Who Stole the American Dream?

Who Stole the American Dream is a book by Hedrick Smith.  On Face the Nation this morning, Smith stated that the 1%'s income has gone up 600% in the past thirty years, while the middle class is exactly the same.  I don't know if that's true or not.  Certainly it's not true for people in the public sector who get regular raises, but it's probably true for those in the private sector who don't get regular raises, and have actually lost benefits over the years.

But exactly what is the American Dream?  Well, for many of us, it's being able to cruise and liveaboard.  I always thought I'd be doing this on a nice sailboat, but instead Pam and I are doing it on a fixer-upper trawler.  The view from the deck is the same.

I probably should have kept working until I reached 65 to get Medicare and maximum social security.  I saw a way to do it at age 61.   Sure, it cost us a bundle, but what if I don't make it to 65?  I'm going to be dead for a long time.

One of my favorite authors is cruising sailor Herb Payson.  Herb took his family off sailing on an old wooden Sea Witch ketch.  Herb was very frank about their money problems, but somehow they scraped by year after year.  Herb offered his readers this gem;

"Money is not the only thing one has to spend; the other thing is life.  The difference is that you never know how much is in the bank, or what your balance is.  Your life is your inheritance.  As soon as you realize this, you start trying to spend your life wisely."

Once I got to the point in my life when I understood that material things simply don't matter to me, and once I was able to let those go, I was able to be truly happy.  No one can steal my American Dream because it doesn't include things.  My dream is living life on my terms, doing things I enjoy doing, with a person who shares my dream.  It is now our dream.

We're spending our life wisely.  Thanks Herb.

Shooting Pamela

Yesterday, as you probably assumed, was  a Jekyll Island beach day.  It was forecast to be 90 degrees in Brunswick, but it's much cooler on the beach what with the sea breeze and all.

I've been struggling with photographing people.  Oh sure, I can take candid shots of kids playing and such, but actually posing a model and purposely setting the scene is difficult for me.  Pamela bought me two books on modeling for my birthday and I've been slowly thumbing through them, looking for tips.  This one is my favorite;

"If it bends, bend it."

Simple, I know.

So with a willing model and beautiful weather here are the results in a photo montage...

Aggravations of Living Aboard

Things are not always bright and rosy when cruising and living aboard.  There are little things that happen that can make it very aggravating.

We used to live in Stamford, Connecticut.   Last spring, we changed our mailing address to St. Brendan's Isle mail forwarding service in Green Cove Springs, Florida.   We gradually changed our address to Green Cove Springs with our banks, credit card companies, and so on.  Easy, right?  Not so.

There's a craft fair coming up this Saturday here in Brunswick.  Pamela will be there selling her sea glass jewelery (also available online at Beach-Bum-Bling.com).  I've been getting positive feedback on some of my photos from other photographers so I thought I'd try selling them at Pam's booth.  Yesterday, we hied ourselves to Michael's to buy some mat frames.  Honestly, I was shocked that they cost $3.99 apiece.  That's a lot of money for some small pieces of cardboard.  I planned on selling the photos for about $5 each or so.  That would give me a profit of $1.   Oh well.   I bought ten just to get my pics out there to see if anyone would actually pay for them.

Back at the boat, I opened a package.  Huh.  How does this work?  I couldn't figure out how the photo would stay in the little cardboard frame.

There were no directions with the little cardboard frames.  I went to Google, as I usually do when confronted with baffling stuff.  This is how it's supposed to be done.

So what I bought were only the front parts.  No backing panel, no plastic envelope.  $3.99 for 1/3 of what I needed to sell photos for $5 each.  This is starting to make no sense.

Back to Google.  I found a place online that I could order complete packages of frame, backing, and envelope for fifty cents each if I ordered fifty.  Perfect!  It wouldn't be here for this weekend, but it would for the huge Brunswick Stewbilee coming up in November.   I'll be there with the Thunderbird for the car show, and Pam will have a booth at the craft fair.

Then things got sticky.

