Head Gear

A bit worse for the wear!!!

One thing that comes up while going from place to place in the land of maximal sunlight is what to put over your head and eyes. In general head gear is some really important stuff. If you have ever had a sunburn where you part your hair you can immediately identify the issue. It’s like having a lightening strike along some portion of your head; Yuk!

One of our guests this season, yes, Anna you have been identified, stopped every few feet in port to try on hats. She may or may not have needed multiple hats during her stay but I could see that she had an underlying logic if a bit misplaced… since she was going back to Portland in a little while. The contribution to the Barra de Navidad economy was quite nice and I will leave it at that. Anyway, I buy hats from time to time too. The problem for me is that they often become stand-ins, more for a head band than for the sun protection. A few years back I bought a bunch of kerchiefs to use as sweat bands but I go from job to job to town exploring to nights out for fun and, at times, the hat or whatever I have got on will stay with me for the entire time. In the sun, out of the sun, it’s all the same, the hat stays put. Can you say, “Hat hair”? While I might not admit it right, away my hair is thinning quite a bit, so a hat IS important to me. The problem with the constant use is that each hat gets disgustingly abused over a fairly short period of time. Yes, you can wash the hat but that seems to be a terminal experience for many pate covers. Therefore I stick with the disgusting look until it becomes absolutely necessary to clean up my act!

One hat I purchased (about five years ago) was at the beach in Santispac when I had to borrow US$10 from Len (I think I paid it back in beer) is still with me. It has taken on a warped, edgy look that suits this, “Dang, it’s hot and I need a lot of shade!” life I lead. It has seen better days and I can’t really wash it. Every so often it flies off of my head into the drink and when it dries it takes on some new look. I suspect it may not last too much longer. For now though it is my “best” hat.

Another hat that caught my fancy was from San Carlos just last November. We had gone out to Catch 22 Beach to show some guests the great beach and visit the Soggy Peso Bar. They had hats and since it was the beginning of the season I went ahead and got one. Looking at it today I think it must have gotten hot somewhere along the line these last few months! When I bought this fedora a guest, JJ, got one too… now, I don’t know for sure, but I suspect that the twin hat is not looking nearly as abused as mine.

Otherwise, I have been contemplating a Whole-Boat-Shade-System of some sort to lessen the need for the all-over look we take on sometimes.

The other item that gets a lot of use here is eye protection. Sandy is much better about this than I am since she tends to wear her shades out of habit. Last year I had an eye exam in La Paz and got some new prescription shades made. These are great because they have a dual purpose. They are sun glasses but since the temple/ear piece is thicker they block the wind as well. If you have ever suffered the effect of full wind across your eyeballs combined with maxi-sun blaring all day you know that it is potentially painful. Taking a clue from my last pair of sun glasses I had them created in the multi-focus mode as well. That is, I can read and see distance without taking them off to trade for whatever sort of lens is not on my face at the time. My corrected vision is WAY better than Sandy’s Lasik-corrected sight. I see things far sooner than I can get her to see the same thing. She has a collection of great sunshades with reading correction and I learned from this that I needed to get both in my own glasses. Much of the time I still stick with the non-sunglasses because once I go below to deal with electronics or an engine issue I find I can’t see for quite awhile. Just sticking to the regular glasses is not as good when we have had a long passage and I am trying to sight the potential anchorage. Anyway, it is a trade off that I have decided I should be favoring the shades more than I am. Keeping the regular glasses on the nav station or some such to use below when needed might be the solution!!

Maybe in a few years I will have all the solutions to these problems and more… or not!