City of Angels

Here we are at LAX....that's Los Angeles airport for you people that aren't jetsetters.....passing a few hours waiting for our 14 hour flight to Brissie....Brisbane for you people not familiar with the Aussie vernacular. Obviously I've got plenty of time to write this blog ......for you people not familiar with sitting around on ya butt for hours waiting for something to happen. Anyway I've got some interesting news for you people that are sax players which I'm pretty sure is no one that reads this blog. So it's like this. To start the sound that eventually comes out of the end of a sax you blow through this thing called a mouthpiece,which is aptly named as it's the thing that you stick in your mouth. I'm here to tell you that it is the most important piece of equipment....a good sax is a good sax but it don't mean diddly if you've got a crap mouthpiece.

This here's Bobby Dukoff. Famous sax player with the old big bands of the likes of Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey and most of the big swing bands of that era. But he's famous for more than that. He started fiddling with mouthpieces and ended making the perfect 'pieces' that have been played by most of the greatest sax players of the last 50-60  years or so.

Unfortunately Bobby turned his toes up a couple of years ago ( he was well over 90 ) but before he did he turned the business over to his protégé Nick Hernandez . I phoned Nick a year or so ago ,when we were passing through Miami, but he was in the process of moving to Fort Lauderdale and we didn't connect. I rang him again this time as I really wanted to see the outfit and I also really needed a new m'piece as my 30 or so year old one was showing as much wear as it's owner. So..... the day I was supposed to go out there Nick was busy and we were doing this and that and it got late and when Bill.........

This Bill.....remember.

came round to pick us up and I said ...don't worry Bill ....it's getting late and I can get a bus tomorrow or something....and Bill said " get your damn horn and get in the car ".....and we did.

So anyway, we got out there and there was Sebastian

And Fabian

The masked men of Dukoff.

Well they gave me a few mouthpieces to try and they were .....amazing. If I'd had them 20 years ago I'd have been famous by now ...well at least well known.

Anyway in comes Nick

He listens and personally tweaks the chosen m'piece 'til it's fantastic.

Playing's never been so easy.

There I am getting the same attention as he was giving Dave Sanborn last week and Kenny G and whoever.

Every one of these things is hand done by these guys.

So here's the news... After hanging out with these guys the next day as well .. Nick's said " Bring your tools back from Aus. man and we'll do some work together...

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's Fabian on the left some ol' sax player... Nick and Sebastian.

Looking forward to seeing everyone in Oz but.......

can't wait to get back to Fort Lauderdale.

 

 

 

Surfers Paradise Maxi-me

Well here we are in Fort Lauderdale , tied up at a dock (one of about 6 ) behind Bruno's house on a canal. It's called Bruno's Zoo. The canals here are enormous, hence the maxi-me in the blog title, and they are lined with Mega Yachts as they call them. We would generally call 'em ships. Albeit  small/private type ones. Ft Lauderdale is about 20 times at least, bigger than our little ' Surfers '. Not that that is necessarily a good thing but at least they have spaces between the beachfront towers .
We're on the corner of two canals.
                                                           Looking South

Looking East

OK so we would not normally spend much time here, in fact we've motored through 3 or 4 times in the last 7 years , but as we figured it would be a convenient place to fly from back to Oz for Chrissy , we decided to leave Jabiru here  in the comfort and security of someones house.
I see that the last blog ( apart from my whine at Vero Beach ) sort of finished at St Augustine (I did add a couple of things to that one....being as I'm calm and collected now......every thing's doing as it's told !! ) so here's how we got here. Really the only thing that happened besides anchoring for the night then ' up anchoring ' in the morning and sailing ( one marvelous day between Titusville and Melbourne ) or motoring was a lovely stop at Daytona to stay with Howard and Barbara for a couple of days.
Besides checking out the famous race track and a beautiful National Park area we checked out a couple of the original structures on the beach that were there when they actually started racing the cars in Daytona.......on the beach would you believe.

Uh oh...... have another lie down.

Howard's a bit of a speed freak (and he likes sailing!! ) so he took me for a spin in his Corvette.... me driving. Bearing in mind that I've been travelling at 5 to 6 mph for a while now in was pretty sensational......frightening maybe.......specially when he was urging me to greater speeds while hurtling round one of those long circling exits.I think he just liked seeing the sun glinting off my white knuckles.

