PM. 

Athough Beryl wasn't as bad here as it was further south, I reluctantly decided not to go shopping with Pam.  Someone needed to stay on the boat to keep an eye on things and I made the sacrifice.

While Pam was gone, I did a couple of minor boat projects.  First, with all three of the A/C units off because of the chilly 82 degree weather, I cleaned out the sea strainer.   Next, I took apart the master stateroom exhaust fan which was very noisy.

The access panel is on the bottom.  I removed the panel and unscrewed the fan.   The motor's wires weren't color coded, so I took a photo of them so that I wouldn't wire it up backwards when I reinstalled it.



I vacuumed out the lint, dust, and tissue paper (see one of my first blog posts about winterizing) and then sprayed the shaft with WD40.   I reinstalled the fan and the noise level was acceptable.  If it wasn't, I'd have to disassemble the motor and oil the bearings directly.

Back topsides, the wind was pretty impressive.  I grabbed my camera and took some pics and movies.

Look at those whitecaps!  And there isn't any fetch at all over there.

This is the sending unit for my little weather station which is installed up on the flybridge.

Thompson and Brian refurling a jib.



I was out on the main dock talking with Julie and Jerry when I heard a huge SPLASH.  I could see the waves from whatever hit the water between Kindred Spirit and Theresa.  What was it?  A dolphin?  I looked around and noticed something missing on Theresa.

The center helm station window was missing.  The starboard helm door was open, and a big gust of wind popped the window out.  It flew up and the wind carried it up and over the bow rail where it landed in the water.  A diver was summoned to retrieve it from the bottom.

That window is glass, not plastic.  It's heavy.  I'm amazed it didn't hit anything and break.

Later, we gathered at the pavilion to wish Rick (one of the marina owners) a happy birthday.  

Nothing says happy birthday like chocolate cake, whipped cream, ice cream, and margaritas.

The longer we liveaboards stay here, the more like family we become.

Beryl? We Can Use the Rain

Beryl didn't hit us last night.  It's now 175 miles southeast of us, heading west southwest.  It's then supposed to make a U turn once inland and hit us on the way out.  Since we're having an extreme drought here in the southeast, we can use the three to six inches of rain Beryl is predicted to drop on us.  My little Home Cheapo weather station now shows winds at 14 MPH, gusting to 22.  That will probably pick up as the day goes on since we're on the outer edge of the storm.

Pamela has declared that today we shall go shopping.  It seems that she's in decorating mode, and our blinds take up too much wall space, completely covering the spaces between the windows.  Smaller blinds means more places to hang stuff.  She also asked me how good I sew and has something in mind for our stateroom.  No, I didn't ask.  So since it looks  like we're in for a few days of rain, we might have a few indoor projects to keep us busy.

Today's photo section features Chevy, our 80 pound male pitbull.  He's been mostly ignoring Olivia the puppy, but yesterday played with her a little.  It started out with Livy attacking Chevy as he walked by.

And then Chevy nipped back.

And then everyone laughed.

Livy persisted in her attack.  When he's had enough, Chevy either hides under the table, runs down to our stateroom, or hops up on the couch.  Pamela was taking a nap on the couch. 

No problem.

Subtropical Storm Beryl?

So what the heck is a "subtropical" storm?  According to the Weather Channel, it has more thunderstorm activity farther from its center than a tropical storm, and the strongest winds are away from its center.   Wonderful.   So I guess I should hope it hits us smack on here in Savannah?

A check of the NOAA forecast shows this;

TROPICAL STORM WARNING IN EFFECT

TODAY
N WINDS 5 TO 10 KT...INCREASING TO 10 TO 15 KT WITH GUSTS
TO 20 KT THIS AFTERNOON. SEAS 3 FT...BUILDING TO 4 FT THIS
AFTERNOON.

