Safety At Sea Seminar

I attended the Safety At Sea seminar in Charleston, SC on March 8th. For anyone who has never attended one of these, I would highly recommend attending at least once. You would think this would be more of the same old stuff. However, for this particular seminar the speakers and presentations brought a different perspective to those common topics.
A few of the speakers were:
Capt J.K. Louttit, Norfolk USCG Deputy Commander
Brad Van Liew, Around Alone Champion
Ralph Narajo, Technical editor of Cruising World Magazine
It was a beautiful day and we went outside to fire-off all types of pyrotechnics; inflate a 6-man life raft and climb in with 5 others to experience how much living space there really is.

Surreal Weekend Experience

I flew home to Baldwinsville this weekend. It was a beautiful weekend; sunny all the time, which is uncharacteristic of Syracuse in February. On Sunday morning, I put the blinds up in the sun room to enjoy the warmth of the sunshine while I read.
The phone rang. At first I thought it would be for Matt, but decided to take a message. It was Jet Blue. They were calling to inform me my evening flight was canceled due to the snow storm. I'm north of Syracuse, looking out the window at a beautiful sunny day. Isn't this where I should have a problem with snow?
I ended up getting the early flight out the next day. Again, a beautiful sunny morning in Syracuse. We landed in fog and snow covered runways at JFK. Then the first normal event happened. My connecting flight was delayed one hour. Finally arriving in Charlotte, was awesome; the snow covered landscape with snow just hanging from the trees was amazing, but out of character for Charlotte.
So, after a beautiful sunny weekend in Syracuse, I arrive to Charlotte, North Carolina and have to brush the snow off my car!

Charleston Balconies

Charleston... for those who have been to Charleston will recognize these balconies across from Battery Park; the first house in "Rainbow Row".

In the early 1900s, Dorothy Pocher Legge purchased a section of houses on East Bay Street and painted them pastel pink based on a colonial Caribbean color scheme. Current and future owners followed her lead when painting their houses, and soon a 'rainbow' of pastels emerged that are still there today.

It has also been suggested by locals that the houses were painted in the various pastel colors so that intoxicated sailors coming in from the port could remember which houses were their own!

A day at the beach

Linda, Grace and I took a walk along the beach on Oak Island, NC

Charleston Sailing

I took off for Charleston, SC to go sailing. I hitched a ride with a friend, Captain Will. It was a perfect day; lots of sun, fair winds and good folks.