After that it was a zip round on his 1750cc bike. First time I've ever hugged a man so tight.

                                             Gail hated it when it was her turn.

                                      Anyway we survived and took off for Titusville.
There we caught up with our good 'ol Pommy mates , Phil and Nikki of Ajaya . We ate , drank and 'ad a larf but of course took no photos of them , us or Titusville. Wait a minute..I did take one.

Local tobacco shop door.

 Next morning we cleaned half a ton of bird poo off the deck and had our lovely sail all the way to Melbourne ,picking Bill and Hale Kai up from Merrit Island on the way. That's one of the best places to watch rocket launches from Cape Canaveral , for those of you unfamiliar with the Florida ICW geography.  Bye for now.

I Wonder

I enjoy doing the blog thing but it's always a long and frustrating exercise because these stupid computer things do something different all the time. This added to the fact that it is usually difficult to find a decent signal ....meaning that things cut in and out at inopportune moments....for instance since writing these 3 lines a signal has come up saying that they (whoever the #$%&; THEY are )are unable to publish this blog due to an error. Interesting, considering that I haven't tried to publish anything anyway. Ho hum. Well here we are at Vero Beach marina/mooring field and Gail is doing laundry and I have been trying to get this started for about an hour. So...just as it seems to be getting started...Gail has finished the laundry and it's time to go shopping. I might as well publish this complaint to all you (5? 10? ) readers....just to see if it does actually go....and then see if the signal actually gets out to the boat tonight and I can carry on with the ideas that I had a couple of hours ago. I did try to send a complaint to BlogSpot (as requested ) but could find nowhere on their site that actually allowed me to do so....... Grrrrr
PS Hi Sharon thanks for your comments. We do keep up with the Nelson House adventures but comments are usually rejected......something about the code.....maybe??

Down to Dixie

It's been so long I had too check what my last "riveting" news was.

So... out of Oriental and the 4 hour trip down Adams Creek to Beaufort (pronounced Bofut in North Carolina ) where one of our singer/guitarist mates, Jeb,  from Eleuthera is the dock master at the city marina in the summer months, that's him in the middle, and we had a couple of free days dockside to hang out and jam with some of his buddies round town. Just right while waiting for the perfect weather that was forecast to head south. As you know ,I'm not one to whinge...even though my (ex) friend Big John had the hide to call me a curmudgeon recently...where was I? Right...we jumped out for a perfect 10 to 15 NE down to Wrightsville Beach which arrived for the last half hour after a pleasant MOTOR on a lovely sunny and windless day. A couple of relaxing days there while a wet and windy cold front passed through and we  jumped out ,yet again, to catch the westerly that was going to clock round to NW by the afternoon and blow us down to Florida.....even though there were largish swells coming from Hurricane Gonzalo about 200 or so miles East.

There he is.

Well we got over the Frying Pan Shoals and the wind stayed west so we thought we'd head straight for Charleston as we were pointing sort of at the Bahamas and the chop was getting annoying. By nightfall it was the same so I/we said *&#! this we'll overnight to Winyah Bay and get inside and stay there. So after bashing into it all  night we arrived on a cold but sunny morning ,committed to the comfort of the ICW. Charleston the next morning. Lovely old town.

Lots of elegant old homes, thanks to the sweat of slaves of course, and great art galleries and

Graveyards

And Pirates firing their (weenie ) cannons at anyone game to walk across the park.

Another bouncy night at anchor as the Canadians through down another cold front at us.

Nothing personal I'm sure.

Some of our goodest friends are Canadian.

A calm and sunny chug down the ICW and anchored in a piece of river that looked like we were in the middle of a huge lake. We checked the chart later and found out it was called Moonlight Bay..

As we were showering in the cockpit a bunch of dolphins came swimming round the boat......perverts. They kept hanging around so I got the ol' penny whistle out and gave 'em a bit of a hornpipe.

and four of them definitely popped their heads up for a look.......honest.

Next morning ....down to Beaufort South Carolina (pronounced Bewfort ) where we had lunch with our old mates from Oriental Joe and Cherie.

Shame the waitress told Joe he had to pay the bill if she took a photo of us!

They took a photo of the graceful  Jabiru coming through the bridge when we arrived.

Still haven't figured why vertical photos come out on their side.

