I hate the first day of work

Maria and I spent the last week in Belize at my folks condo with them. Oh ya... I am dating a girl named Maria... let me introduce you to her. Here she is standing at the end of the dock... note, this is not a pose, one leg is actually 7 inches longer than her other leg. Don't make fun of her, she's very sensative about it (and when she reads this, I will also have one leg shorter than the other I am sure).

Anyway... we had a swell time. Spent most of the time just chilling out in the sun, fighting a mostly chemical warfares battle with bugs. I did some scuba diving, saw some sweet stuff. There was kayaking, snorkling, fishing, and much hanging out, we spent a day cruising around San Pedro... which is actually not that cool, its very old-folk-touristy... many floral "I'm-on-vacation" shirts. Caye Caulker is much more interesting. Go to my Flickr site to check out all the cool photos. For those who are lazy... there are some below.



Note: Maria shot herself in the head with a beer, thus she ended up a dead body floating in the water.

Christmas / New Years slacker...

So, I have not been such a good blogger... or friend. I think the rule is that I am supposed to post some stuff for Christmas, and for New Years... and I didn't. Now that the first month is half over, I will attempt to fix that. As my first offering, here is my nephew's version of Jingle Bells... too cute.

Merry Belated Christmas





More to follow.

Searching for a new home

As many of you know, I have been on the search for a boat... actually, this search started a few years ago, then took a break, and has been in full swing for a few months now. I have settled on a few boats which I am looking at more closely. I traveled to Boston a few weekends ago to look at this boat in particular... and thought I would post a little about her, so people can get an idea of what I am looking at.

This is a C&C 34 built in 1980 (the yachtworld listing). She is very well equiped with a decent sail inventory, and some excellent electronics. The previous owner did alot of racing with her, and she always performed well, which is good to hear.

There are a few issues that need figuring out. The only big issue, which I was informed today by the broker that is not such a large issue, is that the keel-hull joint has a crack in it, from grounding in reverse. It has had this crack for a while, and the owner had the keel pulled, and re-seated some years ago, and the crack came right back. It does not appear to be structural, and is not, according to the broker, leaking into either the hull, nor the keel. This is likely a purely cosmetic issue, and not something to necessarily be worried about, however, if I do decide to make an offer on her, a marine surveyor will look more closely at this to be sure.

That is the only big issue as I can see it... although there was a little water in the bildge, so it was difficult to see the keel bolts, and the condition of the bildge. Generally, the interior was dirty, and since the mast was removed, various parts were spread around, making her look a little messy. She just needs a good cleaning.

Here is a video I took of the interior... at one point I turn the camera sideways, don't hurt your neck trying to make sense of it, and don't worry, I turn it back after I realize I am dumb for rotating it. And, yes, I did film the head.

Scuba Map V2.0

So, this is mapping application which is smarter, and simpler to use. The platial map made me make a post to a forum (which I have no idea where that forum is... or who reads it), before it would add a marker to my map.

This one, by Community Walk is pretty handy. Actually, it is simple to setup, simple to edit, and I think simpler to navigate. Let me know which is your favorite.

CommunityWalk Map - MysticGringo - Scuba Map

Scuba Map

I am trying to find a mapping application which I can display here. I am trying a few different ones, but so far like Platial map Creator the best. This is built on Google Maps, so that means it is cool.

Feel free to pan around, and zoom in on the sites I have marked.

27 Seconds of a Cow fish

This is a Cow Fish trying to get away from my camera. These are oddly shaped fish, like a triangle in section... with lots of various fins. These are pretty abundant in Curacao, and through out the Caribbean, we saw several of these every dive.

These are my mother's favorite fish to watch.

27 seconds of squid

Thought I would throw up a video of some squids we found in Curacao. Squids are cool....

Curacao...

Just returned from a week in Curacao, N.A. It was a pretty relaxed time, mostly made of diving, and napping... both of which are pretty fun. Curacao is a little island in the Netherland Antilles... just north of Venezuela, with some awesome people, and some awesome diving. The capitol is Willemstad (the typical postcard photo of it here). parts of the family were there, and we stayed at Sunset Waters resort, which is towards the north of the island. Sunset Divers is attached to the hotel, and have some pretty nice dive sites to see... and some pretty fun dive masters to hang out with.

