Florida: Dunedin by car

Day 164
No Boat Travel

We made it to Dunedin today, and the town certainly did not disappoint us! The town is truly lovely, and it seemed like every nook and cranny of the town was decorated for the Christmas season.

One of Several Dunedin Street Signs

Even the statues at the old train station / historic museum were in festive attire.

Dunedin History Museum
(Old Dunedin Train Station)

"All Aboard!"
Note stop watch in left hand!

Running for the train ... 

We had it on good authority (Nuclear Fishin') that we had to visit the museum, so we paid the modest entrance fee of $3 each for a look around. I found myself in Christmas past as I moved from one toy display to another and relived my youth! I saw a Barbie doll, a Raggedy Ann, a Radio Flyer red wagon, jacks, a metal spinning top, Mr. Potato Head (the one that required a real potato), and so many games - Stratego, Sorry, Scrabble, Candy Land, Tiddledy Winks (which I always called Tiddly Winks), Cootie Bug, Operation and many more that I played during childhood.

Interesting Display of Historic Toy Information
Gives years toys were introduced as well as
History of Frisbee

Barbie, Yogi, TinkerToy, Play-doh, Battleship, Yo-Yo, and
Pez Dispensers (to name a few)

I even saw a set of blocks like ones I played with and had Clark take a picture. My youth revolved around dolls and blocks. I still have my 14 Barbie-type dolls and a handful of my blocks!

After the museum we continued our stroll through town and saw a number of interesting sights starting with an historic oak tree. A plaque under this tree explains its presence as follows:

  In the 1920s a group of women from the Dunedin Women's Club perched themselves on a limb of this tree to save the 150-year-old oak tree that was destined for a sawmill. It's a beautiful tree almost 100 years later.

Tree with Plaque entitled "Out on a Limb"

Running near the tree and through the shopping district, the Pinellas bike trail has an interesting road sign for the town.

Bike Trail through Town of Dunedin

 As I mentioned earlier, Santa and Christmas spirit appeared everywhere. Notice anything unusual about this painted mural on the side of a realty?

Santa's sleigh and a Christmas Tree adorn a Dunedin Town Mural

Dunedin is a sister city to Stirling, Scotland, and the Celtic heritage is strong in town. During our explorations, I found a Celtic store with British food treats for sale - HP Sauce, Branston Pickle, and Cadbury chocolates to name a few. I restrained myself from buying one of each for my boat supplies.

I started getting very hungry while reading the menus for some of the local restaurants including those serving British pub food. As I dreamed of shepard's pie, we crossed the street and ate the boring sandwiches we brought along with us while sitting on a park bench in the Firehouse Gallery Garden.

Statuary in Firehouse Gallery Garden

Further along the Main Street we saw a, for us, unusual sight - an egret crossing the street at egret pace. At least one car had to wait while the egret completed his crossing of the road.

Egret Crossing Main Street in Dunedin, FL

Before leaving town we walked down to the Municipal Marina. On the way there we passed a monument displaying a stone for every state. Of course I looked for the New Jersey stone, which I finally found hiding in the back, as well as Idaho, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.

50 States Monument plus District of Columbia

After our walk to the docks, we stopped by a handmade ice cream shop for a sweet treat. Clark found "Christmas Cookie" flavored ice cream and picked that as one of his two scoops. Yum! On our way back to the car I spotted a couple trying to elope out the fire escape ...

Metal Sculpture of Eloping Couple
Note the phone box in the corner of the photo - it stands as a monument in town.

We decided that on our way back to Tarpon Springs we would stop by Marker 1 Marina to see which looper boats might be at dock there. We found a number of looper vessels we recognized including Corkscrew, Elizabear, and Island Office. However, we did not find any loopers to go with them as everyone has headed home for the holidays.

We did find Larry on Lila Blue with whom we crossed the Gulf. He invited us on board to see his new cigar box guitar. It only has 3 strings. Clark played with it for a bit trying to work it out, but it is totally unlike his regular 6-string version.

As long as we were visiting Marker 1 Marina, we decided to drive along the causeway for a while that ends at Honeymoon Island, a place that put Dunedin on the world map when it opened in 1938 as a fantasy Honeymoon destination. We learned at the history museum that the dream came to an end abruptly when, in 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

Road to Honeymoon Island

We stopped at the beach briefly. The breeze was heavenly, and
the smell in the air of a saltwater beach reminded me of the Jersey Shore.

Along the road to Honeymoon Island

We got back to the boat around 4:00, and Clark ran off immediately to play Christmas Carols on his guitar with Susan on violin. I heard both Susan and John singing along to the music. I could not hear Clark. They were all up on our fly bridge this time. Meanwhile, I was down in the master state room working on a small craft project. His guitar and my sewing project kept us both busy until dinner time.

With the length of this blog entry, maybe you can guess what kept me busy after dinner!

Florida: Tarpon Springs 4

Day 163

The days slip away way too quickly. Clark spent this morning making business calls (personal business), and before we knew it, the clock said 12:00 and time for lunch. We ate and then headed out to do some local chores - post office, extend car rental for another few days, etc. We had planned on a trip to Dunedin today to do some sightseeing, but by the time we completed all the miscellaneous tasks, the clock read 2:30. I suggested we might still go since the town is less than a half hour away from Tarpon Springs, but Clark said he wanted to get back to the boat to continue investigating the battery problem on Nuclear Fishin' with John by 4:00.

So, since we only had a little over an hour to explore, Clark suggested we defer Dunedin and go visit Fred Howard park instead. He had heard that the park was well worth a visit. The road out to the park was quite twisty turny and ended on a bit of land sitting out in the Gulf.

Entrance to Fred Howard Park

View from Parking Lot at Park

We decided not to park the car and walk around. Instead we opted for the drive-by tour. Clark tried to hand me the camera, but I refused to accept it. I convinced him to pull over to the side of the road and switch seats so I could drive and he could shoot. The pictures above show a sampling of his photos taken from within the car.

