No Boat Travel
8+ miles by bicycle
To take advantage of the buy-early discount, we bought our First Night badges over a week ago. Tonight Clark's cousin Dawn and a friend of hers planned to join us at the town's New Year's celebration.
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| St. Pete First Night badge with flashing lights! |
With several hours to wait for their arrival, we took advantage of the time gap to take care of some chores. Our friends, Jeanne and Kenny, had offered to drive us to Ace Hardware this morning before heading off to Dunedin, but since the store is just 3.5 miles away, we declined so as not to interfere with their plans for the day. Since Ace Hardware on 28th Ave N was the furthest away, we headed there first then stopped at Walgreen's on 9th Ave N and made our last stop the Publix on 1st Ave S.
We intended to buy only a new stopper for the galley sink, but we found a couple of other items to purchase at Ace. Walgreen's carries a particular Yardley soap that is hard to find, so we went there instead of the nearby CVS. Since we plan on leaving this town later this week, the final stop at Publix was meant to replenish our food supplies for the trip to Marathon - our next major stop. Eight miles by bike and a full backpack later, we arrived back at the boat for a late lunch. After lunch we went our separate ways - me to the laundry room and Clark to help a fellow boater work on his bilge pump.
Dawn arrived in St. Petersburg at 5:30 and we set off to meet her friend, Cindy, who awaited us at the Moon Under Water restaurant. Clark and I ate there recently and enjoyed the food. Dawn had not eaten there in a long time, so it seemed like a reasonable choice. Clark and I got boring English fare while Dawn and Cindy got curry dishes. Cindy likes her food hot and asked for extra hot sauce. She dumped the full serving of hot sauce on her already spicy curry dish. A big mistake! As she ate it she said she was sweating and in pain as the food was much hotter than she anticipated. Still, she finished the dish!
First Night in St. Pete offered a variety of activities / performances. As done in other cities, the events were spread around such that the program had to be studied in advance and a swift pace needed to be set to travel from one site to the next to catch the shows. We found the night to be entertaining, but the talent nowhere near the level we enjoyed when we attended First Night here in St. Pete two years ago.
We saw about 5 minutes of a Jazz ensemble at the Methodist Church because we arrived at the very end of their show. For me 5 minutes was plenty. Afterwards, Cindy and Dawn wanted to watch the "One City Chorus" perform since they knew one of the singers, so we separated with plans to meet up at 8:00 for the fireworks.
Clark and I walked back towards the water stopping at the Plaza Courtyard to watch a few minutes of "Mudd River Bottom Waders" -- a bluegrass / string band. They were just okay and Clark told everyone we saw afterwards that the group warranted only a minimal time spent listening. From the Plaza Courtyard, we walked to the South Straub Park with many activities in progress - many of them, however, appeared to be designed for children.
We did not bother with most of the activities (like the tatoo parlor), but I did want to see "The Bucket Show" where a person drummed on empty, upturned buckets. Sadly, he had some talent but did the same thing over and over and over again until it was b-o-r-i-n-g! He kept saying he was waiting for a crowd to begin his "real" show, but as people appeared he went about getting them to scream hello and such to try to increase his crowd. His behavior drove us away, so his crowd lessened by at least two.
As we walked around, we found the "Nerdy Noah Juggler" who had a lively and engaged crowd around him. We watched from afar for a bit of his show and then headed on towards the scene of the planned fireworks at Spa Beach Park. St. Petersburg has two sets of fireworks for First Night - one at 8:00 for those with children that need to get home before midnight and one at midnight for the die-hards.
We found Dawn and Cindy after the fireworks as well as Dawn's housemate and her date. Dawn had texted with Clark and revealed their location as "... in front of the stage" where Damon Fowler, a local guitarist, was performing. He had taken a break during the fireworks show and had yet to return to the stage. We took advantage of his break to find our friends and then retire away from the stage so as not to get blasted when the music recommenced.