Have a lie down for a moment.

Anyway y'all know when you're in the south when Halloween's coming up.

And Beaufort is a nice ol' southern town too. Old plantation owners houses Spanish moss dripping from the ol' Oak trees.... but it's on  to Savannah Georgia ,where we'd never had time to stop before. We stayed at a marina past the Savannah River and caught the local bus the 10 miles or so to old downtown area. Once again ,a beautiful old city full of antebellum houses built around a whole lot of squares. They only got to be surviving buildings because Jackson (I think )decided to present the town to Pres. Lincoln as a present after he routed the rebels.

We toured the town (because of limited time ) like genuine old pensioners......on the tourist trolley. Unlike most of our fellow passengers though we were so enthralled we......forgot to get the camera out. Never mind. If you want a look I'm sure there's plenty of sites to Google

There was the Peanut shop with a line of ol' gals stuffing their faces with the samples!

And the Pohlice station with the yellow cab rear end.

Cab sir? Ha....gotcha.

Anyway,the weather was still glorious and St Augustine ,Florida was only an overnight sail away,so we cancelled our commitment to the inside and popped out for an easy cruise and we are in this fascinating place. The oldest continuously occupied European settlement in North America .Lots of old buildings going way back but not as far back when Ponce de Leone found the place back in 1513ish. Chris Columbus ,of course , only found the Caribbean islands and thought he was off India  Ponce found the mainland or at least Florida. He was quite exited about finding the Fountain of Youth which we sampled of course.

Didn't work.

 Maybe it was Amerigo Vespucci that found the rest. This is all from memory of course . I don't have access to my notes at present. All the same , St Augustine is an amazing town with a very interesting history from "Indians " to Spanish to French to English and back to Spanish then to the United States and so on . there's even pirates still around........on genuine 17th century segue's














. Anyway Howard and Barbara drove up from Daytona for a visit and we caught an imitation Aussie Didgeridooing with a genuine pirate dawg.

Speaking of pirates ( there's a lot round here ) we witnessed a small pirate boat attacking a large one just off our mooring. There was a lot of cannon fire and then a lot of yelling.....then a boarding and by this time we had the binoculars out and witnessed a flogging  .......and .....evrythang.

 

                       Gondola ! What Gondola ? They don't have Gondolas in St. Augustine.
Just happened to be strolling around and there was a couple of 'ol mates of ours ,Jim and Bentley off Salty Paws , doing their Sea Shanty thing outside the Starving Artist gallery and restaurant.
                                             What could I do but whip out me whistle.

 Bill (Raynor) in Hale Kai caught up and a couple of days later Bill and Gail drove up from St Petersburg and then it was time to get going south. That just happened to be the coldest day on record for this time of year and we wore 3 layers of everything and 2 pairs of gloves as we battled through 25 to 35 knots of cold front. We'd been wearing T's and shorts the day before. I can feel the sympathy through the ether........ Well we made it to Daytona beach and pulled up for a couple of days visiting with Howard and Barbara ,but that's going to have to be next time cos I'm running out of time ......and patience.....and I've got to sort photos out so ................