It is a very good thing that I am normally the navigator and Clark is the driver. I asked him to help me find my way out of the park and back to the boat, and he directed me so very well that we found ourselves at the end of a road that had no outlet. Whoops! I turned around and started to retrace our steps while he looked for the correct directions on Google maps. Finally I pulled the car over to the side of the road, pulled up the marina on Google Maps, and got the app to give me directions.

As I pulled back onto the road, Clark was still trying to find the marina on his Google maps app. Even after the app started to give us directions on my phone, Clark was still working on getting directions on his. He finally managed to find the marina on the map and manually gave me directions. For the most part his directions agreed with the apps directions, but I found it rather bizarre that I had directions coming now from two sources. The good news is that I found the marina!

We clocked the distance from the park to the marina at almost exactly 6 miles. We are thinking about riding our bikes out there because it looked like it would be a lovely ride on a nice day. Since our bikes will easily fit in the car, we can either leave from the marina or another starting point of our choice. Knowing Clark, I expect the starting point, if we opt to go, will be from the boat.

True to his word, Clark dove right into John's boat almost as soon as we got back. That left me to either entertain myself on the boat or not. I chose the "not" option and went for a walk.

My first destination was the restroom, so I headed there and checked out the turtle pond on the way. Lo and behold - two turtles today - one clearly visible on the cement and the other swimming nearby.

Two turtles today -
The one in the water only has his head clearly visible.

From there, I decided to go explore the Sponge Docks area of Tarpon Springs - an easy, nearby destination. Tarpon Springs, and especially the sponge docks, has a large Greek population. The technique of sponge diving was introduced into Tarpon Springs in 1905 and large numbers of sponge divers came to the area from Greece.

Sponges remain an important source of income in Tarpon Springs as well as fishing and handmade soaps. As I strolled the streets I found and perused one novelty shop after another selling knickknacks, sponges, soaps, candles, and all the regular merchandise found in gift shops, i.e. souvenirs and t-shirts. I found myself quite happy that my Christmas shopping is done as I wanted none of what I saw for myself, the boat, or as a gift.

In the middle of the shop-surrounded courtyard near the sponge docks, I found an historic boat - the Apalachicola later renamed the Aegean Isles. This boat has an interesting history of use for sponge fishing as well as a rescue boat during World War II.

Historic Sponge Fishing Boat
Tarpon Springs, FL

As I wandered around the area, I came upon Hellas Greek Bakery, so I strolled in there for a look around. I took note that besides all sorts of Greek baked goods, they also sell hard ice cream. Again I walked out without buying anything. I had in mind to bring Clark back to get ice cream later as they have two of his favorite flavors available - Cookies and Cream as well as Pralines and Cream.

When I got back to the boat about an hour after I left, Clark was still deep inside Nuclear Fishin'. As expected, he had not even missed me while I was gone. The weather was cool and breezy outside and warm and stuffy in the boat, so I decided to take my Kindle up top to take advantage of the breeze. I got so comfortable up there I nearly dosed off.

Around 7:00 or so I heard Susan ask John and Clark how much longer they planned on working on the boat because it was past time for her to start cooking dinner. That gave me the hint that I should get myself busy preparing our dinner as well. When I had dinner ready and still no Clark available to help with the eating part, I served myself and figured he could use the microwave if necessary when he finally decided to come back. Lucky for him though he came back right after I sat down to start eating, so his food was still hot.

By the time we finished dinner, it was too late for an ice cream run, so no treat for Clark tonight. He said that after crawling around the bottom of John's boat, he needed a shower more than he needed anything else. I guess it was a hot and sticky job.

Florida: Tarpon Springs 3

Day 162
No Travel

When I made my morning stroll to the "head", I passed by / under a ton of boats (literally tons of boats). They are racked and stacked in multiple buildings providing many opportunities to find them overhead on any given walk around the marina. It is more than a bit unnerving to look up, up, up and see several stories of boats and boat engines directly overhead.

Sample boat racks.
Note the buildings in the back with row upon row of boats.

 In the photo above, the boat on the top, next to the blue-hulled boat in the racks, seems to be the favorite perch of an osprey. It begs the question - is there a nest in that boat or one near it? Who would know with it way up there?

Around the corner from the towers of boats is a small turtle pond. This is Turtle Cove Marina after all, so of course they have a turtle pool. I found one looking up at me as I walked by to visit the "head".

Turtle in pool at Turtle Cove Marina -
his head is out of water and the rest of him is submerged in the center of the photo.

I am definitely getting the hang of this "boat time" environment as evidenced by the late start for today's activities. I lingered over breakfast and spent a good deal of time reading a romance novel. Eventually I motivated myself to head over to the marina clubhouse for a shower. Clark had a miscellaneous set of boat chores to take care of, so he was well occupied and would not be missing me for a while.

Somehow an abundance of laundry appeared in my laundry bag. I don't know how it got there. I remember I did laundry in Carabelle before we crossed over the Gulf. I did laundry just before we left New Jersey, and we only spent one night in a hotel coming back. How then did I end up with two bags full of it?? To multitask, I packed up my laundry in my wheeled tote bag and dragged it with me to the clubhouse to wash while I showered. I also threw my Kindle in my bag to continue reading while the clothes dried. I have to say that if the laundry needs to be done, waiting for it poolside cannot be beat as a venue!

Sitting pool side with Kindle in hand waiting for my laundry to dry.

After I got back to the boat, we had lunch and then decided that we should do our kayak ride before it got too late in the day. Climbing into and out of a kayak is easy as pie for Clark and an ordeal for me. My leg muscles are not very strong. This, in combination with my lack of balance, makes it tricky to negotiate. I told Clark I would go out in the kayak if he could find a place where I had some room to climb into it.