TONIGHT
TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS POSSIBLE. NE WINDS 15 TO
20 KT...BECOMING N 20 TO 25 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT. SEAS 5 FT...BUILDING
TO 7 FT AFTER MIDNIGHT. ISOLATED SHOWERS AND TSTMS UNTIL EARLY
MORNING...THEN SCATTERED SHOWERS AND TSTMS LATE.

SUN
TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS EXPECTED. NE WINDS 25 TO 35 KT.
GUSTS UP TO 50 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. SEAS 8 FT... BUILDING TO 12 FT
IN THE AFTERNOON. TSTMS LIKELY. SHOWERS LIKELY.

SUN NIGHT
TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS EXPECTED. E WINDS 30 TO 40 KT
WITH GUSTS TO 50 KT. SEAS 13 FT...SUBSIDING TO 11 FT AFTER MIDNIGHT.
SHOWERS LIKELY. TSTMS LIKELY EARLY IN THE EVENING...THEN A CHANCE OF
TSTMS IN THE LATE EVENING AND OVERNIGHT.

MON
TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS POSSIBLE. SE WINDS 30 TO 35 KT WITH
GUSTS TO 45 KT...DIMINISHING TO 10 TO 15 KT WITH GUSTS TO 20 KT IN
THE AFTERNOON. SEAS 8 FT...SUBSIDING TO 6 FT IN THE AFTERNOON. A
CHANCE OF TSTMS. SHOWERS LIKELY EARLY IN THE MORNING...THEN A CHANCE
OF SHOWERS IN THE LATE MORNING AND AFTERNOON.

TUE
TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS POSSIBLE.

WED
NW WINDS 15 TO 20 KT...BECOMING S IN THE AFTERNOON. GUSTS UP
TO 30 KT. SEAS 5 FT. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND TSTMS.

MARINERS ARE REMINDED THAT WINDS AND SEAS CAN BE HIGHER IN AND
NEAR TSTMS.

I get a kick out of how NOAA posts the forecast in all capital letters.   On Al Gore's internets, it's considered yelling.  Suffice to say that NO ONE SHOULD GO ANYWHERE!  BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES!  RUN AWAY!  RUN AWAY!

So my plans today (Saturday) include moving all the small, loose things from outside the boat to inside,  laying the bicycles down on the deck so they don't fall, and doubling up on our dock lines.  I will also fill our 400 gallon water tank to make the boat heavier so it doesn't bob as much in the waves.

Sometimes it's fun to sit on the dock and watch the passersby, which is what I did yesterday afternoon while waiting for Pamela to get home from work.  I took my camera.   Here are a few photos just to give you an idea of life on the Skidaway River at Isle of Hope.

This guy was looking for a place to anchor.  Nope.

He didn't like it there, so he tried the other side of the marina.

I'm often amazed at the poor design of some boats, and the lack of storage for something like fenders.

Oysters on a dock piling.

Ben and my favorite dog to photograph- Jimmy Chew Choo.

A kid going way too fast past the marina.   Speed limit 5 MPH.  Dang kids.

I wish you were a police dog.  Git 'em!

Maybe I'm just a bit crabby.

Albatross finally wedged himself in the anchorage.

Pamela brought home shrimp for dinner. 

Megan doesn't care for seafood and hit up McDonalds.  

The dogs prefer McDonalds to shrimp.

Sammy making one of his daily rounds.

On a final note, I've mentioned that I've been studying photography online.  There is a weekly photo contest that I've been entering for a couple of months now.   This week's assignment is "headshot".  So far, all of the entries have been very nice, but dull, stuff like you'd find in a high school yearbook.  Headshots of grandkids, wives and girlfriends, husbands and boyfriends, etc. 

I couldn't decide how to approach this assignment.  Then I started thinking of what headshots are used for- portfolios of actors and actresses, models, business professionals, etc.  What if you were a character actor who mainly portrayed crazy people?   Or what if you were just crazy?  Shouldn't you have a headshot photo to send to grandma? 

Here are a couple of my better ones.

And this is the one I submitted.

Some people have commented that looking crazy comes a little too easy to me. 

