See the bridge in the distance? That is the Skyway Bridge that we had to go under when we left St. Pete! Huge bridge.
Well, we left Venice this morning about 7:30 and went about 15 miles to Englewood. Captain Jeff found us a heck of a deal at a marina. Floating Stone followed. We are at Palm Harbor Marina. This is a grand re-opening celebration weekend. One dollar per foot, pig roast so we eat free and beer/wine for 75 cents each plus two bands. Beats the heck out of last night. The weather turned wet and cold so we headed down to the boat around 6:00. We had been eating and they were drinking since 1:00 so I think it was time anyway. We found that our generator battery has died so we need to get a replacement tomorrow. We were going to run it this morning but it wouldn't turn over. Just one more thing to fix. Laugh of the day: a small sail boat came into the marina. It's name...Passing Wind. Gotta love it! Only a sail boat could get by with that name.

Jan 28, 2010 Thursday

Sunrise at St. Pete. Maybe with this beautiful sunrise will come a day of good news.
Luther came down about 7:45 this morning and started polishing the fuel and trying to get
out gas tanks cleaned out. At 5:00, he was finally done. He charges 95 an hour but since
he had already quoted me five fifty, he stuck to that price. Captain purchased a fuel
additive to help keep this problem to a minimum. two hundred dollars for five gallon.
Those bugs had better die! Walked up town and had pizza and ate it at a little table
by the street. Then we walked to the grocery for a few provisions. Getting everything
ready to head out again in the morning. Here is hoping!

Jan 29, 2010 Friday

St. Pete this morning as we were leaving. Yes, leaving! The bay was smooth and decided to go outside the ICW today to Venice. Again with all the crab pots. I hope people who eat crabs appreciate what boaters go thru trying to dodge those silly markers that show where they are.

With the captain changing the fuel filter on one engine after we got under way, everything ran great. We made it to Venice around 1:30 and arrived at the free city dock for the night. Lots of dead fish here because of the cold weather they had. Doesn't smell very good either. We rode our bikes into town and then down to the Crowsnest Marina where some friends were docked for the night (2.00 ft per night). Had a few drinks (three of them had 15 beers at 4.00 each!) to help them celebrate their 44th wedding anniversary. She was lucky, she got a thousand dollar water pump in St. Pete for her present. Storms moving in tomorrow so heading out early.

1-27-10 Wednesday

This is a pic of a sponge boat with all it's finds in Tarpon Springs. Well, we headed out
today for Venice around 9:30 and was back at port (St. Petersburg Yacht Club) within
an hour. Waters were choppy but what turned us back was one engine wasn't running
again. We finally agree that we need to call someone to fix it. We have changed the
filters and cleared the fuel lines but the choppy water must have stirred up more bugs.
They are going to polish the fuel and try to get the tanks cleaned. Something about that darn diesel fuel has micro bugs in it and the feed on moisture. We need to add stuff that kills these little critters and keeps them from multiplying. They still are in the tank but less bugs. Hope they get this done tomorrow in time for us to get out of here. St. Pete
is really nice and lots of places to go but we have been here long enough. So, five hundred
for the cleaning and one fifty for the filters. Looks like we eat on the boat for awhile.

Jan 25, 2010 Monday

This is a pic of one of the many little cottages that you saw on the channel into Tarpon Springs. Not a hotel. Just a house!
We spent today as a maintenance day. Captain fix our electrical system that kept burning up our power cords, tightened up lots of loose bolts that came loose during our travels, fixed the upper helm steering that went out at the same time the one engine went out, changed the filter on the engines so they keep running when we take off and took a walk with the first mate to find parts. First mate did four loads of laundry, gave a hand to the captain when needed, took a 2 mile walk to CVS and played with Frizz. We both did real work in the morning. The kind that earns a dollar.
We had a great supper at Moon in Water, an English Pub with some friends. Last night we had supper at the SPYC. This yacht club has a beautiful round bar, three dinning rooms (one requires a jacket), a receptionist and more. Nice!!!! Bet their dues are more than $30.00 a year. If the water is calm tomorrow, we will head to Venice for a few days.

Jan 24, 2010 ?Sunday

This is a pic of the fog the day we went over to Clearwater. Even the poor birds didn't know
which way to go.
For those of you that know me well, you know that I am not crazy about hanging on a hook at night like we did last night. This explains why....we watched "Captain Ron" movie and the wind was blowing more and more and more. By ten, Captain decided he was going to bed. Not me! The boat rocked from side to side until 3:30 in the morning. It wasn't fun!
We knew we would be going to the yacht club next door for tonight because storms are heading our way. So, we pulled the hook around 9:30 this morning to head out about 1/2 mile around the pier and back into the marina. We got to the bay where the wind was blowing like last night, the waves were at least 3', one of our motors stopped and all of a sudden things went flying in the boat. The TV, both lamps, everything on the counter tops, papers and such in the pilot house and I got down to the salon in time to see Frizz running for shelter. It took all day to get her out of hiding. We will stay here until Tuesday when the winds die down. Well Captain, I don't think we're on the Ohio River any more!

January 23, 2010 Saturday

We traveled from Clearwater to St. Pete without a hitch. The weather was great, waters were good and we found a great little basin to drop a hook in for the night with other boats. This is a pic from our boat looking in to the city. Wonderful sunset. Even better if you were on the other side of those darn buildings.

