Blewtooth

Well, I just got back from my first night on the town in a long time. As usual lately, it was solo, just like everything else in my life but because I got so bored early on I didn't drink too much and left early enough to write in this blog.
Now, dear readers, you will be treated to the distillation of my musings while sitting on a bar stool at the standard Irish Pub. Not much going on there. A wedding party came in and they were all way too young for me even to try to converse with so I spent the next hour gazing at the girls faces. They were all beautiful. Ok, that's it for the bar. All too young, etc.. . And besides that, there were only a few girls in a bar full of guys. I think women actually become physically more beautiful when they know they have ten guys just ogling them for doing nothing more than walking into the room.
Ahem.... well, I was thinking about buoys there tonight as well. Not BOYS but buoys. Yes. .
NOAA has a great web site, It gives wave height and frequency and wind speed from many buoys scattered about the oceans of the world. I know this doesn't sound too interesting but it can be when you imagine what's really going on out there while we go about our everyday business. During hurricane Dennis I noticed that the Sombrero Key buoy recorded winds of over 70 knots. No weatherman said anything about Sombrero Key. All of the other buoys and towers around Florida Bay recorded no wind even close to that and yet Sombrero is on the far east side of the lower keys. Dennis past well to the west of Key West. Here is the URL: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=SMKF1
Then, there is the buoys and towers in the North Atlantic and North Sea. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that one of them recorded a 49 foot wave. Station 64045 - K5 Buoy http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=64045 Imagine it! If you look at the picture of one of the platforms there in the North Sea it shows a huge sea: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=63104 I shudder to think of being in that one.
But sometimes it seems like the entire world is at peace out there. Some nights I can find no buoy showing more than 6' seas and winds almost calm all over the world.

Station SKMG1 - U.S. Navy Tower M2R6
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=SKMG1
Has huge wind generators and a solar panel and helo pad but there is nobody living on it; all automated. I sailed by it on my way to Savannah and have a video of it but have not completed the upload to the Google download site. It should be live soon. Please pay no attention to my unkempt appearance when you do see it.

Why do I talk about these two subjects in the same post? Splended desolation, I guess.