Final Voyage

On June 21, 2014 I will be taking my final voyage aboard the beautiful sailboat, Tiama.  The goal is to leave her in Charleston where the sailboat market is better and where she will quickly find a new owner.  This final sail is not one to be taken lightly, though.  It will be potentially fraught with danger in the form of sharks, thunderstorms, and shifting sandbars.  

A little more on the sharks:

This is a screenshot from the Ocearch.org shark tracking website.  It shows colored tracks of all tagged sharks who all seem to really enjoy hanging out in the stretch from Hilton Head to Charleston.  

Take away the colored tracks and the orange dots left over are the actual sharks.  The four currently nearest the SC coast are Tiger Sharks and the fifth is Mary Lee, the resident Great White.  She was pinged pretty much underneath my boat last November.  

Pediatric Rotation

me: Have a good day!

eleven yr old: DONT TELL ME WHAT TO DO

Do you dive?

Apparently around here, "Do you dive?" Actually means diving on nitrox and owning all your own gear. 
"Yep, I'm scuba certified!" (says the Utahn who scuba'd once and owns a snorkel)

TURTLE PATROL

I just had my first day of training for Turtle Patrol.  Which involves helping the baby turtles get from the beach to the water while protecting them from gators and storks.

Essentially, we link arms, make a perimeter around the baby turtles, and shout words of motivation while they make their trek to Mother Ocean.

"You can do it, little dude!

"Turtle Power!"

Herbie the Heron

Each night when I walk down the dock to my boat I inevitably cross paths with a 4 foot tall white bird.  I turn the corner  and there he is, standing his ground on two long spindly legs.  I always stop short, surprised that this particular bird doesn't just fly away squawking, like all the other birds.  He just stands there, head cocked to the side, looking at me.  He is literally sizing me up.  I slowly walk towards him and he slowly walks away from me.  All the way to my boat, where he stops and watches me climb aboard.  We repeat this dance every evening.

I'm at the marina bar the other night and tell everyone about this crazy bird. "Herbie the Heron!" they tell me.  He showed up at the dock 3 years ago all covered in oil.  They didn't think he was going to make it, but he survived. And he's been living at our marina ever since.

OB rotation

So I pull the baby out thru the c section and as I'm holding him he opens his eyes and looks up at me, the first human he's ever seen - and I watch as he goes from bewilderment to pure ANGER. Sorry little dude. Welcome to the world.

Southern Freeze 2014

Captain's Log: The heater has stopped working and ice has made escape from Dataw Island impossible. Internet and food stores continue to hold out. Morale is still high. — at Dataw Island Marina.