Tropical Depression 16

**KeyWestPirate** · 11-24-2016, 10:07 AM

". .. I'm actually excited by the prospect.
I've been through a wide variety of weather--but never a hurricane .... "

That is a .... Be Careful What You Wish For . . . sort of thing.
I went through eight in two summers in Key West, with a 40 foot sailboat to worry about.

We had house immediately on the Atlantic,, on Geiger Key just east of Key West.
I had a concrete stilt house built like a fortress, so never any danger, and a 7 KW diesel generator and DirecTV.
Still,, a lot of aggravation.
Miserable, if you don't have the resources. Thousands went without power after the major hurricanes in So Florida.
No AC, no refrigeration. I remember one particular length of power line that ran to my house,,, it was more patches than wire.

You pray that they pass quickly,, and usually do,,matter of hours,, just the freight train sound wears you mentally and physically.

I hired a guy with a bobcat to come in after each storm,, the quantity of mud and debris of all kinds that is dredged up and washed in to a depth of two feet would astonish you.

I always hoped that one of those famed "square groupers" would wash up ....

**KeyWestPirate** · 11-24-2016, 10:14 AM

Here (north central Nicaragua),, nothing weather-wise.
We had about fifteen minutes of light rain yesterday evening.

Sun poking through a high overcast this morning, cloud layer at least 10K feet.
A little warmer.

We've had a high barometer through all of this.

**kwah2249** · 11-24-2016, 10:59 AM

Rain isn't to much of the concern. Worried most about the high winds and storm surge. Looks like it wants to run along the border.

**drlemcor** · 11-24-2016, 11:08 AM

Originally Posted by kwah2249

Rain isn't to much of the concern. Worried most about the high winds and storm surge. Looks like it wants to run along the border.

If I were Otto, I'd run up the San Juan River into Lake Cocibolca rather than try to push over the mountainous region in northern Costa Rica. There's a natural funnel there.

Once over the lake, the hurricane might actually gain strength for the push over Rivas.

**Little Corn Tom** · 11-24-2016, 12:03 PM

I always hoped that one of those famed "square groupers" would wash up ....

Be careful what you wish for......

I was on a rented Gulfstream Trawler from Marathon, FL and motored into Honeymoon Harbor just south of Bimini in or around 1980.

On board were four of us....Me, my Wife, my friend, his wife and my girlfriend. Do the math.

Living life on the wild side then......

Well....anyway we dingy into shore and there is an infamous square grouper laying there on the beach.

My friend was adamant about smuggling it back to the US and I did not fight him too hard, but really did not want to do it.

Soooo...that night under cover of darkness, we rowed ashore and loaded that mother into the dingy and rowed back to the trawler. It was really kind of heavy....turns out it was wet. We stowed it in a big cabinet on the flybridge where it stayed for another week or so.

To say that I was a bit on edge the whole trip would be an understatement as he was doing coke and was armed at the time.

So...anyway the next exciting thing was getting into the USA with a boat load of pot. Came in at Islamorada without a hitch....still sweating the whole time though.

Later....back in Marathon ...under of cover of darkness, we unloaded our illicit goods. Pulled out the plastic covered pot and damn near crapped as it was literally smoking...on its own! Then I realized what my grandfather was talking about when he would caution us not to put away wet hay in the barn.

At this point, I donated my half of the bale to him and wiped my hands of the whole endevour.

He took it home and spread it out in the living room to dry with his mother screaming, his wife screaming and his kids asking all kinds of questions.

He later found religion (but kept the money) and regretted his actions. God Bless.

There is of course, more to this story ...maybe some other time.

I am almost sure that this story has something to do with Nicaragua.

**KeyWestPirate** · 11-24-2016, 12:36 PM

Honeymoon Harbor ..

With Shelley, her brother, his new girlfriend.
The only other boat was a derelict belonging to Nature Boy and Nature Girl, who were frolicking on the beach stark naked.
He had to pump the boat two or three times a day to keep it afloat.

Jeff and I spent quite a bit of time ogling them from the deck with binoculars, finally launched the dinghy and went out to meet them,, over strong objections from the women.
Turned out be very nice people, students from FIU I think.

It was hard to maintain eye contact with Nature girl,, and had it not been for the girls back on the boat, we would have probably stripped down and whooped it up a bit. Which is what they were doing.
Nothing sexual,,, (yeah, right),, just good fellowship enjoying "our" god given bodies.

Anyway,,, we moved on to Cat Key the next day, a private enclave of ricos and put up a couple of nights there, There was a dockside bar, and lo and behold,, the next day Nature Girl and Nature Boy sail up, fully clothed this time
(And Nature Girl looked good, maybe even better in clothes if that's possible).

This was too much for Jeff's GF Kathie who retreated to the boat and stayed there until, after a big argument,, left the boat at about 2AM and tried to find out who owned the small plane tied down, with the idea of getting a lift back homw.

Her Roll On went click,, click,, click down the dock,, and about two hour later we heard the same click,, click,,, click approaching the boat.
Things were pretty frosty the rest of the trip, but Jeff hooked a big Dolphin fish on the way back, put a big smile on his face which further infuriated Kathy.

Shelley is a little easier going,, and she and Nature Girl became pretty good friends over an afternoon of what ever we were drinking at the time.
Nature boy had movie star looks,, and was not quite as well hung as my burro, but he was a lucky man.

I had that deal going with customs where, you just call an 800 number and give them your pre-arranged clearance number, kind of like Global Traveler.
We were in Lauderdale at the time,, on the New River at Sailboat Bend.

They are supposed to say: "Proceed to your port" or "Proceed to the Government Dock"

We came back on a Sunday afternoon,, and no one answered the number.
Actually,, they never answered the number. I always called, at least they would have a record of me trying,,, maybe

Great memories, as you say,,, of Wilder Times . . .

**Little Corn Tom** · 11-24-2016, 12:58 PM

Made that trip (Bimini to Lighthouse Point) many, many times and never, ever cleared customs...what a joke.

**cookshow** · 11-24-2016, 01:07 PM

Looks like we dodged the Bullet, no damage on the Islands, no damage in or around Bluefields. Down around the Border looks like it will get Hit Hard but few live down there.

Curious to see how Ometepe fares. May still be a Hurricane when it hits there.