I was published

this cartoon was in the paper last week. It really rubbed me the wrong way and before I could settle down, I had email the entire staff with the question "does this offend anyone?" and I emailed the editor.

My letter to the editor is below the cartoon. It was in today's paper. I'm a little embarassed about expressing my opinion on the matter, but I'm also kinda happy that I made the paper.
According to the price of our add, to sale the house, I figure that letter is worth about $500.

The funny thing about it is, is that I got the date wrong. It appeared in the paper on 2/22, not 2/20 :)

The thought of people in monroe county looking around for a 2/20 paper and it's not in there and then trying to find out which paper it was in, and all the calls the newspaper will get, makes me laugh.

BUT the article is a serious matter.

Slideshows!

I figured it out. Julie B had this on her blog which is linked. She probably understands how this thing works. I just guessed and got lucky, so there is no telling what this thing will show. I also found out people hack into blogs, if you see something tht doesn't look right please let me know.

Sail boat 3 of 3

This was in today's paper. I think I know what happened. I hope they find the guy.

I'm amazed at the difficulty I'm having at processing what happened. The boat is safe under our house and the jib is repairable and the boat is fine. I'm still missing the boom, and mainsail. I keep thinking about it floating away a couple of times and going to get it and trying to stick it back in the front hatch. I couldn't think of a way to tie it down. It finally hit me this morning what I should have done. So I feel a little better.

I can't stop thinking about what I should have done different. It kinda seems stupid, but I feel like I lost a friend. I'm amazed at how much I liked sailing that boat and without a sail I might as well have lost the whole boat.

I'm thankful I'm not lost at sea and can use what happened to make me a better sailor. I know I'll sail again, one of these days, and the arrogance and over-confidence I had that morning will not flare up again so easily. This event might save my life and everyone on board when I'm 52.

God is so good in the lessons he teaches us. It's tough that they almost always hurt, but if they didn't we would forget them as easy as we forget a Sunday morning lesson in church. I love that kind of God. The kind that knows the deal and is willing to do whatever it takes to teach his children how to think, live, serve, and worship for Him.

more on the capsize 2 of 3

this is the wind data collected from a buoy close to where I was. The buoy records every hour. At 8am when my boat capsized. it was blowing 40 mph.

If you didn't know I capsized my boat read the next blog.

I went to where my friend pulled it to shore and waded out to get the rest of my stuff and figure out the damage. The boat was in great shape, BUT! my jib was ripped in half and my main sail and main boom were gone. That's about $1500. Which means no more sailing unless God provides a way.

My Camera is still working, which is great! It was in a zip lock in a dry box which was in a dry bag which was underwater for about 5 hours. These are some of the pictures from that perfet trip that ended 15minutes too early.

This was the morning of the storm. The storm was behind me. This is when I had planned on leaving, but it was too great of a time t obe ruined my moving.
The storm is to the right of this picture. The treated plywood in the cockpit is what I slept on. I've already packed away my blanket.

Before I left I unhooked the main sail and laid it in the bottom of the boat, out of the way so I could work the jib easily.
This is me sailing out to Looe key. slow lazy sailing. hardly any wind. I actually thought that it would be funny if today's forecast missed by over estimating the wind and tommorrow would miss by underestimating the wind. Turns out that it wasn't as funny as I thought.





Me sailing to Looe key. At one point the wind became so small that I rolled up the jib set the main right in the middle and tied down the tiller in the middle and sat up front while a 2mph wind pushed my boat right on course, VERY relaxing.

UNBELIEVABLE 1 of 3

My sailboat capsized.

The story:
Saturday was going to be sunny with 8-10mph winds ENE. So I figured a great day to go out to Looe key about 5 miles out in the Atlantic. Around 2-3pm the wind would start blowing from the WNW, good wind to come in on and I was going to sleep on the boat just south of big pine at a place called the coral heads, about 4-5 miles west of the boat ramp. Clear all night, but around 8 am a storm would blow in from the west blowing at about 20 mph.

The plan was to wake up at sunrise, eat a grape fruit, run with the wind all the way home. Everything went perfect until about 8:00 am, rain started to fall. I was running with the wind with just my jib sail, the front small sail. The wind started blowing CRAZY hard, (later found out 37mph with larger gust) I've never seen it like that before. My sailboat was skipping across the water. It felt like I was on a wind surfer. It was excitingly scary. The boat was going faster than the waves and the bow was slamming into the waves in front of the boat and it was causing the bow to nose dive under water to the point it felt like the whole boat will flip over.

It was way too much action! So I popped the jib loose to take the force off the boat. The jib was flapping violently and the boat was starting to flip with all the wind blowing against the mast and the flapping sail. I FROZE at the unbelievable situation happening in front of my eyes. I leaned hard on the high side of the boat and it stabilized for a few seconds. The brain kicked back in and I tried to turn the boat into the wind. I pushed the tiller as hard as I could away from me and as the boat turned it also heeled over and CAPSIZED!

