A Year in 40 Seconds

A fellow by the name of Eirik Solheim took photos out his window every day for a year and then made a 40 second clip of them. Pretty cool to watch a full year go by.



One year in 40 seconds from Eirik Solheim on Vimeo.

Missed Blog Posts

Last year, I started saving the keys from the hotel that I stay in. I decided to lay them out and photograph my motorsports history in hotels. I stay in some hotels repeatedly, so I have multiple keys from those.


Finally, I'm back into a more 'normal' schedule. The last 2+ months have been fairly non-stop. Beginning at the end of September - my schedule was nuts!. I was away from home every day of October except for 3. I was only home 2 days out of the first 20 of November. Not all of that was work - we went to the Outer Banks for Jan's birthday and I moved the sailboat to Key Largo with my buddy Tim, but still - it had me 'on the go' for a pretty good stretch.

During this time, I didn't get all the blog posts in that I wanted to, so here's a 'catch up' blog.
******************
In late October, my buddy Tim and I moved Serenity from Daytona Beach to Key Largo. Our last race of the season was to be 2 weeks later and I wanted to have the boat in Key Largo (where we stay during the Miami/Homestead race) so that I could take the crew out on the boat as an 'end of year' treat.

The trip from Daytona to Key Largo is approx 300 miles and could be done in as little as 2 1/2 days if we could get out in the ocean and sail day and night to Key Largo. If the weather didn't cooperate, it could take 5 or 6 days in the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW).

Well, we had days and days of strong NE winds which creates big seas in the ocean, so we took the ICW route all the way to Ft. Lauderdale - where the wind finally died down and we sailed overnight to Rodriquez Key. We anchored in the lee of Rodriquez and then motored into Largo Sound the next morning to the mooring field where I left Serenity while I worked the Phoenix race.

Here's some photos from that trip:

My buddy Tim at the Helm of Serenity


As we were passing through Melbourne, I called my friend Jim who you may remember sailed 2 years on Stardust, but is now living in the Melbourne area and working with a mutual friend Joe - importing some Light Sport aircraft from the Czech Republic. It turns out that a 3rd mutual friend Pete was visiting and they were going flying later in the morning. The 2 photos above are taken of Serenity as they flew past us. All of the friends mentioned are buddys from my life in hang gliding.

One of the many mansions on the water in Fort Lauderdale

Finally offshore around Miami as the sun is setting.



During our last week at work, we stayed in the Marriot Resort in Key Largo. It was the most fun workweek of the year. Of course with it being our last show of the season and having 2 and 1/2 months off, we didn't mind the actual job, plus we had a bit of a party atmosphere the whole time. Our boss was on hand for the race and he let us all know that it was the best motorsports year that our company had ever had. He was very pleased. This is always good to hear. The winds piped up to 25-30 knots for the day after the race, so we didn't take Serenity out into the ocean. I had 11 people - most of which had never been on a sailboat before, so I didn't think it smart for me to take a boatload out into those type conditions. Instead, we all went out and spent the day on Serenity while she was on the mooring in Largo Sound. It was a very fun time. I really like the crew I work with. They're all great guys and everyone is a very hard worker. I feel lucky to be on the crew.


The resort we stayed in was very nice. This is the view from my room.

There was a hut out next to the water with a couple of hammocks. Being the early riser of the crew, I'm always ready before anyone else. This is where I waited on the crew most mornings.


You probably remember that famous Humphrey Bogart movie called KEY LARGO that was filmed in this area in 1948. 3 years later, Bogart filmed the African Queen. For some reason, someone decided that the boat which was the namesake of the "African Queen" should be in Key Largo. So, here it is. Kinda falling apart.

This is the majority of the crew in the production room as we're readying for a show.

Here's a photo taken from the beach at Largo Sound. Largo Sound is inside the John Pennecamp State Park. I took the photo when I noticed that the canon was pointed at Serenity - the only boat out in the sound.