Clark took me at my word and brought the kayaks down and floated them over to a nearby dock. Nice, but the kayak was almost two foot below the edge of the dock. I can proudly say that I managed to get myself in without making a spectacle of myself. The fact that I had a potential audience for a disaster did not help much. A woman and her collection of children were fishing on the dock next to the kayak. I am sure they would have found a big splash an interesting addition to their day's activity.

Catfish on the hook
caught by a boy with his mother and siblings at the dock

The sad thing about my awkwardness with the kayak is that I do truly enjoy going out in my kayak. Today was no exception. The weather was perfect and the scenery was interesting. We saw pelicans everywhere including in the tops of trees. I thought that rather peculiar given their webbed feet but the view of the fish must be ideal from up there.

In addition to pelicans, we saw a number of other birds including a flock of what I believe were hawks. I have seen gatherings of hawks in New Jersey with three maybe four birds. I could not begin to count the number flying overhead today! It was pretty awesome. The photo below does not do justice to the scene.

Sky filled with birds (hawks?) majestically gliding through the sky.

It seems that Clark had a very specific destination in mind for our outing on the kayaks - Spring Bayou where apparently manatees gather in the winter season. My first hint that we might see some was the warning signs.

Manatee Zone

Protection for the manatees

I got so wrapped up in the scenery and the weather that I totally forgot that it is December. As I rounded a curve in the stream I burst out laughing. Clark looked at me strangely and asked me what was so funny. I told him that I could see the Christmas tree in the park around the bend and just found it crazy that I was out in a kayak in shorts paddling towards it.

It's hard to see but between the two men seen on shore,
in among the other trees, is in fact a Christmas tree.

Close up view of tree and Christmas "train" in park 

As we neared the park someone called to us from shore that several manatees and pups were in the "pool" in the center, so we continued around the bend to see for ourselves. Clark got himself up close and personal with one of them and took a video. I think they were eyeing each other out there! I decided to hang close to the edge of the pool to avoid any accidental bumps if they came up in an inconvenient spot like directly under the kayak.

After the excitement of boating with the manatees, we made our way back to the boat. On the way, we passed an impressive mermaid statue and the abandoned "A Glorious Church" building which was built in 1926 by the First Babtist Church.

Mermaid Statue at Spring Bayou

"A Glorious Church" in Tarpon Springs, FL

When we got back to the floating dock to disembark from our kayaks, I just stared at that dock almost two-foot higher than the level of my kayak and wondered - how am I going to manage this?! Of course Clark sprinted out of his kayak with no effort whatsoever. I tried to lift myself up to disembark and found the kayak wobbling wildly, so I sat back down with the idea that I might get help from Clark.

Instead of coming round to offer assistance Clark struck up a conversation with the mother of the children fishing at the dock. Now anyone that knows Clark knows he can talk and talk and talk. Given that trait, I decided I would just sit back on relax while I waited for the conversation to run its course. Eventually, after what felt like an extraordinarily long time, the mother and her two children said their farewells.

With that distraction missing, Clark turned to me to ask if I required assistance whereby I told him that I wasn't sure how to get myself out of my kayak. He talked me through it. Bring your feet back, stand up but keep your weight low, sit on dock ... When I was sitting on the dock, he said, "There, wasn't that easy?" My answer, "No!" But hey, I got it done without taking a saltwater bath, so again I was proud of my accomplishment!

After our little bought of exercise, Clark and I were both tired and hungry. I cooked on the boat for dinner tonight. While I was making dinner, I whipped up one of Clark's favorite desserts - applesauce cake. As I cooked, and then afterwards as we ate, we watched the old favorite movie "The Sound of Music". I never tire of the beautiful music and the touching story of the Van Trapp family.

We have yet to see more of this town than two Greek restaurants and a nearby Publix food store. We heard about the Sponge Docks from many folks including the woman who was fishing with her children. Tomorrow we have a few tasks that require use of the rental car, but perhaps we will find some sightseeing time in there somewhere to at least get ourselves to the Sponge Docks for a look see.

Florida: Tarpon Springs 2

Day 161
No Travel

What a shock to wake up to a breezy 45 degrees after the sticky, humid 80 degrees yesterday. I understand the warm weather is coming back so no worries! For some unknown reason I did not feel like doing much today. Other than getting to the store for some fresh vegetables, I cannot truly say I accomplished much of anything.

When we took our morning stroll up to the head, we stopped by the marina office and picked up a package that contained our paper mail forwarded from home. That kept Clark occupied most of the morning sorting through bills and reviewing finances as a result of bills. He spent time this afternoon working with John on Nuclear Fishin' to diagnose some battery-related questions that John had. I did not really pay attention to the details, so I am not exactly sure what they were working on.

Earlier in the day, Susan from Nuclear Fishin' suggested that a bunch of us go out for dinner tonight to Mama's Greek restaurant that has a belly dancer and Greek music for the night's entertainment. We decided that we would come along with the group.  What the heck - it sounded like fun!  Eight of us walked the short walk up from the docks to the restaurant including ourselves, Nuclear Fishin', Panda Bear, and the folks from the sailboat docked next to us. After we had been there a while, Herb, who is the AGLCA harbor host for this area, joined us there.

Belly Dancer at Greek Restaurant - Mama's
Those are tips sticking out of her costume.

Greek Musician at Mama's
His tips were scattered on the floor of the restaurant near his feet.

I did not realize that when I said yes to dinner tonight that I would be dining with Santa Claus, but he sat right next to me at the table! With his white hair and beard and his red sweater, John from Nuclear Fishin' makes a habit of being Santa Claus. He always carries candy canes in his pocket and gives one to anyone who recognizes him as Santa.

A number of young Greek school children walked through the restaurant with their teacher singing and carrying a collection box looking for donations for a school program of some sort. Two children noticed Santa sitting next to me, and they got their candy canes and a deep, from-the-belly "HO-HO-HO" to go with them! Even the belly dancer got a candy cane as well as a tip from Santa who stood up and danced along with her for a spell.

