Western Florida

12/4/07

On Sunday 12/1 we went to St. Petersburg. We did part of the trip in the Gulf and cut in at North Channel to do the rest of it in the inter-coastal waterway. It was a nice easy trip for the four of us.  We were able to go under some 65 foot bridges. It is very disconcerting doing that because every time you approach one there is that same feeling of apprehension. We need 59 feet so we are very near the top. As you get near the bridge you know logically that you will clear, but your eyes tell you that you will hit it and things will all come crashing down. Luckily, logic wins. We were put in a brand new marina. It looked like the cement docks were just poured. They have only been open 2 weeks and will be selling slips to the people in condos on the bay.  We have complete use of the hotel across the street with a spa, pool, laundry, etc. Plus we are about the only people in the marina. They are still installing the lights.

On Monday 12/2 the four of us went to the Salvador Dali museum. I have to say he must have been one weird dude. Yikes. We took a docent tour which was a must because you need someone knowledgeable to explain it all to you. It was very fun and enlightening. Our favorite painting was “Three Women Imitating the Movements of a Sailing Boat”. We drove our friends to their house and had a nice dinner together. Thanks so much to both of them for their help and company.

On Tuesday we had a quiet day other than the wild life around the boat. Since we were the only boat there I think they were keeping us company. Many species of the food chain were surrounding us. First we saw thousands of minnows. Then the mullet showed up in schools. I came out of the boat to go check the laundry and almost ran smack into a great blue heron who was fishing on the dock. We both were startled but he stayed and fished for a while. Then a great egret showed up. Because there were so many fish around pretty soon a flock of seagulls and another flock of crows were with us. Finally the heron got so friendly he jumped right on the boat. It looked to us like he was going to get his legs tangled up in the lifelines but he was very graceful in getting out of that.

The other different thing about this marina is that the docks are so high. Rolf had to attach a line to a cleat on the opposite side of the dock. To get off we held on to the line and rappelled up the side of the dock. Douglas would have liked that one because he always liked to rappel.

12/5/07

On to Bradenton Beach Marina. We passed under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. No worries about that one. Bradenton Beach is a small town. It looks like a lot of Florida did years ago. Not quite so built up with condos and cement. There is a small strip of land with beach shops selling trinkets and some casual restaurants. Although today there was a shooting on the next island.  

12/9/07

On to the big city of Sarasota on 12/6 where we will hook up with daughter Jenny and husband Randall. We stayed at Marina Jacks. It is the fanciest marina we have seen which usually means “has the best showers”. The first day here a guy robbed a bank just down the street. The bank put exploding red dye in the money bag. It exploded leaving the robber covered. Then the robber walked over to the nearest beauty parlor to get a manicure to get the red dye off. The cops found a big red stain on the sidewalk and followed the trail to the parlor and caught him there. There is quite a lot of interesting things going on here in Florida but not the smartest criminals.

At the marina we had great seats for the Sarasota Boat Parade and also attended a “Singing Christmas Tree” concert at the Baptist Church. We were also able to take Jenny, Randall and friends sailing on Sarasota Bay. We are really getting in the spirit of the season with all these Christmas activities. It is especially fun doing them with family and friends.

We have two more animal stories from Sarasota. One is that we have been hearing this funny crackling sound on the hull here and in St. Pete’s. One person said it was a microbe, another said it was fish. Rolf was a little worried that something foreign was eating the bottom paint. Finally, here, they said it was shrimp. They are clicking their shells or something. I guess we didn’t know shrimp could be that loud but that sounds like the most reasonable explanation we have heard so far. Secondly, the place has hundreds of these black birds. They look like small crows. The love to sit way up on top of the mast and on the spreaders. The main trouble is that their diet consists of berries. Besides the usual bird droppings (theirs are purple) they are dropping these small round seeds every where. We are not sure what end the seeds are coming from but it is impressive either way. So that is my animal story for today.

I know you all don’t want to know but I just have to say it is in the 80’s and the weather man on TV was complaining about the heat.

12/13/07

From Monday 12/10 to Thursday 12/13 we spent in Venice. It is nice staying in a place a few days. Got haircuts, did a little shopping, went to a Christmas party with our friends, mailed cards and just got in the spirit of the season.

