Of course it rained today

Posted on by Maggie Selo

Just as Pigpen always had a cloud of dust around him, we seem to always have a cloud of rain around us. In the last 24 hrs we have had over 2”of rain. And it’s supposed to rain all day tomorrow. Is there a drought somewhere where we should go and bring them rain?

Rain pouring off the gutters at the yacht club while we waited for Enterprise to pick us up.

We drove down to Clearwater Beach but it was raining the whole time so no pictures – is this really the Sunshine State???

We were driving on Nebraska Avenue and this was the cross street. I wonder who settled this area?
Yesterday as we were going to our slip at the yacht club, we passed this shrimp boat. We discovered that it belongs to a local restaurant and is used to bring shrimp to it. So tonight we had dinner at that restaurant and I of course had to have shrimp from the Julie Ann.
1/2 lb of steamed shrimp ( I had already eaten 2 before I thought to take a photo) and they were so much better than what we get in the Midwest!

It’s raining

Posted on by Maggie Selo

The forecast calls for rain and gale force winds on the Gulf from Thursday morning through Friday night, with high waves continuing through Saturday . The next part of our trip will be on the ICW, but all that separates that from the Gulf are long skinny “islands” – not much protection from the winds. So I started calling around this morning to see if I could find a slip for us that had power and water hookups where we could stay put until Sunday. Fortunately Tarpon Springs Yacht Club had one slip available and it was less than 10 minutes from the wall we had been tied to. Because of falling tides we needed to get there immediately so we quickly untied and moved to that slip. The people at the yacht club are super friendly and the club is very nice – it should be a nice place to stay for the next few days. They invited us to join them tomorrow night for bingo and we’re welcome to eat in the restaurant, too!

Sponge boats along the river as we headed to the yacht club
Sponges drying out on one of the boats
Pelicans roosting in mangroves on our way to the yacht club
A couple of the local seafood restaurants have their own fishing/shrimp boats. We plan to have dinner at one of them tomorrow night.

One of our classmates from high school lives in Tarpon Springs, so we got in touch with her yesterday. She and her husband picked us up mid afternoon today and showed us around Tarpon Springs. This is known as the sponge capital of the world so we checked out a couple of sponge shops, bought a few sponges, had a glass of wine at a local wine bar, and finally ended up at a very nice Greek restaurant. Of course it started raining as soon as they picked us up so we didn’t spend much time outside.

Rich and I in front of a statue of a young sponge diver. Michaeleen said it was mandatory that we have our picture taken in front of it – too bad I didn’t open my eyes for the photo 😄
Another statue of an older diver
A plaque by the older diver that explains how this came to be such a Greek town and the sponge capital of the world.
Even the bicycle racks are reflections of the town’s heritage – this one is a diving helmet.
I love New Zealand lamb so when I saw it on the menu I had to try it. It had Greek seasonings and was drizzled with olive oil and lots of lemon juice – I made Rich have a bite of it so we can try to replicate it the next time we do lamb chops.
And of course we had to have dessert! This didn’t look so big in the case, but it was enough for at least two people, and it was all mine. I managed to get through half of it -guess what I’m having for breakfast tomorrow???

Tomorrow morning we will get a rental car and explore the area on land for the next couple of days.

We made it!

Posted on by Maggie Selo

We got out of the slip at 7:10 this morning and 45 minutes later we were in the Gulf of Mexico. 150 miles and 7 1/2 hours later we were in sight of land and the river that would take us into Tarpon Springs. Because we made the crossing sooner than we had originally planned, we didn’t have a chance to call any marinas for reservations. That turned out to be a problem, but fortunately the harbormaster at the second marina we called gave us the name and number for a woman who has a restaurant right on the river with a sea wall where we could tie up. We have no electric or water connections on the wall, but we have a full water tank and a generator to power our lights, fridge, etc., and a great Greek restaurant right there, so life is good. Tomorrow morning I will call a couple of other marinas to see if we can get a slip nearby with power and water. This looks like a cool area – and of course the weather is going to turn bad on Thursday, so we need a place to stay for a couple of nights.

