Weather

I have an unplanned day off today. I took advantage of the perfect, sunny morning to float in the Gulf's 90 degree glass this morning for nearly two hours. What an exceptional feeling! Water, body and air are all so close in temperature that it's almost like being suspended without a body, watching the clouds float above and the gulls fly over the sun.

Now, a few hours later, it's dark as pitch with giant, jagged lightning breaking through the black clouds and winds whipping the palm trees back and forth. Torrents of rain just stopped. A rainbow fills the sky with the sun peeking around a thunderhead.

1989 was the last year I lived on a sailboat. Every rain torrent still cries out for me to collect water in a non-existent tank or take a bath on deck or close the hatches, especially when it comes during the night when I once pulled in the wind scoops and shut the hatches while still sleeping.

The frangiopanji outside my window has big raindrop puddles shining like crystals in the bright sun of the blue sky that has chased away the black clouds, the lightning and the thunder.

Only in Florida does the sun shine, the rain pour in torrents, the thunder boom, the lightning light up the sky and the earth and a rainbow connect them all at the same time, for a few fleeting moments, and then disappear in peaceful blue with cotton puffs gently floating above as though never disturbed.

Florida weather is downright confusing.

I never lived on a sailboat, but Bill and I spent many long weekends on the Escape. She was a 26-foot MORC sloop with a head in the forward cabin and a gimballed stove over the icebox in the main cabin. I learned how to doctor a can of beef stew with dried herbs and a glug or two of red wine so it tasted like boeuf bourguignon.

I've slept on her during thunderstorms, and felt completely safe. That would be delightful right now. The newscasters say it's a done deal; we are about to break our record here (36 days) for 100+ temps and no rain.

I miss the Gulf sometimes.

Ann

Sailing was the the most expensive camping trip I ever experienced. I used to call it ostentatious deprivation because our sailboat was 70 feet stem to stern, but 55 actual below decks living. Every luxury had a curse - they always broke at the worse possible time, they had through hulls that blew out or leaked, etc. etc. Yet, some of the finest moments of my existence were spent on a broad reach, rigging humming, across the open sea. Wow.

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some of the finest moments of my existence were spent on a broad reach, rigging humming, across the open sea. Wow.

Once, while we were vacationing in the virgin Islands, we spent a couple of days aboard a converted 12-meter. She was nearly 70 feet, but her beam was only 12 feet. Quarters were a tad tight.

My mom's family were farmers. My dad's were seamen, and I loved being on the water.

I remember, when we came home from those weekends on board, the floors inside the house would "rock" for several hours.

I finally found a couple of pictures of the Escape. She's the white fiberglass sloop in the outside slip. That's me sitting on the forward cabin deck.





Ann

I had a lot of fun sailing when I grew up along the Florida Gulf coast, though nothing bigger than a Day Sailer. One minute, great weather, the next minute bad weather, than great weather again.

Malcolm

We sold the Escape after the children were born. She was too big for the two of us to handle easily alone, and whenever we found friends and got sitters, there would be no wind. It was too hard to get a crew together at the last minute, so we gave up on it.

Ann

alj wrote:

I learned how to doctor a can of beef stew with dried herbs and a glug or two of red wine so it tasted like boeuf bourguignon.
Ann

I'm not much on sailing ships, or sloops or boats or even rafts on the Mississippi, having grown up on the black dirt farm land of Middle Tennessee. Might have liked sailing, can't say. We took a cruise once to the Virgin Islands (during which I don't believe I saw one) and I loved it, but the ship was kind of like a large hotel that just happened to be floating.

My question, though, concerns the above quote. I can't figure out why anyone would want beef stew to taste like somthing it ain't. Hell, I don't even know what boeuf bourguignon is, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like it.

Dinty Moore in a can is fine with me.

What kind of animal is a boeuf anyway?

E. Don, pour a large can of Dinty Moore into a big pot, add a bit of bay leaf and thyme and a cup of good, dry red wine. Set it into a gimballed stove and light the sterno underneath. Simmer it until the alcohol cooks out of the wine. The gimbals will keep the pan level when the boat heels.

If you're not on a boat, it's still a nice pot of stew, and you can cook it on a regular stove.

Ann

Would it sound better if you called it "dead cow"?

Ann

Sounds good, but I still don't understand why'd you want to mess up a perfectly good can of stew with bay leaf and wine. Besides, I don't have the thyme to do all that. Just open it, heat it and eat it.

Dead cow works for me.

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We took a cruise once to the Virgin Islands (during which I don't believe I saw one)

One what?? Sloop, island, or virgin?