Thursday was an Odd Day

Did you ever have a day that just seemed to be a tad off?  One of those days that everything seemed off, or just not normal?  That was Thursday.

Friday's blogs will often include our weekly Thursday potluck dinners here at Isle of Hope Marina.  There are several Isle of Hope liveaboards who are away on business and use the blog to stay in touch (hi Pat and Dan!).  I took my camera to dinner last night to record it for them.

But first, I've mentioned before that a friend of ours described the cruising community as a small town that moves up and down the coast.  So too is the blogosphere a small community.  There was a knock on the boat yesterday and it was Rick from Tourist, a cruising couple whose blog I've been following for over a year.  Their blog is very well done and you can see it by clicking here.

Pam and I are yankees now living in Savannah.  Since we've decided to make this our home, we've been trying to adapt to their weather.  It's been beautiful since we arrived here in February, but as summer approaches it's been getting warmer and warmer, up around 90 degrees everyday.  Along with that comes pop-up thunderstorms.   This guy made a noisy rumbling approach.

And a wet exit.

In doggie news, Livy is still terrorizing Chevy and Ruby.  Sometimes Chevy and Ruby play, sometimes they hide.

Our regular readers might recall that I replaced the Grocco toilet on our boat with an El Cheapo.  An alert reader contacted me and asked for the Grocco and the rebuild kit.  I had to wait until I fetched my truck from the cow barn in upstate New York before I could send it.  I just didn't think it would be right to put it in a marina loaner car even though I cleaned it up as best I could.

I drove to the UPS Store and walked in without it and asked if they boxed and shipped.  The nice young lady said yes.  I went out to the truck and came back with the toilet.

"uh... has that been cleaned?" she asked.

"Yep."

"With bleach?"

"um...  sure."

So the Grocco is on it's way Bart.  The parts are inside the bowl.  Don't worry, I scrubbed it with bleach.  Just ask my wife, Morgan Fairchild.  Yeah, that's the ticket!

I passed Sammy in the truck.  Sammy drives his golf cart 75% of the time and his automobile 24.999% of the time.  This was one of those weird .001% of the time he rides his bicycle.

I decided that I'd try my hand at making out pot luck dinner dish.  I went to my favorite cookbook, Ruby Ann's Down Home Trailer Park Cookbook.   It's self described as Cookin' so good, folks will be turnin' off the wrestlin' channel just to come 'n' get it!  I opted for the trailer park goulash from Jeannie Jansen, Lot #19.

BTW, Ruby Ann Boxcar is on Facebook, and her posts there are as funny as her books, which are available on Amazon.com.

Yes, that is grape soda. 

I started on the goulash late, and following the recipe exactly, as I always do, it would not be ready until 5:55.  Dinner is at 6.  Pamela decided to throw me out of the galley to finish it herself and I was relegated to happy hour in the pavilion.  Darn.

The crowd was small because many of the liveaboards were away, but we had a very nice get together with nice transient folks, plus a few regulars.   The food, as always, was fantastic.

My photography school's assignment for this week is a head shot.  I took this very nice photo of Pete, but I don't know if it's good enough for the assignment.  I don't like the clutter in the background, particularly that vertical line behind his head.   Maybe  later today I'll try photoshopping it out and see how it looks.

Above, Pam and Rick of Tourist.  Rick doesn't get in too many photos on his blog because he's the one taking most of the pics, so here you go Rick.

It was time for our after dinner movie, and Tom and Pete wheeled the 42" LCD up from Tom's boat.

I thought we'd try something different.   While we waited for the sun to set low enough so we could see the TV screen to watch the movie, I played a few cartoons from my Looney Tunes DVD set.  

The kids loved it.

The advantage of being an adult is that you can drink wine while watching, which changes the cartoons from funny to hysterical.

The main feature was Pirates of the Caribbean:  the Curse of the Black Pearl.  We all enjoyed it immensely.  Again, probably that wine thing.

Edith enjoyed the puppy more.

And I think the puppy liked Edith too.