My $42 order (with shipping) hit the rocks.  My debit card was declined.  I have no idea why since there's plenty of money in there.  I  did it twice, and twice it was declined.  Must be a problem with their system.   Fine.  I'll just use my Paypal account.  That one hit the rocks too.  Paypal wanted to verify my account.  Again.  I guess it's because my billing address on my debit card changed from Stamford to Green Cove Springs.  So I went through their verification process, entering my new billing address and so on.  It then asked for my telephone number so they could call me.  I entered my number.  It was rejected.  They don't call cell phone numbers, only land lines.  Living on a boat, I don't have a land line.

So, the only verification avenue left is snail mail to Green Cove Springs.   That will take weeks.  So I couldn't order my fifty mat frames for a measly fifty cents apiece.

So being an itinerant has its disadvantages.  If you're a human.  It's just ducky if you're a dog.

Dogs don't worry about much of anything.

Play, Play, Play

Brunswick Landing Marina is large as marinas go.  There are over 300 slips here and most all of them are full.  Most people have docked their boats here for the hurricane season and left them.  There is, however, a large cruiser/liveaboard community.   I'd guess several dozen.

Take a few dozen cruising couples with little to do and you have a lot of people looking to play.  Here at BLM, this means several get togethers every week.

Each dock section (there are 15) has a pavilion at its head.  On any given evening, you'll find folks getting together for happy three hours.  Sometimes, dock sections intermingle.  Pam and I have wandered down to dock 12 and 14 for get togethers.

Then there's TUK, which I wrote about before.   It's a game similar to Sorry but played with playing cards instead of dice, and with a few twists and turns to make it interesting.  We play this about once a week.

Chicken Foot, which is similar to Mexican Train, is a game played with dominoes.  A call for Chicken Foot players will bring out a dozen people and more to the marina boaters' lounge.

And as you know, when we're not playing here at the marina, we're playing on the beach on Jekyll Island, which may be the plan for today because the tide is perfect and it's forecast to be up around 90 degrees again today.

This is like being a kid on summer vacation all over again.

Jekyll Island. Again.

I like to write this blog everyday, but I know it must be getting monotonous to you.  Not traveling, and no boat projects because of the heat and humidity.  We go to Jekyll Island a lot because we have the time, the dogs love it, and so do we.  We go to a part with lots of driftwood which gives me plenty of fodder for my photographs, but even I'm starting to get tired of the same old driftwood and dog photos.  So, I've been recruiting Pamela as a model and I'm giving that a shot.

Taking photographs of nature is easy.   It takes being in the right place at the right time, and sometimes being lucky.  Taking portraits of people is much more difficult, I'm finding out.  Not only do you have to be concerned with  composition and lighting, but you want to capture a mood.  I've been studying portrait photography on the internet for some time, trying to figure out what makes a good portrait.  So this is what I got.

First the dog photos.

And then driftwood pics...

And then driftwood/boat pics...

And then driftwood/Pamela pics...

I have much to learn about photography, especially shooting in bright light.  

Chore Day

We didn't do much yesterday.  The weather here is getting beautiful with temps down into the mid 80s.  Many marina denizens are doing boat projects.  We're starting to see teak and mahogany bits at the head of the docks with shiny new varnish.

Not for us, though.  We needed to do the mundane.  We needed to drive 100 miles to Green Cove Springs, Florida to pick up our new license plate for the truck.

You might recall my blog post a little over a month ago about our mail forwarding service at St. Brendan's Isle.  We use this not only to collect and forward our mail, but like thousands of other cruisers and liveaboards, we use it to establish our residence.  We, like many others, "live" at 411 Walnut Street.  We have Florida drivers licenses and have registered to vote.  We also registered our vehicle there.

About a month ago, Pam and I went to the DMV at Green Cove Springs to register our Toyota truck.  The only glitch was that they could only give us temporary tags because they needed to get the title from its lien holder (our truck is the only loan we have).  So for the past month, we've been driving around with a paper license plate.  A plate that expired on the previous Friday.