Jan 11, 2010 Friday

Okay. Today makes up for all of the last few boring readings. Last night, all night, brought heavy rains and winds that made your hair stand on end. We are next to the draw bridge so the winds probably sounded worse than they were whipping thru the bridge.
We hung around until noon and started out for Clearwater. We got out a bit, still in the channel, and the fog was so thick that we turned around and found a marina that let us tie up for a little while until the fog lifted. At 1:30 we started out again for the 14-15 mile run. We got out to the ICWW and saw some sea fog but decided it shouldn't be to bad. Boy were we wrong. What should have been an easy run turned out to be a true test of our Captain and first mate working together. The sea fog was so bad...the whole trip that you could not see anything. We could not turn back because we were to far into it. You could probably see about 15 feet from the pilot house. That takes to you to front of the boat. I watched the charts, Captain watched the radar, I watched for the markers, other boats, crab pots and anything else that didn't belong. We were lucky to have smooth waters. Made it to Clearwater at 4:35. There were a few times we were not to sure about things but made it with flying colors. Right now, setting in the boat tied up at a local Yacht Club, I can see the dingy on the back and that is about it. One more story,one more day. Beer time! I have a very good Captain to get Frizz and I thru these interesting days.

Jan 21, 2010 Thursday

Captain Jeff fixed the steering problem, low on fluids! We decided to stay around for the day because of the weather. We went down to the Sponge Docks again and hadsupper, looked around alittle and looked at the sponge boats and all of their finds for the day. There was thunder and high winds while we were in town. Locals said we are to get a storm. Norm and Ina headed back to their RV around noon today and drove our car back to Tarpon Springs for us. We will leave it there until someone heads down here to move it on south for us or until we need it and we rent a car asnd head up there.

Jan 20, 2010

Jeff and Norm, along with three other boats, left Carrabella,Fla at 11:30 Tuesday morning to do the crossing. Both were excited about this adventure. Two of the boats went to Clear Water (one with engine trouble). Annie Lee and Floating Stone pulled into Tarpon Springs around 10:30 a.m. today. They said that when the sun went down, the waters were a little choppy but not for long. They all said they have never saw so many stars. Of course, the moon wasn't much help for them. They used auto pilot all the way across and at some point our steering went out again. They realized this when they took off the auto and tried to steer into the channel. Guess we will be staying in Tarpon Springs another night to get this fixed.
We are at Tarpon Springs Yacht Club and the price is free because we are members of the RSYC. That thirty dollars a year fee is getting us some great perks. Went out to dinner at a Greek restaurant near the Sponge Docks. Nice place with a bakery to die for.
Rain is moving in tomorrow afternoon but the temps were around 72 today and will stay the same for the next few days.

Jan 18, 2010 Monday

OMG!!!! There was this thing in the sky today, big, bright, warm..oh yeah, it's the sun! We left Port St.Joe today around 9:00 to head to Carrabelle. First we had to go up the "ditch" to get to the ICW. This is a man made water way that connects to the ICW. It was kind of like being back on the river again. The sun was warm in the pilot house as we headed south. There were 6 boats that headed out today to do the crossing Tuesday. Looks like the seas should be around 1-2 with winds 5-10 knots.
As we got closer to the channel to Carrabelle, at times we were escorted by the dolphins. One time there were three swimming in front of our boat and jumping together.
Had supper at the "best restaurant in town" tonight. No liquor was served, a can of coke was $1.50 and the menu had very little on it. We set by the heater to stay warm. Wow...and we think Richmond is a boring town. Frizz and I will be staying with Ina Carpenter in their RV tomorrow night while the two boys take Annie Lee across. The guys are really excited to be doing this. It's like watching two little boys getting ready for their first camping trip. It's kinda fun to listen to them.

Jan 17, 2010

The last few days we have had rain, rain and more rain. Winds have been up to 30 knots with gusts up to gale force and seas today were to be 6 to 8. Even here in the marina, we are getting beat around. We are planning on heading to Carrabelle tomorrow with a few other boats. We will take the "ditch" to the ICW and head to Apalachicola Bay and then on to Carrabelle. This will take about 6 hours and the seas are 2-3 in the Bay. It should be a little smoother on the ICW.
Norm and Ina will meet us there and the guys are planning on heading across late afternoon on Tuesday. Thunderstorms moving in by Wednesday night so they need to go Tuesday or it could be another week before the window is open again. They hope it is a 20 hour run and no longer to Tarpon Springs.
After we took Frizz a nice long walk this morning after the rain stopped, we found her on the bed and she was between the blankets sleeping. Even the cat is cold here in Florida. Now you know that its cold!
On a person note...we love you Dean and thrilled you are the tough guy we know you to be. Way to go!

Jan 15, 2010

Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a safe and wonderful new year. We changed out the batteries, got afew supplies on board, topped off the tanks, pumped out and headed out for Port St. Joe on Thursday. The waters were calm and today you can wear a tee shirt and light jacket. Shorts are still in the drawer. Rain will be moving in by tomorrow. Looks like the window for the crossing to Tarpon Springs will be Tuesday. Alot of boaters are planning on this day to leave. There is a shrimp boil tonight here at the marina. No Charge! Guess a lot of the locals donated food so us poor boaters since diesel went up. It's kinda nice to see all the stars again as you lay in bed at night.
Frizz (our cat) is back on board with us and is trying to help Jeff change the oil. White cat, black oil....just doesn't work!!! Will keep everyone up to date on the crossing even though the first mate isn't going to do it. Norm Carpenter will be stepping in to those shoes for 20 hours on that run. Dark waters, dark sky's, crab pots and their lines just don't set too well with the current first mate.