Re-visiting Transylvania Ave

Here is evidence of Pete, then Stub and Vinnie, re-visiting our long lost trail.

Swimming with the sharks?

One of my favorite places in the world is The Bitter End Yacht Club. I cannot picture a more perfect resort - anywhere. There is a little for everyone. Sailing, dancing, relaxing, diving, snorkeling, the baths a short distance away, the list goes on. We seem to always end up here whenever in the BVI's for a few days. It is very relaxing, and there is a little island (Saba Rock) that used to be a very cool bar/band area easily reached by a dinghy from the moorings in the bay. We could have dinner at Bitter end, then either catch a band at the yacht club, or motor over to Saba Rock for some fun.

One night after much entertainment at the yacht club, we were headed back to the boat. It had been limbo night, and we were well lubricated to compete in the event. On the way back to the dinghy you pass a shark tank. It has a short little railing all the way around it. Stub thought it would be funny to give the group a scare. He ran up the the rail/fence and mocked jumping in. To his surprise the railing gave was slightly. He rotated over his hip on the railing and was all of a sudden hanging upside down above the tank - feet pointing directly at the moon. Someone grabbed his shoes and pulled him back to earth. I believe that is the only time I have ever seen a look of fear/shock on Stub's face. The guy seems to take almost anything in stride.

It did not take long for the jokes to start rolling in. Mauler was wondering what she would have told her sister if her son had ended up swimming with the sharks. I told Mauler that the nurse sharks would have had a hard time "gumming" him to death. The fall on his head might have done him some good too!

When in the BVI's don't miss O'Malley the black irish entertainment guide!

As authored by Davie Laitsch!



Sorry Slim, somehow this e-mail slipped passed me and I did not respond. My version goes like this,,,,Don, Vollmer, Craig (I think), Toast, Stub and I were in Tortolla. We went to some huge outdoor Reagae/political rally at some soccer complex/park. It was kind of a dud, so we went out for a bite to eat, and after we were walking to our next destination, a bar to drink of course. It started to rain a bit, and we were kinda looking around for a taxi. Two local guys stopped their SUV and asked us if we needed a ride. Don and Vollmer decided to head back in for the night and the young guys were on their own. We were a bit hesitant at first because we had no idea who they were, and they had no "taxi" signs on their vehicle. Their truck was pretty new/nice and they were dressed nice, clean (etc) so we said what the hell and we piled into their truck. They asked us what we wanted to do, and we told them to take us out to some "action in the bars". We never really negotiated any fee's or anything and these two guys took us to a couple bars, and were our personal tour guides. I think I speak for all of us when I say that these guys surprised the hell out of us because they were super cool, and they were buying rounds of drinks, just like they were part of our crew. They were asking us about where we were from, what we were doing and so on. The guys started busting my balls about getting hammered and being left behind in San Juan. They laughed and said I was lucky that I did'nt get killed. Then one of the guys said to me " you probably did'nt get capped beacause you look kind of Puerto Rican. So I said "if I look like I'm Puerto Rican, then you look like you're Irish". I was a bit nervous because he was a "big Brother", but everybdy started cracking up. So then I went on to call him O'Malley and the joke kept rolling on. For the rest of the night he was O'Malley. These guys were the coolest ever!! They drove us around all night drinking, from bar to bar to bar. We even went to a strip bar out in the middle of F..ing NO-WHERE. It had a super high cover charge, and if I recall correct O'Malley negotiated a lower fee, and then paid the cover for us!!! It was awesome, we were having the time of our life. After a thousand more beers, and bars they drove us right back to the pier safe and sound. We asked them how much we owed them,and I belive they said $50. I think we gave them about $85. or so. When we got back we were wondering how we were going to get back to the boat; it was tied up to a "moore"? out in the marina, not on the pier. As we were trying to figure out who was dumb enough to swim out to the boat to get the Dingy, Vollmer pops up out of a Dingy tied to the pier (sleeping and all hammered), and told us that he has been waiting for us!! We hopped into the Dingy and went back to the sailboat!! It was truley one of my favorite nights ever!! So there you have it...my version of the O'Malley story. DL

Captain Don's Surprise

This is our second trip, and we are in our favorite place - Key West. The group heads down to Duval Street and bounce from bar to bar. Lots of fun, dancing and vague memories of late night pizza. Finally we stumble back to the boat at about 4 AM. No one is prepared for "Captain Don's Surprise" ...

Everyone has found a quiet dark corner to crawl into and hide from the impending hangover. It is now 5:30 AM and we are fully passed out and in another dimension. All of a sudden there is a loud cadence throughout the boat "DAAA da ditty da, daa da ditty da, WAKE UP! RISE AND SHINE!" all to the sound of trumpets. The loud won't go away, no matter how long you try to ignore it. After roughly 4 - 5 minutes of this racket, a very angry Stub gets up and starts tearing through the cabin. "Where the !@#$% is that noise coming from!". He starts tearing through the cabinets. Finally, he sticks his head out a port hole in the boat and yells at the top of his voice to the entire harbor "SHUT UP! TURN THAT !@#$ing NOISE OFF!" This from a normally rational and sane adult. I still don't know how he got his large mellon out the relatively small port hole...

About 2 minutes later Pete pulls a cat alarm clock from the cabinet in his bunk.

Captain Don strikes again!

I can still remember him laughing for about 20 minutes that early morning. Relatively proud of your prank - weren't you Captain Don?

I fully believe that Stub is still planning his revenge. That cat will resurface at the old folks home - set to go off every night at 7:30 PM!