So we made it to the DMV, fetched our new plate, and made it back to the marina without being stopped, arrested, and thrown in the pokey.   Yes, those thoughts were running through my head as I drove the two hours to Green Cove Springs with sweat poring from my brow.   And the two hours back, as I forgot to bring a screw driver with me.

But all's well that ends well.

Before.  And yes, 092112 is the expiration date.

After.  Yep.  I now have an official license to drive ten miles an hour slower than everyone else, all day long, with my left blinker on.

Today is forecast to be another great boat project day.  Partly cloudy, temps in the mid 80s.  Absolutely perfect for working around the boat.   I need to get the deck painted.  We're going to the beach.

Make Your Own Bloody Mary Mix

No, this blog isn't going to turn into a cookbook or bar manual.   But I think this is pretty cool.

I have high blood pressure.  Both my parents had it and I inherited it, as did my sister.  Although my BP is controlled with meds, I still watch my salt intake.

I like bloody mary mixes.   I rarely add vodka to make a bloody mary proper.  I just like the mix.  I look at it as V8 juice that's spiced up.  It's particularly good when I have a sore throat, burning all the way down.

I was idly reading the label on my favorite bloody mary mix one day and was stunned to see that one serving had 25% of the recommended daily dosage of salt, 600 milligrams worth!  Holy crap!  And I was consuming two or three a day sometimes.

I didn't want to give up my virgin marys, so I went online and found many recipes for making your own mix.  I found one that sounded good so I decided to give it a shot.  I hied myself over to the Winn Dixie with a list of ingredients.  As I ran all over the store, repeatedly searching for needed parts, I wondered why is it so hard to find things in a grocery store?  I had a really hard time finding many things, but especially the lime juice.  Why aren't things simply put in alphabetical order in a grocery store?  Or why isn't there a computer with a search engine where I could enter "lime juice" and it would tell me where it was?  Eventually, I gathered up everything.  The lime juice wasn't in the juice aisle as one would suspect.  It was in the produce section, of all places.   Plastic limes right along side of real ones.

When I got to the tomato juice area (nowhere near the orange juice area, I might add, nor even the plastic lime area), I read the labels on the tomato juice bottles.  Every one was loaded with salt.  So, rather than buying high sodium tomato juice, I bought low sodium V8 juice instead which has 140 milligrams per serving, or 6% of one's daily dosage.

Back at the boat, I mixed it all up and left it to ferment overnight in the fridge.  I tried it the next day and it was fantastic!  I usually tinker with recipes, usually making it spicier, but I think this one is fine the way it is.   The only change I made was to substitute low sodium V8 for tomato juice.  Here you go...

3 TB Dijon mustard
3 TB Worcestershire sauce
2 TB horseradish
2 TB red hot sauce
2 1/2 oz lemon juice
1 1/2 oz lime juice
1 TS celery seed
2 TS black pepper
64 oz low sodium V8

So why did I post a bloody mary mix recipe on this blog?   Because I want to share it with you?  Because I'm running out of things to blog about?  Because I'm going to start posting recipes?  

Nope.

Because I know I'm going to lose the little piece of yellow paper with the recipe on it, sitting here next to my laptop, and when I do, I can find it by searching on this here blog.

Really.  It's good.  Try it.

So for today, Pam and I are driving to our new hometown of Green Cove Springs to pick up our Toyota's license plates.  Our temporary paper plates expired three days ago.  Yep, that's us, driving an unregistered vehicle.  We walk on the wild side.

Party On Dude

The temps here in Brunswick are up into the 90s again and the humidity is still high.  Too hot to do big boat projects like painting the decks and topsides.   I did do a few small ones though.

While washing dishes the faucet started spitting air.  Darn!  I usually keep tabs on that.   So I filled the boat with water.  Not a big enough project for a victory beer.

I later saw that the dogs' water jug was empty so I filled that too.  Not a big enough project for a victory beer either.

