Boot Key Harbor

We have been enjoying Boot Key Harbor. It is nice to be around so many people doing the same thing as us. We had met a really nice couple in Panama City a few months ago. They are just six boats down from us, so we stopped and had a chat yesterday. I am sure we will get together some more while we are here.

I have been working on repainting the bikes we bought in Dunedin. They look pretty good now. I did mine on Tuesday and Sharon's yesterday (don't want to overdo it). While I was out riding my bike yesterday looking for a new tire for Sharon's I ran across a Chinese restaurant. I have been craving Chinese for awhile, so we are going to eat there today. I know it probably sounds crazy to most people, but it is so nice not to have a car. Eric Stone has a song that says in it "I don't have a car, but I've never felt so free". That is really true. It is good for us to walk and ride.

I was sitting in the cockpit last night grilling some brauts and took some pics of the harbor, it's a pretty neat place.

Merry Christmas

It's Christmas, I must admit it really doesn't feel like Christmas, 81 degrees and no family around. We went to a couple of pot luck dinners in the last couple of days, a Christmas parade in Dunedin and looked at the Christmas decorations everywhere we go, but all in all it is still good.

We are in Boot Key Harbor on a city mooring. I think we will stay here for a little while and do a little exploring of the keys. When we sailed in, the water was the most beautiful color you can imagine. We had anchored off Cape Sable on Friday night. We left at 3 AM Saturday morning and headed for Marathon Key. We arrived here at Boot Key Harbor about noon. It was kind of weird taking off in the night. There was no moon at all, but the sky was perfectly clear. You could see every star in the sky.

You gotta love the color of water here.

Coming up to Boot Key Harbor



Notice Rosie, our dingy, is all the way in; it was a little work to get out.



Morgan on her mooring.

We finally saw our first Manatee.

At one of the pot lucks.

Everglades City, FL

We are in Everglades City tonight. We are docked at the Rod & Gun Club. Part of the movie "Gone Fishing" was filmed here. We came in to charge batteries and get hot showers. It is a very small town. No laundry, no bank, mostly just restaurants and lodging.

Today was Sharon's birthday, I am not saying how old she is, because that would not be nice, but it is somewhere between 50 and 52. I took her to a seafood restaurant here in town and she got all you could eat shrimp and salad. I was a little embarrassed when the waitress came over to her and said "Hon, don't you think you have had enough". Not really, I ate more than her.

I fixed the spreader and tuned the rigging today. It was a temporary fix, but it will be fine till we get to Marathon and I can find a welder.
No pics tonight, the Internet here is really slooooowwww.

Looks like our next weather window will be Friday.

Sometimes you just gotta laugh

We left Marco Island this morning expecting 10 - 15 knots of wind from the northeast and smooth seas. I never would have guessed how our day was going to go. We had our 15 knots out of the northeast, but we had 2 foot seas from the northwest left over from last nights northwest wind. Two foot seas are fine, but that was just the average wave. We would get 3 - 4 foot seas on a regular basis. Then as we started getting close to Gulivan Bay we started getting waves coming from the east. Now we have large waves from the northeast with other waves coming from the east  making for a confused sea state. Once we got south to Gulivan Bay we needed to turn east to make our way to Indian Key Pass. We turned into the smaller easterly waves, so now we have the bigger waves on our beam (side), not much fun.

We were sailing along on an easterly course bashing through wave after wave (the wind was now right out of the east. I heard a loud crash and saw our port spreader land on the deck and the upper shroud go limp. I thought well the mast is coming down. Well it's going to come down. Well why isn't coming down? Oh, the lower shroud is still hanging on! I quickly dropped the main, then furled the genny. The mast was hanging on. I jumped up on deck and grabbed a spare halyard and ran it over to the side and secured it as a temporary shroud. We were still bashing through the waves. Morgan's bow would lift and then drop into the next trough and the spray would reach all the way back to the back of the cockpit. I took the spinnaker halyard and ran it over to the side and secured it. Now we have two halyards as a temporary shroud. So now I am feeling pretty comfortable that the mast is going to be okay.