I have not been exposed to too much Greek food in my life. I found many things on this menu had feta cheese added to them which I, unfortunately, cannot eat due to food allergies. I thought about requesting one of those dishes made sans feta but decided to go with the straight beef kabob instead. Clark selected the Greek Grouper. Both dishes proved to be good choices. I was also tempted by the Moussaka; however, I thought it might be a bit too rich for my system.

Including the appetizers, meal, and entertainment, dinner took almost three hours from the time we arrived until we left. As we strolled back to the boat, Santa agreed to don his merry cap for a photo for us and posed by his boat at the docks.

Note Santa's boat has Christmas lights!

No sooner did I get on board our boat than I realized that I must have lost my hat back at the restaurant, and no, mine is not a Santa hat. Clark and I walked back to the restaurant, and lo and behold, the waitress had found it and put it to one side! Phew! I like that tam very much. It's a tricky one though as that is the second time that I have lost that hat. The last time I had to drive 30 minutes to retrieve it and found it lying in a parking lot! At least this was a short walk in nice weather.

Having done next to nothing all day, I decided that it might be a good idea to pull out my new sewing machine and see if a) it had all its parts and b) I could figure out how to use it. Fortunately Clark found a critical piece of the sewing machine (a piece of clear plastic meant to be removable) in the bottom of the box before the box was thrown in the trash, or I would have been in trouble! Upon inspection I found no other pieces were missing from the machine!

The sewing machine is unbelievably tiny and the carrying case looks like it should be made to carry Barbie dolls or something equally as small.  I was convinced I had ordered the wrong case, but the machine and it's accessories fit inside nicely.

Here's my new sewing machine

It is hard to tell from the photo how small this machine is.
The ruler measures it out to be 10.5" wide.
Made almost entirely of plastic, it is extremely light weight.

The instructions were a bit hard to follow, and with everything being miniature sized, it was hard to thread the machine. My eyesight is not what it used to be especially in poor light! Besides the extra needle and two bobbins that came with the machine, I think a jeweler's screwdriver and a set of needle-nosed pliers should be part of the package. I felt like I was all thumbs as I struggled to insert the needle into the machine.

A needle threader did come as part of the package and helped tremendously to get the needle threaded. Unfortunately I misread the instructions and made several bad attempts at sewing a straight seam with the needle threaded back-to-front before finally realizing it needed to be threaded front-to-back. Once I corrected my machine-threading error, it sewed like a dream - both straight and zigzag stitch.

As I fought with the machine in the poorly-lit salon of the boat I remembered that one of the negatives from the online reviews was that it desperately needed a light. I agree. I believe this is a daytime only, in-full-sun sewing machine. I believe it will do the jobs that I purchased it for which is mostly repairs on clothing. A boating friend told me about a totally different sewing machine made to work on tough canvas, but at nearly $1000.00 I decided it was more than my budget could handle and my current problem set needed.

We experienced a chill in the air all day today. Once again I noticed that the reading on the thermometer only tells part of the story. The sun here is hot, and it definitely feels hotter than the measured temperature as a result. I think that is why I lost my hat. I did not remember that I had worn it to the restaurant because I was indecisive about whether I needed it or not.

The weather is supposed to improve throughout the next few days climbing slowly back up to 80 degrees or so. Clark has suggested we pull out the kayaks tomorrow to go exploring before it gets hot again. I have not used my kayak since Canada, so my confidence is shaky that I can get myself in and out without taking a dunking! We shall see how this goes and if it goes tomorrow.

Florida: Tarpon Springs

Day 160
No Travel Today

So, according to the man on the boat next to ours, we are back on boat time now that we are back in Florida. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in New Jersey where we got to have lunch or dinner with many of our friends, and the baby shower provided us an opportunity to see a major portion of my family. Our two-week trip home was over in a flash!

At the baby shower for Heather and Chris and the future Miss Lillian Martha...

"Oh the Places She'll Go" hand-embroidered wall hanging
(hand sewn by Devon who claims she isn't "crafty")

Following along on that theme ...
"Oh the Places She'll Go" Cake
(bought at local food store)

The future parents (Chris and Heather)
cutting the cake

Play time in New Jersey ...

Hanging out at the park on a glorious day 

Jeff, Devon, and Sierra wearing
T-shirts in December in New Jersey?
Guess we did bring nice weather back with us from Florida!

Sierra romping through the park

After so much excitement and activity in New Jersey, we are definitely ready to unwind a bit on boat time. The trip back took us two days / one night of travel. Unfortunately we found ourselves with a list of chores / errands that still needed to be completed before we could get on the road on Wednesday. We finally left the house at 12:15 p.m. only to remember when we got to the bank that our checkbooks were sitting by Clark's desk, so back to the house we went.  We made a couple of extra stops before leaving the area, and we decided that our official start of return time was about 1:30 p.m.

I had lunch in the car with us, so other than rest stops, we could just keep going until dinner time. We found a Ruby Tuesday where we knew we could get a pretty decent dinner with a great salad bar and then kept going until 11:00 p.m. when we stopped at a Country Inn in North Carolina.  We mentioned to the clerk that we thought the town nearby named Zebulon had a great name, and low and behold she was from Zebulon! I would love to be able to say that I am from Zebulon; it's such a cool name which seems more appropriate for a planet than a town!

Clark's summary of the day was that we had breakfast in New Jersey, lunch in Delaware, dinner in Virginia and slept in North Carolina.

We managed to get ourselves on our way the next day at 9:45 after the hot breakfast that came with our room for the night. Clearly, we are not morning people as we were happy with our departure time. Unlike Wednesday, Thursday's weather was not accommodating as we had rain for a large portion of the trip with some of it very heavy. I had made sandwiches in the hotel room before we left, so once again we had lunch on the move. We finally stopped for a break around 7:30 for dinner at the Texas Roadhouse near Ocala, Florida. It turned out to be a reasonable choice.