While letting one of the dogs in the back door, I noticed the BBQ grill mounted on the stern rail.  Pam and I had talked of moving it up to the flybridge stern rail to make more room on the aft deck.   We don't use our grill anymore.  Each dock section here at Brunswick Landing Marina has a grill in its pavilion.   So in the 92 degree heat, I lugged the propane tank (mental note; it's getting light.  Get it filled) and the grill up to the roof.   Our grill mounts in a fishing rod holder, so I unbolted that and reinstalled it up on the flybridge.  The whole job only took twenty minutes or so, but in this heat and humidity it was a chore.   No really, it was.  I was sweating a whole lot.

Of course, the down side of mounting the grill way up here is that when Pam's hot dog rolls off the grill, it's a long way down to fish it out of the water.

This is a project somewhat worthy of a victory beer, although I didn't partake.  The sun was still not over the yardarm yet.  Our boat doesn't actually have a yardarm, but if it did, the sun wouldn't be over it.  

Oh wait, I did another boat chore.  I ran the fuel polishing system all day.  I pulled out about a quart of water.  Maybe the  new gasket I made works! Again, not worthy of a victory beer.

Late in the day, we went to a dock party on dock 15 for Kelly who is leaving to return to Australia.  Kelly and her mom are here to work on a boat they bought.  According to immigration, they have a one year visa, but they have to leave the US every 90 days, and Kelly is leaving today.  Why in the world would US immigration require someone to leave every 90 days? These people are spending money here, and not taking any.  Let them stay as long as they damn well please, and as long as their money holds out!

It was a fine spread.

Pam and Kelly.  Kelly talks funny.

John and Jerri.  Jerri has the "Bubba Keg".  Practical.  It saves running back and forth to the boat for another beer.

Some chose wine over beer.

It was a wild party.  Some of us stripped down naked and partied hardy.

And party we did, into the wee hours of the sun going down, around 8 PM.

Maybe it was the booze, maybe it was the naked mayhem, but even the pulp mill looked good.

Today is forecast to be in the 90s again.  Pam has declared it to be a beach day.  Of course, she stayed at the party long after I did.  She even came back to the boat to grab my guitar because Linda wanted to entertain those without common sense who were still partying on.   We may not get to the beach until very late in the day, and I suspect that Pam will spend most of her beach time snoozing.

Dream for Sale. Cheap!

There are a lot of great boats on the market, and it's a buyer's market.  The economy may be slowly recovering, and your 401k may be doing OK, but we still have a long way to go to get back to "normal".

The megayacht business is doing just fine, thank you.  The 1% never really suffered much, and sales of 100+ foot motor yachts is, and has been, OK.  But for the rest of us, the 98%, life may still be difficult.   And if you're unfortunate enough to be in the 47% who pay no income taxes, life is still a bitch.

But yet, we all still have dreams.  For many, that dream includes casting off our dock lines and sailing off to paradise.  But that costs a small fortune, right?

No.

Many of today's sailors think you have to have all the modern conveniences of home to "go cruising".

hmmmm.... I think I use quotation marks way "too much".  Whatever.

Anyway, your typical cruising sailboat is 40 feet plus.  It has refrigeration and scads of electronics, with the accompanying solar panels and wind generators to power it all.  If any part of this system fails, this boat will stay in port until it is fixed.   But there is another type of cruiser.  The minimalist cruiser.

I once owned a Hallberg-Rassy Mistral, a Swedish sailboat 33 feet long.  It crossed the Atlantic at least three times.  It had no refrigeration and no electronics.  In 1970, it was considered to be the ideal size for a blue water boat, safe in any conditions and comfortable.

Well, today I was talking to John, a fellow liveaboard here at Brunswick Landing Marina.  We discussed marina fees and living aboard, and I told him what I had paid at another marina for a month's dockage.  He was astounded, and said it was more than what he paid for his two boats.

Two boats?  John was sitting on his Catalina 34 while we spoke.  What was the other?