Oriental-Fall 14

The days are getting shorter and the last month seemed to only last a couple of weeks. Time does fly when you're having a good time...or busy....or busy having a good time...or having a good time being busy. I'm not trying to fill space here...just raving.
Well, the trip down from NY was very interesting as it turned out. The forecasts on the east coast in the summer are pretty much "chance of thunder storms " most days, so we didn't take much notice when we left the Manhattan area to chug down to Sandy Hook for the night to be ready for a first light departure  to Norfolk Virginia. Duh. Didn't even make the Verizano Bridge before the first storm hit us,then by the time we just reached Sandy Hook ,we got thumped by number two. Splendid start to the trip. Next morning at first light we jumped out into the Atlantic and had a wonderful sail wing on wing (goose winged in Oz talk)(a sail out each side of da boat)all day. Passed Atlantic City at sunset. Actually, with 3 Casinos closing their doors that week, it could be Atlantic Ghost Town before long....Anyway...as the night progressed the wind just kept building. In the early hours we were passing the Delaware and thought it might be wise to head in there and do the whole Delaware/Chesapeake thing.....but wait....Jabiru's Captain is an idiot. Let's keep going. By the next afternoon we had 25 to 30 knot winds ,just aft of the beam , and 10 to 12 ft seas to go with 'em. By evening we were getting gale force (35 knots ) gusting to 40 ! I'm  not sure how big the waves were , I didn't really want to look at them much but we were flying along at 7 to 8 knots with just a weenie bit of jib out. Looking back , it was exhilarating....certainly quick , and the new rigging had a good test drive. By the time we were off  Cape Henry , at about midnight ,  we turned west and at least had the waves behind us , which was good because at least three large waves had broken over the boat and reminded me I hadn't re-sealed the hatches after the last time I varnished them. Read "little waterfalls over the bedding ". The good thing was that it also turned out that I hadn't done a real good job of sealing the mast when it was put back so all the fresh water , from the now torrential rain, rinsed the floor off nicely. So....here we were 'surfing ' into the Chesapeake with about 50 yards/metres visibility and steering by "TV " ...or chart plotter.....same thing...and wondering when the clouds were  going to thin enough to give the Sun a bit of a go. Well.....as we neared Hampton Roads things cleared and we chugged up to Norfolk and dropped the hook off the Hospital and went into a coma/sleep for about 3 hours .The rest was easy .....another chug up river to the Dismal Swamp lock and a good, calm sleep. Next morning ,a very pleasant trip down the canal ,except the masthead light got damaged when I didn't see some overhanging trees , and out of the canal and the beautiful Pasquatank River to anchor off the Albermarle Sound ready for an early start across the sound and down the Alligator River and nearly home ( Oriental ).....But wait....the sun's almost up and we step out into the cockpit to be greeted by thousands of mosquito looking things that had left a green coating over everything....We'd been slimed!! 45 minutes later we'd cleaned up and had a lovely sail down to the Alligator/Pungo Canal and another peaceful anchorage at the south of that. Oh, did I mention that we were briefly grounded on a tree stump at the beginning of the canal...Next morning was a motor to Oriental ,about 40 miles, on a totally windless, sunny day.......until we were about 3 miles away from the entrance channel. Well I suppose it's an exit channel too.....depends which way yer going, Where was I ? Right , 3 miles. Is that thunder ? 300 yards from the channel....dark clouds rushing in......should we just stay out 'til it passes ? Noooo......the captain's an idiot....maybe fearless....no...an idiot. So we dashed up the channel, called Larry to see if he could take our lines.....got  about 40 yards from the slip and this rolling cloud that looked like fog ,but was actually thick rain,  came charging down the creek. Nuff said...we got in without damaging ourselves or the neighboring boats the only problem being drowning Larry's cell phone. That'll teach him not to be a good guy. All in all we got sorta got what we wished for at the end of the last blog. A good trip.  Interesting but good.
That's how we got here and once here everything was as usual. A delightful little all American country town,  a whole bunch of our very good friends ,lots of boat projects done...Jabiru looking beautiful again , plenty of playing. These two were something special. Call themselves The Travelling Joneses Though neither of their names is Jones.

Mike and Ladonna.She sings like an angel and Janis Joplin

Amazing

A misty, dewey morning through a resident spiders web.

And one night we went over to celebrate the arrival of cold nights with a moonlit bonfire and feast at Perry and Susan's house.

That's the gang...or some of us.

Well that's it...That was Oriental ..That was.

Off on our way down to Florida tomorrow or maybe day after.

Think I'll finish off by saying that we're hoping for a rough trip and see if the old reverse pchycology works.

Passing The Time.... then it's Up

Jersey City and Statue of Liberty on the left,Hudson left of centre,Manhattan then East River to right.

This shot taken on a sail round New York Harbour last weekend.Todd and Melody took us out for a sail on this overcast day but it was still great to be out sailing. Even though we've been doing that pretty much constantly for the last 7 years we're usually coming or going not just out sailing about.

When we met Todd 4 years ago he was the leading mechanic at the marina and was just about to marry Mel. I've told the story of how he fixed our transmission problems once and for all and we've been good friends ever since.We spent some fun times up on Long Island Sound on the way to Newport this year. Todd is now Operations Manager for Suntex Marinas which has him travelling all over the country setting up marinas etc. .Melody ,at the drop of a hat,or the hint of a musical ,will burst into song. I think she knows all the words to all the musicals!

We do have lots of laughs.