Ann

Wait a minute. Did you say cook the alcohol out of the stew? If you do that, then why put the wine in at all?

The third choice is the one I had in mind. Saw plenty of boats and islands.

You almost made me laugh with that one, Don. You may have been jumping to conclusions, of course.

DK, I'm pleased that you enjoyed it when air, water and body all were 90 degrees. I'm even more pleased that it was you and not me.

Well, one thing is for sure Brenda. Eating Ann's alcohol free stew won't help you out in a lightning storm. Might make you long for a good cold beer to wash it down with though.

All you have to do on a houseboat to avoid lightning strikes is tie a cheap seven iron to some 100 lb test fishing line, attach a foam block to make it float, and drag it about 200 feet behind the boat. The lightning will hit the seven iron and you won't feel a thing. Note: Don't try this with a two iron, cause even God can't hit one of those.

Dick, I saw a lot of jumping going on in the islands, but none of it was to conclusions. That's why I don't think there are many still-flowered women in that part of the world.

Actually, your sailboat was a great size for having fun. Ours was for our forever after live aboard and a bit clumsy for day sailing. She was best in the heavy winds and sea, fully canvassed. What a beauty she was then.

Regarding food, we had oatmeal in a tin so it kept relatively dry. Keeping the humidity out of things was a constant battle; spoiled 100's of #'s of dog food and I won't describe what was left to clean up........

But back to the oatmeal. For ice cream sundae's I would cook oatmeal with lots of brown sugar, fill with walnuts and top with raisens and fresh scraped coconut shavings. It wasn't cold and it wasn't ice cream but it tasted like desert.

I wish I knew how to post pictures here. Your pictures take me back to ports and rigging singing at night. Lady Ace was a ketch with two Westerbeke diesel engines and a generator in their own filthy engine room. As I said, every luxury had a curse.

She was also narrow in the beam, 15' for the 70' length. Orginally built custom as a research vessel on the Great Lakes, she was designed for breaking waves (heavy) and lashing down below. The good thing was her efficiency of space, nothing loose, nothing wasted. Most magnificent and cursed were two fresh water heads (imagine catching rain water to flush the head....grrrr) and the sensible salt water all in one (shower, head & fold up sink).

We spent a lot of time in the Virgin Islands. I think it is a paradise for sailing, with or without experience, tacking back and forth from island to island or running a broad reach down the middle of the bight. My spouse ran a water taxi from Charlotte Amalie Harbor to the hotel on the rock, name forgotten. My three sons were on the 1989 cutting edge of technology, fitting the sailboats in the harbor with navigation equipment under contract to island stores.

Wow, what a memory lane this turned into. Could use a glass of that wine that was leftover from the stew.

DK, don't let Ann near the wine. She'll cook all of the alcohol out of it.

Don't worry E Don. I always leave enough out for drinking.

Ann

DK, there was a cool cookbook out at that time (the mid 60's). It was called With a Grain of Salt, and it was designed for cooking in tiny galleys with dried and canned foods. That stew recipe came from it.

The couple who skippered the 12-meter took us snorkeling. We brought back several sea snails and poached them in white wine and sea veggies ( and E Don, we threw the poaching wine overboard .

This is good, DK. We sold that boat 44 years ago. The Virgin Islands trip happened 12 years later. It was part of our last vacation together, and kept us married for another whole year.

Ann

I'm glad sailing held yours together a while anyway; the girl my spouse picked up to "work on the interior of the boat" in Venezuela split ours into shards. In his defense, they are still married in spite of the boys telling me to "hang in there until he ditches the 'bimbo.'" He's in his 80's and needs 24 hour care that she provides, bless her. LIfe's twists and turns are not always clear at the time. After a life of marriage and family ruled by testosterone, I was set free to chase my own dreams. I'm still chasing.....but I have some phenomenal memories too.

Ditto.

Ann

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Most magnificent and cursed were two fresh
water heads (imagine catching rain water to flush the head....grrrr)
and the sensible salt water all in one (shower, head & fold up
sink).

Our head was in the forward cabin, as I said. It worked with whatever water we were sailing in - which for us was always salt water. The only sink was in the galley. The head had a hand pump. A raunchy friend once came topside saying, "Man, you gotta pump the sh** out of that thing!"

Lovely memories.

Ann

Speaking of the weather, which DK's thread was originally about, our drought is even being talked about by Charlie Gibson:

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=8188598&page=1

World News Tonight also talked about how the drought is affecting the cattle here, and raising the price of beef throughout the country. E. Don will even have to pay more for his dead cow.

Ann