sittononthebeach.com

I’m sitting here on SYL drinking my coffee in the morning fog…. not me, it’s actually foggy outside on our last day of provisioning / sail prep as we leave for the Bahamas tomorrow (when the morning fog lifts) My senses are actually on a keen edge I have things on land that must be done today!

We are selling out… home – cars etc. That’s big when you do it at our age. All I can say us my wife is unique. This grand adventure was her idea. We have cruised before but not without a substantial land based presence.

Yesterday evening (Sunday March 10. 2019) we made a small test sail to check systems and see how the zinghy rides. All went well but windless conditions on a calm river wasn’t much of a test. Tomorrow we make our first full day of sailing in years. Linda and I will motorsail into moderate winds tomorrow to a staging point beyond Lake Pontchartrain. Rabbit island sits at the mouth of the Riggolets, roughly 40 miles away. There we will prepare for our first big water day as we venture out into the Mississippi sound.

Weather determines everything to a cruiser. A strong frontal passage will cross our path at the end of the week. The sail plan is to be in Destin Florida tucked away nicely inside the harbor for the event. Our weather app “Windy” is representing the best departure weather we have seen since we started making this Easterly trek in 2009.

Time to get up and get busy… coffee is cold, time to roll!

SYL!! Rusty

OK…. so lots to say here!

Linda decided she wanted to go sailing again so we started getting SYL ready for a 2019 Bahama trip. At about the halfway mark on SYLs refit Linda had another thought…. let’s sell out this time! So…. we stopped working on the boat and began house renovations. (That was 2 months ago) We did everything to the house. We added a 4 ft x 7ft shower, new granite, completely painted it inside and out, poured 50 yards of new concrete and a boat ramp, made a big RV pad with 50 amp service in 2 locations etc etc… I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel on that project so I’m back on boat projects… The fun stuff!

Now that we officially moved to the boat, it’s easier to knock out the final refit work.

So far we added a new charger, solar panels, batteries, bow sprit for the 500 sq ft headsail, a roller furler, a nice new bigger inverter, all new 12 volt wiring on the charging side, new sheets for all the headsails, we refurbished the sail bag/lazy jacks, had the main and jib freshened up, now I’m in cleaning mode.

Today I pressure washer 1/2 the boat in the rain, she’s looking spiffy. It’s amazing how bright white she is after a good 4000 psi bath. After that comes a full wax job, then I’ll be smiling! Linda has the inside nice already. After adding a fresh new 3″ Temperpedic bed topper, we have slept onboard 3 nights. Fuel and provisions are topped off so it’s pretty well up to me to finish the pre sail list. Our target is to leave New Orleans by March 13th.

The house should be ready for sale just before we leave. Cross youre fingers, SYL is about to sail again!

Rusty and Linda 2019

Well, I’m on the Bayou but definitely not in Louisiana.

After my Diamond Green Diesel job finished, a good friend wanted me come to Texas and do a job with him.  This chemical plant makes chicken feed and the base ingredient for carpet (AcryloNitrile)   It doesn’t smell as bad as a crude oil refinery but the chicken feed is made with arsenic, and carpet fibers are made with cyanide so you better hope you don’t smell it.  Like the Democrats; they come up with wonderful sounding names for poisonous adventures.  This plant is on Chocolate Bayou!  doesn’t that sound yummy!  I didn’t start this post as a rant, but I feel one coming on so buckle up, or check out… your choice.

Planned Parenthood:  Sounds like a good thing right?  Doesn’t Planned Genocide more accurately describe it?  If you ever want to know what Liberals are guilty of, just take note of what they currently blame others for.  Brett Cavanaugh “bless his heart” is a saint compared to those slimy Senators, but somehow half of our senators can’t stomach Brett Cavanaugh!  Moral outrage…. feigned integrity… the very stuff of American politicians makes me sick.  Trey Gowdy said it best:  The reason he’s leaving congress is there are no laws or procedures to follow during congressional proceedings, it’s all about the win!  In congress the truth is always debatable, evidence is inconsequential, resume’s and personal “heritage” are fabricated, all activity is 100% aimed at gaining more power…… period at anyone’s expense, especially the “enemy” those pesky fact driven Republicans.  HOW, on earth can congress (our law makers) not respect the basic tenant of Innocent until proven guilty?  I submit that the Cavanaugh hearings are showing America what vultures these people really are.  Sitting up there all in a row ready to pounce on any carcass that looks tasty.  Congress doesn’t have to live like the rest of us deplorables.  They count themselves above the law, heck even above simple facts!  Laws and reality mean nothing to those political animals that rip and tear at each other… or anybody else for power….. Do you as an American give them that privilege or do they just take it?