After the crew departed the area, I sailed the boat down to Key West to leave it on a mooring in Garrison Bight so that I could go down to to KW (with Jan as well - when she has the time off) and use the boat in a sailing ground that I really enjoy. It was a 2 day sail down to KW and most of it was magnificent sailing with 15 knots on the starboard beam.
Some of the beautiful water between Key Largo and Key West.


This egret landed on the bow of the boat as I was about to anchor in Newfound Harbor (near Big Pine Key). I tried to 'shoo' it away before dropping the anchor, but it was determined to stay. When I finally hit the remote windlass (winch that lets the chain out to drop the anchor) button, it flew away.

During the winters that Jan and I have spent time and lived in Key West, we met/befriended a guy named Rick (who we called Violin Man). Rick plays a violin on the street corners at night for tips. He's an extremely smart - yet socially disfunctional guy. We would just stop and give him a few bucks and introduced ourselves. Once he meets you - he never forgets you or most things about you. 4 years ago, we lived in KW over the winter and my parents came and visited. We introduced them to Rick in a very brief encounter. While in KW on this trip down with the boat, I ran into Rick and he instantly remembered me and asked about Jan as well as my mom and dad. He remembers where you live, where you work and all kinds of details. 4 years ago, he would only 'bump fists' with you - being one of those people who doesn't like to shake hands because of germs. Now he won't even do that. He's one of those interesting people that makes KW what it is.

Trip to Virgin Islands - conclusion

I had planned to write this blog post in ‘real time’ as we were crossing the 500 miles from Turks and Caicos to the Virgin Islands. It turns out that the seas and winds were such that using the computer wasn’t really part of the daily activity. Down below, the movement was such that if I were to focus on the screen, I would certainly get sick and up in the cockpit, the conditions were not the type that you’d want to take a computer that you’d care about. There was a lot of salty spray. So, here I am, in St. Thomas – sitting in perfectly flat water – writing the blog entry.

When I got up on Friday morning in Turks and Caicos, our plan was to leave on Saturday. Knowing that weather changes often, I’d suggested that we do our provisioning on Thursday in case the weather were to change to a favorable departure for Friday. We did this, so when I discovered while online early Friday morning that the weather had improved and that we should leave soon – all we had to do was settle up our marina bill, fill the water tanks and get the hell out of Dodge.

Since the entry into/out of the Turtle Cove Marina is a winding, 9 turn 2 mile trip over and through coral that was only partially marked, we had a ‘pilot’ lead us out. By 11am EST, we cleared the coral reef and were on our way.

We would need to spend the next 12 hours going around the northern end of Turks and Caicos before we were able to set our course for St. Thomas. Looking at the weather, we weren’t sure if we’d be able to take a rhumb line (straight) course to St. Thomas or if we’d need to head to Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico to get out of big seas and strong winds. The decision to try the shortest course to St. Thomas and then be prepared to run downwind to safe harbor - if necessary-was made.

Around 11pm on Friday night, we made our last waypoint off the northern tip of Grand Turk island and headed the 400+ miles – straight line- to St. Thomas.

The winds at this point weren’t too strong – probably hanging in the 10-13 knot range, but the seas were certainly rolly – with occasional swells reaching 8-10 feet. For those reading this who aren’t familiar with the way open water seas work – it’s not at all the way it looks at the beach. A 10 foot wave at the beach is a destructive force because its energy is being concentrated into an upwelling oval by the shape of the bottom of the sea near shore. Out in the open ocean there’s nothing to change the shape of the waves – until the wind starts to pickup. When the wind picks up, it makes the shape of the wave change. Depending on how much it picks up, the ‘downwind’ side of the wave can turn very steep. At this point in the trip, this was not the case and we just motorsailed into the wind and seas. It was not uncomfortable for the most part, but with the combination of the boat rolling from side to side and up and down, you couldn’t move around anywhere in the boat without holding tightly onto something.