Dawn and Cindy seemed to be "rocking out" to his music, but alas it was not "my cup of tea". I did recognize one country song I like but so jazzed up as to be almost unrecognizable as one of my favorites. Fortunately, Dawn and Cindy decided that they could hear the music just as well walking around as they could standing there, so we continued our stroll around the area. We watched the "Glice Winter Skating" for a while. Glice is fake ice - more like wax. The skaters had on real ice skates and had to shuffle across the glice to move. It appeared to be more like work than fun. Occasionally we did see a person take a tumble just like on real ice.
Dawn likes walking labyrinths and one was set up in North Straub Park. Candles set on sand in paper bags outlined the "walls" of the labyrinth. Personally I found it very tedious and pointless. Besides my 8-mile bike ride earlier, we had already walked several miles before we came to the labyrinth. Perhaps if my legs were fresh instead of worn out, I would have found it more amusing. A table set up at the middle of the labyrinth allowed anyone who had conquered the labyrinth to visit the wishing totems and release new year's resolutions into a fire burning there. Clark and I did not participate in the ceremony, but Dawn and Cindy came away well pleased.
By the time we left the labyrinth, I hoped to find a place to rest my weary feet. Alas, that was not to be. Since time was getting on, the only activity we had not visited that was still in full swing was "Little Latin Quarter" dance lessons. Seriously?! Okay! When we arrived they were just finishing a demonstration on Salsa and had moved on to teaching Bachata (something I had never heard of). Fortunately, I got to sit on the steps in front of the Fine Arts Museum while they completed the salsa portion, but when they started the Bachata lesson, Clark wanted to participate and I knew he wanted me to join in the fun.
I have to say the instructor was good. He repeated the instructions so many times anyone could follow them. With "one-two-three-tap left, one-two-three-tap right, 1-2-3-tap front, 1-2-3-tap back, repeat", it resembled a line dance the way he taught us. The activity was sponsored by the Simone Salsa School who obviously hoped to pick up a bunch more students after tonight's free lessons. Despite my aching feet, I enjoyed the lesson.
With the time approaching 10:00 and still two more hours until midnight, we decided to head back to the boat. We all needed some fresh, cool water to drink after the dancing exercise. Clark gave Cindy a boat tour and then brought out the pie to share around. Cindy tried some of Dawn's slice of fruit pie, and I thought she would gag on it. With her facial expressions and antics, she made it quite clear that she had an aversion to pie but thought perhaps just this once she might like it. Clark made me laugh as even while Cindy was choking out her politest "get it away from me" response to the pie, Clark continued to ask if she wanted a slice. He loves pie so much I guess he just can't fathom someone not wanting any!
Neither Dawn not Cindy were willing to hang on until midnight to see fireworks bring in the new year. My FitBit showed I had walked over 14,000 steps. Combined with my earlier-in-the-day bike ride, I decided I had had more than enough exercise. Clark walked Cindy and Dawn back to their cars while I sat down on the boat to rest. They must have chatted for a while before Clark let them leave because it was 11:30 before he returned to the boat.
Clark loves boats and Clark loves fireworks, so what could be better than sitting on our boat watching fireworks? He brought two chairs up to the upper helm so we could sit out and watch the show. I really wanted to crawl into bed, but collapsing into a chair was almost as good. We enjoyed the show. After the show ended several boats in the marina (ours included) honked their horns to show their appreciation of the fireworks display. What a racket!
Monday 1/1/2018
No boat travel.
Weather last night for First Night could not have been more pleasant. What a difference overnight can make! We knew a cold front with rain was coming in, so it was not a surprise, but a very unpleasant reality, to see the new year in with a cold, wet, and windy day. With nowhere to go, it was the perfect stay-inside day.
Tuesday 1/2/2018
No boat travel.
I always wonder when I get up in the morning what the tide will be like - will the boat be high with respect to the dock, low compared to the dock, pushed into the dock with wind, pushed away? It can be quite challenging depending on the boat's position compared to the fixed dock. I dressed quickly today with intent to walk up to the facilities to use the head. I got as far as the cockpit, looked at the wall of cement in front of me, turned around, went back in the boat and used the head on board.