I have never voted straight party because I am discerning, I look at both sides.  I consider the opinions of those I don’t agree with first, over my own.  I give them merit, then work through the facts to prove or disprove my own beliefs.  Fact finders like me seem to be rare, especially in Washington but I do see a few of them on the Republican side.  I fear most American voters pay just enough attention to politics to be 1″ deep and a mile wide.   What I mean by that is, they believe the junk politicians and fake news puts out without research, and form a nuclear defended mile wide belief that is only 1″ deep…..  Sounds reasonable, except that you can’t….. you can’t trust these lawyers that made it to Washington, so now finally they can live above the law!  Lawyers and movie stars Lie for a living, it’s their job.  Don’t put your faith in any of them, listen to both sides and form your own opinions.  Rule of thumb….. if the media says it, be very suspect… its their job is to sell newspapers, not to tell the truth.  Social media has proven to the major news agencies that America no longer cares about truth, we only care if it stirs emotion enough to get a “hit” …click bait for TV…  Newspaper owners have always thirsted for power, now they can make news up like we do on Facebook!  cool huh?  They spread their agendas with smooth creamy “lawyer facts” or feigned outrage in order to assemble the greatest sheepdom available.  Like vultures on the fence.. feeding on the deplorables.

I told you I was going off the deep end….. the older I get the more opinionated I am I guess.  If there was ever a single lever to pull, I think the proof is right there on TV.  Look at these heartless bottom feeders that play God’s very angels, and make up your own mind.  Cory Booker, where is his contingent, Maxine Waters, how can we hit that delete button, Feinstein… nope.  Pelosi big nope!  All agenda driven lawer-slick vultures that care nothing about you and me.

Chocolate Bayou!  Two more weeks and I’m off!  These 100 hour weeks are productive but Linda and I look forward to some “me time” at least for the next year.  Not sorry about the rant… 🙂  I always try to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem so I don’t apologize about actually making people think.  The silent majority is America.. not these guys…..

Sea Yawl Later !!  Rusty

Excitedly bobbing toward that first sandy beach of the trip in your dinghy…. super excited as you leave the mother ship for the first time (this trip) to walk the “remote beaches of the world”…  You can see it with your own eyeballs!  That special place you dreamed of, where it’s easy to imagine being the first human to ever set foot on this particular patch of sand!  The anticipation of pure unspoiled remoteness is tweaking your senses.  Your mind is thick with anticipation and the achievement of it all… and then it comes to you “This is why we spend Hundreds of thousands of dollars on a boat, and put up with wind and waves, the boat brokers and the nay-saying relatives.. all of it to get RIGHT here…. and it’s about to pay off!  We are here!

After years of beachcombing, after exploring wildly remote sandy shores from our Seawind catamaran SYL, I have found one absolute certainty.  You WILL find shoes.  There are always shoes, the more remote the beach…. the more shoes you find scattered along the high wash line.  Now, I’m not talking about the simple “out of the way” beach here… I’m talking ocean side / rugged remote shores of uninhabited islands.  A place where you can easily imagine stumbling across shipwreck remains and cannon balls half buried in the sand…. that illusive “message in a bottle”…. or glittering ghost ship gold strewn out in the rippling sand….  The beaches even the majority of cruisers don’t go to…  Why are there are always shoes!?!

I’m not sharing this shoe story to throw cold water on the perfect dream… far from it!  Seeing a half buried shoe next to an amazing artifact that has spent hundreds of years bobbing on the open ocean, then untold years baking in the sun doesn’t degrade the euphoria one little bit for a hard core beach comber, it’s just puzzling to me… but why shoes?

I cultivated that “walking the beaches of the world” dream with several good friends of mine (you know who you are) and it kinda stuck.  Fortunately I married a wonderful woman that had the same dream later in life when we could afford it, and we made it happen.  When our last kid graduated college, we left on an extended cruise that very week!  For several years we enjoyed the lee side – picture post card beaches that everyone else (that has a blue water capable boat) enjoys.  But after 15 years of so of lazy beachcombing… I had a desire to find the remotest of the remote, especially when my son Jono was on the boat.  We didn’t just “walk on the beach” we worked hard at finding the hard ones.  I always heard the more effort you put into something, the better the reward.  Linda and I found bliss pulling up to and enjoying beautiful the beaches on the easy side of the island, but Jono and I went on the wild side, the ocean side, where most never dream of going.  We did what I call “Man Stuff” both efforts, front side and back side beaches have their unique reward.  But the “wild side” of beachcombing is where you find the cool stuff .  

