Captain's log: 1-31-11 (one more day is one less)

      Anyone paying attention? I think I put December on the last post. On the beach you not only forget the time and day but eventually the month doesn't matter all that much either.

     "One more day is one less" is our friend Bruce's saying. Now before everyone gets all up in arms about how depressing that sounds , let me tell you that when he said it and the way I interpreted it was that if you enjoy every minute of every day then you will have no regrets that one more day is one less. What's that you say? You have wasted a minute reading this so get out there and enjoy the next one.
     I'll be out on the dock trying not to fall in.........Wait that was exciting... maybe I'll jump this time.

Captain's log 12-31-11

     Finally ! Some excitement. People always ask, "Do you do alot of snorkeling, skin diving, ...swimming?" I say, " No. I am a boater not a swimmer. I stay in the boat where I was meant to be. Ya, you guessed it . I took a salt bath this morning. In my defense it was the "first" one in over two thousand miles of boating. not bad I think.    Our neighbor sailor girl fell in last week at 2:00 AM ( Dorene heard that one). I believe alcohol was involved.  No alcohol was involved with mine.Although as I write this I think that would give me some excuse. Anyway ,I was washing off the dinghy after a ride to Stump Pass and was at shore in only 1 foot of water beside the boat (4 feet under the boat). As I stepped out of the boat I hit the slippery slope from the one foot area to the 4 foot area. Note to anyone who plans on doing this in the near future:  holding on to the side of the boat as you are going down only helps to turn you from vertical to horizontal a bit faster. (more exciting that way). It was all over in a second and no pictures. That's good but, of course it did not go unappreciated. Sailor girl caught the show so I'm thinking it's not just between you and me anymore. Good docktail conversation starter I guess.

     Now forget that ever happened and look at this!  No, not another sunset.... a sun rise! This doesn't happen that often. ..No , the sun rises every morning and I expect it is beautiful more often than not. We're just not up to take a picture of it as often as a sunset.
      Did I mention the bow of our boat almost hangs over the tiki bar next door? Well not quite but I could swim over in less than a minute and as I mentioned before ...I can't swim ya know.... (sorry Tim I can't spell that exactly how it was originaly spoken. It just doesn't look right to the censors.  I had a point here, what was it? .... Oh ya guess who is playing the bongos with the band. One guess. Hint: It's not me.

   Too bad we're only here for another month. I think next year this may be a regular thing.  If I could just get  the girl to come out of her shell just a bit.

12-25-11 (Day...what day is it?)

OK, everybody takes their dogs everywhere down here. I guess it's too hot to leave them in the car so they bring them in the stores with them. So we took our dog to the craft store to get some things to support our new hobby... (shark's tooth jewelry).    Anyway I'm not going to be caught pushing my dog around in a shopping cart like the old ladies do so I tuck her up under my armpit. Now anyone who really, I mean really, knows our dog knows this is like really cute from the front but much like a loaded bazooka gun from the backside. After a few raised eyebrows and strange looks I decided it was better to just wait outside till the smoke/smell cleared.

A few of the sharks teeth we are finding on the beach.

Preliminary attempts at art.

Close up of the beach at low tide. Plenty of raw material to work with.
     Meanwhile still waiting for the title on the motorhome. This is a pic during our test drive.

Trying to get some exercise so there is a yoga class on the beach 3 x's a week we are going to and Dorene bought a bike which she has yet to get on. Can't blame her though , this doing "nothing" sure takes a lot of time.

Goodnite!     
    

Captain's log: 1-17-11 (Day who cares II)

     Well I was right . First night and we are at the Karaoke bar next door. Dorene already has offers to sing elsewhere. Guess we're getting a sound system so she can support us next year.
      The dog has demanded a retraction from the last blog. She wanted everyone to know that she really did NOT pee on the wheel. She has standards to uphold you know.

I'll stop putting these on when I find one that is the same as a previous one.    These are across the street from our marina. Lots of sharks teeth to be found on this beach.

     Oh ya... the wedding.   Well mom went shopping with Paige for a wedding dress and bridesmaid dresses. I think mom was prepared (no...more like excited) to shop for weeks to find the perfect dress. She just forgot that this is the girl that knows winners don't make bad decisions they just make decisions and then make them good. She picked her college that way and it worked.     Anyway, first store; second dress,done deal. Maybe it was the third or forth one but, none the less it's over.  Bridesmaids , same deal, it's done. Makes a father proud. .Life's  a bit easier too. Thanks kiddo.
   