We had 10 1/2 miles to go to get to the protection of Indian Key Pass and calm waters. It took us about 3 hours to make it. After awhile I just stood in the front of the cockpit with my hands holding onto the hatch, letting the spray hit me full on (you couldn't escape it anyway) and just laughing out loud. Sometimes in adversity you just have to laugh because you can't do anything else anyway.

We are anchored in a quiet safe place tonight. Tomorrow we will start calling around to find out where the closest place is to make repairs.

Missing spreader. Two halyards as a temporary shroud.

The spreader laying on the deck.

St. James FL

We anchored in St. James for a couple of nights. I took our new motor to a shop for some warranty work. I was not happy with the shop or Tohatsu either one. Oh well, we are on our way again anyway. St. James was a pretty neat little town. There are canals everywhere. We took Rosie in through the canals to take the motor in and to go shopping. We ate at a little restaurant named Woody's. It was named after the owner's golden retriever so you know it had to be good.

We are anchored at Marco Island tonight. We will leave in the morning to go to Ten Thousand Islands. We will be there a night or two. We won't be staying too long as we want to be at Marathon Key for Christmas.

Lunch at Woody's

My kind of resaurant.

One of the canals in St. James

Useppa Island

We are anchored by Useppa island tonight. We had a good trip the last couple of days. We took the ICW from Sarasota Bay to here. On Tuesday we had to go through one swinging and eight bascule bridges. It was a little tedious following all the markers and having to wait for the bridges to open. Some bridges open upon request, some every twenty minutes, others every thirty minutes. Get there at the wrong time and you have a long wait fighting wind and current to stay still. Sometimes there is enough room to drop the hook and wait, others not. It was very pretty along the way. Lots and lots of beautiful houses. I didn't know there were that many rich folk in Florida.

As we were going down the ICW I was standing in the cockpit steering and I got a little splash of water. That is not unusual so I did not think much about it, then it happened again. This time I got a little wet. I stated looking around thinking the waves aren't that big, how am I getting splashed. Just then a dolphin jumped right beside me and splashed me again. Sharon grabbed the camera and started trying to take his picture. They are actually hard to photograph. You never know when they will come up, and toady's digital cameras always seem to have a delay when you push the button. She did manage to get a couple though.

Tell me she's not having fun!

Bascule bridge.

Nice real estate along the ICW

Our friend who came to play.

Traveling along the ICW

Sights along the ICW

Man made part of the ICW

Now that is what I call a screened in porch.

Sarasota

We are anchored in Sarasota Bay tonight. It was a good trip on the outside today. If we had followed the ICW we would have had to go through 6 bridges and stayed in a narrow channel the whole way known as the "Narrows". Instead we sailed on the outside and had a wonderful day. Florida is getting prettier by the day. The water temp has rose as well. Now up to 69. We are still trying to decide where to go and by what route.

Sailing along the outside of the Narrows.

Sailing along the outside of the Narrows.



Along the ICW near Sarasota Bay.



Clearwater Florida

We are in Clearwater  tonight. We anchored in Clearwater harbor. We took Rosie ashore and had a nice dinner. We walked down to the beach. We had a good time. We will leave in the morning, go through the Clearwater pass and run the outside down to Tampa Bay and then into Sarasota Bay.

Can you tell it is Christmas in Florida?

Sharon enjoying the Clearwater pier.

Clearwater pier.

Lots of boats anhored here.

Just Sitting Here

I was just sittng here tonight in shorts grilling some brauts and thinking well it's just about Christmas. The weather doesn't feel like Christmas! Not where I'm from anyway.  So I decided I need to watch a Christmas movie, but not just A Christmas movie, but the best Christmas movie ever made. A Christmas Story. So that is what we are doing.

Here is one of my favorite scenes.

http://youtu.be/tJSmmbmJCLw

I got the solar panel frame reinforced today. We are just about ready to take off agin. Laundry and shopping tomorrow and then head out on Sunday.