Our first nigh out of Turks and Caicos, we had the full moon. It was an especially large moon because it was the closest that the moon gets to the earth in it’s orbit – while still being full. It made for a very enjoyable first night – there was no time that we couldn’t see the waves.
The sunsets every night were awesome!!

As we continued the passage, over the next 3 days there would be conditions ranging from 6 foot seas with 10 knots – to 10+ foot seas and winds in the 20-25 knot range. At no time did we have any conditions that were dangerous or even bordering on dangerous, but for most of the trip, it was just uncomfortable.
I tried very hard to get a photo that would show the size of the seas that we were in. None of them really do, but if you notice in this photo, you can't see the horizon - that's because the 10 ft swell that's coming toward the boat.

As mentioned in a previous post, Bill had given me the master berth for sleeping. The master berth non Prana is the V berth in the very front of the boat. With the conditions we were in for 3 nights, it was not the place to be if you wanted to get sleep. The Beneteau slapped the waves pretty hard as the bow pitched on the backside of the wave and it sounded like someone was hitting the underside of the boat with a large sledge hammer – over and over again all night. Along with the pounding, I was getting weightless in the V berth as the bow of the boat would fall from wave top to trough. It was nearly comical – if I hadn’t been so tired. Pretty much the only sleep I got during this passage was in the cockpit or on the settee berth when Bill was on watch and not utilizing it. This made for a tiring passage.

When the sun came up on Monday, the tall mountains on Puerto Rico was visible off of our starboard side and by 9 am, we could see the outline of St. Thomas out in front of us. We entered the St. Thomas waters on the NW side of the island around 1:30pm and it took us a couple of hours to get around the island – moving counter clockwise and into the Charlotte_Amalie area where we tied to the seawall and walked to Customs and Immigration. It was after 4 by the time we were done there and we then motored over to Crown Bay to get into a slip. After tying up to the dock and plugging in the power, then turning on the air conditioning, we went to ‘Tickles’ for burgers and drinks.

As I fell into the berth that night – with the low humidity of the a/c running and the lack of motion of the boat, I slept better than I remember in a long time.

Tuesday morning, we took care of washing the boat down to get the salt off of it, taking the head sail down and taking it to the sail maker for repair, plus Bill needed to go to the Port Authority to register his new dingy.

3 of the 5 cruise ships that were at dock in St. Thomas

Around 11:30, we cast off the docklines and headed for St. John (the next large island to the east) where we stopped by the National Park Service dock in Cruz Bay so that Bill could get his boat inspected. Bill is going to be a ‘Bay Host’ in the VI National Park this season while he is here, so he has some hoops to jump through to accomplish that. A nice fellow named Dave – complete with his full ‘batman utility belt’ – with gun, mace, tazer, radio, handcuffs etc came aboard and made sure Bill had all the necessary safety equipment.

Heading into Francis Bay
Afterward, we headed on around to Francis Bay where Bill will be based out of for the season. After grabbing a mooring and putting the outboard engine on the dingy, we headed over to a really cool place called Maho Campground. It’s a campground built into the hillside with rigid framed tents erected permanently on platforms with decking style walkways heading out to each camp area. At the top of the hill is the main area where there are a couple of gift shops, a provisioning area, some working areas and a very interesting restaurant. We had dinner at the restaurant which was very good and reasonably priced. The view from the restaurant was quite panoramic.
This is the beach at Francis Bay.


This is taken from the deck of the restaurant which is probably about 400 feet above the beach>

After dinner, I stopped into the art gallery and bought Jan a sea glass necklace. As we started down the hill, I notice the working area and that they were having glass blowing demos. This glass blowing area is actually a revenue making place and they are happy to let you know what and why they are doing as they make things to sell all over the island out of 100% recycled stuff. It was neat. Jan is really into glass blowing and I know she would have really liked seeing it.
Glassblower at work.