12/14

Anchored at Gasparilla Island. We have been there before and it is a favorite place to anchor. Cutest little town with a lot of nice restaurants and shops. We are just barely able to get in the channel. We also need to anchor with the stern tied to the trees on shore. Very much like at Horseshoe Island at Peninsula Park for those of you who have done that. It is sort of a fire drill because Rolf has to get out in the dinghy and row out to the trees. It was windy and there was a current so once again we got our daily exercise. Also this Anhinga was perched in the tree right behind us. I realize I am going on about the wildlife but you do tend to notice it when you live outside and there is a lot of it here.

12/15

We had to head out of the island at 6:30 in the morning to catch the high tide going through the channel. We still touched bottom although it was a touch and go. Our keel will be sanded down to a nub by the time we are done with this trip. The wind was picking up but we were powering down the inter-costal so it was not much of an issue. Our plan was to go to Tween Waters. It is a nice resort marina with a pool. We have also been there several times before and liked it very much. They said there was enough water in their channel for us. However we got there as the tide was going down and of course ran aground in a high spot. We could not get off ourselves so had to call Tow Boat US. Luckily we bought the tow insurance from them. It took more than a half hour for them to get to us and of course the water level kept going down. When we bumped we were in about 4ft 8in of water and our keel draws 5 feet. As the tide kept going out, it went down to 4 feet. So we were dug a foot into the bottom. The tow guy came but it took him a good hour of pulling to get us out of the muck. He put a lot of wear and tear on his engine. Finally he got us out and we were able to get into Tween Waters. The wind continued to build but we made it to the slip ok and stayed overnight. Since we were worried about getting back out we needed to leave at high tide for sure the next morning. It was around 6 am. So there we stood on the deck waiting for the sun to peek through. We left but still needed a flashlight to see the buoys. We got out ok with water to spare and were on our way to Moss Marine in Fort Myers Beach. This is the marina our boat will stay at till be come back from our Christmas Trip. It was a very blustery day to go but still nice and warm. We made the trip through the ICW with no problems.

12/16/07

It is still a very blustery day. Our goal for today is to find a place to watch the packer game. We found a sports bar down town and planned to have lunch there. They had the game on one of the smaller TV’s and the Cleveland Browns on the big one with the sound. I guess we were in a Browns Bar. Some other Packer fans gave us their table and said they were going to a Packer bar. We ate our pizza and watched the first half there. Then we decided to try to find the Packer bar. It was within walking distance but over the big 60 foot bridge on the other side of town. We hiked over there and sure enough, 8 flat screens, all with the Packer game and no others. It is called Parrot Key at Salty Sam’s Marina in case anyone is ever in this town and needs to see a game. We wormed our way into a table with a bunch of people. One guy was from Detroit and was a sailor. So of course my first question was “Do you know Doug Wake?” Turns out he did! His best friend’s son married Brian Wake’s sister. Quite a small world for sure.

I have to tell one family story about Fort Myers Beach. About 20 years ago when the four kids were teenagers we drove down here and charted a Grand Banks. We stayed at Moss Marine for a few days and hung out at the beach. One night we went out for dinner at the Matanzas Inn which is just down the street from where we are now. Carolyn was trying to be sophisticated and thank us for the trip. She got up in the restaurant and said in her best outside voice something to the effect of “And I want to thank you that we’re all in heat”. This has become a legend in our family.

12/17/07Starting today we are spending our time getting ready to head home for the holidays. We go home on Wednesday and will be in Wisconsin till Jan 3. Then we fly to Park City, Utah to go skiing for a week. We will return on January 10 to continue this trek around the country. So we just want to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of our family and friends who are following our trip. I am including pictures of our crèche (velcroed to the grab rail) and our “tree”. Bye for now.

Merry Christmas

1/10/08

We’re back on the Loop! It is good to be here. We had our white Christmas in Wisconsin. As usual there were parties with family and friends galore.

Having the grandchildren around for the holidays is the best! Here they are after opening gifts. They are watching a movie so we can eat. The picture includes everyone except Ben who was happily playing in the other room with his Leapster. With a lot of kids this age the rule is, if one is playing quietly we try not to disturb him.

Several days later we went to Carolyn’s house in Milwaukee. This was the scene on her street.

On January 3 we headed out to Utah to go skiing. They are having a snowy year this year. They got at least 2 feet of snow just when we were there. We go skiing, eat a lot and try to get to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir if we can. I would not like to miss a year skiing and being in the mountains for a while. Rolf was willing to miss it this year and get back here a.s.a.p., but he put up with me and off we went. Nothing got broken and we are ready to get back to sailing.

