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American Spirit II - Day 205; Skype Interview with ABC Action News Tampa Ba & Party Time on Seaduced; Tuesday, July 29, 2014



Up 5:45 AM because we have scheduled a skype interview with ABC Action News for 7:00 AM Tuesday local Australian time, 5:00 PM Monday Tampa Bay Florida time. Andrew Doud, the ABC reporter who interviewed Joel and me on our boat before we left Tampa Bay, would be conducting the interview. Jeanine Miami, our skype technical expert and fellow crew member, not only set us up for the interview, she guided ABC news in setting up their own end of the skype interview. Without Jeanine this interview would not have happened. When I got up I read an email that indicated that the interview was moved back from 7:00 AM to 9:00 AM. No problem. During this morning 'preparation period' Janet in Tampa forwarded Joel's blog, which has a lot of pictures on it from our trip, to the reporter so he could post some of them during the interview. We were trying to do this ourselves but it was too slow of a process to get it done in time. Australian internet is as slow as some of the third world countries we've been to.

While perusing my emails this morning on my AOL internet account I noticed that American Express had sent me a 'fraud alert.' You know, when you're in a store buying something and your card doesn't work, you end up getting one of these emails. I'm not embarrassed when this happens anymore because after being in a grocery line in Breckenridge, Colorado in March of 2013 with $300 dollars of groceries, I was declined by this same credit card and almost by a second.

At 7:45 AM Joel and I headed up to the Clarion Hotel to attend a breakfast hosted by Charlie and Cathy from Celebrate. Paul from the World Cruising Club would be joining us. The buffet breakfast was very good, as was the conversation over breakfast. One of our purposes at the breakfast was for us to tell the WCC what a great job they're were doing with the rally. Seriously. Concierge sailing is the way to go if you're sailing around the world.

Jeanine arrived at the Clarion at about 8:30 AM and set up our computer for the skype interview just outside the dining room area where we were seated. Our objective was to have the marina and palm trees in our background as the interview was conducted. After getting everything set up, Jeanine joined us for breakfast.

At precisely 9:00 AM Jeanine connected us to ABC news in Tampa Bay. Prior to going 'live' with the interview, Joel and I talked with the reporter and got an idea of what areas he wanted to ask us questions about. We were able to conduct the interview at the Clarion Hotel because Paul from the WCC had arranged for us to have access to their Wifi there. Thank you Paul. The interview lasted about 45 minutes, during which time we only lost our connection once. During that period when Jeanine was connecting us back with the reporter, a patron at the hotel came up to me and wanted to engage in a protracted conversation about our voyage. Once we got back on the air this same patron sat near us and continued watching the interview unfold.

Once we were done I contacted Janet in Tampa and advised her that yes, ABC news was going to broadcast the interview Monday night at 11:00 PM. She had sent out emails to a selected zillion people that the interview was scheduled to air Monday night at 11:00 PM. However, due to the short notice many may have to watch the interview via the station web page instead of live.

The link to the skype interview is here.

After the interview, we headed back to the boat and took off the jib furling line, which was seriously frayed due to us sailing with the jib reefed a lot. Joel installed a block using some dynamo rope (harder than steel). We just needed to take the line to a chandlery and get the exact length cut.

Jeanine did our laundry from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM. The marina had about 10 washers and 6 dryers set up in a laundry room. The cost of one washer was $6.00 Australian dollars; and a dryer took about $5.00 to dry a load. The whole process cost about $36.00. Not too bad.

At 1:30 PM we watched the skype video from the boat. Took a while to download as the Wifi was slow.

The MacKay Bay Marina hosted a free BBQ dinner at 4:30 PM, serving sausages and hamburgers with buns; plus free beer and wine. A first class event well appreciated and well attended by rally crews. The BBQ, however,wasn't just for us but for all persons with boats in the marina.

At 6:10 PM we headed over for a visit with John and Jane from Seaduced, a UK boat that is leaving the rally at MacKay. Tim, Tracey, Brian and Lucy from Follie a Deux joined us. As a special treat and surprise to Lucy, Jane brought out a birthday cake during our visit. Lucy had turned sweet 13 the previous week. Brian, her brother and best fisherman in the fleet, cut the cake and passed out slices. He set a Guinness World record in the number of slices he could cut out of one small cake. Incredible. The party lasted until 10:00 PM or so, and resulted in the log writer (me) drinking way too much rum. There will be a price to pay in the morning.

Brian Fox

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