After that, we started down the hundreds of steps to the beach, but it was pitch black and you couldn’t see anything. Luckily, I remembered my camera in my pocked and I was able to turn it on and use the LED viewfinder as a dim flashlight to light up the steps. If I hadn’t had the camera with me, I think we may have been working on way down those meandering steps until sunup.

Getting the dingy beach started in the total darkness was quite a job. We had some small breaking waves on the beach, and I needed to stow my camera before we started pulling the dingy into the waves, so it was really super dark. Bill and Gene got into the dingy and Bill was trying to start it while I was holding it pointed into the waves. It was a little while before we got it started and the dingy had a bit of water in it before we actually got underway.

Wednesday, we got up and Gene fixed breakfast. We just hung out in the boat while Bill tended to some boat stuff. Around 1:30p, we headed toward Red Hook on the East end of St. Thomas. We tied up to the fuel dock and fueled Prana. Afterward, I said goodbye, caught a cab to the airport and then caught a flight back to the states.

This is the first boat delivery I’ve been on. It may sound funny, but there’s a difference between a delivery and a sailing trip. A sailing trip is about fun and exploration. A boat delivery is about getting a boat from point A- to point B. A normal trip of this sort should be done over the period of 2 months to 2 years – depending on how in depth one wants to get to know an area. Of course, a sailing trip is more fun, but I was very happy to be a part of the delivery of “Prana” from Florida to it’s new home in the Virgin Islands!

Here's 4 short videos from the passage:

Hanging out in Francis Bay

I'm flying home late this afternoon. Hate to leave, but glad to be
going home to Jan.

Approaching St. Thomas

We arrived at St. Thomas Monday late afternoon after a long 3+ day
bumpy crossing. Will update with detail soon.

Position Update: 12/12/08

Self Portrait - coming inside the reef at Caicos


Seaside Graveyard on Provos


Bills Boat Prana in the slip at Turtle Cove Marina


Our rental car "mexico'


GW and Bill at "de Conch Shack"


This blog post was written over the course of several days, so it may ramble. I’m not sure where I’ll be posting this to my blog from, but I suspect it will be posted from Provenciales on the largest island in The Turks and Caicos. “Provo” is our currently planned landfall and at this moment it is 200 miles SSE of where I sit in the cockpit on the 4am watch.

This is the beginning of day 4 of our voyage to the U.S. Virgin Islands. I’m helping my buddy Bill deliver his new boat to where he will live for half the year – (the non-hurricane half) November-ish through May-ish.

Gene, a nice and capable retired fellow who currently lives on the Outer Banks is additional crew and has been on board with Bill since Wrightsville Beach. Gene was originally going to help Bill bring the boat to FL where I would help Bill take the boat the rest of the way. The wonderful flexibility that retirement provides has allowed Gene to stay onboard for the remainder of the voyage. This is good news – it makes the overnight watches so much nicer to have 6 hours off and 3 hours on versus 3 off and 3 on. Also, Gene really likes to cook. Now THAT’s a real bonus.

Day 1
After a full day of provisioning and getting all the parts we think we may need for the boat from the numerous trips to West Marine, we leave the dock at 4pm – mainly because we have to clear up the slip for another boat that is coming back into port after being out for a week. We’re not quite ready to leave yet and we actually want to leave Port Everglades inlet (Fort Lauderdale) around 10pm anyway to time our arrival on the shallow bank north of Bimini with enough daylight that we can navigate any surprises by sight.

We motor the boat to a ‘cove’ about ¼ mile south of the dock and put out the anchor in 18 feet of water. The wind is light NE around 5-8. With the 2 hours of light remaining we lower the dingy from it’s davits on the back of the boat where it can ride safely for most conditions (but maybe not the worst conditions) and hoist the 15hp engine from it and onto a special mount on the back of the boat. This is where the engine will ride out the trip. The dingy itself will ride the 1000+ mile trip on deck up toward the bow. We hoist it up with the spinnaker halyard and situate it in it’s place – upside down and then lash it securely to the deck. No matter how dire the ride gets (and we don’t expect any dire ride) the dingy should be just fine here.