Have you ever taken a big cruise ship and paid extra for the “excursion” where they take you off the ship that has 1500 tourists on it and go to a neat place with only 100 or so other people?  Yea what we did is like that except where we went the only people you met had their own boat.  A self guided “excursion” every day that lasted for 6 months.  The food wasn’t as plentiful on our little catamaran… but the word “excursion” truly isn’t the right word to use, it was living a life apart from all that luxury and the “herds”.

Few have ever felt the placid calm of a beach so remote that it even becomes a little scary.  By scary I mean so disconnected from humanity it challenges your previous mental paradigm of living on a populated planet.  I have felt that excitement several times.  I am sure with all my adventures, I have put my foot where no other human has ever tread… on purpose.

Shoes:  I can easily imagine flip flops blowing off the deck of a cruise ship, I’ve even found ping pong balls with cruise liner logos on them, so I get that scenario… wind blown lost articles will wash up from the open ocean and some of them off big ships.  But most of the shoes I saw are full leather, or tennis shoes.  It’s a mystery to me but I guarantee you every Bahamas beach combing cruiser knows that what I’m saying is true.

I’d love to know why there are always.. shoes …..   Rusty & Linda    sv “Sea Yawl Later !!”

My past two posts represent only a factual summary of recent life events.  Sometimes when things come at you quickly… facts are all you can share.  The further you get from the situation, the easier it becomes to share the emotions of it.  I’d like to take a moment to add some color commentary if you will….  do some word painting in an effort to provide a better feel for what really took place.  As Paul Harvey would call it “the rest… of the story”.

I have a tale to tell about my personal life experiences during hurricane Maria’s attack on Puerto Rico.  This story is what most would call “A God Thing”.  I’ll let you be the judge.

My nerves were still a wreck, I was outside of my own skin worrying about my son who was going through hell and I couldn’t help.  Hurricane Maria had just hit Puerto Rico in full force… and my boy was at ground zero on his 33 foot sailboat.  He was prepared wonderfully, but mother nature decidedly won the battle and wrecked his whole world.  Winds blew over 180 miles per hour across the water… and lasted through the night for 12 straight hours.  I have seen video from his phone and heard his recorded logs during the worst of it.  The word spectacular comes to mind, but not in a good way.  He witnessed a spectacle of destruction that had his father worried silent… beyond words.

Jono wisely took refuge ashore in a two story cinder block building.  He and his cat “Fishbait” spent 12 hours with a local man named Pepe’ watching the door of his refuge bulging in and out… their clothes pulsing against and away from their bodies with the abrupt changes in air pressure.  It was like being inside a drum, but in this case the drum was solid brick.  His small dinghy was lifted by the water making circles in the wind outside the window (it was on dry land before the storm) nothing to do now but watch, as it eventually ruined itself thrashing against a metal fence and sunk.

“Miss Adventure” Jono’s boat had three large anchors set hard to the bottom.  The rain obstructed his view as she slowly… eventually.. lost her battle to the onslaught of 180 MPH wind driven waves.  It wasn’t until the next day that Jono knew the fate of MA.  He found her careened into the mangroves on the East end of the bay.  What the wind left, looters quickly stripped from her bones.  Alone now without a home, sacred dirty and tired Jono spent the next few days trading his labor to help the marina owner recover from the storm, in trade for a place to stay.  We had no direct contact but knew Miss Adventure was lost.  I could only imagine what my boy was going through and as it turned out I was spot on with my fears.

During the day Jono worked on the docks with 2 new friends as he traded labor for shelter.  They slept in 3 to 4 hour shifts, one always standing guard outside with a flashlight and machete warning off looters.  I can’t imagine what it was like crouched down in a swarm of mosquitoes, always mosquitoes waiting for daylight to break.  Day after day a strong sailors fortitude was whittled away piece by piece.  Ingeniously Jono rigged the solar panels he removed before the storm to some old batteries to charge his and others cell phones, hoping one day soon service would return.  Food and water were scarce, Jono made trips to his disabled boat and ferried fresh water from her tanks back to land.  When I finally heard every third word of his voice on a passerby’s cell phone that happened to work, he was spent.  Out of ideas and out of gas mentally.  His crying words “I don’t know what to do dad” crushed my heart… and I couldn’t get to him.  I couldn’t touch him.  It was hard.

I said all that to set the stage, give you an insight into my mental state.  Here at home I was going to work, but not working…. fretting and looking for a way to help, panicking every time my phone made a sound.  Linda beat the bushes, trying to find him a way home.  Emailing senators, looking into every resource to get that boy home.  Nothing was working.  I knew he survived the storm but he was far from safe.  Bad people were doing bad things and he was right in the middle of it.

