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Hurricane Irma/Jose — Sailing and Cruising: Preppers

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Although re-posted from RickD at Sailing and Cruising Preppers, this is a great story to pay attention to, as it’s got lots of good info on preparing for events like Irma.  Pay attention, might help someday.

Here we are 48 hours after Hurricane Irma passed us by. She started off the coast of Africa as a depression, then a tropical storm, eventually making it to a category five hurricane. With 189 mph winds at one point, this was nothing to sneeze at. As she approached the islands a lot of folks […]

via Hurricane Irma/Jose — Sailing and Cruising: Preppers

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9/11- Then and Now

/ Son of a Sailor / Leave a comment

A bloggers thoughts on 9/11 and the changes since then.

I’ve lived before, during and after 9/11/01 and am who I am today because of it.  I was in the same job then that I am now.  I’ve met and married my wife since 9/11 and had children since then.  I remember 9/11 like it was yesterday:  where I was, what I did, my reactions, the smells and the tastes.   Most of the day, I was not able to see much on TV because we didn’t have them in the workplace, but when I was able to get to a TV and viscerally see all the detail that everyone was talking about, I was stunned and horrified.  I knew in my gut that the world would change, since it was an event much like December 7th in Pearl Harbor.  The next day,,,,on 9/12, I gathered the office team together and told them that they were experiencing history,,,,,and that they would never face the same world again.  I was still so very stunned on 9/12 that I got in my car with a six-pack of cheap beer,,,and drove all the way out to Joshua Tree National Park,,,,for some prospective.  That night,,,,,,there were NO planes flying.  This was an eerie thing,,,,,cause the skies over Joshua Tree National Park are the flight path for LAX and Orange County Airports,,,,,which means there’s a lot of planes.  Sitting on rocks in the park, with no planes and no noise, I fell apart.  I knew that my own world would change quickly and it did.  Since 9/11, the most of us and the country have moved on.  The US invaded Afghanistan, took out Tora Bora, invaded Iraq, removed Saddam Hussein, found and killed Osama Bin Laden and kept up the removal of the Taliban and Al Qaeda.  A group of terrorists struck us that day.  I’ll probably get negative feedback,,,but I’m not sure the Middle East had much to do with it, except the terrorists were from the Middle East.  I’ve been there on business and pleasure trips and found most folks just want to eat, drink clean water, work and support their families.  Nuff said about that.  We remember 9/11,,,,but we’ve moved on with life.  I think that’s what we need to do,,,,remember, but move on.

To those firemen, police, military and others who have given their lives or bodies since 9/11/01, I remember and shall never forget.

LET’s ROLL! 

Heard spoken prior to the plane crash in Pennsylvania on 9/11.

Caribbean in Mind- Conflicting News from BVI

/ Son of a Sailor / 1 Comment

I was just going over news on the damage to some of the Caribbean Islands on Cruisers Forum,,,,and nothing really good is coming out of the area.  With US news filled with Houston last week and Miami and the Keys getting hit this weekend, I suspect that news about the Caribbean will take a back burner.  I’ve read horrible and graphic words for the damage,,,,,like catastrophic destruction in St. Barts, 90% of the buildings in Barbuda gone,,,,,all boats in the water destroyed.  Info coming out of the American and British Virgin Islands is scarce and scary too:  One photo of one of the hurricane holes that the large carter fleets use says it all:

Paraquita Bay in the British Virgin Islands, a mangrove lined hurricane hole. Those are BOATS.
Image reblogged from Cruisers Forum

Paraquita Bay is one of the larger hurricane holes in the BVI, I’d like to see how Sopers Hole and other spots did,,,,like boats that stayed in Tortola.  One business owned by cruisers in the BVI with Catamarans used for Day Sailing is Aristocat Charters, with a powercat and several large crewed catamarans running out of the BVI’s.  I hope to God their boats are ok, the family is back in the US I think from their blog, let’s hope their boats did ok.   I also received this email from NauticEd, one of the online sailing education companies out there, saying this:

BVI and St. Martin – Destroyed! What Now?
Hurricane Irma, the largest known Atlantic Hurricane, has wreaked havoc on the lives and homes of the residents of BVI and St. Martin. Not only this but it has destroyed the charter fleet as well as the marinas.Irma Destruction


Our hearts go out to all those affected. Some of them are my personal friends!


So what now?

