Almost Cleared for Launch
July 28, 2011
Late July in Texas us usually hot and dry. This year is exceptional in the heat and the drought. I cannot remember it being this dry in my life. Now that the wildlife has eaten our entire yard (all of it) and our decorative vines, we are no longer trying to keep them away. In fact, we have started keeping a tub of water in the yard to help them.
Our thoughts are of Why Knot sitting in the very quiet marina awaiting the yard crew to come get her for the bottom paint. There are a few questions that one can pose for which there are at least a dozen answers. It is fun sometimes to just ask the fleet what battery is preferred. In our case, it was the question of props. The old Autoprop was fired and now we are looking to replace it. We did some research including asking a few dozen sailors and decided on the Max-Prop type VP. Yikes, that blows the budget and answers the gift question for our 43rd wedding anniversary. Bear, it has adjustable pitch angles. Do you like it? That said, we are still with essentially a few more items on the medical punch list. After that, we will return to WK for further exploration which may well be north of Wilmington. We may still be able to get to the Chesapeake this year. Looks like our return will be toward the end of August when hopefully the temperatures might moderate. The hurricane season is already off to a start since we are already four named storms into the season. This is not yet the peak of it. Given the fact that WK is sitting in very warm, still water, I am thinking the a/c unit on dehumidify might have fouled by now and is off. Barnacles actually grow in the dark hoses feeding condenser water to the unit.
It is very late evening as I write this. One might say well past my bedtime without a nap. I was just looking around the yard with a flashlight and saw two eyes glowing orange in the darkness. I continued to look at those eyes and they were definitely nocturnal due to size. They are the eyes of a ring tailed cat. Now get this: the tail of a raccoon, the eyes of an owl, the body of a squirrel and the ears of a tribit. No joke. It reminded me of the accidental encounter with some really weird creature one night at anchor. It was one of those nights that by midnight I already had four hours sleep. Something awoke me. Most likely it was Little Prick, the boat troll, that decided to play games. Anyway, I got up and went topside. It was cave dark with only the stars for light. I have one of those head bands with a very bright LED flashlight attached. Normally, I sit in the dark to enjoy the heavens. That night I took my "miners light" and flipped it to green. I don't mean green. I mean GREEN. You see green light, like red does not destroy night vision. That puts a really eerie light on the place. Curious if we had visitors or perhaps to catch Little Prick, I directed the light to the mast head. Wow! Looking back at me were large, red eyes from midway between spreader one and two. They looked about the size of a silver dollar. It was something hanging on one of the near vertical shroud lines. We both went motionless and silent. It looked at me and I looked at it. Neither of us blinked. Being directly below, I kept waiting for a little gift from above of the oozy smelly type. It did not come. We must have held the stare down for over a minute. My eyes were getting dry as I am sure mister big eyes were also. A minute ten at least and I blinked. That is all it took for the Eyes to get gone. I never knew what it was but it was quicker than Little Prick (no offense LP) for it was gone in the blink of an eye. The only other anomaly was the fact that our Windex markers are facing the wrong direction. Perhaps that was a gift of the wind gods when we sailed through the heavy weather on the way back from Green Turtle Cay. If you are a sailor, take a minute or two on dark nights to survey the mast head. Or not.

The picture is of Larry, Moe and Curly (really Curly was in that nest) on the way from Beaufort, SC to Wilmington