Blog moved

I've moved my blog to a new address.

I think I have sent an email announcing this to everyone who reads my blog, but if you want the location of the new blog - send me an email to n2dsky@mac.com

GW

Rental Car Blues

Sportvision takes care of all of my flights, hotels and rental cars. They reserved a 'mid size' car for me and when I went to Hertz to pick it up, it was a Mustang.

I think most people would be very happy having rented this car. I guess I'm just getting old because I'd rather had a minivan or something else. While this car was fun to drive in general - it was very difficult for a 6 footer to see out of.

Remember, my normal vehicle (Honda Element) is just a box with lots of windows. This car didn't have tons of window views - but the worst part was the location of the rearview mirror. It blocked the forward view. Now maybe if I were driving at home at a place I'm familiar with, I would like it just fine - but out here in the Bay area - constantly looking for the right exit - driving on 10 lane interstates - I felt like I was in a rolling yellow "blind spot".

Again, I think I'm just getting old. My sister has just bought her second of these Mustangs - so obviously - more 'hip' people really like them.

The best part of it was - it had Sirius satellite radio and Sirius has a "margaritaville" channel. Now THAT was cool.

Last Day at Sportvision Office

Today, we worked on learning to "key" the football field. Basically, that's where you select the colors of the field that the 'yellow first down line' will cover. It's a very important part of the system.

Ideally, you want to select just the field. If you select any part of the players, then the line will paint OVER them instead of them being over the line. So, it's part of the job that you are constantly manipulating. Astro Turf games are the easiest - and they're even easier if at night. The lighting stays the same and field doesn't change.

Daytime games where it's muddy, snowing or the field is otherwise getting torn up are the hardest. For example: if the players get muddy during the game and also tear up the field while they're playing - then even if you try to key the whole field - you'll have to key in some colors of mud. What this means is that when the line is being 'laid down' it stands a good chance of showing up ON a player.

We used 'game footage' to practice keying the field for different lighting conditions. It's not hard - it's just important.

Also, we took the computers apart (there's 4 powerful computers per game) and traced all the wiring inside and labeled it all. The purpose of this is to learn how the computers are made - so if we have problems, we can get inside and fix it.

Below is a picture of one of the computers.

Life in Mountain View

Training is going well. My direct boss is a nice guy named Ted Chen. Ted is an excellent and patient teacher and knows how to teach the job in a logical order. There's a lot ot know, but the info comes in proper size chunks.

Here's a photo from the camera, shooting down at the fake football field. The lense alone on this camera costs between $100,000 and $200,000 dollars.



Anyone who knows me at all, knows I'm a big fan (devotee) of Apple Computers. I don't understand how the majority of the world ended up with PC's, but that would be their problem I guess and not mine. Anyway, whenever I get within 30 miles of an Apple store (the shrine), I must drive to it and go in and buy something (tithe). Luckily, there's an Apple store in Palo Alto that was only about a 10 minute drive away and I went there last night and touched all the new stuff.

I purchased iLife '06 which has some new blogging software in it. I'm excited about giving it a whirl. I'll let you know when my blog changes addresses.

Here's a photo of the "church" in Palo Alto:

Seeing Old Friends

One of the benefits to coming to California is that I happen to be less than a half hour from one of my good old buddies and his wife - Donn and Nora Dennman. Donn and Nora have 2 squirts - Alex and Sam. Lucky for me, they had the evening free and were able to meet me for dinner at a place that was convenient for me.
Donn is one of the nicest people I've ever met in my life (and of course, so is Nora). I wish I were able to hang out with fine folks like this more often.
Here's a picture of Sam and Alex (I can't remember which one is which).

California

I left sunday evening to head for Mountain View California for training on they 'first down line' system. My flight left Orlando at 6 pm and I arrived in San Jose at 1:30 am eastern time. I get paid for traveling, so I figure I can squeeze "2 days" into a day on each end of a job. We'll see how that goes.

After completing the training, my first jobs will be college games. Auburn (Alabama) will be Labor Day weekend and LSU will be the following weekend.

I had a connection in Denver and we had to 'hold' our landing for 45 minutes due to a tornado being "on the field". I made my connection with 10 minutes to spare.

Here's a photo of the top of a thunderstorm just east of Tampa


This photo is of the sunset over the Rocky Mountains while on approach to Denver Airport

Irwin 38CC layout

Jim Johns Visits

I have a "long time" buddy from the hang gliding industry who came to visit last week. Jim Johns started off as an instructor at Kitty Hawk Kites in the '70's and ended up running Western Hang Gliders in Marina California. Jim was one of the more successful hang gliding business owners ever.

He sold Western Hang Gliders in the mid 90's and opened a sailboat sail warehouse called "The Sail Warehouse" in Marina/Monterey area. He also lives on a sailboat in Monterey Bay.

I've met up with him from time to time in different parts of the country. About 7 years ago we met at mutual friend's (Max and Karen) house in Hood River Oregon for a Fly Fishing expedition. A great time that was.