This is what the water looked like on the Gulf. The splash is from our boat as we were doing about 23 mph at this point. We saw at least a dozen dolphins, including a couple that were jumping off our bow and another jumping just off our stern.
Palm trees!
Sunset from our boat
We had dinner at the restaurant where we’re tied up. Someone who lives here recommended the chargrilled octopus, so Rich had to try it. I had a bite of it and it was delicious!
I forgot to include this photo in yesterday’s blog. We passed this phone booth as we walked to dinner last night. It’s the world’s smallest police station! Originally the police phone was in a call box on the outside of a building, but people kept making illegal long distance calls from it, and the policemen would get wet whenever it was raining and they had to use it, so it was put in an old phone booth.
As we walked back from dinner last night, we walked through a little park dedicated to the military. The Blue Star Highway sign caught my attention because there’s a Blue Star Highway that runs past Saugatuck MI. Our condo was adjacent to it and people used it as a point of reference all the time.

Tomorrow’s the big day!

Posted on by Maggie Selo

We left Lighthouse Marina in Panama City Beach this morning intending to go to Apalachicola and then to Carrabelle tomorrow, the jumping off point for the Gulf crossing. But we’ve been following forecasts from a guy who lets Loopers know when the weather will be good for making the Gulf crossing and he said tomorrow should be as good as it will ever get. And then we got an email from a friend who’s done the crossing 14 times and he said the same thing. So we revved up the engine and made it all the way to Carrabelle. Go fast boats can be very nice when you really need to get somewhere!

We met up with a couple today who also want to do the crossing tomorrow, so we plan to untie at 7:15 tomorrow morning and hope the sea gods will look kindly upon us as we traverse open Gulf waters for 150-160 miles to Tarpon Springs. Interestingly, the couple we will be traveling with is from Spencer IN and started their trip from Racine WI about a week after us.

Some photos from today’s travels –

Sunrise this morning as we got ready to leave the marina
Our first swamp boat sighting!
Hurricane Michael wasn’t kind to this house.
Nor was it kind to this boat sitting on the hard near our slip in Carrabelle.

Aaarrrgh!

Posted on by Maggie Selo

Today the weather decided to provide us with a good travel day, so we made it to Lighthouse Marina in Panama City Beach. About a third of the trip was down a narrow channel, with interesting banks on both sides.

The view from the back of the boat
The view from the front of the boat
We docked right next to a pirate ship! Aaarrgh! We were told the pirate ship does cruises every day during warm weather. 
Hopefully there will be no bad children on board!
Usually transient boats are sent to the slips furthest from any amenities available at the marina. This time we were told to tie up at a dock directly connected to the restaurant at the marina – hooray! And even better is that the restaurant had really good food and drinks. Our dock is very protected, so no rocking and rolling – another hooray!

It’s early to bed tonight because we have a slow day ahead of us tomorrow. A long stretch of the ICW tomorrow will be a narrow channel, which means speeds of 8-10 mph, not very fast.

Rockin’ and Rollin’

Posted on by Maggie Selo

The winds picked up last night and the waves really slammed us all night long. In spite of being properly tied up, the boat went forward, backward, from side to side, and up and down all night long. Every time we thought the wind was dying down it would start up again and then there would be an extra large wave that would really slam the boat and wake us up. When we got up this morning there were white caps on the water and brisk winds, so we decided to stay put for one more day. White caps on the water do not make for a comfortable ride and we’re all about comfortable rides.

Unfortunately the wind and waves kept up all day and are continuing tonight. We really need to be moving on to take advantage of a good weather window so we can be out on the Gulf on Wednesday so tomorrow we will head out. We’re hoping the next marinas will be calmer – we could use a good night’s sleep.

No photos today. We went out for breakfast, then stayed on the boat for the rest of the day. Along with the wind and waves the water level has also risen, so between the boat not staying steady and the longer step down to the dock, getting off and back on became very difficult. Situations like this make it nice to have the bigger boat, so you don’t feel claustrophobic when you’re inside all day.

It’s raining again

Posted on by Maggie Selo

We had clouds all day, lots of wind for several hours, and now it’s raining again. The weatherman says it’s supposed to end later tonight and be dry for several days – fingers crossed he’s right!

Rich wanted me to sit in this chair, but it had been raining and was all wet, so no Edith Ann shots of me in the chair.
There are shops and restaurants all around this pond, as well as a zip line, a carousel, and even a giant tent  with an ice skating rink inside!
Gnarly, man
The pelican paid us another visit this afternoon
Red sky at night, sailor’s delight

Florida needs a new nickname!