Linda said we needed to get that boy another boat.  As a distraction I spent my time searching the internet for his next home.  That boy finally found his groove in life and at no fault of his own, lost it to a storm.  Jono removed a lot of his big money items from MA before the storm.  New sails, boom and stack pack etc.  In my search I hoped to find a boat his stuff would work on.  As luck would have it, I found a boat exactly like his for sale cheap in my home town!  I wanted a bigger boat for him but I had to call and see about this boat.

It was Thursday just after lunch when I called the owner of the boat like Jono’s.  Oddly enough she told me yes, it is for sale but she really couldn’t talk to me right now because she was on the boat, moving it from one marina to another in New Orleans and was broke down in the middle of Lake Pontchartrain.

After discussing the problem (having 50k miles of sailing experience) I tried to diagnose the problem for her but she was too concerned about hurting the boat to run it any further.  There was no wind on the lake so she couldn’t sail in.  On the phone she told me she had tried to contact someone to tow her in but it was going to be horribly expensive and almost dark before they could come so I told her I’d be there in two hours.

My plan was to get on my sailboat and pull her in.  The boatyard she wanted to go to is just past my boat anyway so that worked out.  I left work early and talked to her again on the drive to the marina, no wind so she was still stuck.  When I got to my boat the shore power cord was disconnected so my batteries were very dead.  As I worked a man walked up, I assumed from the boat ahead of mine at the marina.  The boat had been for sale for years, it is a huge 100’+ dinner cruise boat that was converted for private use.  This gentleman had bought it and wondered who owned the catamaran behind him.  Normally I love to talk boats but I was visibly in a hurry and I apologized about it, telling him about my urgent business to go pull another boat in.  Graciously he understood and walked back to his boat.  I had my flame retardant suit on from work, it was blazing hot and here he comes back with a pair of shorts (that fit me fine) and a bottle of cold water.

We talked a bit as I gave up on getting my big boat charged and running in time.  Had a short but friendly conversation and I ended up dropping my 10 foot rubber dinghy in the water to serve as a tow boat.  It has a 20 Horse four stroke on it so it had plenty of power.  To make a long story short I pulled the 33′ Irwin past my boat (and the big 100’er) a few hours later on the way to the boat yard and that was that… or so I thought.

Sunday I went back to my boat to get things up and running like they should.  I hung the shorts on his boat at the doorway and proceeded to work on “Sea Yawl Later !!”  Shortly Ken walks back over and made me keep the shorts… he said he saw me come by pulling the Irwin and wondered how that worked out.  I told him I had always wanted to look inside that big old boat in front of me at the dock and he immediately said “come on”.  My new buddy Ken and I had a great conversation onboard his ship.  I enjoy talking boats and shared ideas about his 3 story cruiser, we talked about family and of course I told him about Jono.  I mentioned that we were trying hard to find him a way out of Puerto Rico but hadn’t found a way yet.  He immediately said “I’ve got a Learjet lets go get him”

My jaw might have dropped, I’m not sure but after a second I told Ken “wow, that’s too much to ask” I won’t turn you down but if all else fails we will talk.  I had several avenues working at the time.  We talked some more and as I walked out I told him that he runs in different circles than I do and if one of his buddies was making a relief flight over there I’d like to find Jono a jump seat back home.  He told me sit back down a second and walked away, I thought he may have a name for me or something.  Ken came back after about 5 minutes and said “I can’t find my checkbook but I want to help that boy get a new boat”  call my secretary tomorrow and I’ll have her make you a check out for $10,000 dollars to help that boy.  I must have looked pretty strange, I didn’t know what to say…. right?  who does that!?

Sure enough the check came in the mail!  What if I hadn’t chosen to go pull that disabled boat in that day…. I’d have never met Mr. Ken.  He said he donates large amounts to many charities each year and this sounded like something he wanted to help with.  Later he told me as we exchanged texts that his dad told him the more you give, the more you get and he believed that.  There’s my “God Thing”  I told Ken he didn’t have to do that….. and his reply was grand.  He said “I haven’t done anything I had to do in a very long time”  It’s something I want to do.  How do you act, what emotions could I feel in a moment like that.  My nerves were shot, my boy was out of reach and then this happened.  Suffice it to say I was still a man, but my eyes leaked.

This has been a very active hurricane season on the Texas gulf coast.  As many of you know my son Jonathon lives on a boat and was currently in Puerto Rico when Maria came through!  Long story short Jono lost his home / boat to the 180 mph winds.  She was blown sideways into the mangroves dragging all three anchors with her.  He did a very good job of storm preparation, but mother nature just…. won.

