This is just a somewhat accurate story of how I ended up here:
I was navigating the waters between Facebook's sailing groups when I came across a sailboat that seemed to be adrift. I made sure the VHF radio was on and on the emergency channel, and then I changed course to follow the mysterious ship. I used caution and sailed downtempo. "Social media is full of pirates", a friend told me once. "Better be safe than sorry", I thought. After all, I was alone in my sailboat armed only with a flare gun and an "unfollow" button.
The sea was a little confused, with waves coming from two directions, and there was some early morning fog. I quickly turned on the radar to make sure that I wasn't seeing a ghost ship, a mirage, and... there it was on the screen: a blip right where I was seeing a somewhat colorful head-sail over the horizon.
The AIS didn't show any ship info being transmitted from it. It seemed to be sailing at 2 knots on a broad reach pushed by the morning breeze and rolling happily. I was catching up quickly, despite my intention of just following it at a distance. I thought about reefing the main sail but decided instead to keep my approach in order to take a closer look.
What was this sailboat doing in the middle of the ocean heading pretty much nowhere? It could be sailing faster towards known cruising grounds but instead it seemed adrift. Was it crewed? Why was the anchor light on? I could see that light clearly shining on top of the mast, swinging with it. There was what looked like a pod dolphins swimming around it... Where did I leave my binocs?
Coming back up to the cockpit after finding my binoculars down on the chart table, I noticed that the ship had changed course and was now heading towards me. "Oh, boy", I thought. The radio was still silent so, after a minute of hesitation, I hailed them but got no response. Their anchor light was shining brighter and getting closer. I could see an anime character painted on the head-sail. "Nice artwork", I thought.
And just then, the whole scene became clear through the binocs. I could not believe my eyes! It looked like an after party! Picture this scene: there was a guy tied to a halyard and hanging from the top of the mast. He was alive, swinging and singing. He was moving his arms like an orchestra director. A second dude was pretending to be a sea drogue, or so it occurred to me. He was drinking a bottle of rum while resting inside a semi-deflated life-raft that was tied to the stern of the boat. Or was it the dinghy? Anyway...
When we were close enough, I maneuvered my sailboat to place it abeam of the other yacht. I could now see it's name printed clearly. @knOt was its name. Then I noticed a guy, who I later got to know as @meno, having a serious conversation in Spanish about crypto with the dolphins. His expression was serious, but he seemed to be as drunk as the other two guys. His girlfriend, who later I learned was the captain of the ship, was holding a sextant and trying to get a fix using the anchor light as reference. Of course, she was drunk too. @ankapolo was her name. She was talking to herself before she noticed me.
"Heyyyyy, sailor!", the lady shouted with what seemed to be a cute Russian accent. She almost fell over board when she started waving. All the while, believe it or not, a Lemur mascot was at the helm and it had a worried look on its face. It was wearing a harness. I would have too.
- "Are you all OK?", I shouted back at the lady, probably with a worried look on my face... just like the Lemur's.
- "We're fine!", she replied, with a big smile on hers. "Just too much vodka flooding the bilge and slowing us down... but we're working on it. The zebra broke the pump, so it is taking us a long time to drink it all. Would you care to join us and help us out with the vodka situation?", the Russian lady asked with what could have been the tone of voice of a mermaid.
"Never trust Russian women", a friend once told me. "They interfere with your erections", he warned. Or was it "directions"? In any case, I was curious.
- "Where are you headed?", I asked.
- "To the future", she replied with a wink. "To the Seas of Steem!".
That was the day I joined Steemit and the @knOt crew. :)
Hi Steemians. I am originally from Argentina and I am currenly landlocked in Miami. I look forward to go where the wind blows or the current takes me. The only thing that matters to me is that I do it downtempo so I can appreciate the journey.
I am an aspiring skipper of my own sailboat, which I hope to purchase sometime soon so I can someday cruise all over the world. I have a world cruising superpower: I speak fluently Spanish, French, English and Portuguese (in that order of proficiency... so please, excuse my English). I hope I can some day share those adventures with you.
I also hope you enjoyed the vodka-induced way of introducing myself.
Fair winds and a following sea... or happy steeming.
Hey there, welcome to Steemit!
Welcome to Steemit, @downtempo ! Hope you will have a lot of success and friendships formed here :D :D :D
LOL the imagery is worthy of an art contest ;)
I just want to state in my captain's log for the sake of accuracy, that even though @meno was Jack-Sparrowing on the ropes drunk, I did make sure he was hanging to offset the heel. I mean, the vodka is definitely clouding my judgement, but I still have a pretty good grasp on physics... however the evolutionary-confused zebra is not something i can explain using hard logic... end of annotation.
I'm so happy that you decided to finally sail the big blue of Steem! full sails forward! ❤️
Welcome to Steem @downtempo.
Do read A thumb rule for steemit minnows - 50:100:200:25 for starter tips.
Spend time reading Steem Blue Paper to know how Steem blockchain works and if you still have any queries ask them on our Ask me anything about Steemit post and we will try to answer that.
All the Best!!!
A warm welcome from me!
Wish u all the best,
Think wisely,before u post,it matters!
Be yourself,dont be ashamed about anything,show your true self,and everything will be as u want!
Good luck,and will see u around!
Cheers!
@sunnysmile
Hello sailor downtempo based in Miami harbour and welcome to Steemit. This Ocean is something different, I can tell you that! But.....
You are a Steemian now! And your first blog is online. Better late than never, and I'm sure one day we will say those were the very early days of Steemit, so congrats! Whats essential here is regular posting off good quality blogs.
So start writing ! Tell us about your life, passion, animals or your work.
That Will attract possible followers.
Do be carefull with your passwords, they are yours and yours only. Maybe visit @arcange too.
Look up the free Steemify app in the Appstore Thats helpfull too.
Hope this helps for now. Good luck, and Full Steem Ahead! Ship Ahoy sail away
Love from the Netherlands
Britt
AIS was not working as it did not have enough resources credits after HF20
:D Good one.
Btw welcome to steemit ! Happy to help you find your feet if you need anything
Welcome to Steem, @downtempo!
I am a bot coded by the SteemPlus team to help you make the best of your experience on the Steem Blockchain!
SteemPlus is a Chrome, Opera and Firefox extension that adds tons of features on Steemit.
It helps you see the real value of your account, who mentionned you, the value of the votes received, a filtered and sorted feed and much more! All of this in a fast and secure way.
To see why 3284 Steemians use SteemPlus, install our extension, read the documentation or the latest release : SteemPlus 3.0 : The SteemPlus Points are here!.
Congratulations @downtempo! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on the badge to view your Board of Honor.
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCongratulations @downtempo! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on the badge to view your Board of Honor.
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCongratulations @downtempo! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on the badge to view your Board of Honor.
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCongratulations @downtempo! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on the badge to view your Board of Honor.
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPDo not miss the last post from @steemitboard:
Congratulations @downtempo! You received a personal award!
You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:
Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!