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| Pelican Sick and the Fish Head |
I didn’t see the pelican, honest. Mr E and I were busy warping the HideAway
backwards around C Dock. We had been out
on a day sail with family visiting from Alaska
along with our daughter and beau from Chili.
It was a beautiful day on our favorite bay, however as the wind grew, conversation
became difficult. Stories of moose, bear
and Chilean culture became lost amid growling commands to come about or gybe amid
fervent discussion of reefing or heading to port. The decision was to port and Mr E, our gasoholic,
out board was happy to take us there.
I suppose it should be noted here that one questionable
feature of the Gulfport Fl channel is a fish cleaning station and its proximity
that is closer to our destination than desired.
Fishermen, or fisherpersons if you are of that persuasion, clean their
catch throwing the fishy remains to the flock of various birds gathered in the
channel for a handout.
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| The Pelicans Of Gulfport Florida Channel |
Our pelican was
one of the beggars. Proving it was not choosey;
the pelican received a fish head of epic dimensions then retired to the
unattended C dock for rumination and other biological contemplations.
A loud, strangled squawk hung in the heavy air after the
pelican flew to avoid the HideAway after lightening his load depositing said fish head on C dock. The fish head fell to the dock at the precise
point where a sailor person would stand to warp a boat around the dock.
The Fustiest Fish Head This Side of the Universe
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| A Fusty Fish Head |
Or at least southeast
Gulfport
waited
the foot of an unsuspecting sailor.
Have you seen the latest boat shoe fad? Toe Pocket Shoes have toe pockets for each of your
little piggys, a sort of glove for your feet as it were. While their looks describe discomfort, they
are quite comfortable I’m told. All
those free toes provide unparalleled ground feedback, the need of which is hard
to visualize while trouping about on a fusty fish head.
A sliding kick knocked the offending head off the dock
providing some reeking relief and served to contaminate innocent toe pockets causing olfactory hallucinations lasting months.
The much flaunted barefoot shoes were put into a plastic bag
and thrown into the automobile’s back seat for transport. This solution was as short lived as the odor
was foul. Shorty, the malodorous toe gear was wrestled in a sealed container then
relegated to the murky depths of a car trunk owned by our resident double Iron
Man competitor.
The offending collection of toe pockets is still soaking in chemistry
of unknown composition and probably has given birth to some kind of mutant
creature that will likely become an elected official or at least smell like one.
And all of my gloating over the 110 degree temperature
difference between Fairbanks , Alaska
SMALL BOATS ROCK!
My wife and i are retiring fairly soon and we are thinking of moving from Ohio to the St. Pete/Tampa area. We have a Rhodes 22 sailboat but have only sailed it in fresh water. We are a little nervous about putting it into salt water. When you cruise how long can you go without flushing the outboard before corrosion damage occurs? What elese do i need to know? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteFirst off, you have the right boat-While there is deep water around the more interesting anchorages are shallow draft. For many years we kept HideAway in a wet slip with her motor tipped back. Flushing was difficult because of the motor's design. Then one morning we left an anchorage at low tide and took a short cut to the channel. The next thing we noticed was steam rolling off the motor -lots of it. Turns out that tipping the motor back allowed the salt water to cook which blocked small passages in the motor. It took years to finally overcome the incident -
ReplyDeleteNow HideAway sits on a trailer with her engine vertical and is flushed every use sometimes with a salt remover. Our last cruise was for a week near Dunedin & Tarpon Springs. It was not possible to flush the motor but we had no issues.
The real threat of salt water for us has been the trailer. Even with washing the trailer after every use the salt water actually rusted off my brake shoes and completely clogged the brake line. My fenders are shot and if I ever have to change license plates the existing one will need a grinder to remove. Did I mention none of the trailer electrical will last long. Fortunatly we never tow the boat on the road.
Check out my utube videos " Sailing HideAway" as all this has been recorded. There is a link on the upper left hand corner of this blog as well.
This area offers a mix of urban and remote sailing as well as a couple of large fresh water lakes. But there is nothing like watching the sun set from some small island in the Gulf! There are many sailing clubs of all kinds and you will not want of parts and services.
Fairwinds SV HideAway