Captain's Log: 12-8 thru 12-10-10 (Day 82-84)

     Another sign that we are pretty far south (besides the palm trees, dolphins, manatees, 70 degree weather) is that the eagle sightings have been replaced by osprey sightings. A little less regal than an eagle but definitely more bold. They will perch right next to our boat and not move when we go out to take a picture. In fact They turn their head as if to say "no wait , this is my good side".

You can't tell the size from this picture but they're big but not quite as big as an eagle. He was right off the front of our boat and posed for a few pics before moving down the canal.

     Cool! Huh?
  
Pat and Tony, our gracious hosts borrowed their car to us today so we could visit Anna Marie Island. I guess I shouldn't be suprised that with a name Like that it was a "girl" place. Not much for a guy to look at except the beach. No, wait, it's winter so no bikinis so....not as bad as Fair hope though because at least there was a hardware store to hang out at.  Come to think about it. I could have something here. Dog island was a pile of sand. Great place, no stores. Stay away from "girlie" named islands!
     I was just interupted from blogging by Dorene with a boat emergency.  She came up from the front storage hatch and says , " We have a problem here. It's wet in the front of the hull."  Now for those not living on a boat , that's not like a wet basement (I've had that) your house is definitely not sinking, unless maybe you live in Stockton. Anyway she had my attention.
     It didn't take long to realize that what sounded like an emergency was really just a great opportunity. On close inspection the mystery fluid smelled somewhat like bread, no more like yeast. For those that know our provisioning priorities you may remember that we started out with over 100 bottles of wine aboard. Well with the heat I guess the bottles are now deciding which ones we drink first. I hope we can keep up! Was that another "pop" I just heard?
  
   Note from the dog:   Maybe It's that stuff they're drinking but, look what they're making me wear now.

Can you believe this? BELLS by my ears! Don't they know how sensitive a dogs ears are?
      
     While we have been mooching off our new friends we have gotten some things done. I got the generator running again. We also got a front enclosure made for the flybridge so we don't have to freeze up top anymore. What's that?... This boat is not going back to Minnesota. Oh well . It's a nice sunroom anyway.
    

Another note from the dog: (Santa parade at St. Petes)
      You won't believe what I had to do for these beads!