I had on 2 jackets and nylon paints, because it was about 60 degrees and the water was cold, so it made maneuvering around the boat very difficult. I was completely unprepared for a capsize. nothing was tied down and all the hatches were loose. Never dreamed of capsizing while running with the wind using just my small jib sail.

I tried to turn it back over, but the rope attached to the top of my mast was wrapped around the mast to keep it from flapping in the wind. I managed to secure a lot of stuff to the boat. and realized I was about a half mile from shore and I felt sure that nobody could see me. I had a radio in my dry box, but my dry box was now tied off in the cab and that was in the water getting slammed by waves.

Moment of decision! Wait on the boat and drift out to sea, or try to make it to shore swimming against the wind. I realized then that this is serious. The number of things that could go deadly wrong are increasing faster than my brain can think about them. I don't want my wife to be a widow and my boy never knowing me. I made the decision to swim for it. The thought of waiting to be rescued didn't appeal to the survivor side of me.

I grabbed my big dry bag and dry box, they both were floating really good. I attached them together and put on my life vest and started swimming. I got about 50 yards from the boat and thought about the current. PANIC! Is it going out or in? I'm right in the middle of the fastest current channel in the keys. 50/50 chance on not so easy swim or floating in the water until good or bad happens. I kept swimming and realized it must be going in because I'm a pretty good distance from the boat.

I don't know how long I swam, but I got to shore a little past 9 am. I walked to the Big Pine Fishing Lodge, along the coral beach, which was painful. I went into the office and asked if I could have some coffee. I didn't know what else to say. They asked me if I was in the sailboat that capsized. I said yes! They had called the coastguard, and they said they would send either a boat or a helicopter, but nobody had heard anything from them and I didn't see nothing. She called them back and another lady got me some coffee and some towels.

The rest is pretty much small talk and will come out later. A friend of mine that works for FWC found my boat and drug it about 40yards from shore after taking me home. I got to go assess the damage and try to save my camera and GPS.

For Sale

This is our ad in the paper. We are going to run it for 28 days and let God work His Wisdom and Power. I'm sure His Love for us would instantly provide a buyer to relieve the so- called "burden" of a HEAVY mortgage.

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But His Love Wisdom and Power always work together in everything that is every done. Just like everything is "for, through, and to" Jesus.
Romans 11:36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

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So with God's ultimate wisdom involved in the deal, we're patiently waiting in peace for what is to come. The tentative plan is to run this add for 28 days, then just run it on Sundays, 'maybe'; adds are very expensive. In May we will run a rent ad for a while and when school is over move to Raleigh or Moultrie to live with our parents if I still do not have an Engineering Job. We'll make payments on the house as long as we can, but the bottom line is that we have given it to God. So it's His.

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What a wonderful feeling to be able to go to the creator of all things and give Him your house/burden. We are His kids and we will be in the situation He has planned for us.

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I have a very "clear" peace about moving from here. Strange word to describe peace, but with a limited vocab, it fits. I love this place like no other for some reason. It's not paradise. It doesn't have great beaches, surfable waves, plenty of bait fish close to land, and the water isn't as clear as you would expect. But I love every inch. Even the dirty rocky parking lot of the Winn-Dixie, the only G-store. Not to forget we live in my dream house, sail boat, and motor boat. All 3 fit me to a T (whatever that means).

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It is simply time to leave, just like 2 years ago we felt like God funneled us down here to live on Big Pine. The amount of growing both of us have gone through is staggering and painful to think about. Scary to think about needing to go through training like this for the future plans God has for us.

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I'm looking forward to living close to CO's family. Her Stepfather died last Sunday from a bad liver. I think her mom will enjoy being around our BOY :). It will definitely help fill the void in her life from losing Tim.

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I hate it that my boy can't grow up down here in the water. Today I'm going to sail out to Looe key and do some diving. It would be awesome to do that with him, but God has other awesome things for us to do together. The world is a lot bigger than big pine.

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CO wants more pictures on this thing and so do I. so I'm going try to get some slide show program loaded up. She has a friend that is a blog MASTER. So I got to get on the ball.

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Remember that trying to understand God's Love, Wisdom, and Power in your situation will show you the kingdom of God where you are in life. I believe it is the absolute truth in every situation. I believe the realm of absolute truth is the kingdom of God.

John 1:17 - For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

John 14:6 - Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 18:37 - Then Pilate said to him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world - to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice."

John 16:13 -When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

John 8:32 - and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

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We are free from all the burdens that this fallen world creates. The world wants to pull us under the waves of the storm and wants us to surrender to the curse. But we are FREE!