Jono rented a second story room on shore to ride out Maria off the boat, which was basically a 12 hour tornado.  “Miss Adventure” his 33′ Irwin sailboat didn’t stand a chance… but endured better than some that went to the bottom sometime during the night.  Jono had taken as much gear off the boat as possible before the it got bad, but looters got to her before he could get her re-floated.  They tore off the hatches and stole everything they could carry or unplug.  The batteries, the anchors that were still tied to the bow, radios, etc.  Hurricane Maria was utter chaos for Jono and vile uncertainty for me, not being able to contact my boy for over a week.

Jono carries a satellite locator device on his boat called “spot” that is capable of transmitting his location every 10 minutes.  The “ping” or location is available for viewing online, it shows where he is, as well as the date and time of the mark.  Wisely we devised a plan of “communication” before we lost all contact.  Knowing all services would be down, Jono was going to physically turn spot on and off during the storm so we would know he’s OK and capable of manipulating the switch.  The day after it passed he was to turn it on before lunch if his boat made it, or after lunch only if she didn’t.  As you know she didn’t so we were able to understand he was OK, but his home was destroyed on that second day after the storm.

For days Jono kept us semi sane by cycling spot on and off.  It also showed us his movement from the marina to a home several blocks from shore, back to the marina etc. so that was encouraging.  It was almost a week before Jono was able to get us a text from someone who had a cell phone signal.  Nobody had a signal on the coast where Jono was, but a new friend let my boy type me a text… then went back home so the message could transmit.  Poor communication but at least SOMETHING…  While it was great to see text evidence in his own words that he was mostly OK, a daddy needs more than that.

Jono had taken the solar panels off his boat so he set them up onshore and found some old batteries that worked well enough to charge cell phones.  He was the only resource for electricity for days, he had the only way to have 12 volt lighting or charge anything in the little torn up fishing village near Salinas.  Soon his food got low, but luckily he had stored fresh water in the tanks of his sailboat.  He could fill jugs and bring them ashore for drinking water.  We knew none of this when it was going on.. my fears of how hard his life were during that time were pretty much spot on.

The “marina” owner allowed him and two others to stay free in the room he rode the storm out in, they traded their labor rebuilding the docks for the room.  By day they worked hard outside, at night they took 3 hour shifts sitting out in the night heat among the swarms of the relentless mosquitoes with a flashlight and machete running off looters.  After days on end of that routine Jono was mentally and physically drained, now with no home, no contact with the outside world, no way to get money to buy food or travel.. he was just stuck.  Strong resolve slowly dissolved into despair.  When we finally got to talk over a sketchy cell connection where I could hear every third work, he was totally wiped out.  He didn’t know what to do, and for a competent sailor that’s saying a lot…

Over the next few days I got him a message via text to salvage all he could off MA and that we would see to it that he got another boat.  I’m sure that raised his hopes again.  He finally got a ride to San Juan where we could text him directly for short bursts.  Linda kept calling the airlines trying to arrange a flight out but everything was booked or cancelled for weeks.  We were working all avenues trying to get him out of there with no joy, finally Linda lucked out and got a flight confirmation for this past Friday 10/6/17 to Atlanta Georgia.  I was waiting at the airport in my car when he landed.

Jono severely injured his back during the event in Puerto Rico.  I’m glad we didn’t know that until I could physically touch him in person.  The injury was caused by heavy lifting, and exacerbated by the constant stress he was living under.  With no meds to fight the inflammation he was a ball of pain when he walked out to the car in Atlanta.  Jono literally fell into my arms… he was home.

There are many side stories to tell regarding our efforts to get him home that I’ll post at some point.  We drove through the night… straight home from Atlanta only stopping for gas.  I was a tired puppy by daylight Saturday morning but that was just fine by me.  He slept some and we talked some on the way.. it was worse than we knew.  But finally I was able to feed my boy real food, clean and comfort him at my home.  Unless you have been denied that possibility like I was.. you don’t know how good that felt to dear old dad to have Jono back.

Karen, Jono’s sister put up a paypal link because some of his sailing buddies wanted to throw something in the hat to help get him a new boat, so that’s going on.  Jono had finally found his groove in life with the sail boat, and through no fault of his own lost that dream… but we are going to fix it.  Boat shopping has had it’s highs and lows the past two days.  So far we have looked at two boats and ruled them out… too much work to be done before heading back out to PR.  We have some possibilities working but it will seemingly take everything we have allotted to make it work, leaving no buffer for the unexpected… so we are working that out.

I’m “back in my own skin” with my arms and heart around my prodigal son… Daddy is adding plus’s to his days now rather than dreading the unknown minus’s.  Not all parents got that lucky, I’m thankful.

