Rock Throwing

OK, we all know that I rarely go political on this blog and I’d like to think that I’m really not in this case. I read the ‘paper’ in the morning every day like everybody else and lately I’ve been following the war between Israel and the Hamas in the Gaza strip. So, the Palestinians launch rockets into Israel over several days. What did they think was going to happen? Of course Israel retaliates ten fold like they always do. Don’t they teach history over there? Well there you are. Nothing is probably being taught over there except hatred.

Now I read that there are world wide protests going on over Israel’s actions. (Oh and a lot of "down with the USA". What did WE do?) I’m not condoning them. I think it’s mean to drop bombs on people but where were the protests when the rockets were landing in Israel? Interestingly some of the protesters in the mid east and in Greece were throwing rocks. . .

Throwing rocks. Who was the first proto-human to throw a rock at another? Since then we haven’t really gotten past that. You throw a rock. I retaliate with a sling shot. You invent gun powder so your rock goes even faster and is more deadly. I invent a rock that explodes upon impact. Then I can shoot them out of even bigger guns or drop them from planes. You make a rock that wipes out an entire civilization.

Bottom line: We’re still throwing rocks at each other. This ‘civilization’ has not progressed one inch past that and until we do I have a dim view of our future as a planet-wide species.

When people were first roaming around the plains of Africa we were a small percentage of the total animal species on the planet. Not only are there a lot more of us now, we are the only species that via our industrialization we have world-wide effects on our own environment. Now we can’t stop throwing rocks at each other and therefore at some point we’re going to run out of food and water because we never learned to share. Then the rock throwing will really get nasty.

How in the hell do we put a stop to this madness?

Oh yeah....happy new year

Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

AND TO ALL A GOOD . . . . .

BONGO!


AND SAILOR SUE HAS SOME CARIBBEAN PHOTOS ON SMUGMUG.
YOU CAN PURCHASE PICTURES, MUGS, AND MORE.
CHECK IT OUT HERE!

She Floats!

Very Happy occasion down at the boat yard today. Silandra having sunk in hurricane Ivan was once again back in the water. No leaks and she got away from the dock just fine. She is now moored at Prickly Bay Marina where the work of putting her back together will continue. Some pics of the lift and splash below

Monday Radio Show

Hi all. I've started to do a "Monday morning Astronomy Minute" on our VHF net. Thought I'd start to share them with all the readers. Here's the one for tomorrow Dec 22.

Good morning Grenada Cruisers Net. This is Scott on Enee Marie. It’s Monday and time for our weekly astronomy minute for December 22.




So, Happy winter solstice to one and all! The moment of the solstice was yesterday actually but close enough. The winter solstice means a number of things.
This is of course the shortest day of the year for those living in the northern hemisphere. It IS the shortest day because it is the day when the sun takes it’s most southerly trip through our sky. That also means that a man could stand in the shade of his own sombrero by standing on the tropic of capricorn at local noon on this day.

And why is 23.5 degrees south CALLED the tropic of capricorn? It is because about 2000 years ago the sun was in the constellation Capricorn on this day. Due to the precession of the equinoxes the sun is now in Sagittarius. What THAT means for all of you who read your horoscope is that you’ve been off by one zodiac sign all this time!

By the by. . . Virtually EVERY newspaper has a daily horoscope column and virtually none have a regular astronomy column.

So here comes Dec 25 and you know what that means. . . YES! Happy birthday Sir Isaac Newton. Cheers! And Enee Marie is CLEAR!

Friday This and That

For those of you who may have wondered what Sue does all day while I'm at work. . .

'nuff said!

Our good friends Kathy and Kerry on Bellagio arrived early this week. Yea! They had a rough time making the crossing from Trinidad. Broken belt, lost the bitter end of the main sheet and all in rolling seas at about 3 AM. Gosh sailing is fun! Here's Kerry getting re-united with Mismo...

Work continues to go well. There's talk again of launching Silandra next week. We'll see. . .

Merchant Mariners

On Saturday we set up our table at the True Blue resort for their annual Holiday Bazarre. I sold 7 books and Sue sold 5 of her Caribbean calendars. Besides that we met a lot of people who we only knew by voice from the morning VHF cruisers net.

There's Sue setting up our table.>>>>>>>>>>

Our neighbors at the bazarre were some German ladies, Ursula and Lilo, who have actual stores on the island. They kept taking some tables near us and moving their stuff closer and closer to us until I finally said, 'Holy Crap, I feel like Austria with the Germans invading! They laughed. Yes! Germans with a sense of humor!

All in all a good day. Selling stuff and hanging out in a really pretty ocean side bar/restaurant.

The semi-famous author>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>













Santa even stopped by (but didn't buy anhting!) Look an actual person (Kevin from Exodus) reading my book!















Today then is my official day off. Silandra is not launched yet. They wanted to last week but the surveyor for the insurance company said that the bilge pumps really should be operational first. I've jumped from freezer door builder to bilge pump shelf builder/installer. This boat has 3 huge bilge pumps. One each for the forward, mid-ships, and engine room bilges. Each weighs about 20 pounds and can draw up to 3o amps!

December Birthdays and Holiday Shopping Time

First of all -- Happy Birthday to the family December birthdayers.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Nick B., Liz T., Margaret T., and Brandi. Hope you get lots of presents and lots more on Christmas!!!

Speaking of Christmas -shopping time is near. This Saturday at the True Blue Resort just a bay over from where we are anchored there will be a Holiday Bizarre. And yes this cruising couple will be selling their wares.

Sailor Sue will have (if the printer cooperates) Caribbean Scene cards and Holiday cards AND a 2009 Caribbean Scenes Calendar! Yikes - only 2 1/5 days to make them. This photo is the cover of the calendar.

Scott will be selling his autographed Why Book of Sailing. Only 8 copies left on board. Of course the Why Book of Sailing is always available from Amazon. (See the link to the left.)

Sue's cards and calendar are not yet available on-line. However you never know when they might be. We'll keep you posted on that.


So happy shopping. Tis the season to spend money and enjoy doing it!