Farting boat episode & a full moon?!
04 July 2014
Kimber
Oceanside and beyond...
Good thing we reserved a slip for Oceanside! A big ole WHOA!! It was crowded, not with just boats, but a gazillion motor homes and a seething, pulsating mass of bodies, surfboards, dogs, and anything else people could strap on to their craft of choice to come and enjoy the beach! As we slowed down moving through the breakwater entrance, a squadron of jet-ski's came racing up along side yelling "Freebird!!!, come on, play "Freebird, or sing it at least!!" Ha ha, they were having fun, but it always makes me nervous when anyone comes racing up to our vessel! (If you have ever been boarded by honest to God Pirates in your life, like I have, it would make you nervous too. But THATS another story I will share some other time). The jet-ski people got board with us and peeled out to go play on a powerboats' wake, great, see ya!
We pulled along side an end tie and washed the boat down. What a gorgeous day, it finally felt like Summer, when I heard someone else yell "Freebird"! It was some folks that we had met last time we were around Oceanside. Great couple that are live a boards across the cut in our Marina. We just love the boating community or what?! We finished our clean up chores and said our hello's. There was this real nice younger woman in the slip next to us, pretty and very sweet! She had a cute Catalina '30, complete with two cats and a small dog! She is an artist too! We had many great visits through out the next few days. Her big girl, Cat cruised the docks at night and came over to our boat to sing to us awhile. Miss Q was totally not having it and miss Grumpy went below and sulked until she left that evening. We only stayed a few days in Oceanside, then packed up and went back to San Diego. We have a favorite spot there and they treat us so well! I really like it there, it's clean, quiet and very friendly.
It was an uneventful four-ish hours down South. No Dolphins, no Sea Lions, nuth'en?! We pulled in to our slip, a different dock than last time, but that was just fine with us. New friends, right? We pulled out the bicycles and the backpacks and headed to the store for some fresh produce. It was such a beautiful day!! We took our time and rode down the beach path a few extra miles and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon. Towards sunset, we decided that it was time to go back to the boat and put some dinner on. We had left the iPod music on "random play" for Q, so she could decompress from her trip of the day. As we approached the top of the dock area, there is a park like setting with a walk way that runs around most of the Bay we are in, so to see a clump of people above the dock area is not too alarming. There are a lot of weddings and out door activities going on there all the time. For some reason though, this didn't look or sound right?! As we got closer, there were people pointing and laughing. I just thought it was a Sea Lion or something goofing around?! Closer and closer, until we realized the people were pointing and laughing at our boat?! WTH?!! Then someone shouts, "sshhhhhhh, wait! Listen!!! OMG!!! That boat is FARTING on Speaker!!!" The small crowd erupts in laughter when someone shush'es the crowd for the next series of flatulence!!! Holy crap!!!
* sidebar!
A long time ago, when we were still working, with the airlines, we used to frequent a joke store in Spokane, WA. Mike and one of his Pilot buddies finds this CD called "Pull My Finger!" It's a whole CD of nothing but recorded flatulence, with all kinds of crazzyness on it!! Oh, just freak'en fabulous!! Really?!!! The next day while we were waiting for passengers to get ready to board, these two in the cockpit, put on a couple of tracts of "Pull My Finger" over the PA system. By the time I go running up to the cockpit to get them to stop, they are both in tears, bent over with their heads in their own laps, laughing so hard that they can't even speak! They are just squeaking inaudible gasps of air at each other, holding their guts, laughing their asses off!! (Pardon the pun!) :/ The next thing I know, half the Ramper's (ground crew) are at our plane because the one that asked if I was "Ready to board?" Hears the "Pull My Finger" set going off and radios everyone to come check out spot 8 aircraft, "you won't believe it!!!" Over the radio this goes!! I'm surprised we didn't take a delay on that one, but somehow, we quieted the jokester's up front, got the ground crew under control and rolled out on time?! Geeeeeze..... Back to San Diego Marina!
Yep!!! The boat was FARTING on speaker!! You could hear it throughout half the Marina!! At first I was mortified and just looked at Mike and said, "act like you're clueless and keep walking!" Mike nods and we wheel our bikes farther down the bike path, hoping that the farts will subside into some other song on the play list, yet.....it just keeps going!!! A few more people come from the bait shop just across the walk way. Yes! The crowd is growing, not going!!! It appears that "Pull My Finger" has taken over and possessed our iPod! For cry'en out loud!!! I want to just go to the boat and relax, but NOOOOOOOOOOO!! We have to return to THIS!! Fatigue and a burn'en thirst for a cold beer overcame us. We decided to "Own It" and take a bow as we clambered down the dock and climb aboard. We got a huge applause from the bike path crowd, Mike yelled out,"Thank you, we'll be here all week!" As we went through the companion way and the crowd dispersed.
For the next week, we would be sitting in the cockpit and random people would bike, hike or rollerblade by and yell out, "Fartbird!!, Wildbird, Windbird!" or some other bastardization of the boats name?! Not awesome. :/
Alas, the full moon was here! I haven't been doing much photography lately, so this was a perfect opportunity for me to challenge myself with some night shots! There isn't supposed to be another full moon like this for another 35 years or so! Friday the 13th no less!! I fixed my tripod, set my camera and started shooting. The clouds were an awesome added bonus. I thought I was doing pretty good until I tripped over a sprinkler and my camera took a header off my tripod. As it launched, I tried to grab it and the tripod foot jabbed into my hand, slicing a huge divot out of my hand. I wasn't about to let my new 400mm lens fly and crash, so I held on through the pain. I felt hot stickiness flowing down my arm and decided I should probably go in and take a look at what the real damage was. However, I saved my camera and lens, tripod broke and I probably should have went and got a couple of stitches, but then, where's the Pirate in that?!! Mike just said "awesome!" Really?!!