Jono has witnessed true desperation.  Political correctness means ZIP to the boy, it’s all about “actual correctness” these days.  Jono was never political but he was distracted by now trivial thoughts and events that steered his life.  He is different now… It is my belief that you’re not truly grounded in life, until you embark on an adventure that carries at least a slight risk of unintended bloodshed.  What we deem important (that seems all encompassing in the moment) often turns out to be something really silly doesn’t it?  When the worst thing in your life is getting the wrong color nail polish at the manicurist…. that just wrecks your day.  uhhh, yeah…..? no..  not even close.

Life has been coming at us like bowling balls lately…  I’ll try to catch you up.  This whirlwind version will leave out many emotions and details, but you will get the gist of it.

Houston and Beaumont got record rainfalls during Harvey, many areas got a full years rainfall in 3 days.  Houston’s heavier areas got over 50″ of rain, Beaumont / Port Arthur got as much as 60″.  No drainage systems in the world will handle that much water.  Suffice it to say the news channels didn’t have to hunt to find that one house that was flooded, or the one gas station sign that blew down in order to feign disaster, this was a catastrophic event where as many as 50% of the houses in several Texas cities went under water.

My immediate family had 8 households in the direct path of Harvey.  One of our kids was in the process of moving from one part of Houston to the other so she had two houses at risk.  The old house was 2 story and everything they owned was in boxes on the floor of the first story ready to be moved!  They did lose a car in the driveway, but water lapped at the front door sill and didn’t come in.   It wasn’t within inches of coming in, it was within a fraction of ONE inch!  The garage was lower so it got water but all her things boxed up on the floor were OK.  The New house…. like the old place had neighbors two doors down that flooded but she was high and dry.  None of the 8 homes in my family took on water other than Erin’s garage.

Friends weren’t as lucky as family.  My best friend in Baytown got 56″.  Linda and I had a weeks vacation planned with the RV in Branson Missouri but I ended up spending that week in Baytown.  At the end of that week we moved Erin and Michael into their new place.  The flood relief work was much easier than the moving!  Even though the kids did the heavy lifting, my old man back took a licking…

Harvey definitely “Messed with Texas” thousands of families are still displaced.  Most of the flooded homes are sitting empty totally ripped apart to the frame, letting the studs dry before starting back with sheet rock.

OK, that was Harvey…. see the next post for hurricane disaster Phase II “OI VEY MARIA“.  The hits just keep on coming……..

This historic event created by Hurricane Harvey is enormous.  It’s hard to wrap your head around it, 6 million people (just in Houston) are flooded, many of them tragically.  Being an old guy…. I have some human observations I’d like to share:

• I’ll be interested to see how many looters survive in Texas.  After Katrina the rats that feast on heartache swarmed New Orleans.  I know, I was there.  Looters are already showing up in Rockport after the water receded, but I predict they will see a different America.  Why?  I believe the answer is twofold.  1. Texans have a long standing history of self reliance and self determination.  2. The political climate is different.  I pretty much guarantee you when those good old boys left home they didn’t leave their pistol behind.  Texans are helpful and warm hearted to a fault but don’t cross one…  Political correctness is starting to give way to actual correctness, words like “common sense” and “reality” are becoming popular again.  I believe there is less confusion between right and wrong because the reality based silent majority is speaking up… the loud mouths with an inch deep and mile wide belief system are starting to hearing us.  I believe this newfound national clarity may lead to stronger law enforcement, from the citizens of Texas as well as those who make their living behind the gun.
• Catastrophe is an accelerator, it seems to push down the gas pedal of a populations natural human behavior.  During Katrina the good people were doing more good, and bad people felt like they had free reign to pillage.  That’s not a news event that I read about…. I witnessed it first hand.  When it’s easy to see who’s good and bad, when there’s no doubt what evil looks like, life changing decisions come quick and easy.  I think America craves that clarity…  Fake news driven by corporate agendas, special interests and liberal clouds of uncertainty are being “found out”.  I predict (because I’m old) that it will become unimaginable in the near future, that one particular word or another would draw the wrath of the purely emotionally driven non-involved public.  I think “political correctness” is giving way to “actual correctness” again.  Clarity is a rare commodity these days right?  Here’s a challenge to think about- If you truly want some clarity in your life… figure out how to personally participate in the recovery effort from Harvey.  Trust me you will witness clarity of purpose at an alarming rate.  My memories of boat rescues and just the visual scene of cars under my boat, watching multiple helicopters in the air at all times play like a movie scene in my head.
• Here’s how you’ll know if you need to go:  For Katrina, I didn’t “think” I ought to go help…. there came up a force within me that I couldn’t resist.  It may not be that intense for some folks, but for me it was an uncommon passion like I never felt before.  If you’re decision to physically participate (or not) has the faintest amount of guilt somewhere in it, your not being called.  Trust me if God wants you there he doesn’t use guilt, that flame in your heart to participate won’t have any negative or realized fear in it… anywhere.  Knowing you have the means, equipment and experience coupled with that passion from within is a powerful thing.  When those stars align..  you’ll know it.  Now a word of caution here….. don’t decide to show up unprepared just because your a passionate person… that’s not helpful.  Don’t be “that guy”  If you tend to crave life’s extremes do us all a favor and stay home, I saw him during Katrina too.  Your true decision maker will be an uncommon passion that solidly and unmistakably switches on a light inside you.  You’ll know if you need to go.  I’ve wondered if I would get that this time… I considered heading out for Harvey….. but I can tell you for sure, I haven’t felt that undeniable need this time.  Not to say I won’t… maybe I’m supposed to be right here at this keyboard instead.
• IF you go and intend to be a frontline rescuer here’s what you need:  Many will disagree but I’m telling you.. don’t go and be a victim.  Wear a gun where all can see it.  Texas is an open carry state, it’s legal.  If you go….bring the ability to survive with you, be totally self contained with water, food, gas, whatever you need.  Don’t go and become part of the problem.  If your going to be a server or part of the protected infrastructure you won’t need a gun, but if you’re out there ranging, rescuing, on the front lines don’t leave home without it.  Don’t make believe your some protected martyr, “if God doesn’t want me to die he’ll protect me”  OK, he is telling you now… If your out there on the flooded plains of Texas and capable of making good decisions, bring a gun… we are going to need you in Houston soon.  It’s time for the good guys to ride.. time to tame those wild Texas plains once again.  We are underwater…..