 The mast , with all its shiny new rigging, goes back in tomorrow. That should have us sailing out of NY on Saturday and if the forecasters aren't lying again we'll have some good northerlies to take us down to Norfolk without having to do the Delaware and Chesapeake route which will save us a few days and a lot of motoring which alone would be a shame, what with all the new rigging an' all.

So how do you fill in 3 weeks in NY.

Well the first weekend was the Puerto Ricans celebration in Jersey City. So just down the road.

Parades and food and lots of Latina.  Kids in traditional dress for concerts.

And kids in non-traditional dress just being...Puerto Ricans

Them thar Latinos sure love a good time.

As for New York City...... as always just blows us away.

Times Square..Empire State..Wall Street...all that .

Just walking around you feel that electric energy that seems to give you something new with every corner you turn. Everywhere there is a space there are tables and chairs set out for people to just sit and read ,eat ,drink or watch the rest of the world go by. Don't look lost. Someone will ask you what you're looking for and if they don't know they'll whip out the Iphone and google it for you.If another one overhears the directions and doesn't agree they'll jump in and it's "No yerl be woiking past dat joint wher dere doin da road woik. Bedder take da next next toin ....."etc .Arms waving and all. Sounds like they're fighting but it's just the way dey toik.

Don't forget the lovely little parks here there and everywhere. And there's little doggie parks complete with wading pools for those hot days. Another little space between building and there'll be a one on one basketball court...or two. Kid comes flying down the street on a skateboard, straight past a cop. No problem...he ain't hurtin' no one.  The buskers seem to be  more like real good players out practicing with an open instrument case nearby....just in case.

 
  The subways have always got some sort of entertainment, whether it's a string quartet or a brass band or a perfectly normal looking jazz duo.

Don't ask me why the stupid computer decided to leave a big gap.I think it was just pissed off because I fooled it when it tried to switch to blue writing and underline everything.

Where was I. Oh yeh.

                                        The average , run of the mill handbag salesman.
They've got a two lane bike track going just about all the way round the island (Manhattan ). The day we decided to do that , we got on the subway at Jersey City with our bikes.....well I did and then the doors closed on Gail and left her standing on the platform. Dilemma.Should I go back and risk crossing or wait at the next station for her. To cut a very long story short( phew..I hear you say ) we got back together about an hour or so later after the railway authorities and Jersey City police ,JSPD , got me on the phone (by this time I'd decided to carry on to Manhattan and wait ) and suggested that I return to JC and pick up my wife. Anyway a ride up along the Hudson on a luverly sunny day with maybe a stop for a beer at The Frying Pan, a really cool converted Coast Guard ship.

A bit further and one of many converted piers where there's a band playing as a freighter makes it's way down the river and kayakers frolic near the shore ( frolic? )

And folks are flying their kites.

Cool.

Unfortunately , the first Sunday that we went to hang out in Central Park I forgot to put the SD card in the camera so I only got about 8 photos of the shenanigans....and... I can't get them out of the camera without a special USB lead that is now unavailable. I mean it's an ancient camera...all of 3 years old..what do I expect... and it is a little computer...curse it.

It was a particularly good day......really cool wierdos.....a live theatre show... the roller skating/disco was outstanding.......honest.

Anyway the next week was still delightful.

Central Park is just an amazing oasis...huge rocky outcrops.....lakes....trails and waterfalls etc. where you find it hard to believe you're in the middle of a huge city.

Gail's watching turtles and swans swimming about.

People just picnicking..these a bunch of kids obviously into acrobaticy stuff.

Quality volleyball ....softball...soccer...flying model planes and flying saucer thingies.

While on parks....we were walking through the city and noticed people walking across what looked like an old railway bridge so climbed the stairs for a butchers (hook) and.....

there it was....... an old railway line that used to run through the city.

Don't really know how long it went for but we walked a few blocks through a botanical garden type place. You can see the old railway tracks on the pathway.

Always another surprise.

Well...there are 8 million stories in the Naked City and this has been one of them.

(Hope there's a couple of you old enough to remember that one.)

Oh how we wish we could make it 8million and 2 but the mast is about to return to its proper position and we have to go.All going well we should be back in Oriental by the 10th or so and back in the land of wifi and hopefully nothing more interesting to report than we had nice trip/sail.