Captain's Log: 12/16/10 (Day 90)

Could this be 30 Below's final home port for this leg of the journey? We went from Venice to Gasparilla today. Water color went from creamy blue/green to Mississippi brown back to creamy blue/green. We are within 30 miles of what we thought our final destination (Fort Myers Beach) was going to be for this year.      Hale and Janet met us for supper. Since they also met us at our very first stop in Trempeleau, Wi. back on Sept. 18 we thought it must be an omen that this should be the other end of our adventure. We'll see. It is a beautiful Marina but, we still have about two months before we have to make our way back to Mn./Wi. (by wheels, not water).

Interesting dismanteled railroad bridge near the marina we are at tonight.

This one is for my son. Drew, remember that other life you could have had? The one your dad either ruined or saved you from. The one where you went to work in a suit and tie and dreamed of week-ends for 30 years and then retired. Instead of the one where it's sunny all year, you surf, swim in the ocean, climb mountains, bike the U.S. etc.etc.  Well we passed it today on a canal near Venice. The Jeld Wen window company!  Hey, coulda been you buddy.
      Ok. Those of you reading along with this blog might remember my little description of the various marina showers I have used (or not used) along the way. The Venice showers added a new twist. I was taking a shower this morning when...What was that? Was that a chirp? Was that lightning? Did someone just take my picture? That's kinda creepy. Better get the soap out of my eyes and see what's going on here. Oh, just a fire alarm with flashing lights and lots of noise. Gotta make a decision here. Run outside naked and live or stay inside and burn. Hey, it's a shower, I'm wet , how bad could it be? I compromise and dry off very fast and check for smoke. None.... Poke my head out expecting fire trucks. ...None... so leave calmly. The harbormaster says to me, "They were testing the fire alarm system. Did that get you excited?"  I say, "No.".....What did he mean by that exactly?    Seriously looking forward to my shower in Gasparilla.
      I have another theory on the fire alarm. Down here a 50 year old is a "young buck".... Did I see one of those octogenarian chicks run/walking away from the showers?
                           Relax, it's just a theory.
   
    

Captain's Log: 12/10-15/10 (Day 85-89)

     Sorry for the gaps in posting but, we have been hanging out at our friend's dock in Palmetto for the past week. Partly waiting out some windy weather and partly loving the freeloading life. We have really enjoyed spending time with Tony and Pat,but you know the old saying...Friends, family and fish... well you know it. So as difficult as it was we untied the dock lines and headed out this AM.

This is Floridians idea of a bad day. A few clouds, 30 degrees in AM and 65 in the PM.
      Today was relatively calm but even so we had to go a short ways accross the bottom of Tampa Bay and the 2-3 footers on our beam were enough to knock over our little Christmas tree and a few things in the cabin. Once on the ICW things calmed down.
      Our new bridge enclosure kept us nice and warm (green house effect) Probably should have done that while we were still in Minnesota.
     The water in Sarasota Bay was a beautiful blue/green and once again the dolphins were seeking out our boat to play in the stern wake.

This is off the back of our boat. He/she stayed with us for 10-15 minutes until we had to slow down for a low bridge.

These are two bridges we had to have open for us today. One was 9ft and one was 14ft. We are about 18 ft high. What you can't see on the swing bridge is the bridge master has to stand in the center to operate it. So she is basically stranded on the bridge until we get through and she closes it.  So I can't resist this one.... Dorene is the one who called the bridge and then they stop the cars....So I can say for a fact that my wife can still stop traffic!!!!

Here we are in Venice (not the Italy one). We are parked about 100 feet from the gulf. Straight ahead of us is the inlet from the gulf. I had second thoughts about spending the night on open water to the gulf . I'll let you know tomorrow if it was a good idea.

more dolphins off the front of our boat.
       
       Looks like tomorrow night, if we like the marina, may be the one we will stay at until we pull the boat and come back to WI. Then what?  I've heard some of my followers have been reading my blog late at night when they can't sleep.. Seems I'm a narcotic... Don't worry you insomniacs if I run out of pictures I'll just start discussing the meaning of life. We'll get you to sleep somehow.
    
    
 
  
   

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!

    
    
   

Captain's Log: 21-7-10 (day 81)

     Small craft advisories out for the bay today. Wind should be to our back so we are going anyway.  This was our sunrise today.

So we are off the dock successfully heading out into Tampa Bay and we get a call from the marina. "Hey you guys didn't pay for the laast two days." Dang, they cought us! Could try to out run em but at 8 mph better pay the bill. Seems when we told them we were staying an extra 2 days they didn't just add it to our credit card like we thought they would. Put Dorene on the phone and in a few minutes we're all good.
       Tonight we are staying at a dock behind a "loopers" friend's house on a canal in Terra Ceia Bay. Very nice!

Tony and Pat went way out of their way to help us out. They came over to St. Petes and Tony rode with us acting as navigator across the bays to their dock. The bay was a bit windy. Got to surf down some 3-4 footers. Fun!
     While we are here we have scheduled a canvas person to come and build us a windshield for the flybridge. We've made it this far without it but continued cold weather is predicted and it will be nice. We hope the part for the generator will show up by Thursday. Maybe do some wood varnishing till then.

