MERRY CHRISTMAS (or Heathens' Greetings)

N   26 40.92
W -82 13.29

A beautiful sunrise this morning over the mangroves.
Joyce and I exchanged 100 lengths of 1/2 inch galvanized chain this morning with much Ohhing and Ahhing and "just what I wanted". Actually we put it on the anchor two days ago and love it.

Only 9:30, and we've both been diving already!
-something indescribable was wrapped around the propeller.  We are anchored (very temporarily) south of Sarasota in barely six feet of water.  Fairly warm water, fortunately.
We should be under way shortly, heading for Venice and Sanibel.

does this look silly to you?  we are trying to redecorate the wheelhouse with better feng shui.

Classical Motifs in Sarasota

N 27 19.93
W 82 33.15
Dearest Elle,

We have found Nirvana in Sarasota.

The fog cleared, the channel opened into a bay, the air temp is in the 80's, the water in the high 70's, calm seas, wonderful swimming, a good anchorage, a quarter mile dinghy ride to downtown, a great tapas restaurant, new library (see column above) and a WHOLE FOODS MARKET.

Maybe I won't need to adjust my medication.

Love,

Lorenzo

Cold stares, thick fog, and low bridges

N 27 41.83

W 82 43.127

After days of waiting for the weather to calm down, we finally made it to Clearwater- and went into the Belleaire neighborhood to do some much-needed shopping.  Got some really cold stares from the walking dead that live here. As Christine says, you know all those old people that live on the east coast of Florida?  Well their parents live on this side.

We did look like the homeless with our backpacks and wheelie suitcases, stuffing our garbage into trash bins in our scruffy boat attire, but hey, that’s who we are, get over it.  When we got back to our dinghy some ancient crone with half a million dollars worth of plastic surgery was standing guard.  Hello, she says, I don’t believe I know you.  I know just about everyone that lives here.  We were on the sidewalk of her apartment building, so I guess we owed her an explanation.  She would last about 5 seconds in Harlem.  I did have a good time chatting her up, live on a boat for awhile and you’ll talk to a seagull.

So Sunday morning we pull out and head on down the ICW, when we get socked in with fog, which was awkward as the channel is pretty narrow and the water on each side about 2 ft deep.  You can’t see the channel markers and there’s always a bridge just ahead and the bridgetender won’t raise the bridge or answer the radio because every asshole in Florida is in his speedboat doing 40 mph in the blinding fog and if he answered every boater that wanted to talk to him he wouldn’t be able to give his porn site his full attention.  It’s daylight now and it looks like we’re in for more of the same. 

N 27 55.16

W 82 49.66

Here's Clearwater, world capital of Scientology (perhaps they give tours?)  The plan:  buy groceries and go!  Menu has deteriorated to pasta, pancakes, and grits.  

Here's L in our new dinghy- he went right to work on it.
It's 10 am, and we're waiting for a San Francisco-esque fog to lift.  When/if that happens, we might get as far as Clearwater today.
nb to Muz:  isn't Jim Griffin somewhere about these parts?

Florida is grey!

N 28 10.82

W 82 50.22

The good news is that the anchor is holding.

The last few days the weather has been blustery and the wind comes out of a new direction every hour at anywhere from 10 to 30 knots so we’re sort of sitting here spinning in circles and chewing through our stash of books.

We got caught in a tight little anchorage on Weds. with the wind holding us firm to a rock embankment, which was nasty, but we did manage to get out of there.  In all the frantic maneuvering I destroyed the dingy and sent my new motor right back to the shop, but the boat came out OK and the prop is fine.  Best to stay out of tight spots and away from rocks.  Most of the coast of Florida is only a few feet deep and the channels are narrow and shoaled, so we’re starting to appreciate open deep water and our anchor.  The mainland of Florida is one long strip mall and endless trashed out trailer parks, and it is really beautiful out here despite the weather, so we’re not complaining.

When these cold fronts blow through, we get our motor back and a new dinghy, and restock our salad bin, we’ll head further south.

uh-oh Wednesday

Chris came down from Gainsville and spent the night; very fun.  nb- for a good time, have Chris over.   As he was leaving and we needed a new outboard, he dropped us off at a nearby boat dealer.  We were fixed up with a new motor, and proceeded right into the eye of a storm (see weather, Weds 12/2, for Tampa area).  

We put the new motor on the old dinghy, and set off across 100 yards of harbor to our boat.  First the motor came unscrewed from the panel (sic?).  Then it refused to start- wet, probably.  We had now blown all the way across to our boat onto the mangroves, so I tried dragging the dinghy to the boat by its bow line.  This worked, but we were both so disoriented we left the dinghy tied to the back of the boat- and went to adjust our anchor, as it looked like we were drifting in the wind.  

In the process we noticed people on the dock pointing and yelling to us.  We had picked up the dinghy and turned it UPSIDE DOWN- with the new motor attached.  I ran to the stern in time to see us suck the dinghy under our boat and into the propeller.

Which we still have.  We went down and looked this morning, and it's still there.

The dinghy, however, is now a metal sculpture.

open seas

We crossed the Gulf from Apalachicola to the Tampa area and are anchored just outside Tarpon Springs in behind Anclote Key, a nice protected spot as it's supposed to get nasty later this week. The seas were a little rough at first but settled down as we approached the coast.  It's a little strange being way out there just listening to the hum of the diesel and staring at the horizon wondering what your going to do when things go bad, and of course things do go bad. Boating is about survival, as Elle points out, so you wake up every day, grit your teeth and Choose Life.
Joyce went down under the boat with the breathing gear and cut away a crab pot line from the prop, which was very exciting. The water's starting to get clearer and warmer as we go south so we can put on less wet suit when we swim.
Chris Nannig called and will visit today which will be a lot of fun, and then we'll just hunker down and wait for this cold front to blow by before we continue south. Running 10 hrs a day gets tiresome and it's lovely to lay about and read and do the occasional chore.