Jim grew up in Ormond Beach Florida - which is just north of Daytona and he comes back here once a year to visit his family. He came out with his kids and girlfriend and I was able to spend a little time with them including go to a 'speed' park. The speed park is several go-cart tracks AND a dragster track. The dragster has a chevy 350 small block engine and it SCREAMS.

You strap into it, they start it up and when the lights turn green - you floor it and the thing goes from 0-75mph in under 3 seconds!! There are 4 of them side by side - so you race the other 3 and there's a digital timing system so you can see who was on it the best. It has an automatic braking system like a roller coaster does - and it stops as quickly as it accelerates. It was quite amazing. If you come to visit me in Daytona - remind me to take you to ride this thing. It's pretty cool.

A Plethora of Certification

Well, I've just finished a bunch of schoolin' and I gotta say that I think I'm too old to be learning this much stuff at once. Sometimes my head feels like it's going to explode from putting too much stuff in it.

During June, I received a speeding ticket - but if you take a 4 hour class, the state/county will allow you to get by without it affecting your driver's license points or your insurance.

Not a bad tradeoff AND you can take the class online. Still, it's a timed course - per page and it takes 4 hours to go through the online course. So here is my certificate from that school.



On July 8, I started an intensive course for my Captain's license with Towing endorsement. While going through that 9 day course, I started a 3 week Bartending course - that I drew out to 5 weeks of elapsed time due to our trip to BVI. I graduated from the Captain's course and took the Coast Guard test. Below are my certificates from that course.





I finished up the bartending course yesterday with my practical tests. It turned out I breezed through the testing, but I was surely nervous. I got the certificate below AND a card that I keep in my wallet that shows I'm certified with the state as a 'responsible vendor'.



Now, if I can just turn a few of these into money, I'll be in good shape.

Oh yeah, I leave on Sunday to go to California to LEARN how to operate the 'first down' yellow line thingy on TV. I don't think I get a certificate for that one.

School Continues

I'm to the point in bartending school, where I pick up a customer check - which will have 5 or 6 drinks on it. I then have to make the drink order correctly in under 4 minutes. I've been limiting myself so far to the drinks I have memorized and I'm able to make an order usually in less than 3 minutes.

The final test - which you request - when you think you're ready consists of the instructor handing you 2 or 3 of these checks and you creating the drinks exactly right. Exactly right includes picking the right glass, using the right ingredients, putting the right garnish on and putting a straw in when appropriate - and NOT putting a straw in when not appropriate. It's a little harder than you'd think.

I did the order in the photo below in 2 minutes, 45 seconds. It is (from left to right):
Cosmopolitan, Kamikaze, Long Island Ice Tea, Gin and Tonic, Rum and Coke, Cuba Libre

Another Cool Surfing Day

I hadn't been surfing since I started my captain's class, but with only my Bartending school left for 'structured' life right now, I decided to get some time in the water today. Sunday is not usually the best day to pick to go surfing because it's usually very crowded with all the locals at the beach in addition to the tourists, but being such a hot day coupled with a reasonable surf report, I loaded the longboard up and headed to the beach.

Indeed it was crowded and I had to park a little further away from my surf spot than normal, but by no means was it a serious hike. After waxing up the board, I headed into the water which was a little cooler than normal for this time of year. It was in the mid 70's - where it's normally in the mid 80's. With it being so hot outside though, it was quite refreshing.

As soon as I paddled out to the lineup, I noticed a bit of a commotion with a number of people pointing into the water and I could see a large 'shadowy' area moving toward a group of us - but at a very slow rate. I could hear people saying it was a manatee and as it passed by me it proved to be 2 manatees - an adult and a calf. A number of people were touching them as they swam slowly by, but not knowing enough about the temperament of these mammals, I decided I could do just find without touching them.

It was another cool experience related to surfing. I had a generally good day surfing and was very glad to be back in the water. I'll probably surf a little more often now - local kids start back to school tomorrow, so they'll be more 'room' at the inlet.

Here's a photo I got off the web of a couple of manatees in case anyone reading this is not familiar with what they are.

Another School

I've been going to Bartending (hospitality) School for a couple of weeks. I've always wanted to be a bartender - it seems like people are all so happy (mostly) when at a bar - so I thought it would be cool to be the guy that they're throwing money at - while smiling. It's an intensive class and when I graduate, I'll be certified (not a requirement in Florida). Currently, I'm practicing pouring 5 - 6 drinks (of varying type) at once while making sure that both hands are busy. It's more involved than I thought it would be at first.

It was full days there while going to Bartending School in the morning, then off to Captain classes at night. I'm glad the Captain's classes are over. My buddy Billy Vaughn instantly thought of one person when I told him I was going to Captain School and Bartending School at once. He sent me the photo below.


Isaac from the Love Boat

Arundel Rum Distillery

While at Cane Garden Bay, Jan and decided to take a tour of a local Rum Distillery. It was about the size of a small Tobacco Barn and was incredibly old and faily run down (an understatement).
We took a tour with a local kid, Mark, who showed us around the place and explained in great detail how the rum was made.