1/18/08

We have been back a week. We are settling back in and staying at Moss Marine. There were no problems with the boat while we were gone.

We are neighbors with Frank and Deb Hurst on Another Compromise. They also were our neighbors in Green Turtle Bay. We spent the week with them mostly going out to eat and catching up. We also went to the Thomas Edison and Henry Ford Summer Home Museum. The grounds have the biggest banyan tree in the US. I also did not know Thomas Edison invented tattooing. Henry Ford worked for Edison when he was young and they were best friends and spent a lot of time together. We forgot our camera so I have no great pictures of that. We also headed, by car, to Punta Gorda to visit Linda and Ray on Summertime. We ended up in the middle of a Rudy Guilliani speech. He sounds very dynamic in person.

1/21/08

We left for Naples in heavy fog on the on the 18^th. The radar helps a lot but it is still nerve wracking. Visibility was about 100 feet but it did clear some as we entered Naples Bay. We tied up at the City Dock where they have a 4 day rule. You are not allowed to stay longer than 4 days. The dockmaster said it was an EPA rule which makes no sense. No other marina in Florida had that kind of restriction. In spite of that silly local rule, Naples is still an exciting place with many outstanding restaurants, shops & walks.

Then on the 20^th we went to the Packer bar (Stevie Tomato’s) to watch the game on Rolf’s birthday. Would have been better if they won but it was a good birthday anyway.

1/28/08

On our way out of Naples we found a channel just inside the cut and decided to anchor there overnight.

The channel is long and lined with smaller channels and gajillion dollar homes. Very pretty to look at but we always wonder where everyone is. All you ever see is workmen sawing and pounding. I think if we had a home like that a lot of people would be visiting us often. Anyway, it was not one of those secluded anchorages with just you and the bugs. But it was kind of fun to sit and watch the tour boats go by. Whenever I see a tour boat I always feel a little sorry for the people on them. I have been on a few in my life and always looked out and wished I could be one of those people on the regular boats. So now I feel like the lucky one. But, I digress…

We had a nice sail to Marco Island. It is very developed. The last developed area till we get to the keys. The marina is great. We have a short walk to town and eateries, the Yacht Club is in the parking lot and it accepts guests, the pool is very warm. So life is good here. We also met up with friend Carole Claussen who is here visiting and her friend Gert Rupnik. We had a nice dinner with them and visited their condo. On Sunday they took us shopping and we had a great Sunday brunch at the Yacht Club. Very civilized with mimosas and everything. It is always fun to meet someone from home and get the hometown news.

1/29/08

Today we are leaving civilization for the Shark River anchorage. It is in the everglades so we will be on the lookout for animal life. Everyone talks about the mosquitos and to look out for them at dusk. We will also of course watch for alligators and snakes. We got in around 3 and got the anchor set. There was quite a current with a wind in the opposite direction. That seems to be our downfall condition on this boat.  The current pushes us in one direction and the wind the other. So the winds pushed us up and over and around the anchor line. It gets wrapped around the keel and we are not happy at this point. The only other time it happened was when Jere was with us and it took everything the 3 of us had to get it fixed. Well Rolf and I worked a long time with a lot of pulling, tugging and winching we finally were free. So we studied what we could do to prevent it since you do not want to get in that situation much. Rolf finally figured out how to prevent it so hopefully won’t have to deal with it again.

So now we will explain this for the boaters. We are anchored to the current, not the wind. You would expect that the current would be stronger than the wind and the boat would ride to it. Not this boat however. The stern is very wide and we have a big dodger that collects the wind from aft. So while the wind is blowing, the boat rides right up over the anchor line. So Rolf figured that in order to stop that the simplest way would be to lock the wheel over to one side. This would cause enough current drag to prevent the boat from easily moving forward. So voila! It worked and hopefully we will not have to deal with this again.

OK back to the anchorage. The major sighting was a sea turtle floating by. We got settled in and decided to eat a little early to be able to get below before the bugs came out. We are sitting there happily eating and talking about how smart we are when, zap, the no-see-ums attacked. Funny, we didn’t see-um coming. So down we went. Would have rather seen alligators and snakes, but alas, none were around. We headed out the next morning for the keys and all the craziness there.