Another shot of the canal that we are on tonight from our boat.  Goodnight.    
 
   
  

captain's log: 12-6-10 (day 80)

     The wind is finally settling down some so will probably cross Tampa Bay tomorrow to Mark and Sylvia's for a few days. We are supposed to have a generator part waiting for us there so hopefully get that up and running again. This week I guess they're having a cold snap down here. Everyone is bundled up in their parkas and boots. (I'm still wearing flip flops) .To all you midwesterners it's like a nice day in October,not bad.    It's kinda funny they are actually giving windchill factors on the news. 45 degrees/feels like 30. Nobody's getting frostbite but I guess it's a big deal to them. Heck I'm going out on the bay tomorrow but I'll be carefull not to hit any ice fishermen....

What's wrong with this picture?..... Look closely...looks like snow... blooming flowers? Snow is actually cotton or something.

Another Lotus sighting at the St. Petes Marina. No, it's not Bruce's. I think the count is up to 4 now. Never seen one in Minnesota. Wonder why.    

Day 78-79 continued

This probably falls in the catagory of WTMI (way too much information) but as I was showering today I realized I probably should have done a picture documentary of all the Marina showers I've used thru five states. . . You really didn't know where I was going with that one did you?
    What brought this to mind was as I was showering this AM I was facing someone else and not that far apart either. I thought , why did they do this? and the only thing I could come up with is they were trying to save on the length of pipes. Thus brought to mind the wide range of shower facilities I have been in the last 80 days. ( perhaps a book title? 80 days around the head/shower) .   From the high end where there is tile, mirrors, heated towels, and a ladie handing you towels. At least I think that was what she was there for.  To the other end of the spectrum where I think the shower was part of the owners house and so dirty that even I wore my shoes into the shower and kept one eye open while showering. (should have had no more tears shampoo).
     Actually there was one that I took a look in and decided I could go another day, or two, without a shower. Seriously there was a giant mouse hole cut into the door. I thought maybe for a cat or something. I asked the owner what it was for. He said , "I dunno it was there when we got the place" This was also a place where he had stepped on and killed a water moccasin snake  like it was nothing. I'll share the shower with some people but not snakes.
     Anyway back to today. St. Petersburg had a Santa parade and festival complete with farmers market and a snow hill for sliding.

  
       Miss Florida.

They interviewed a little girl and she said she had never seen snow before. I wanted to step in and say , " You still haven't. It's 65 tons of crushed ice cubes. It looked more like a giant margaritta.
     Tomorrow may cross the Bay to Palmetto , Fl.
  

captain's log 11-28 thru 12-4-10 ( day 72-79)

OK Sorry. I have been neglecting my posting duties. I just thought that a week in Clearwater describing us doing our laundry would not be that exciting for anyone.
  We left Clearwater Friday Morning. And after a week it feels good to get moving again but, at the same time roots start to grow and a place gets comfortable and it gets harder to leave. Sorry to all my english teachers . I think I just used too many "ands" there.
     Now that we are on the intercoastal again the tides are a little higher 3-4 feet. This results in a tidal current most of the time we are traveling. The "current" thing is hard to get used to because unlike the Mississippi river half the day the current is with you then it's against you.
    So we decided to go to St. Petersburg next. A 35 mile stretch but 4 1/2 hours.  Didn't think much about it before we left but Tampa Bay ended up being almost as rough as the crossing was at some points. The bay is shallow and it doesn't take much wind to whip up some pretty good waves. To make the nerves a little tighter we decided to get lost half way across the bay. I had looked at the chart earlier and decided we needed to turn at red marker "2" and green marker "4".  When we got there Dorene found the markers and we turned. Very shortly the depth went from 15ft. to 4ft. We had to stop and re-evaluate our position. I remind you we are way out in the bay at this time. After rechecking the chart we found they had put another  red "2" and green "4" about another mile further. Who picks these numbers anyway?    The reward?.... a sunrise in a new harbor.

A bonus at this marina was the St. Petersburg boat and sail show was also going on this week-end. Maybe not so good ,you know look at a few million dollar boats and all of a sudden your palace doesn't shine quite so much. Oh well we just added up the fuel bill so far...shouldn't have done that ...ouch!   The cheap old boat is looking a little more shiny again.

Another big bonus ... guess who was at the boat show.  .. Bob "Bitchin" and his wife Jody. What ? You don't know who that is? He's one of the reasons we are on this boat. He publishes the magazine "Lattitudes and Attitudes" which glorifies the boating lifestyle. In his words when we met him. " Ah another life ruined"
    A life ruined? I think we are even I got an autograghed hat. (mine blew overboard)
   
   

H ey, is that a halo over my head? or is that my miners hat?

Proof. It's the magazine guy!!!!    
      Bob hired the Eric Stone Band and gave everyone at the show free pizza and beer. Good time,but I'm tired so write more tomorrow. Goodnite.