June 13, 2009.

The other day I wrote what I thought was a fair, impartial, fact based account about the ineptitude of another mariner. Even though every word was true Christy decided that by naming names I had gone a bit too far. I thought by naming names I was actually performing a public service. I mean let’s say you had a serial killer living on your block, would you prefer to know exactly who it was or would the fact that you know there’s a maniac in the neighborhood be enough? Yeah, that’s what I thought too.

As luck would have it, today we crossed wakes with the aforementioned unnamed mariners. We were on our way into the dinghy dock when I mentioned to Christy that the dink approaching from our left hadn’t notice us yet. They were at least 200 feet away and I was sure they’d turn around and see us any moment.

There are established rules of the road for boaters and in this situation we were what is referred to as the “stand on vessel”. That means we’re supposed to maintain course and speed so that there’s no confusion resulting in both boats altering course and making matters worse. Simply stated, in this situation, they’re supposed to avoid us. There is another rule that over rules all the other rules and that is that every boat, regardless of right of way will do everything possible to avoid a collision. Thank God there are no rules pertaining to how many times you can actually use the word rule in a sentence. Anyway…..

They obviously didn’t see us; it was no big deal, so we came to a stop to let them pass across our bow. It was pretty amusing when they were about 3 feet from us and they finally turned to face where they were going and we were sitting practically right next to them. They weren’t surprised or startled. It just seemed to be something that happens all the time. They just kinda waved and said “Hi” as they motored by. We said “Hi” back and as they passed, I looked down and there on the side of their dink was their big boats name. They were the same people from the other day that were so intent on watching their chartplotter in the Alligator River that they kept running aground. Christy and I kind of exchanged looks, shook our heads and went on our way.

So let’s talk about other hazards on the water…………………………

I’ll be the first to admit that when it comes to spicy food I’m a wimp. I’m the guy that they make mild salsa for. Christy has a hard time taking that seriously so as a result we have a lot of medium salsa onboard as she attempts to change my preferences.

The other night when she served dinner I started to eat and had to stop and ask “Are you mad at me?”. She said “Why, what’s wrong?” I thought I was gonna die. She had made a Spanish dish for the evening’s meal. It consisted of Chorizo, rice, diced tomatoes and black beans and various spices. I know it sounds pretty good but evidently Chorizo is the Spanish word for magma.

Christy had been food shopping with Nancy from Solitaire and was unfamiliar with Chorizo. Nancy said it was “really good”. So if I actually had died, Nancy would be sitting there in court as a codefendant.

It was so hot that I couldn’t even pick around the small chunks of sausage. Its juices had permeated the entire dish. Christy was laughing at me so hard she couldn’t breathe and had tears in her eyes. That was until she realized just how hot her meal was. Now all of a sudden it was more like “Yeah, this is pretty hot”. She likes her food as spicy as she can get it, and this was even too much for her palate.

So we both picked the chunks of Chorizo out and threw them overboard. I’m surprised that there wasn’t a fish kill. Anyway….the swelling has finally gone down in my lips so we’ll be getting underway tomorrow for Annapolis.