Having seen this on a smaller scale during Katrina, I can tell you the government will finally show up and relieve you, so three days or so is all you probably need to plan for.  Given what I’ve heard on the news I think our new law and order government might show up quicker than they did in New Orleans.  In a couple days the need for rescue will probably be over, but people still need to be moved around by boat.  I spent one day just moving people out of one hospital without power to another.  That was a big job that needed lots of boats.

Thanks for listening in on my story…

Sea Yawl Later !!

Rusty

Its been a long time since I posted…. what I’d like to advise is that people new to this site look at “older posts” and check out the real reason we started this website. Sailing the Bahamas in our Catamaran “Sea Yawl Later”. Some nice pictures in there… enjoy.

The boat project is going well, there are more hours involved in the re-purposing than I expected but it’s been fun.  Here you can see the box the mattress fits in.I have all the wood on the bottom and 5 coats of varnish laid down now.  Sanding between coats has my arms looking like Popeye the sailor man….  I can now turn the boat over and finish out the top.  The bow will be a toy box, the cowl will raise on brass hinges like a car hood.  A motion activated light will mount inside the toy box so when the lid is raised, the light comes on.  I just bought the magnetic hidden latch that holds the hood shut until you push to release it.  You’ve seen those on bathroom mirror cabinets right?  push to close, push again to open….  A hidden latch will work well, not detract from the lines of the boat.I love how the wood looks.  The lighter color is of course new wood, the darker wood is the 30 year old highly abused original boat bottom.  Its hard to replicate the richness of old wood isn’t it?   I still have to make a display base for the project.  I’ll stain the stand much darker, so the boat will display nicely.  I think my 3 x 21 belt sander is about to give up the ghost… I should call this build “grind and sand” because that’s what it’s been.  Building a new boat doesn’t include deconstruction, this project is as much about deconstruction as the build out.

I have some ideas about how I’m doing the dash board, but it won’t be clear until I start holding pieces up where I think they go to make that final decision. … still a little “butt scratching” to do but that’s part of the fun of it too.  If your from the South, you are familiar with my mental imagery.  Some would hold their thumb up and look past it, some might frame the piece with both hands like a movie producer, some would sit on a rock with fist under chin to consider it, others might cross their arms and tap their lip with a one finger to decide.  Here in the south its just butt scratching….  nothing fancy, nothing presumptuous, and definitely not meant to be rude….  Unless you know “southern charm” intimately you might regret my choice of imagery, but I promise it’s well chosen and not meant to be offensive in any way.  Self deprecating southern hospitality should never be misconstrued and thoughtlessness.

I know I’m digressing here, leaving the previous subject, but now that the Superbowl and the Presidency are decided…. I’d like to take this opportunity to say why don’t we all calm down… huh?  It’s simple really, if your an American you are blessed.  If you are an immigrant, simply don’t come here if your angry about what America represents.  Here is the Oath you have to take to become a naturalized American citizen:  “I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”  I’m a simple guy, but this looks pretty clear to me.  If you swear this oath to obtain citizenship, shouldn’t you lose that gift if your actions are different than your words?  I’m just a dumb country boy but it seems to me, the contract you made to become a citizen is broken when you don’t entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen.  If you don’t defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic shouldn’t you lose the status it affords? 