This is Mark


This is Jan and Mark walking through - what Mark called a sugar cane field (there was only about 50 stalks of cane)


This is the still for the rum

Trellis Bay

Jan took this photo from the porch of a really nice restaurant at trellis bay. On full moons, they load the steel ball in the shallow water with wood and set it on fire for a big party.


This photo is taken from our boat while on a mooring in Trellis Bay

Road Town Rainbow

This photo is taken at Road Town Harbour from the Footloose dock.

White Bay - Jost Van Dyke

This is a GREAT photo of Jan at White Bay

Necker Island

This photo is of Necker Island. It's on the North side of Virgin Gorda. It's a private island owned by Sir Richard Branson (from Virgin records, Virgin Air etc.)

Great Harbour on Jost Van Dyke

This photo is from the west end of the beach, looking out at our boat on anchor.


This is taken from the bar at Foxy's

Marina Cay

Here's the view from our boat at Marina Cay


The view from Marina Cay - back at our boat

On Bellamy Cay

This propeller was at the Last Resort Restaurant. I thought it was a really cool looking relic. It's very close to the end of the runway at Beef Island

Change in Plans

Cane Garden Bay

Our plan for today (thursday) was to head to Normand Island, but a tropical wave came in last night and gave us a tremendous thunderstorm system that lasted for hours. It was 'rock and roll' on the boat with lightening striking all around. We were on a mooring ball, so we had no real concerns other than a lightening strike and we stayed in the aft cabin of the boat - away from the mast.

Jan was not able to sleep much at all. This morning, we listened to the weather radio and there was a warning of more thunderstorms with Small Craft Avisories, so we're staying put for a day.

Currently, we've taken a cab over the mountain to road harbor (the largest town in the BVI) and checking out the weather on the windward side. Currently, it looks like Norman island is a go for tomorrow.

Wednesday Afternoon

We've had a great couple of days. We had dinner on monday at the "last resort" which is located on a rock in the center of Trellis Bay. It was great - the place has it's own pet Burro that hangs out around the restaurant. It can't go far - unless it's not afraid to swim.

Tuesday morning, we headed to White Bay on Jost Van Dyke. It's a nice little anchorage inside a reef with a 'half moon' shaped bay - beach. It's the mystery picture below. We had a little problem with the anchor holding. After the first try - in 6 feet of water, I dove the anchor and watched it drag slowly. It was kinda skipping over some small rocks on the bottom. We pulled the anchor up and tried again. This time it caught on a large rock and after checking it out - we decided to stay on it for a while.

We swam ashore to the Soggy Dollar Bar (wonder why the call it that?) and had a 'painkilla' - which was invented at this bar. After a while, we walked down the beach to Ivan's "stress free" bar and hung in a hammock for a while in the shade.

In the afternoon, we motored East a couple of miles to Great Harbour and anchored there in 20 feet of water. We had dinner at Foxy's (very famous place).

This morning we read our books in the cockpit until about 9 am and then set sail for Cane Garden Bay. This is a cool little village. Great anchorage (we're on a mooring). We can see St Thomas in the west (Jimmy Buffet wrote the Manana song here - "while the lights of St. Thomas are 20 miles west - I see that General Electric's still doing their best).

Tomorrow, we'll sail around the west end of Tortola - between St. John (America) and Tortola (UK) and head south to Norman's Island. Should be a blast. I'll post photos when I get home.

By the way, we're sailing a Moorings 362 (Beneteau 36). It's a nice enough boat. More about that later.

BVI Update - Monday- noonish

We're having a great time. We left out of Road Town Harbour on Saturday morning and had to turn back after about 1/2 hour because I couldn't get the autopilot to work on the boat. Turns out to be a blown fuse. After 20 minutes at the dock, we're back underway.


We sailed east for a couple of hours (with 3 or 4 tack in there somewhere) to the Baths. This is an area with large rock configurations next to the sea. We anchored there and made lunch on the boat. In the afternoon, we headed back west/northwestward to Marina Cay, where we picked up a mooring and headed in to have dinner at a lovely restaurant on the water on this very small island.

Sunday morning we got underway and tacked upwind to Bitter End Yacht Club in the north sound on Virgin Gorda. We dingied over to a small cafe on the water called the Fat Virgin and had lunch. After luch, we checked out bitter end and Sabal Rock. Dinner on the boat.

This morning, we set sail at about 9 oclock and gybed downwind a few times to Trellis BAy. Currently I'm in a cyber cafe in Trellis Bay after having lunch. We'll stay here tonight and head to White Bay in Jost Van Dyke tomorrow. That was the mystery bay from a few posts ago. Libby was the only person to guess AND she got it right!!

Anyway, I'll try to post a photo or so from the phone (like the 2 below). Good photos, but not much text. I'm not goood at text messaging.

Til later - GW and Jan

Monday late morning sailing to Trellis

Monday late morning sailing to Trellis Bay

Road town harbour

Road town harbour