The dock was close to the boat but way too high - my legs are long but just not long enough to scale the required distance! I thought about trying to crawl off the boat onto the cement dock. However, I decided that if I did manage to get off somehow, I doubted I would be able to get back on. I am not an acrobat, so I said forget it! The winds must have pushed the waters out. I have never seen the boat this far below the fixed dock.
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| Fixed Dock - too high to climb off boat! Doesn't look as bad in the picture but with having to step over the water onto a dock well over the height of the gunwale of the boat, I said "no way!" Forget using the door in the picture - then the dock would have been level with the top of my head! |
I was not the only one distressed by the dock situation. Clark's friend, Ed with the sailboat here, could not get on his boat because it was too far below the dock. Also, one of the sailboats with tight lines ended up dangling from those lines because they were too tight with the extra-low tide. We met that boat owner's father. The owner, vacationing in Hawaii, received a call from Dan, a local sail boater, to advise her of the situation. She in turn called her father for help. Clark to the rescue! He helped the non-boater father retie the lines to give slack for tide change. Hopefully it will not be dangling again tomorrow morning.
Although we did grocery shopping only two day's ago, I found I had forgotten to buy a couple of key items I really wanted before leaving port. Who knows when I will find a food store so convenient as this one! Clark had some cards to put in the mail, so we decided to walk to the post office first and then on to Publix to buy my missing items. By 11:30 when we left, the water had risen enough for me to step off the boat from the top of the gunwale (still no door option).
The drizzly rain from yesterday stopped, but the cold is still here. We woke to 44 degrees with an expected high of 53. To folks up north looking at sub-zero temps I know 44 sounds good, but the wind is nasty. We bundled up in heavy coats for the walk uptown. We even got a little (very little) glimpse of sun just as we returned to the docks.
After lunch I decided to bring the blog up to date. As 4:00 approached, the boat still had not reached a level where I could step off the boat using the door. At least by then the top of the gunwale was even with the cement dock.
Clark found a diver who said he would come out to inspect the bottom of the boat for growth and barnacles. He said he would be here between 2:00 and 3:00, so when he had not appeared by 3:30 I figured he would come another day. Just before 4:00 he called to say he was on his way having been delayed by other work earlier. I do not envy divers in this cold weather. Wet suit or no, the very last thing I would want to do would be go in the water today. The diver said he was from Michigan, so no big deal! After the inspection, Clark got the good news that the bottom is in good shape with barely a barnacle. Apparently the weekly boat trips to run water under the keel is the trick to keeping away the growth.
While Clark worked with the diver, I pulled out a needle and thread and patched a pair of work pants for Clark. I tried machine sewing to repair them recently and it did not hold up to wear, so this time I tried hand sewing and a patch. The fabric has worn thin, so I am not optimistic for it to be a long-term solution.
After the diver left, Clark decided it was time he filled the water tank in preparation for our imminent departure. While I have been in the warm boat continuing the blog, he has been tolerating the cold temps until the job is done. It takes a long time to fill the two 185-gallon water tanks on this boat. We bought a water monitor that connects to the hose line and have been using water directly from the docks while here in St. Pete. This is a new experience as in the past we have always operated off the water tanks.
Given this arrangement we really have not had to fill our water tanks while in dock here. Our first attempt at the in-line water monitor was based on time. That had two issues - 1) it got stuck around 90 minutes so it defeated the safety purpose of having a monitor and 2) it seemed to always run out of time just when we wanted to use it. I can't count the number of times I had soapy hands and no water to rinse. When we biked to Ace recently, Clark bought a meter that monitors the water by gallons instead of time. This method of monitoring water appears to be working better.
Weather across the country seems to be the hot news everywhere including here in Florida. When we leave here on Thursday, we will need to be bundled up to face the cold air out on the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico. From here our next stop is back to Venice to visit friends before heading on the the Florida Keys.
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