Sometimes you stumble upon Paradise

We are on our way back to Granada from the Grenadines. The trip is unfortunately winding to a close. We are all somewhat preparing for the trip back to reality, and not really wanting this slice of heaven to end. As is usual in this latitude, we are running short of ice. Our crew is used to COLD weather this time of year. Temps in the upper 90's and a brutal sun has the crew rapidly drinking cold beverages. No matter how much ice we pack in the ice chest, it always seems to disappear in day.

We are headed South and determine that we will need some ice for our sail to Grenada. Carriacou Island is off the starboard bow and we decide to slip into Tyrrel Bay and pick up some ice at a store in Harvey Vale. As we sail up, there are hardly any boats in the bay. We wonder if there is enough civilization in the bay to produce a store that would carry ice....

We pull up along the Northern shore line and notice all the mangroves. We anchor out near the mangroves and take the dinghy into shore. Once we get there we are surprised. The town is very nice, the locals are enchanting, and there are a lot of stores, bars and restaurants. We proceed to walk down the main street that runs between the beach and the buildings. First a beer at a bar, then a stroll through some stores. We find a liquor store. The prices are fantastic. Most of the crew buy tarrif free liquor for home. I personally buy a bottle of grenadier, and a couple of other long strange looking liquor bottles with tall thin bottle necks. (they never make it back to college - as they are tossed back and forth in the plane they break inside my duffle bag soaking all my clothes with sticky liquor...)

Everyone shops at their own pace, and most of the group split up and see what they want to see. I buy a few beers and anchor myself in front of the main pier watching the world go by. I cannot imagine a more peaceful setting. Candy pulls up as my wing man. We wait for the others. Eventually everyone works their way back to the dinghy pier. We saddle up in the dinghy, head back to the boat, and weigh anchor. I remember thinking - man we really missed out on a great place to stay for a night. Too bad the boat was due back in Grenada this evening.

Oh well, it was a fantastic find, and a wonderful reminder of how easy life could be if we allowed ourselves to slow down and enjoy it!

Oh yeah.....Scope.

So, this is your first bareboat charter. You think you know a lot about sailing, right? Been a sailor for decades, right? This should be a breeze! Then again.....

As the title of this blog states, we are from the midwest. Not real familiar with the idea of tide, or the general nature of the bottom for anchorages in Southern Florida. In Lake Michigan, Tide is not a factor, and it is such a deep lake that you rarely ever anchor out. Go find yourself a marina dude!

So, now you have the primer.

We are all excited as this is our first bareboat charter. The Florida Keys sound like the perfect chain of islands to explore for 10 days. The crew is comprised of Don and Mary Ann (Captain and Cook - also the benefactors of this little vacation), and a bunch of early 20 something kids (Jim, Pete, Lisa, Troy, and Steve.) Most of us have been sailing for decades. We pick up the 42 foot Endeavor - Aeolus (AO-Bus; our nickname as it is not a real competitive sailor) in Miami at Florida Yacht Charters. After a brief introduction and a short test, followed by sea trials, we depart on our journey. Our final destination - Key West. However the goal for the first night - Key Largo. The sail down is great; why wouldn't it be in comparison to winter in Wisconsin. Sailing in Hawks Channel with beer and cocktails beats snowblowing the driveway any day.

As we get close to Key Largo, we begin to look for a place to "drop the hook" for the night. Largo Sound looks like a great place, so we navigate our way in and weave through the ships that have beat us to prime anchorage locations. We finally drop anchor a little North of Transylvania Ave. A crew is quickly dispatched to get fuel for the dinghy and Ice. Little did we know that the closest store is all the way out at US Hwy 1... Not a short walk later we find what we need and then venture back. As we motor back to the boat, night is setting and Mary Ann is ready with dinner. We all are relaxing after dinner, laughing at the table. The wind is picking up outside. We individually notice it I am sure, but no one pays much attention to it. Soon a strange alarm is going off in the cabin. And about the same time we hear some yelling outside the boat. As we run up the steps to the cockpit, we see a group of people on our starboard side yelling at us from their sailboat. "Wake Up! Your adrift!" Sure enough the boat is drifting in the wind at about 5 knots down wind. We quickly fire up the diesel and motor forward. When we set the anchor this time, we leave out a lot of scope (extra line) and hope the anchor holds. It was a long night as we listened to the wind whip through the sound. Always wondering if we were adrift again.

Next morning, we weigh anchor and head out the narrow channel that leads from Largo Sound to Hawks Channel. This was our reminder to check the charts for tide when we depart locations. As we were leaving, we felt the keel touch down in the channel. Thankfully, the prop and rudder are set significantly higher on the AO Bus. The keel only touched down in a few short places, and the 89 hp Turbo Diesel pushed us through these little snags.

So, all in all, Day 1 was full of learning experiences. We became much wiser sailors. However, it will always be remembered for three guys and a few beers at the end of Transylvania Ave.!

What's a Stuben anyway?

Ok,

I realize that most of you know what a "Stuben" is, but this is for the folks that stumble across this blog.

The "Stuben" was invented by Stub. I am willing to stand corrected, but here is my recollection:

In the BVI's, long night of fun at the Bitter End Yacht Club. The crew stumbled back to the dinghy and motored back to the boat. Stub was hungry after a long night of beer and rockets. He looked into the ice chest and found a smorgesboard of leftovers. In typical Stub fashion, this was an opportunity to push the edges and make the crew laugh. He pulled out the bread and stacked it with anything he could find in the ice chest. If I remember correctly it a few of the ingredients were beef jerky and string cheese. Everyone that was up got a chuckle. At first we called it a "Dagwood" but then "Stuben" was thrown out and eventually stuck.

Ever since this day, the group has made a tradition of building Stubens when we get back home from a long night of drinking. The picture attached is from this Spring in Fort Myers Beach after a long night of drinking. Give it a try, you might really enjoy what you create!