As the sun sets, we make our final ‘first stage’ plans that will encompass the first 2 days of the trip. When planning such a voyage, we have made an overview of the planned route, but because weather is such a factor in sailing, we know that any part of that plan is subject to change. We can most likely plan on the passage that will take place during the current ‘weather window’, but anything past that is a tentative plan. Our current weather window appears to be about 2 days. We feel pretty good that we’re going to have winds of the East/NE variety over that period and the forecast is for them to be around 10 knots. That generally pretty good. Perfect winds for sailing are about 15 knots and generally you’d like them to be coming from 90-120 degrees or so (the side – rear side) of the boat. That gives you a good stable ride and pushes the boat along pretty well without heeling over a long ways. The current forecast will certainly not allow for that tonight, but maybe when we turn SE as we enter the banks on the far side of the gulfstream in the morning, we may have favorable sailing wind.

At a little before 9, we weigh the anchor (that means pull it up) and get underway. Just getting out of Ft. Lauderdale itself takes over 2 hours because of bad timing with the 2 bridges that we must wait on to lift before we can go through. We miss each one by just minutes and have to wait almost a half hour at each one for it to make it’s next opening. As we come through the turning basin inside the inlet, we head E to go out the inlet. I’m at the helm and I head slightly more N inside this wide waterway so that Bill and Gene can put ‘up’ the mainsail before we get out into the ocean. There’s a problem getting it ‘up’ (which is actually getting it ‘out’ because this boat has ‘in-mast’ furling which is where the main sail rolls up in side the mast when it’s not being used.) This method of stowing and ‘raising’ the sail has many advantages, with just a couple of disadvantages. This will be the first boat that I’ve spent any real time on with this mainsail set-up, so I’ll be able to form a real opinion on this system before the voyage is over.

The ‘outhaul car’ which allows the clew of the sail to be pulled out along the boom has lost a couple of ball bearings (we discover later) and it makes getting the sail out quite a task because of all the extra friction. There’s a large ship coming in the inlet and we’re going to need more time to get the sail out than we’d planned on, so we do a 180 and head deeper into the turning basin inside the inlet. We’ve lots of room now, so again I head into the wind while Bill and Gene work on getting the sail out. It comes out fine with some extra finesse and soon we are on our way back out of the inlet, but now a large tugboat has gotten in front of us and is moving out – toward the mouth of the inlet. Oddly enough (remember this is nighttime), the tugboat is awash in yellow lights, but I can’t see any navigational lights (the green and red ones on the bow and the white one on the stern) that indicate which way is the front of the boat and which is the rear. Still, there’s no doubt it’s moving out the inlet as we are. I stay slightly off it’s port (left) side and behind it. I start to notice that I think it is now moving toward us. I point this out to Bill and in no time, we realize that it’s not only moving toward us – it’s moving quickly toward us, so we take evasive action away from it and we get around it and more toward the entrance of the inlet – so now there’s nothing between us and the open ocean except the rest of the inlet.

In no time- I look back and the demented tug is once again bearing down on us at a pretty rapid rate. While in the inlet, you don’t have a whole lot of choices of where to go. The tug passes us and moves around and meets the incoming ship to help guide it into harbor. It was a pretty ‘high adrenaline’ way to get our voyage underway and we were very happy to get out into the open ocean where it was much safer.