We made it back to the boat at 11:00 p.m. and were amazed when we stepped out of the car into 80 degree humid weather. We had changed to T-shirts at a gas stop in Georgia, but we found ourselves still hot and sticky. As soon as we got on the boat we turned on the air conditioning and searched for shorts.  We moved all the stuff we brought back from New Jersey from the car onto the boat, put away perishable food, and "hit the hay" to get some sleep.

As we brought warm weather to New Jersey with our visit, so did we bring cooler temps back to Florida with us. A cold front went through in the middle of the night bringing rain, removing humidity, and ushering in cooler weather. The high for the day was the humid 75 degrees we felt right at midnight. The temperatures continued to drop throughout the day into the 60s with the prediction for overnight as a low of 45! Good news is that we haven't had to run the air conditioner at all today!

Christmas came early in Florida! While we were in New Jersey, several packages got delivered to the marina and were waiting for us when we got back. We carried our goodies back to the boat from the marina office and had fun opening them all to see what we had gotten. I thought the largest box was my new travel sewing machine and was surprised when we opened the smaller box first and found the sewing machine inside. It is the cutest little thing. I swore the carry bag that I ordered to go with it was the wrong size as it looked like it was designed to hold a toy. Was I surprised when the new machine slid right into the bag!!! I have not tried it out yet. I guess that will be on tomorrow's agenda!

The large-sized box turned out to be the electric griddle that has had a tour of the east coast trying to reach us. Clark ordered the griddle at the beginning of November. A typo in the address caused the package to be redirected to our home address.  Thus, on November 23rd, the package found its way to Rumson instead of the marina where we wanted it to go. The package was sent via FedEx; however, FedEx contracts with the US post office for final delivery. FedEx handed the package off to USPS who said, since our mail is forwarded, "Oh, they don't live here any more."

We checked the tracking on 12/1 to see where the package was because our neighbor, who we asked to look out for it for us, said it never showed up in Rumson.  Tracking showed the package "out for delivery" in Rumson on 11/23 followed by shipped to North Carolina and then "out for delivery" in Greensboro, NC. I called USPS who said, "We've forwarded it to your new address." This turned out to be incorrect as a few days later we got a call from the sender to let us know that the package had been "returned to sender".  Clark provided the address of our current marina, and voila! we finally have our griddle. I truly thought I would never see it and that it would travel in an infinite loop around the U.S. trying to locate us.

I tried the griddle out right away as I made pancakes for us for brunch.  For a boat, the griddle is huge. I was expecting something half the size of what I got - and this was the smaller sized model than another we looked at.  The good news is that I cooked 8 pancakes simultaneously! The bad news is that my galley can't easily accommodate a griddle that is wider than my stove. I'm still trying to decide where to store it when not in use.

Having just dropped the stuff from New Jersey onto the floor or on the bed in the second state room last night, I spent all of today getting organized  and stowing the goods all over the boat. I found places for all my goodies except some shoes I brought back with me, my new sewing machine, and my new griddle!

I guess I don't adapt to "boat time" as well as Clark does. Roughly speaking I think that "boat time" refers to a "do it when you get around to it or maybe never" attitude. While I worked on cleaning up the boat so we could walk from one side to the other, Clark was outside talking and talking and talking to the guys from the boats docked near ours. I guess he grasps the whole "boat time" concept better than I do.

Around 1:00, I finally called him in from his gab session saying that I needed his help. Specifically I needed his help eating the pancakes that I had cooked on my new griddle. As soon as he was done eating, he was back outside chatting with the guys again. He said he was busy "collecting local knowledge" for our travels, i.e. where to go, what to see. He claims he got good intell for our trip!

Clark's "research" turned into an all-day exercise as he started chatting at 11:00 or so and didn't finish until almost 5:00 when his musician friend Susan came by and told him she was ready for them to get together to play Christmas Carols on their instruments. She plays the violin, and Clark plays guitar. She told him before we left for NJ that he needed to bring Christmas music back with him, which he did. When they got together to play, I joined them briefly for a couple of songs but then returned to the boat to continue with my projects. Clark finally called it a day and came back on board for dinner at 7:00.

Somewhere in there, Clark did manage to do the one job I asked him to do first thing this morning - fill the boat water tank and the drinking-water jugs with fresh water. Since we didn't manage to get out to buy any groceries today, that item will be added to tomorrow's agenda. Fortunately, I had enough provisions either on board or from New Jersey to carry me through today.

We have yet to see more of Tarpon Springs than the marina and one local restaurant. Exploring the town is also high on our to-do list!

We ended the day by watching "Lethal Weapon 3" on Bounce TV. I never tire of Riggs and Leo Getz!

New Jersey Road Trip

NJ Road Trip

After our all night, overnight crossing of the Gulf of Mexico, I was exhausted. Clark did not consider how tired from the crossing we would be when he planned the pickup for the rental car the next morning and the beginning of our drive to New Jersey for that same day. I was too tired on the Monday night we arrived at Tarpon Springs to even think about what to pack for New Jersey - I just could not even think straight and had no idea what I might pack or forget to pack. I decided that I would just have to pack in the morning as quickly as possible before we got on the road. After dinner with friends on that Monday night, I passed out for the night.

As it turned out, we had a very late start to our road trip north. Clark got word that we needed to take care of some important finance-related paperwork before we could leave. Since we had numerous long documents to print, we first had to go find a store to buy an ink cartridge for our printer! Then we spent a large portion of the day, printing, signing, scanning, and sending documents via email. In between prints and scans, I threw things into bags for our trip. We finally managed to drag our bags to the rental car and start on our way at 4:00 p.m. We decided that even a few hours "under our belts" was better than staying another night before leaving. Never mind the fact that I had no food on board the boat at that point, so we just had to leave!