Well, John has a gem for a second boat.  A 1974 Tartan 30.  It was a fresh water boat all its life until John bought it three years ago and brought it from the Great Lakes to Brunswick.  He then decided he wanted something bigger and bought the Catalina.   I wanted to see the Tartan.  I'm a HUGE fan of classic cruisers like Tartan.  I love the old CCA designs, rugged and graceful.  Go anywhere boats.   He took me to see it.  Here are the photos.

Wow.  This is a boat designed to be sailed.  It's not a dock queen.  It doesn't have an immense beam and dual wheels.  It's a sailor's boat.  The kind of boat that is sailed if there's a breeze.   Not a dockominium that is motored from marina to marina.

Call John if you're interested.

No, I have no idea where Whiskey Island is.

Cosmetically, it needs a lot.  Varnish and paint.  Hey, I've been there and done that.   Easy peasy.

It even has wheel steering!  With a compass in the binnacle.

A brand new cook top.

Dated.  But groovy.

A Rariatan head.  The Lexus of crappers.

The V-berth.  Infamous.  If you buy this boat, this is where you'll be sleeping.

The decks need to be repainted, and the hatch leaks if you're tied to a dock and the wind blows just right.

But it has self tailing winches!

So there you have it.  For much less than $10k, you can buy a dream machine.  And it's just days away from the Bahamas.  It's a getaway craft.  Away from snow and cold.  Away from stupid bosses and tiny cubicles. It's a winter of fun and sun.

For less than $10k?  Yup.  Feel the sand between your toes...

Cruising Makes You Young

I've written often about how I've met no grouchy or grumpy cruisers in the past year that Pam and I have been traveling and living aboard Drift Away.  I've attributed that to "how can anyone be grouchy" living this life style?

Now, I'm an easy going guy anyway, but living as we do, I'm almost TOO laid back.  I just can't get my panties in a knot over anything much anymore.

Well, except this.  The Brunswick Police Department called yesterday to ask if we wanted to prosecute the guy who stole my bicycle.   I'm like WTF?  Seriously?  Why would they ask such a question?  Of course I want to prosecute him.  Why wouldn't I?

I can't abide by a thief.  I loathe dishonestly.

When I ran my computer business and hired new help, I told the new hires that I would NEVER fire them for making a mistake.  Everyone makes mistakes.  Especially those who do all the work.  Just come to me and tell me what happened and we'll figure out how to make it right.

Never lie to me.  Never call in sick when you want a day off.  Call in and tell me you need a day off and we'll deal with it, and no, you won't lose your job.

I'm a firm believer in people.  Even people I don't know.  If you read yesterday's blog, you'll see that I trusted a guy down on his luck and living in a homeless shelter with my cherished $400 bike, yet he brought it back to me.  Give people half a chance and they'll do the right thing, I believe.  After my 62 years on God's green earth, have I been burned?  Yep.  Has it changed  my view on people?  Nope.

Last night, Pamela and I played a board game called "Tuk" with cruiser friends at the marina lounge.  It's something like the board game "Sorry" but with a few twists.  As we were playing, laughing and giggling like grade schoolers, I realized that this lifestyle we've chosen doesn't make us young.  It brings us back to a happier time when we were young.  A time when we were carefree, and didn't fret over things so much.

Ah, to return to the naivety and happy-go-lucky feeling of youth.

But I still want to nail the bastard who stole my bicycle.

Can Life Get Any Better Than This?

Yesterday was my birthday.  My 62nd birthday.   This is good news/bad news.   Which do you want to hear first?  OK, first the bad news.  I'm getting old.  What's the good news?  It's better than the alternative.

Also in good news, I now qualify for social security!  Yippee!

I also have more good news here, but I need to set it up for you first.

My $400 Haro cruising bike was stolen last Thursday night. It was cabled and padlocked in the pavilion at the head of our dock.  Someone came with cable cutters and was off with the bike before security knew what hit them.  I called the police Friday morning when we realized that our friend Rod wasn't off with it and they came and took a report. The chances of getting it back were slim to none according to the officer.  Bicycles have been being filched in this marina for some time, and the past month was really bad.