Our passage across the gulfstream was uneventful. The gulfstream flows at a brisk 3 knots toward the north – between Florida and the Bahamas. It flows actually from the Gulf of Mexico to England – but the Florida Straits is the only area we’re interested in at this time. It’s well know among mariners that you don’t cross the gulfstream in strong northerly conditions unless you want to get your ass kicked and have a very uncomfortable ride. The strong winds against the strong current creates steep waves which make the ride very very bumpy. The stronger the northerly wind (NW all the way through NE) the steeper and larger the waves. We’ve been waiting out a bit of a NE blow to avoid these waves and our passage across the gulfstream is specifically timed to have a comfortable (enough) ride. As we start into the open ocean, the wind is just north of east and at a comfortable 10 knots. Because of the northerly moving current, we have to point the boat a little bit south to keep it moving east – otherwise we would drift with the current and end up north of our intended destination with is a waypoint we have put in at a rocky area on the very near side of the Bahamas Bank called ‘Hens and Chickens’. Because we are pointed slightly SE and the wind is a light NE, we are able to use the mainsail as a stabilizing force – to keep us from rolling so much in the waves as we motor across the gulfstream.

We work out a 3 hour watch system which has Gene taking the 11 – 2am watch, me on the 2-5am watch and Bill on the 5-8am. I head to my cabin – the master cabin in the front of the boat – also known as the Vberth around 11:30 to get a little sleep before my watch. Bill has insisted on my utilizing this cabin and him sleeping in the settee table in the main salon. Bill’s nice that way. Gene is occupying the quarter berth at the rear of the boat. There’s 2 heads. The forward one is in my cabin – the aft one has a door to the main salon as well as to Gene’s quarter berth. I don’t really get much sleep because it the first day out and I’m not yet ‘relaxed’ enough to go with the rolling and pitching of the boat. No one really gets much sleep this night, but the excitement of being at sea will sustain us well into the next day.

During my watch, the winds pick up from the NE to about 15 – with gusts to 18 knots. It’s gotten a bit rollier, but not the gulfstream of legend by any means. After my watch, I am a bit sleepier and able to get about 2 ½ hours sleep in the increasingly agitated sea state.

While in my deep sleep, I become aware that the engine has throttled back to idle – something that wakes you up nearly instantly. I hear the clicking of a sheet winch as the head sail is being brought out. I rush up to the cockpit to find that we have made our waypoint at ‘hens and chickens’ and have turned SE to head across the bank. This puts on a beam reach and we are able to sail at 7+ knots for the next 4 hours or so. Things are amazingly beautiful in the shallow water that that make up the great Bahamas Bank. We average less than 20 feet deep (after crossing the 2000+ of the gulfstream). This is what we came here for. Beautiful surroundings – with Issac Light off to our port quarter – and perfect sailing conditions. We (mostly Gene) make coffee and breakfast. Life is good.

Our goal for the day is to make it across the Great Bahamas Bank and through the NW channel before dark. The NW channel has a reputation for boats getting into trouble due to very shallow water that comes to a point here and only about a 300 ft. wide place to pass into the NW channel. In the U.S. this would not be a problem because it would be well marked – the Bahamas on the other hand has a reputation for missing/ unlit/ non-existant channel markers. We decide that we need to stay a schedule that will have us passing through this channel while there is still enough light to read the water and see any other hazards to navigation. To do this, we need to average 6 knots along our path. At some point, the wind backs off enough that we have to start the engine and motorsail to maintain 6 knots.

We arrive at the NW channel marker on time and it turns out to be no real concern and we now feel we could do this in the dark without a problem. There is a single marker and we know how far to keep it to starboard.

Our next goal is to make it across the NW channel – another 2000 foot deep passage – during the night and to be off of the E end of Nassau by daylight where we will begin our last bank passage. This passage has a number of zigzags through small cays and we feel it needs to be done in the daylight. We motorsail at a metered pace of 4 knots so that we will arrive around 6am. Gene again takes the first watch, myself the second and Bill the third. We all find it harder to stay awake on these watches and are happy to pass off to the next person. I’m sleeping well at sunrise when I again hear the engine slow down. We’ve arrived at our destination and it’s just getting light out. We hold off the passage entrance near Porgee rocks until we get some more light, then snake our way through the shallows and the cays until we’re off the eastern point of Nassau. We make a southern jog to avoid the coral heads at yellow bank, then head ESE to the Highbourne Cut – where we will transit out into Exuma Sound and deep water again.