30 knots

We had an interesting night last night. There were 30 knot winds out of the north last night as a cold front came in. We were anchored in 6 feet of water. The waves in such shallow water were steep and close together. Morgan was like a bronking bull most of the night. The new anchor held well. We did not drag an inch, in fact it was a job to pull it up this morning. I saw that the weather was turning bad and secured everything the best I could. We did have one casualty though. The solar panel support started to give way. I went out and secured it with a couple of lines and it held. It did move enough that it broke the wiring. I rode my bike to West Marine and got some more stainless steel tubing to reinforce the frame. I started on that today and to rewire it. I will finish it tomorrow. Hopefully we will be on our way the day after next.

Nice ride today

We really like it here in Dunedin. We took the bikes and rode to the grocery store, a three mile round trip. We then rode to the West Marine in Clearwater, an eleven mile trip. We are getting our exercise while here. The bike trail they have here runs for miles. We took it almost to West Marine before having to get on regular roads. It is a nice trail with lots of business's along the way. This is fast becoming one of our favorite stops.

Sailing Florida's Nature Coast

What A Day

We had a great day today. We walked into town. There is a walking and biking trail through the middle of town. It used to be a railroad and they took it out and made a nice bike and walking area. We were walking along thinking how great it would be to rent a couple of bikes. I asked at a local shop if there was a rental place around, they didn't know. We kept walking and saw two girls trying to ride and not doing a very good job at it. One almost ran me over. I told Sharon there has to be a rental place, they couldn't own bikes. We kept walking and a couple of blocks later there it was. We went in to ask about renting. We told him we were on a boat and he said "hey I have two fold up bikes that I took in on trade. Have a look at them and make me an offer." We looked at them. They looked decent enough (if they look too good someone will steal them). Sharon and I discussed what to offer him. New they start at around $279. I thought $75, she thought $100. When he came back  I said how about $75 apiece. He said well I was hoping to get about $150 apiece, but if you take them as is I will accept it. We are now the proud owners of two fold up bikes. It was fun riding today. Tomorrow we will go exploring.

As we were sitting in the cockpit today a bunch of little sailboats, probably 20 of them came by us with kids at the helm. I don't know if it was a class or a race, but it was fun to see them.

Our new to us bikes

Kids in sailboats

Dunedin Florida

We are in Dunedin Florida now. We got here this morning and found a great anchorage near the municipal marina. It is a fantastic place. They had a Christmas festival tonight with a boat parade. The boats were all decorated with lights and went from one marina down the ICW about four miles then came back and entered the municipal marina. We took lots of pics but most did not turn out. They had a band playing Christmas music, sold hot dogs and roasted marshmallows. The mayor gave a speech. Santa came up on stage at the end and lit the big Christmas tree. We felt like we were in a Christmas movie. I was having flashbacks of the movie Groundhog Day. It was the same kind of atmosphere as the scene in the square when they pulled the groundhog out.

The trip from Steinhatche was long but went pretty well. The weather was not too far off what was predicted. We had a few hours where it was rough and then a few hours of almost dead calm. Still all in all it was a very good trip. Day one 59 miles in ten hours, day two 64 miles in ten and a half hours. We arrived and got anchored before dark both days. Both nights were very rough anchorages though. I didn't hardly sleep at all. Tonight will be different. We are in an excellent place with good wind and wave protection. Last night the wind was predicted to be coming out of the east so we anchored near the east bank, but instead in stayed out of the north and Morgans bow (and my bed) kept bouncing up and down about a foot every 30 seconds or so.

Part of the boat parade

City Christmas tree.

Sailing from Steinhatchee.

Sailing from Steinhatchee.

Anchored at Dunedin.

Tarpon Springs

We made it to Tarpon Springs just before dark and anchored. It was a good but long day at the helm. We watched a beautiful sunset on the water and had pork chops for supper. I will post more tomorrow, I am to tired to think right now.

Mike

Cedar Key

We left Steinhatchee this morning at about 6:30 AM There was frost on the dock. Crazy. We are now anchored on the south side of Cedar Key. We were going to anchor on the north side, but the winds are not quite what was predicted so we took shelter on the south side and are very comfortable.

We went 59 miles today in ten hours, arrived here and anchored before dark. We had a good run today. I even got to fly the spinnaker for a couple of hours. The next leg will get us to Tarpon Springs. It is 64 miles from where we are now.

Anchored at Cedar Key

Sunset at Cedar Key

Sharon trying to stay warm in FLORIDA