We made it to Jacksonville, Florida the first night and found a Country Suites with free hot breakfast and a fridge in the room. These are two things I look for, besides price, when traveling as we always have some food with us when we travel that we want to refrigerate. "Breakfast included" is a real time saver, so we want that option as well. We drove for 14 hours the next day. We pushed ourselves to get north of Washington / Baltimore that night so as not to have to deal with traffic in those areas the next morning. Although I was ready to jump out of the car and run around like a maniac for exercise after eleven hours, it was worth it to keep going as we saw no traffic in those areas what-so-ever! We were through Baltimore in the blink of an eye.

We stayed in the Aberdeen Proving Ground area Wednesday night, and the drive home on Thursday was a relatively short three and a half hours. As soon as we got home, we turned on the heat. Compared to the 80 degrees we left in Florida, we felt a definite chill in the air at the 42 degrees that greeted us upon our arrival. After unloading the car, we went right straight out again and hit the supermarket. I had one box of pasta and one jar of spaghetti sauce in the house but that was it. The fridge was bare as was the pantry. Having wiped myself out upon leaving after our last visit in September, we had to buy all the necessaries including everything from butter to toilet paper.

The main reason we came home at this time instead of for the holidays was to co-host a baby shower for my younger son's expectant wife, Heather. Baby Lillian Martha is planning an arrival in February! Having set up house on Thursday, I was ready to focus on planning for the party to be held on the 12th. I had done next to nothing while in Florida, other than knit / crochet some gifts, to prepare for the shower itself. As I do with most jobs I have to tackle, I started by making lists of things to buy and things to do.

Since family was coming to visit for the shower, exchanging Christmas gifts seemed like a grand idea, so while I was making shower lists, I was also busy with Christmas lists. Between that Friday and the next Thursday when my son and his family arrived from Idaho, I worked like a maniac to get the house ready for all the arrivals. I cleaned the house from top to bottom and spruced up the yard by removing all the dead growth from my flower gardens. When I was not cleaning, all I did was shop, shop, shop! December's budget flew right out the window!

In between all the cleaning and shopping, Clark and I managed to fit in back-to-back dentist visits on that Monday and back-to-back eye doctor visits on Tuesday. Clark's eye appointment turned into an emergency visit to the eye surgeon the next day, so instead of getting my last-minute tasks done as planned that day, it all got postponed until Thursday. So that I could keep working, I sent Clark to the airport on Thursday to pick up the Idaho contingent.

Friday I spent time with Devon shopping for food for the baby shower and decorating in preparation for the party the next day. The shower on Saturday went well. We had family and friends who traveled long distances to attend. We had multiple states represented. Evelyn's sister and family live in Pennsylvania, so we had a large PA contingent. Heather's maid-of-honor lives in Maryland. She and her spouse made the 5-hour-each-way round trip up for the party - up and back in the same day! We came up from Florida, Devon and Jeff flew in from Idaho, and of course the guests of honor came from Connecticut. New Jersey folks included friends whom Chris has known forever.

After the party we had some family time. I made a home-cooked dinner with Delicious Orchards pie for dessert (locals understand). After we filled our bellies with good food, we gathered around the Christmas tree to open our presents. Yes, I did decorate for Christmas as well as for the shower. I definitely was busy! How could I not decorate for Christmas with my almost-two-year-old granddaughter coming to visit?!

Sunday morning Chris and Heather packed their booty into their car and headed back to Connecticut. They are having some work done on the house before the baby arrives and needed to get back home. Thankfully Jeff, Devon and Sierra planned to stay until Monday or I would have been more sad than I was at Chris and Heather's departure! After all the excitement of planning and having the party, it would have been a huge let down had everyone left all at once.

As I started thinking about and planning for the trip back to Florida, I started to worry about how to use up all the food supplies that I had purchased. Suddenly I was in a panic that I had too much food for the last few days here in New Jersey. To waste as little food as possible, I planned out menus for each meal over the next couple of days to be sure I use critical food and leftovers wisely. As it turned out I probably should not have bought that London Broil, but it sure tasted good for supper last night!

Today, before sunrise Clark had to get up and go for eye surgery. Fortunately it was minor surgery. He even drove himself, and he was back before anyone else in the house was up for the day. This afternoon the Idaho contingent heads for the airport and their long flight home. Tomorrow is a day of more eye appointments for Clark and myself as well as last lunches with friends. Then, as soon as possible thereafter, we will be heading back to Florida to continue our explorations.

So, you can see why I have not been blogging. It has been a wild crazy month and I cannot believe that December is almost half-way gone already!

Florida: Crossing the Gulf of Mexico

Days 157 - 158
NM Traveled: 152

After days of stewing over the wind and wave height numbers, Clark finally declared that it was time to take the plunge and cross the Gulf of Mexico to Florida's West coast. We connected with Oceanus who also planned on making the crossing at the same time as us and travels at comparable speeds.  Finding a compatible vessel is key as some boats are much slower than others due to their design, and some are much faster as their owners are in a hurry. After arranging our plans with Oceanus we discovered that our friends on Nuclear Fishin' planned to travel as part of our little pack.

Oceanus On Route to Cross the Gulf of Mexico

 Besides our group of three, we learned of several other boats crossing as "buddies" including Sea to See with Namaste and Manana with Something Special. The desired speed of the latter two was not quite as compatible with our preferred speed. The former two would be traveling at sailboat speeds which are much too slow for us - our diesel engines get upset with us if we go too slowly. So, although we planned to all be out there at the same time, our communication would mostly be with our two buddy boats on a pre-arranged VHF radio channel.

 We left our marina at 3:30 p.m. on 11/28 heading for Dog Island and the East Passage to the Gulf of Mexico. Waters were amazingly calm and we patted ourselves on the back for the wise decision to wait the extra 24 hours before leaving to cross the Gulf.