Somewhere around midday – we transit the Highbourne Cut which has some of the most beautiful water I’ve ever seen on it’s western (shallow) side. We then set our course off to the SSE down the middle of Exuma sound and further southward along the chain of islands on the way to the Greater Antilles.

For the next 2+ days we keep the same general course that takes us out of Exuma Sound and south of San Salvador, Rum Cay, Myaguana and toward the Turks and Caicos. Along the way we get weather updates via Sirius Satellite weather and it looks like we’re heading toward increasing winds and seas on Tuesday. We do some chart work and figure that stopping in Turks and Caicos is a good plan to wait out the weather and top off with fuel and water.

As we pass south of Myaguana the winds and waves increase to 20+ knots just off the port bow with 6ft+ seas. Nothing dangerous, but just not as comfortable going as with a beam wind. During this passage, we range from 5 – 8 knots depending on how much the wind clocks around from the bow to the beam. Around 10 am, we see the island of Provo – the largest island in the Caicos. We plan to go into Turtle Cove on the north shore and wait out the weather there.

The entrance through the reef is quite tricky – since the bouys have been lost in a storm and so the marina sends out a pilot boat to bring us through the reef and to guide us through the 9 turns that is the channel into the marina harbour.

We get in a little after noon and wait about 45 minutes for customs and immigration to come by and clear us and the boat into Turks And Caicos. After that, we’re allowed to get off the boat and we fuel up the main tank as well as the 8 diesel jerry cans.
*****
We just spent 4 days enjoying the island – sampling lots of food and drink. The weather forcast has just changed and looks like we’re going to be getting out of the Turks and Caicos this morning (Friday). I’m posting this quickly as we ready the boat. We have to wait for Customs to come and clear us out of the country, top off with water, return the rental car – then we’re ready to cast off and head out the reef. It’ll take at least 2 days before we see any land again – and that should be the north east coast of Dominican Republic. I’ll update at the next place I can.

Current Position

I'm sitting in Turtle Cove Marina in the Turks and Caicos. We arrived here yesterday mid day - sailing from Ft. Lauderdale through the Bahamas on a Beneteau Oceanis 440 with Bill and Gene. We have some weather coming today through thursday - maybe longer, so we'll hang here for now and then head off toward St. Thomas USVI - about a 4-5 day sail. I'll update more later

Governmental Stuff

As a licensed Captain, one of the NEW things that I have to do to operate legally as a 'captain for hire' is to get a new Transportation Workers Identification Credential (TWIC). I'm currently in the process of applying for the right to apply for the card.

The first thing I have to do is create an online identity for the government. I can put in my desired name and password. Here's their regulations pertaining to the password that I can pick:

Password Rules:
Minimum password length is eight characters.
Passwords must contain at least one of each of the following: one alphabetic uppercase, one alphabetic lowercase, one numeric, and one special character.
Passwords shall not contain any two identical consecutive characters (example: 22apples, 14588904).
Passwords may contain no more than two identical consecutive characters in any position from the previous password.
Passwords shall not contain any dictionary word.
Passwords shall not contain any proper noun or the name of any person, pet, child, or fictional character.
Passwords shall not contain any employee serial number, Social Security number, birth date, phone number, or any information that could be readily guessed about the creator of the password.
Passwords shall not contain any simple pattern of letters or numbers, such as “qwerty” or “xyz123”.
Passwords shall not be any word, noun, or name spelled backwards or appended with a single digit or with a two-digit “year” string, such as 98xyz123.
Pass phrases, if used in addition to or instead of passwords, should follow these same guidelines.
Passwords shall not be the same as the User ID.
Password length will be selected to provide a level of protection commensurate to the value or sensitivity of the resources or data it protects, but not less than eight characters.

Is this government just out-of-hand or what?