PQ and I walked around the neighborhood looking for it.  We looked for it everywhere we drove.   No bike.  We looked in area flea markets with no luck.  I was really ticked off.  $400 isn't the end of the world here, although it is a nice chunk of change.  It's that I really liked that bike.  It was very comfortable.

We needed to go to Walmart yesterday so I could buy a new cell phone. Our old friend Rod went with us.   Rod and his wife Patti are here in their Mason 43 waiting out hurricane season.  Rod was as pissed off as I was because he rode it everywhere, not having a car.  We were driving down Altima Avenue.  Rod and I were bitching about thieves to each other when Pam hollered out from the back seat "STOP!!   THAT GUY IS RIDING YOUR BIKE! PULL OVER!"

So I hit the brakes and pulled into the first parking lot and Rod and I jumped out. I yelled "HEY YOU! STOP!" as he passed.  Surprisingly, he did, and turned around and came over to the truck.   I told him that he was riding on my stolen bicycle.  He claimed he had just bought the bike on Saturday. I asked if he would tell his story to the cops and he said yes, so we called the police and an officer came over and took his info.

While we were waiting for the officer to arrive, we chatted.  His name is Dennis and he's a nice guy. As it turns out, he's homeless and living in Salvation Army housing in downtown Brunswick.  A guy who regularly eats at the Salvation Army asked him if he wanted to buy the bike for $60.  Dennis didn't have $60.  But a few days later he did and bought my bike $41.

Now mobile, Dennis was riding out to a job interview as a painter with a construction company when we stopped him.  I was impressed with how honest and forthright Dennis seemed to be.  I told him to keep the bike for the day and to take it to his job interview and then deliver it to me at the marina later. The officer seemed surprised that I would let him keep it, as in "Are you serious?  You'll never see this guy or your bike again."

I've always believed that if you give a person the chance, he'll do the right thing.  Naive, I know. But it is how I live my life.  We drove off for Walmart and left Dennis and my bicycle behind.  I bought my new cell phone and we returned to Drift Away.  

Sure enough, Dennis showed up at 3 PM with the bike.  I shook his hand and thanked him.  I don't keep much cash around, but I gave him what I had, $80.  He then introduced me to his friend Jeremy.  Jeremy bought a bike from the same guy and wanted me to look at it to see if I recognized it as a stolen bike.  I did not, but I suggested that he ride it to the police station to let them look at it.

Dennis was also very excited.  He got the job!  It pays $13 an hour.  

Yes, yesterday was a great day.  Not because it was my birthday, but because it restored my faith in humanity.  Always give a person the chance to do the right thing.

But back to my birthday...   we didn't take the dogs to the beach because we were waiting for Dennis and my bike, so I decided to actually tackle a boat project.  Yeah, I know, boat projects have been few and far between.  But it's friggin' HOT HERE.

Ruby wouldn't get off the boat on her own because the docks at Brunswick Landing Marina are lower than other places and it was too far of a leap from the boat to the top step.  Pam and I had to lift her off.   And, quite honestly, Ruby weighs 80 pounds and lifting a fat wamba like that is not good for one's back.

So I made a platform for our steps out of 2 x 6s.  It worked.  Ruby will now hie herself off the boat without us lifting her.

For you more astute readers, yes.  Our bicycles are now on our dock, cabled and locked to Drift Away.  And yes, you are absolutely correct.  That is indeed a victory beer sitting on the top step.

So how can the day get any better than this?  Easy.  Pamela was once a baker.

Happy Birth-day to me!

And then she asked what I wanted for dinner.  This was my reply.

As my friend Bob said at dinner in the college cafeteria when I told him he should eat his vegetables... "Why?   My mom's not here!"

62 years old.  I got my bike back.  I got cake and ice cream on a paper plate for dinner.   I live on a boat with the love of my life and three dogs and a cat.  Can life get any better than this?  Nope.

Happy Birthday David!

Today is Dave's birthday so I thought I would write the blog today. Kind of an ode to my love. Most of you know him just through his words and through the eye of his camera. I have the honor of actually knowing him.