Posted on by Maggie Selo

I’m not sure why Florida is called the Sunshine State – there hasn’t been much sunshine since we got here ☹️. And now it’s windy and rainy. I shouldn’t complain because it’s better than snow, but the lack of sunshine is getting depressing. 

Clouds all day long

At least there are pelicans to keep us entertained! This one sat on a piling by the bow of our boat and another sat over one slip.

I’ve tried to get a photo of the military jets that fly over us several times a day, but they’re too fast. We have a naval air station in Pensacola to our west and an Air Force base to our east so I’m assuming the planes could be from either base.

A relaxing day

Posted on by Maggie Selo

We’ve decided to stay put for a couple of days because of predicted rain for tomorrow and Friday, and some leaking shaft seals that needed to be checked out. Fortunately a mechanic was able to come by the boat about noon and had the problem solved in about 15 minutes. Apparently the seals just needed to be tightened – we breathed a sigh of relief that it was nothing major.

After the mechanic left, we took a walk over to the Baytowne Wharf, a village like setting with restaurants, shops, and various activities. It’s amazing how deserted the area was, because this is a huge resort with several high rise condo buildings. We had lunch in one of the few restaurants that was open and we were the only ones there. Lunch was great – award winning gumbo and smoked BBQ wings. The wings had a very crispy skin with no breading or batter on them and a very nice smoky flavor – although different, they were as good as the wings at Phil’s in Saugatuck, which have been my favorite wings until now. Everything on the menu was gluten-free, except for the hamburger bun, and they keep the kitchen area gluten-free – pretty amazing!

Of course the clouds started rolling in by mid-afternoon, so no sunset. The clouds and rain seem to be following us. Just call us the rainmakers!

Some photos I took while the sun was still out – 

This looks like a life guard stand, but there’s no beach here.
Palm trees! We’re not in Indiana anymore!
There are over 100 boats in this marina. Ours, at 48 ft in length, is one of the shortest ones on our dock – lots of big boats here!
This is Mary Ann, the resident parrot at the marina.

We’re back on the boat!

Posted on by Maggie Selo

It’s been several weeks since I last posted and much has happened during that time. I’ll try to summarize what we’ve been doing with photos

Our son Dan raised turkeys for Thanksgiving and Christmas – this was a 26 lb. turkey for Thanksgiving! And it was delicious!
While the turkey was roasting, the girls made a piñata which they then hung from a tree by the driveway and whacked away at for several minutes before they could get it to break open.
Some families watch football – ours watched Ellen.
Of course it had to snow while we were in Indiana, just enough to satisfy my desire to see snow.
We headed down Mobile Bay a couple of days after returning to the boat in early December. This is the lighthouse in the middle of the bay – not the usual setting for a lighthouse!
The southern half of Mobile Bay had a lot of platforms in it. We’re not sure the purpose of them, oil, perhaps?
This channel marker was the first green marker as we entered the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. We’re finally headed to Florida!
We thought once we got off the rivers we wouldn’t see tows – wrong! We encountered tows all the way to Pensacola.
Our first night at The Wharf Marina in Orange Beach AL had a beautiful sunset. And then it turned cold and rainy for several days. Temps didn’t get above 50 in the daytime and mid 30s at night – brrrr!
Not the best photo, but it was too cold and windy to get on the other side of the bar (shaped like a ship). The Ferris wheel wasn’t running while we were there, but the lights on it at night reminded us of the Ferris wheel at Navy Pier in Chicago. The marina is part of a large resort with lots of shops, restaurants, a cineplex, and an amphitheater.
We rented a car while we were at The Wharf, so we made a trip to Lulu’s, a restaurant owned and run by Jimmy Buffett’s sister. Because of the time of year and the cold weather, there were less than half a dozen tables with customers. 
One afternoon we visited the National Museum of Naval Aviation. Seeing so many planes was overwhelming!
This is an example of the plane George H. W. Bush flew as a Navy pilot.
After reading this plaque in front of a model of the USS Ronald Reagan, I understood why it costs so much to build a mammoth ship.
You know you’re not in the Midwest anymore when Walmart is selling crab and lobster traps.
Our last night in Orange Beach we finally got a steamer pot -a great break from all the fried food we had been eating. There was so much seafood that we had enough shrimp left over for the next night’s dinner.
Today we made it from Orange Beach AL to Sandestin’s Baytowne Marina in Miramar Beach FL. We’re finally in Florida! And there was a nice sunset – not a cloud in sight.