I took the extra time allowed by waiting one extra day to prepare the boat for the crossing. Although the prediction was for calm seas, I wanted to leave nothing to chance. I stowed all lose items as well as some things I had gotten lazy about putting where they belonged. We did some last minute bread shopping so I could make sandwiches to eat as we went along. I packed tons of snacks to eat all through the night. I put pillows and blankets together to take up top for sleeping in shifts as we crossed. I even made sure my MP3 player was well charged so I could listen to music while I piloted and Clark slept.

On the day of departure I dragged all my stuff up to the upper helm to minimize trips up and down on potentially dangerous waters. We have two bench seats on the upper helm. One was completely taken over by me and my bags. After waiting for hours, the time had finally arrived for us to pull in our lines and fenders and start out most challenging adventure thus far on this voyage.

On our way - Farewell to C-Quarters Marina
in Carrabelle, Florida

It took about an hour or so to get past Dog Island and through the East Passage. Not too long afterwards we were rewarded by a beautiful sunset.

Sunset on the Gulf of Mexico

 Sunset was our last picture near Florida's Panhandle. After that darkness set in and the camera could not be held steady enough for any more photos. Given the total blackness of the night sky we had no more photo opportunities anyway. Too bad we could not photograph the stars that came out after sunset. They were magnificent and plentiful. We headed for Orion's Belt and watched it rise in front of us as we traveled.

Clark decided that we should set an alarm to "wake" us every 15 minutes which seems to be something that sailors crossing the ocean do to make sure they scan the horizon every 15 minutes for any other vessels or obstructions, etc. We quickly found that every 15 minutes was about every 45 too soon and extremely annoying so we switched to hourly alarms.

On the hour we noted our Longitude and Latitude and contacted our two buddy boats to let them know we were still on route with no difficulties. They reciprocated with the same information. In communication with Oceanus we both realized that we would arrive too early at the other end with our current course line and speed. We made agreed to adjustments to lengthen our travel time to avoid the crab pot issue in the morning that I mentioned in my previous post.

The other thing that I did every hour on the hour was feed Clark. For a thin person he needs a lot of food to keep him going. He started around 6:00 with the sandwiches I made for him as supper. (We had a big meal at lunch time with meat, vegetables, and potatoes.) Then when the timer went off on the hours, he enjoyed one item from a variety of treats which I fed to him along the way including potato chips, cheese and crackers, pumpkin pie, cookies, fruit cup and probably some other items I have forgotten I even had for him. For myself I had my own favorites including things like trail mix made up of raisins and peanuts or whole-grain Scoops chips for salsa. Between the number of peanut butter sandwiches I ate and the amount of trail mix, I have to say that I think it will be a while before I crave peanuts or peanut butter.

When we got to a point about 12 miles out from Dog Island, Clark took out the binoculars and scanned the horizon in all directions. We did not have the exact long / lat of the crippled boat from two weeks prior, but we knew it had become disabled at around 12 miles out. We found no signs of the boat. Speculation is that it either sank from the stern anchor arrangement, or it floated away to parts of the world unknown. Anyway, it was gone! Ironically the name of the vessel was LunaSea. How bizarre that a boat with that name would be out on such dangerous seas that no one in their right mind would tackle?!

In preparation for our voyage, we talked about taking turns driving the boat, but like driving the car, Clark does not share well. He piloted the boat from when we started at 3:30 p.m. until 2:00 a.m. before handing the wheel over to me. Somewhere around midnight I tried to get some sleep in preparation for my turn, but sleeping-on-demand does not seem to be something my body does well. At any other time I can sleep on the boat at the drop of a hat, during the crossing sleep totally eluded me. Perhaps it was all the excitement and activity and chatter on the radio, or maybe it was the tossing and turning of the boat on the waves that made me need to hold on to the railing while trying to sleep that precluded sleep. Who knows -- but sleep? Not happening!

So although I rested and maybe even dosed (doubtful), I did not sleep, and all too soon it was my turn to drive so Clark could sleep. Besides Orion's Belt as a navigation aid, we had the running lights from Oceanus to guide us across the Gulf of Mexico. Oceanus has an autopilot. Unlike most other looper boats, Sea Moss is not equipped with auto-pilot to control the steering to a set course. Clark likes to say "I am the auto pilot" as he likes to pilot the boat instead of having it done for him. I wish I could say the same.

Where it was fine as a normal course of events during the night, I did not enjoy my stint at piloting the boat when it came time for the on-the-hour routine. Trying to keep the boat on course while reading and recording the longitude and latitude in the dark on rocky seas was not fun. I would take my eyes off Oceanus for a few seconds, and look up and they were off to the right, or off to the left, or "where did they go?" panic, panic. Correct course, copy more of the longitude-latitude degrees / minutes / seconds numbers (which by now had changed in seconds), continue pattern ...

Then after finally noting the site, I had to get on the radio for the "health" check with our buddies. I am not as familiar with the instruments as Clark, and I do not have the VHF button positions memorized. Without a flashlight I could not see the buttons and did not know if I was communicating on the correct channel. Holding the steering wheel and a flashlight and pushing buttons on the VHF was an impossibility, so I had to feel for the buttons on the radio and push the "correct" ones. At one point I pushed a button to try to scan channels and put the VHF in intercom mode instead. This maneuver resulted in a missed message from one of our "buddies".

While I piloted the boat, Clark laid down on the bench seat next to me at the upper helm. I do not think he slept any more than I did. He did get a break from "being on duty" as he put it, so he did get some rest at least. Unfortunately the hourly check-in disturbed his dosing, and later, at some point, a message appeared on the chart plotter about us entering a 'restricted area', so I thumped him on the leg to get his attention. Turned out to be a restriction against fishing in that area, but I did not know what was being restricted and I got nervous. What can I say?! At 3:00 in the morning I did not want the USAF coming out after me for being in restricted waters.