Captain's log: 01-15-11 ( Day...who cares?)

       I can't believe it took me this long to get to "Day...who cares?"  So, question of the day: What's the difference between a convertible back window at 4 below zero and a bag of potato chips?...... Taste....
They break and crunch about the same I guess.  The good news is canvas shops are plentiful in Florida and Joe and I make a pretty good team at "Nothing is impossible". For 30 bucks and about an hour Dorene's back window is as good as new.

Looks good , huh?
     So finally after a month in Gasparilla Marina tomorrow we will be untying the dock lines and heading to a new port! This is a pic of our next stop. Chadwick is right across the street from Englewood beach. Also about 20 yards from a restaurant (The White Elephant) with music most nights. Probably won't see much of my wife this month.... The good news... bands knock off early down here.!  

Our boat will be third boat in from the end facing the restaurant with the empty docks on the right.  It's only 9 miles north from where we are now but it's time to explore new areas.
      
Another big thing (at least to us) we just found our "land " home for next summer and beyond.... We have been gathering info on motorhomes for a couple years now. We narrowed it down to diesel pushers and for those who care Monacos or Fleetwoods. We just agreed on a price on a Fleetwood "American Dream". Not new but taken care of really well. Ahh... the American Dream.

Note from the dog:   I pee'd on the wheel. It's mine!

Notice the extra wide passenger seat? Don't have to worry about calories I guess.
Next blog...."the wedding"....    
       

Captain's log: 1-6-11 ( Day 111)

     I was just about to write this day off as a total loss. At least in the "I gotta get something done " sense. A cold front came in (a Florida cold front ...60 degrees) and mostly cloudy and cold. So spent all day inside the boat. Paperwork and some laundry. This picture was off the back of our boat. I originally took it to show the cloudy/gloomy day...

But then as I watched an incredible change crept across the sky. I in NO way could capture this in a photo. It covered the entire sky. So I took a bunch of pictures of different spots in the sky. Now just use your imagination........

Can you believe that?!    Sometimes rain is a good thing......I feel a country song coming on....



Have a beautiful night.

Captain's log: 1-3-11 (Day 108)

I want all you guys up north to feel really sorry for us so take a close look at this next picture.....

Can you tell what it is?.... that's right, it's FROST! and it took until almost noon to get up to 70 again. We are suffering so badly down here!.... Seriously, they had an article in a local paper about how are the construction workers going to cope with the 30 degree mornings? .... Send them to Minnesota , they will figure it out.
        That was 2 days before new years eve. The next picture was New Years eve on the dock with our Canadian friends, Ron and Donna from "No Snow"

You know how in Minnesota they say we have Spring, two days of Summer, then winter. Well in Florida it's Summer , two days of Fall , then Summer again.  New Years Day was also good so went exploring in the back  "bays"  with our dinghy.

Ron and Donna leading the way.
     OK, I'm digging for interesting things here. O, speaking of digging I found my first million year old shark's teeth. I'm going by the archeologist we met who said any teeth that are black are over a million years old because it takes that long to turn them from white to black.

I know to a Floridian that's about as interesting as a snow bank to a Minnesotan. So.... I'm still lookin for my first manatee.

In another month I'll have web feet and then in another ... voila'... I'm a "merman"!

These next three pictures are examples of me digging for something interesting but, hey compared to traveling down the Mississippi River and crossing the gulf, sitting in a marina just doesn't cut it.

Bike rusting in 1 month more than it did in last 30 years. Salt water!

It's heavy , it's hard as a rock and it floats! You probably knew that but I found it floating near our boat this A.M. I didn't know coral rocks float.

Last but definitely not least... that little round thing is my neighbor's old TV antenna... it's on my boat now. I didn't steal it. He got a new one and he was gracious and gave his old one to us. The plus for me...we got the Packers/Bears game . The plus side for Dorene... we got rid of the "hillbilly" antenna. She never complained but this one is definitely more "StarTrek" looking.
     If this didn't put you to sleep get out the warm milk.