Yeah yeah… I know the executive order to step back and take a better look at immigrants might have been rolled out better, but what do you do?  There’s no way to stop the immigration process other than to just stop it.  If you warn people it’s like saying OK, all you dangerous immigrants come this week… because next week it will be too late.  Sometimes the best solution is actually the simple solution.  That’s why I voted for a businessman.. and no, I didn’t expect him to be Ronald Regan… we didn’t have that choice did we?  Trump’s a narcissistic duffus, we all know that, but he’s also not stalemated by political correctness like the Washington elites have been for decades.  The only difference between self grandizing Trump, and any of the other self grandizing politicians are that Trump says it to your face and the rest do it in secret behind your back.  A politicians LIFE is self promotion, this one just looks you in the face and you don’t like it.

Action after years of inaction is going to look different…. get used to it.  If your too good to be led by an American billionaire, I don’t know what to tell you, I guess my advice would be to get over yourself, your not that tall of a ruler either.  Trump isn’t going to drop by your house for dinner.  We need major changes regarding how America handles itself and other countries, this latest hooraahh shall pass.  It might pass like a kidney stone, but it will pass…. and we will all be better off for it.

Consider his unconventionality as entertainment, we might have to if all those Hollywood whiners quit, lol.  Here’s a hint for you too (pssst… those guys on TV… they are actors, that stuff on TV isn’t real.  They lie to your face for a living, they make you believe something is true that isn’t and the better they do it…… the more we pay them.  Don’t let the characters they adeptly portray endear you, or provoke any kind of value decision…. that’s what we pay them to do, actors are just like politicians…. why would anybody mistake them as agents of truth?  Consider that for a while….. am I right, or way off base here?

The only reason I can think of we would want to listen to an actor or politician is that somehow America craves deception.  Is the truth too blunt, too real… do you need somebody to lie to you and make you believe things are OK? while they secretly manipulate us all?  I’m so tired of that covert / subversive norm…. I would have elected Woody Woodpecker over somebody that lives and breathes the Washington elites “rare air”.  The silent majority (which I consider myself one of) finally had to say something about how America is run.  The pendulum that swings from Perceived Truth to Reality was hung up on the left side….  What people perceive as truth has much to do with what lawyers can currently prove in court.  Think about that a while….

Politically crafted social “truth” is designed by those that make money manipulating those rules for their own profit, either in money or in power.  Often social acceptability has very little to do with reality… It’s all about what some lawyer can prove in court.

Reality sometimes hurts… sometimes life causes pain.  If you allow your kids to grow up in an environment that absolutely denies them a scab or mental scrape, they won’t know how to handle themselves as an adult.  They might grow up and decide to give a big speech on women’s rights, forgetting they make their living dancing half naked on stage, putting their womanhood in the face of fans so they can touch it.. women’s rights…. really?  They might decide to protest a pipeline crossings for “ecological reasons” and literally trash miles of the surrounding country when they leave camp.  They might do stupid stuff like that…..  If your kids don’t have a strong sense of reality they are a leaf in the wind my friend.

I’m not a Democrat or a Republican, I vote for who I think America needs at the time so don’t write me off as your opponent, I promise I’m not… I’m just an old guy that had enough scabs and broken bones while I grew up, experienced enough reality in my life to know what’s real… and what’s politically or socially impressive at the moment.

Trump is going to stand there and tell you things you don’t want to hear, OK.  He’s going to shoot himself in the foot from time to time but the man wears steel toed boots, he’ll be fine, get over it nobody thinks he’s perfect.  If you think your going to “help” the situation by protesting Trump, you better do it with reality in hand…. not some left handed ideology that is frankly getting very old and starting to show how far off base you really are.  My humble advice is to quit acting poorly while you are ahead.

If your one of those who prefer to not look while the political elite lie cheat and steal as a normal part of daily business, lets be fair…. It’s time we expect better.  I lived years regretting the norm, the sliminess of Washington politics, the underhanded political shell games made me so dizzy I was sick…  Now, finally our elected leader is doing exactly what we elected him to do… don’t be mad at him, be mad at me if that helps.  It wasn’t Putin, it wasn’t Comey, it wasn’t even the damaged opposition candidate that put Trump in the white house, it was real people like me.  People that were tired of denying the Christian principles and standards this country was founded on.  Blame me (the silent majority) and quit acting a fool.

Man that got way off subject didn’t it?  Sorry about that… going back in my hole..