I finally went diving Monday. . . . . for about 10 minutes ! I went in at Villa Blanca beach next to the 'Dive Paradise' building (there's a pano picture about half way down the page). I got out about 10 yards from the beach and discovered my U/W camera had floated out of my buoyancy vest pocket. There was a small dive boat near by waiting for it's pasengers and I asked them to keep an eye out for it while I continued to search. I got out of my gear and walked the rock beach for almost an hour. I threw a nearly full bottle of water out into the lost area to check the current flow. I finally gave up and pedaled home. I liked my old, discontinued Olympus D-520 camera so well that I'd bought a factory refurbished spare on eBay last spring and that's the one I lost. I've still go my old banged up unit. It rained like hell all day Tuesday and on Wednesday I offered a $50 reward for finding the camera, but the folks at 'Papa Hogs'dive shop said not to hope for much. Papa, himself, said that the first thing his crew do with a found item is bring it to him to see if a customer lost it; if not, they try to sell it to him. No luck so far, as of Friday.
I pieced together a used video camera from 'National Camera Exchange' (Thanks Julie) and a refurbished underwater housing I got from the 'Light & Motion' service department (Thanks Jim). I guess I'll be learning amature video production sooner than I expected. This iBook from 'MicroCenter' has a video editing program bundled on it called iMovie that's supposed to be pretty easy to use. Maybe there's a way I can get some U/W still pictures out of it too, for this webpage.
I sent a preview of Week 09a to the Warrham owner, Gary, and he wrote back:
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Hi Denis
Here is the big cat at it's new mooring on a very windy day:
I saw you pedaling on your tri ciclo today.
Thanks for the email...your web page makes intersting
reading.
Read the exerpt about MR RIGHT recovering the yacht.
Hope we don't suffer the same fate...you'll notice we
are now moored out in front of the Aldora.....no more
comfort of the Puerto Abrigo.
Our trip started in St Marys, Georgia....following the
ICW and open sea to a place called STUART, and then
through the OKICHOBEE waterway and lake to Fort
Mayers.
For Hurrican Wilma we sheltered up river on the other side
of FRANKLIN Lock and then afterwards left the boat
for a month in a Marina in Fort Meyers.
Funny, in the book exerpt Buckley mentions 'beware of getting too
close to Cuba'. One evening a Cuban Patrol boat came
out from the shore to give us a brief glance and checked
on us for about half an hour, nothing was said or
done......they just watched us from a distance of about
1000m and then after 30 minutes left us to go on our way.
Gary
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I met a diving couple from Ithica NY this week and had a really good time running around together. They are off to Tulum today and I gave them and their gear a ride down to the ferry on the Triciclo. Here is a triking shot from earlier this week. Gonna miss those two, they are some fun.
I think this next car began life as a sedan and at one time was a very nicely done ElComino conversion. With the underwater motif paint job it must have spent a lot of time at the beach which explains the progressive deteriation. I suspect it was easier to replace the doors with that length of water pipe than to repair the rust.
This next look should help explain all the other rusty cars around here. That salt spray is year round and we only get it in the winter at home.
Some very musically challanged kids in the neighborhood with a garage band got a hold of some amplifiers the other night and put on an hour long outdoor show for their pals. I don't know if the cops stepped in or if they ran out of material. Bortola was not impressed.
Some of the links on my Speidel wrist watch band have lost their spring so I broke down and mined in. Pretty clever engineering but nothing lasts for ever. I removed some broken links and may be in the market for a whole new outfit soon.
I guess it's only fitting that I end a Warrham appreciation week with this sunset.
=)
Oh, yes. . . . . and Merry Christmas.
V
V
V
OK, I can't resist. . . . . Here is a great Christmas pix from a VW pal of mine.
(not his home)
(This page was posted Christmas Eve,'05)
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