Three weeks ago I was in Orlando and went to a seafood restaurant that has been consistently rated in the Top 10 of America.  I had a piece of Chilean Sea Bass that indeed was delicious …

However, I might have to rethink my recommendations now when it comes to seafood restaurants.  There continues to be no doubt in my mind that the best fish chowder in North America is sold in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant down in Gloucester, MA.  I’ve been there half a dozen times and each time I go, the bread and the chowder just keeps getting better and better.  It’s not my fault that people coming through Hudson, NH only stay long enough to say "hello" and keep on moving.  Stay here for three or four days and we’ll swing down to the Causeway Restaurant.

This brings us the dilemma of fish.  A few weeks ago I would have said that the best piece of fish I had was down in Orlando, but now I’m not so sure.  You see, we stopped at Howard’s Pub on Ocracoke Island and I ordered the local grilled tuna sandwich.  Costing almost one tenth of what it cost in Orlando, it was certainly the best piece of tuna I’ve ever eaten, and might even have surpassed the sea bass for flavor.  Tough call on that one.  When you factor in the cost, it takes the award hands down.

This leads us now to beaches.  For 2007, the beach on Ocracoke Island won the award for the number one beach in America, and that included Florida, California and Hawaii.  Going there, I have to say I understand why.  It’s not going to get any awards for crowds or things to do, but amazing white sand for miles, combined with not a soul in sight, was truly amazing.  The weather hovered in the mid to high 70s, the water was in the 70-71 range, and no one around …

Top Ten Indeed.  Anyone want to join us next time?  Smile!  🙂

Today was the first full day of vacation down here on the Outer Banks.  Sunshine and heat …

While I love diving, there is something about diving wrecks that beats out reefs and coral.  As the Outer Banks are known as the "graveyard of the Atlantic", I was dying to dive one of the three German U-Boats that are five miles offshore.  It turned out that today was the only day I could get on a boat, and none of them were heading for the U-Boats.  Oh well, better some good wreck diving in warmer water, than none at all.  (I dove last week out of Gloucester, MA and the water temperature was 37 F.)

After the 90 minute ride out, we tied off on the mooring line, surrounded to the horizon by the deep blue.  The divemaster briefing on the wreck was really brief.  Essentially, we were told we were tied off on the boiler and were should probably dive the bow on the first dive and the stern on the second.  It was a big wreck, sitting around 100 feet, and it was going to take a while to cover the whole thing.  I was using my own gear, so I was number three of the twenty divers to splash topside.  I wanted to beat the crowd.  I was also diving solo (better diving solo than depending on a "vacation diver" – ask me some other time).  I dropped down to the bottom and was amazed at the size of the grouper, jacks and barracuda.  The jacks and grouper had to weigh in the 30 – 40 pound range and were LARGE.  There wasn’t the color of the Caribbean or the Red Sea, but the shear quantity of the fish far surpassed anything I’ve ever dove – including Thailand.  Heading up to the stern down on the sand, I rounded the stern … and came face-to-face (within four feet) of a six foot tiger shark.  WOO HOO!  I always wondered what my reaction would be "in the wild".  Just excitement.  He didn’t seem too interested in me, and I was only disappointed that I didn’t have my camera at the ready for the encounter as he swam off.  I covered about three quarters of the wreck on the dive and saw about half dozen more tigers no less than six feet in length, but not really closer than twenty feet.  The problem is when you’re 100 feet down, is that you need to be within 6 feet to get any kind of photo.  You can’t use zoom under water because the particles blur absolutely everything, and the water is DEEP blue.  I did about 45 minutes to deco, and then surfaced.

There were three mates aboard beside the captain and when they heard about the sharks, they jumped in to take a look and to do a little spearfishing.  Not only did they come back with some good size groupers, but one of the mates fought and landed a 32 lb jack during the surface interval.  I was surprised to see that they cleaned and gutted the fish right there – tossing the chum overboard.  One of the mates said that not only did he see the largest shark he had ever seen (somewhere around 9 feet), but that the bow section was full of them.

One thought crossed my mind: be the first one in on the second dive to get some pictures before the others scare them off.  After a 90 minute surface interval, I was the first one to splash and I headed to the bow.  They were right.  There were well over a dozen of them – all more than six feet and some that were absolute monsters. 

About one minute later, I suddenly realized that three of the silent gray sharks were slowly circling me as I was hovering over the bow section.  Yikes.  Did I say I wasn’t paranoid on the first dive?  I was freaked this time. Here I am … alone … following fish chum in the water.  Are they still thinking, "Food!"  Don’t turn your back on them.  Don’t let them get behind you.  I picked the largest of them and slowly turned with him, while dropping below their 10 foot circle and slowly finning for the mooring.  I was able to keep about two feet below them while they followed in widening circles.  Can you say "RELIEF" when I picked out the second diver (also going solo) heading my way about 40 feet away?  I don’t know if it was him or not, but the sharks left to join the others back in the bow.  Paranoia?  I don’t know.  But I will admit to being very freaked out.

This time I headed up with the other diver and spent the next 30 minutes or so taking pictures.  At one point, I counted as many as 18 tiger sharks swimming in and out of the bow section.  Thoughts of exploring the wreck were gone.  This was probably the most amazing dive of my life.  You need to dive it to believe it.  Smile.  🙂

Heidi and I have been wanting a playset for the boys for more than a year.  The trouble was, that everytime I looked at the options and catalogues, I balked at the absolutely ridiculous prices and procrastinated.

The solution?  Design and build your own.

Things started well.  I headed to Home Depot with a plan in my head.  Did you know that you can fit anything up to a 4×8 sheet of plywood into a Honda Odyssey (I didn’t actually use plywood on this project – that was another time), as well as any lumber up to 10 feet in length?  Who needs a truck.  I was rolling …

Then things began to slide downhill.  You see, my plans changed.  They didn’t just change once, they changed a half a dozen times – usually in the middle of the night.  That’s the trouble with plans in the head.  I’m pretty sure I tore the entire thing down to nothing and re-built from the ground up twice, plus I did a 50% re-build at least twice more.  I have this thing with over-engineering.  The good news is that I didn’t use any additional lumber and I was thankful that I started from the beginning with screws.  There are no nails in the entire thing.  The three halfpipes in our backyard taught me that.  Well guess what?  I should now be able to sleep through the night tonight.  Who needs someone else to provide the plans and some hardware?

The best part of all?  It cost less than one third what I would have paid at the store.  Smile.  🙂