Thursday, June 02, 2005

Riding the Vomit Comet

The last couple days have been a blur.
I spent Tuesday trying to finish the last minute details (NBA Finals, Shanghai details, etc) and packed the car, then tried to get some sleep.
The Honda Element (Physalia) will hold a lot of stuff... We had it loaded to the gunwales...
I was able to sleep for 3 and a half hours...
We were on the road at 9:30PM. I kept getting the coffee (bad) at the all-night gas-food-lottery stations along I-95. Really gave my kidneys a workout.
We didn't break any world speed records on the way down, kept it about 8mph over the limit.

We hit Key West at 5:15am - No delays in Miami or in the Keys.

We made a commando raid on the WinnDixie on N. Roosevelt in KW to pick up perishables: meats, milk, fruit, etc. Got to the dock by 6:30 and loaded our equipment up on the Yankee Freedom. Brad is Captain today- Buddy 1st, the fair Leanne is also on hand with Mike and Jack (ugh) as crew.

Wind is blowing 15 to 20- and there was a squall line between KW and DRTO... Bad.
Wind picked up to 35 knots as we passed through the storm, and the waves were coming out of the south, hitting us directly from the port side of the boat, really rocking the Fast Cat.
Do I have to tell you how sick most of the people on the boat were?
It was a very somber ride, and the crew could have made a fortune if they had charged a quarter for the motion sickness bags...
Listen to your Uncle Jay: Dramamine and Bonine and the other motion sickness medicines take 45 minutes to get into your bloodstream and begin to work. Take it before you get on the boat.

So... We made it. The island got hit by the same storm earlier in the morning. Campground was hit fairly hard... The classic problem... it was too nice to put up the rain fly when they put up the tent originally. So as the storm came across the island at 6:00AM, the rain poured in through the top of their tents. One tent was completely collapsed, they had gone out in their boat at about 5:00am- When they got in at 5:30 last night, they were in for a rude awakening... and of course, their stuff had 12 hours to sit and soak in the water. They were unhappy campers...

All was well last night- breezy, warm. Still a threat of rain, and it is a little overcast this morning.

I have to go clean bathrooms. Oh goodie.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Whew. I wasn't sure what to expect. I like being called "fair"! That's nice! :)