I piloted the boat from 2:00 until 5:00 a.m. at which point Clark decided he had rested enough to get up and take over. I was so pleased to be relieved of duty that I went down below to make him breakfast for his next hourly treat. Where we had mostly calm waters during the night with a few swells, We did have some times where the waves came up and rolled us around a bit more than expected. One of those more bumpy times was when I was in the galley cooking Clark his breakfast.

I decided to make him my "Evvy McMuffin" treat that he likes which is eggs and cheese on toast. It is really pretty simple unless the boat is bouncing around all over the place. For example, I had to make sure to secure the eggs in something on the counter to avoid having them fall and produce a ready-made omelet on the floor. I needed a plate from the cupboard. My timing was unfortunate. When I opened the cupboard to retrieve one plate, I got 4 or 5 extras along with 8 bowls that bombarded me as they flew out in all directions crashing around me. That is why all my bowls and plates are unbreakable plastic.

It made an amazing sound though and sounded like everything was breaking into a million pieces. I later learned that Clark even heard the crash up top. He said he wanted to call me on the intercom to ask if all was okay but had his own problems to deal with. I never did ask what they were. Long story short, I managed to make his breakfast and bring it up to him. He was most appreciative of the hot breakfast and real food. For him, pies and cookies don't qualify as real food.

I managed to make my way back downstairs to the galley for my own breakfast. With morning came fog and with fog came wet steps and railings. Everything was very slippery and exceedingly dangerous especially with the rocking and rolling of the boat. I had a tight grip using both hands while going up and down those steps, and I still feared slipping and falling. Getting the milk from the fridge for my cereal was challenging, pouring it over my cereal more so. Eating the cereal without wearing it, well ...

While I made and ate breakfast the sun came up over the Gulf of Mexico. With the beautiful sunset, magnificent display of stars, an 80% of full moon, and the gorgeous sunrise, mother nature outdid herself for our voyage.

Sunrise on the Gulf of Mexico

 Shortly after daybreak, we could see clouds collecting on the horizon and obscuring that beautiful sun that had so recently risen in the east. In the picture below you can just make out the sun through the cloud cover. We wondered if bad weather was coming with the clouds, but we had had no internet or even cell service since 6:00 the previous night, so we had no apps to tell us if we were going to see some rain in our future. Clark's assessment that it was only fog turned out to be a correct one.

Fog Cover in Morning

 For a while we lost our buddy boats in the fog and had to turn on our radar again which we had turned off after daylight came in. The cloud obscured the sun which was helpful for a while since driving into the sun is blinding, it gave our eyes a bit of a rest in preparation for the "find the crab pot" game to come.

We had heard that we would see thousands of crab pots. Given we encountered 5 in total on our trip into Tarpon Springs, I have to wonder where these other folks went on their journey. Clark stayed out in the Gulf until we hit 40 foot depths and then turned into the channel. Seems like the guys with the traps avoid the channel for obvious reasons - they don't want people to hit their traps any more than boaters want to hit them - so as I said, we found very few and wondered if the ones we found had relocated themselves as they seemed to be in deeper water in random places.

As we came into the channel to enter Tarpon Springs, the fog cleared and the sun was back in full blinding glory. We said our farewells to Oceanus who headed off for a different, final destination than us, and we made our way down the channel. Shortly thereafter Nuclear Fishin', our other buddy boat, called us on the VHF radio. The conversation went something like this:

Nuclear Fishin (NF): Sea Moss, Sea Moss ... looks like the dolphins like this channel
Clark: Dolphin likes this channel???
NF: Not the radio channel, the water channel
Clark: Oh, I thought you meant they like channel 71. I will watch out for them.

I had a good laugh over that one. I guess I was not the only one becoming confused by lack of sleep!

Entering Tarpon Springs, Florida

 When we got almost to our marina, we had a bit of an issue. Seems that the sailboat Namaste requires more water under the boat than they found in the channel, and they were stuck and somewhat blocking our passage into the marina.  It was a tight squeeze, but Clark managed to wiggle around them so we could come in and get into our slip. As we passed them they asked us how much water we had under us. Clark told them 5'6" which should have been enough for them to get through. They said they would try to back off and apparently they succeeded as shortly after we docked we saw them come in to the marina as well.

After docking, we looked around and found other looper boats that had arrived at the marina either the day before or just before our arrival. Even though we could not see or hear them, a lot of loopers chose last night to make the crossing. Besides those mentioned above, we also came across Friar Tuck, Valentine, and Tranquility as some of those who recently made the trip.

I held my own for a while, but at some point the lack of sleep hit me. After checking it at the office I walked back to the boat with Clark and told him I was heading straight to bed. He, on the other hand, decided to wash the salt of the boat. So that he could rinse the boat and I could sleep with all the windows closed (it is hot here), he put on the air conditioning for me. Man did I sleep - out cold!

I finally woke up enough to drag my body out of bed at 5:00. I needed to find the washroom which I knew was a long walk away. Clark went with me for the walk, and we enjoyed a beautiful sunset along the way.

Sunset in Tarpon Springs, FL

When I got back to the boat, however, I was still feeling like a zombie. Clark gave me a glass of orange juice to try to get me going. It succeeded in giving me enough energy for me to get up to go back to bed. Shortly after I laid back down, however, we heard a knocking on the boat. Nuclear Fishin' came over to ask if we wanted to go to a local restaurant for dinner since we will soon part ways as they move on to a different marina. We agreed and went out to one of the many Greek restaurants here in town - Hellas. The food was excellent as was the company.

Shortly after we got back to the boat, I sat down to do my blog. Clark finally surrendered to the need for sleep and dove into bed. Since I have a lot to do tomorrow and an early start, I plan to dive in there right after I hit the publish button on this blog entry!

As I conclude tonight's blog entry, I am thinking about my many boater friends who are making the same trip tonight that we made last night. I hope they are all safe and enjoying their crossing of the Gulf! After tonight and maybe tomorrow night as well, the weather window will slam shut and no one will be able to cross the Gulf until another window opens up. Consequently, many folks are making the leap now as we did.