The diving was pretty good... and very easy. This is one of the easiest places to dive I have ever been... there is no current, and the dive boat is very well setup. The sea life is very good, and coral looks to be in good shape... but there is a noticable lack of larger life, such as shark, or rays. I only saw a single stingray in all of my 15 or so dives. There are some unique things though... this is the first time I have ever seen a seahorse, and there are more eals here than I have ever seen. There also seems to be alot of Christmas Tree Worms everywhere... more than anywhere I have seen before.

You can go visit my flickr page to see more photos from there if you'd like. Below are two videos from the trip. The first being an eal which was swimming from one coral head to another one. Rarely do you see eals leave their hiding spots. The second video is of my favorite fish, one I could watch all day long, but I do not know what sort he is. It is also a part of a new series I am going to do called "27 seconds" which will be videos of various subjects which are all 27 seconds long. Why 27 seconds... sounded cool.


Swimming eal, Curacao, N.A.


27 seconds - Favorite fish

My favorite fish... I wish I knew his name... but he is cool. This little dude has some parasites on him.

Red River Gorge

Last Friday a few climbing buddies of mine and I went to the Red River Gorge to do some climbing. We got to the Red by about 10:30pm... after making a few directional errors. Instead of camping in a normal camp ground, we went up to the Fortress Wall and climbed Bed Time For Bonzo (5.6)... then dragged all our camping equipment up, and slept atop the wall. It was a gorgeous camp site... very exposed, with some good tent sites further back. It was a beautiful night.

The next day, all 5 of us climbed 2 multi-pitch routes. The first being a 5.7 route, still on Fortress (which is an all trad wall) called Party Time. The first pitch of this 2 pitch route ends on a small ledge... with hardly any room for 5 people to hang out on. The whole climb ascends a dihedral which varies in width quite a bit. The summit gives a beautiful view.

The second climb for the day was one of the classic climbs in the Red, Caver's Route (5.3 R). You can actually free-solo this (no ropes or protection) if you want... but as it was my first time on this route... I roped up for one of the pitches (its a 4 or 5 pitch route). The thing with Caver's is the compression of the crack... it is so tight, that in a few parts you have to just wiggle your way vertically up the wall. Its is entirely possible to get completely wedged in a few of the cracks, and get stuck. Luckily, that did not happen to any of us.

More photos to follow (as soon as Matias and BJ get them up on the net).

Photo-Blog... PhoBlog... Fauxblog

The Split
Caye Caulker, Belize.

Comments?

Washington Trip Part Duece

While in Washington, I had the chance to do some climbing, alpine style, for my birthday. Talk about awesome. The climb we did was the Beckey Route, on the Liberty Bell Mountain (the right most peak on the photo). It was a technically easy, 3 or 4 pitch climb, about a 5.5, or 5.6 with a few 5.7 moves. The Liberty Bell is 7,700 ft in elevation at the peak, and was first ascended September 27, 1946.
Alpine climbing is different to the style of climbing I have been doing. I have been climbing in a climbing gym, and on some sport routes. With those styles of climbing, once you finish a route, your belayer lowers you down to where you started the route. This climb finished with an incredible 360 degree view of the area around it, and then a long rappel (180 or so feet in this case). Its pretty sweet to actually get to the top of something.

This area of the state has alot of forest fires going on at this time, so it was good to get above the smoke, and in the clear air. You can see in this photo how smokey the air was... and in the video below you can glimpse the smoke plume from on of the fires in the area.

Thanks Janice and Scott for taking me on this, and for teaching me alpine style, and some trad protection.

Hit the play button below to get a 360 degree pan of from the peak.

Washington Trip Part I

I just got back from a trip to Washington where I spent the week hanging out on my dad's boat, with my dad, my sister, her husband Scott, and Josh and Jessica. It was a pretty fun time had by all. Dad has put the boat up for sale, so this might be the last voyage under his command.

Here is a picture of 5 year old Josh and 2 year old Jessica cruising around in the Kayak, and a picture of the boat... why ever give this up?