12-31-2009 What an awesome day!!!

Besides washing both cars, getting the new fish acclimated and cleaning up around the house, we made our last trip of 2009 - hit the beach (as usual).

Beautiful weather down here in Gulfport today! What a great way to end the year!!!

New Fish

I ordered these guys yesterday and the FEDEX dude had them here today!!!

The kids were stoked to have:

A Humuhumunukunukuapuaa, a Porcupine Puffer and four new Three Stripe Damsels

While acclimating, the puffer looked like it was going to be the overly aggressive tankmate, taking nips at everyone in the 5 gallon bucket. But it was the triggerfish that quickly came out Alfa -

All the fish seem to have gotten settled -

More to follow!

Happy Christmas Kiting!

The family packed up and visited the rest of the Velascos in JAX over the Christmas weekend.

On Christmas, I got to get in a quick session (as in we had to get to my parent's house, and the wind was marginal at the beginning and only got worse as time went on), but considering my lack of waves over the past few months, anything felt better than nothing!

Also got to wake up every morning watching small waves break in front of sand dunes at upper Mayport Beach.

It's been several years since I've gotten a chance to play in the Atlantic (early 2004???)

Quickie

Punched out early today (heck I was on leave... ended spending 3/4 of the day in the office, but we are really busy - just watch the news) and took the boat out for a late afternoon sail.

5-13 kts on the NOAA Gulfport Port Weather Station during the late afternoon.

Got 12.1 mph on the GPS - not bad.

No crew today - kids are just getting over the flu and La doesn't like the cold. Maybe next time.

I did play around more with the reacher - I need to pay more attention to wrapping it tight enough before going out.

On our way to Jacksonville for the Holiday weekend!!! The forecast calls for some great winds!!!! I'm bringing a 16, a 12 and an 8!!!

HOOYAH

And the final post for tonight...

I got boat name stickers made!!!!

One for each side, placed high near the bows of the amas -

Check it out ;)

I had to pull the big Dakine sticker off the port ama - but the name didn't look good if I worked around the dakine sticker.

I love this boat!!!

And if you didn't already know, stickers make boats and boards go considerably faster so HOOYAH should top out somewhere between ludicrous speed and warp factor 7.

Port and Starboard

More boat stuff...

We were in Dick's Sporting Goods and in the camping section, they had these LED lights that pull quadruple duty - flashlight, non-chemical based light stick, blinker and whistle - nice combination for boat use!

One Port, one Starboard.

HOOYAH!

Reacher Fairlead

Here's the furler at the front of the bowsprit. Picked up a half-twist shackle to replace the straight shackle the boat came with. This should reduce the friction when deploying the reacher (not that it had much to begin with), but more importantly, it should keep the furling line straight so it doesn't bunch up in the furling drum.

The weather has SUCKED here lately so not much amphibious activity (high bacterial count from the high rainwater runoff).

Florida Panhandle Weekend

Took a couple of days to get the family reacquainted with Florida (La - the two kids have not really spent anytime there).

Cold weekend.

But got to see the BSP in Destin - the only one (to my knowledge) to have a saltwater aquarium!

Also checked out a couple of surf shops (Liquid Surf and Sail in Ft Walton Beach; Inner Light in Destin) - man do I miss the surf culture....

La finished up her second half marathon (HOO-YAH!!!)

Brought the standup paddle boards, but it was too cold for the kids to stay on the beach. Next time -

Fun weekend!