I knew OF him for many years. He was an active business man in our hometown of Gloversville.  He was very active in his community having worked with Habitat for Humanity, starting a Business Improvement District and operating a thriving business (well thriving until the end) for nearly twenty years. He sat on the historic review board and dictated what store fronts could and couldn't do in the district. Dave and I also started a grassroots campaign to open a local chapter of a Boys and Girls club in our home town which is still going strong and helping many kids.

So you see, as I paint this picture of a good guy, when I first heard of him, I thought he was a stuffy asshole. I worked in a small bookstore across the street from his computer store. Years later, I opened my own bookstore which Dave eventually bought. We became friends and I got to know the real David. The silly, 8 year old kid, the funny perpetual teenager that lives inside all of us, the man who loves family and loves his friends just like family. When we found ourselves both single, we discovered how similar we both were. How we both love to laugh, to get caught in the rain, to splash in the puddle instead of walking around it, romping on beaches and playing with dogs. We began an adventure of a lifetime. That was four years ago.

We have been through some really hard times,  we have had some really great times, but as long as I have my best friend by my side, no matter what life hands us, it is all ok.

Happy Birthday, My Love.

Hermit

Once again, we hied ourselves to the beach on Jekyll Island.  This is getting to be a regular thing for us.   The dogs love it.  We love it.  Why not?

Pam and I are like kids.  We marvel in little things, like this hermit crab Pam found on the beach.

We could tell that he wasn't happy.   As in "Whoa!  What am I doing way up here!  Put me down!!!"

Pam also found a conch.  She declared that if the worst was to come (armageddon, an asteroid hitting the earth) , we could always live by eating crabs and conch.

Pam and I were playing in the surf, and Ruby and Chevy were romping in it as well.  I think that sometimes Olivia feels left out.

Not all dogs are the same.  Olivia tries to fit in, but she's not a pit bull.  If Olivia was a frog, I can envision her singing "It isn't easy being green".

This is pretty cool.   Pam showed me the remains of a wreck she found.

Using the world's most authoritative authority on everything (Google) I wasn't able to find any information about this.  I found the wreck of a shrimp boat that wound up on the beach on the south end of the island, but nothing about this on the north end.

It looks like a small boat with huge timbers running down the keelson.  If any of you are better with Google than me, let me know what you find.

Today is forecast to be rainy. It may be a guy day.  Rodd (from the Mason 43 sailboat across the way) and I may spend it at Home Depot, the Guy Store.

Hammerhead Shark!

Pam and I left the dogs home yesterday and went to the Jekyll Island Shimp and Grits festival.  Sadly, we arrived too late for the craft beer sampling which ended at 3 PM.  What we saw was mostly stuff like this.  Yawn.

The "festival" was mainly a craft fair, it seemed to me, but there were a few places selling shrimp and grits, naturally, and a few beer stands.   Beer makes me happy.

Pam and I bought shrimp and grits covered in a crab gumbo.  I thought it was absolutely horrible, but Pam liked it.

When we left the festival, we thought we'd stop to see if we could find a place to get to our favorite driftwood beach closer than the way we were going.  We did.  

And I'm glad I brought my camera (always always always always always bring your camera).

We noticed some excitement.  A fella fishing from the beach caught a small shark.  We went over to see.  It was a baby hammerhead shark.

There have been four shark attacks on Jekyll Island in recorded history, the last being in 2001.  All were bites and none were fatal.   This is according to the esteemed website YoSurfer and seeing as how it's on the internet it must be true.  From googling around Al Gore's internets, I found that Bull Sharks seem to be very common here.  But I also found that Great Whites are found along the Golden Isles more than any other place on the east coast.

I even found a YouTube video of a guy who caught a shark almost seven feet long.  He was fishing from the beach on Jekyll Island, so they're that close.

I am very pleased to tell you that the little hammerhead was released.


See, this is why I don't go in the water.  Ever.  I'm several pegs down on the food chain out there.