Well for those who have booked the BVI, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas, standby. Once the companies dig out and take a look at what it takes to get back up and running, we will let you know. But it is going to be a while.

Here is a situational blog article we wrote up concerning this disaster and the alternate locations:
http://www.nauticed.org/sailing-blog/hurricane-irma-destroys-charter-fleet-in-bvi/
We are so sad and can’t express the sorrow we feel for the residents of the BVI, St. Martin and others affected. Let’s only hope that those affected can get their lives back to as normal as possible soon.

Look carefully at the pics above, you’ll see catamarans upside down, demasted and generally messed up.  The Caribbean  fleet has taken a beating.

Please keep these folks in your prayers as they begin to put their lives back together and start the cleanup; it’s going to be a long winter for some folks.

Lady in the Jungle and her Hurricane Wisdom

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Although re-blogged, I don’t care,,,,cause when I read this post from the Kristine Simelda blog,,,,it sounded alot like how my parents would say the same thing.  A great story from a resilient and eloquent writer who’s in the middle of the hurricane zone, now.

After living in the Caribbean for almost twenty-five years, I have to admit that I have become a fatalist when it comes to hurricanes. The fact that Hurricane Irma didn’t behave according to previous models didn’t alarm me like it did some of my expat island friends. While they ran around securing their fancy glass […]

via GO FIGURE — Kristine Simelda

This blog is following the hurricanes and our hearts and prayers go out to those in the way of the hurricane.  Hopefully you’re having one hell of a Hurricane Party with some boat drinks as it passes safely overhead.

From Harsh Reality: How do you keep from annoying your subscribers?

/ Son of a Sailor / 2 Comments

This is a great post from the “Harsh Reality” blog that I grabbed to share with all of you.        While not everything is perfect on his blog, he’s pretty impressive as a full time father, someone who works full time and has a life and a house and still finds time to blog EVERY day, sometimes much more than once per day.  And he’s got more than 50,000 followers, so his advice seems to be sage at times.

Source: How do you keep from annoying your subscribers?

SpearFruit: A gentle soul moves on

/ Son of a Sailor / 8 Comments

Spearfruit passed several days ago and I miss his writings already.  This is the first person I’ve met that I miss without ever meeting him.  As a new blogger and writer, I followed his blog and I believe he followed mine as a pity follow, but I appreciated it.  I often found powerful grace in his self-less writing as he approached his own cancer and mortality.  The writing was powerful and poignant  to a point you could feel what was going on in his life and his struggle with the demon that would eventually take his body, but never his spirit.  This was his powerful message till the end:  Even when his body was wasting away in hospital and hospice, he was able to continue to write,,,,to show you that his spirit and intelligence was still around and in place.  This IS the freedom and platform that writing and blogging give you,,,,people like me could tell that he was still around,,,,his mind was still sharp and witty and dealing with his struggle.  I’ll miss his writings-

Spearfruit, may you have Fair Winds and Following Seas-

Written in earnest by LifeFree2SailFast-

Thinking of Houston-

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When I was younger and didn’t have a career path, I ended up in Texas for several years.  I lived in Brenham, Texas for a year or so, then moved to Katy (outside of Houston) while I worked at Whole Earth Provision Company, on Woodway and Voss.  Those were interesting years.  I lived and breathed expensive mountaineering and climbing gear and did some testing for Mountain Hardware, getting to some of the “14’ers” in the Lower 48 and getting a chance to get most of the way up Denali.  One of my quests in those days was the highest point in every US state,,,I did pretty good, getting about 24 states before a full-time,,,,steady job found me.  Those were the times,,,I worked, partied and climbed a lot.  Just not in that order.  I was a bit lost for a few years back then, but Houston was forgiving and I survived.  I still have some of the spirit tokens given to me by my friends from the store when I left, several are here in the house and are favorite possessions.  A guy named Bobby Winters painted me a small, poignant painting that’s on my dressing,,,but I think he left Houston for Austin the year I left,,,,,not sure if he’s even still around or not.  Would LOVE to see how he is and spend an hour talking to him again.  Houston was good to me and I hate to see the scenes coming out of there like I’ve seen on the news.

Please keep these folks in mind as we go forward,,,,,easy to sit here and armchair quarterback.   Someone I work with right now has family right on the Texas Coast,,,I pray they’re all doing well and I hope all of you are doing well too.