Back on the water again! Our friends from Glen Ellyn, IL, Jay and Kay Strayer have joined us for a few days over New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. We left Sarasota today and cruised down to Boca Grande, a veryu nice cruise on the ICW. In the open bays, the dolphins cooperated nicely by surfing in our wake and jumping for the Strayers.

We’re anchored in the little Boca Grande harbor. This is a playground for the rich and famous and the economy is in no way tied to the cruising boats and marinas. There is almost no place to get in, but boats can anchor along the side of the harbor channel and tie their sterns to the mangroves lining the harbor to keep the boats all lined up and out of the channel. We’re in there just to the right of the center of the picture with a number of smaller cruisers and sailboats, all lined up against the mangroves. The boats on the left are the expensive private boats of local residents.

Here’s the way you tie to the mangroves. We're really in close to shore! There’s 6 ft of water this close in at high tide and 4.5 ft. at low tide, which is the minimum we need. It works fine and we dinghy over to Boca Grande downtown at a dock for the Pink Elephant restaurant, which is very nice and, of course, expensive.

Boca Grande is one of the barrier islands that protect the mainland from Gulf waves and create the intercoastal waterway channel. The little downtown and beautiful golf course at the waterfront is cute and quaint and everybody seems to drive golf carts here instead of cars. Even the kids drive golf carts down the streets. We sat and had fancy drinks and appetizers at the Pink Elephant’s patio bar and then walked across the island to see the beach on the gulf side, the girls walked to the little downtown shops, but they were closed by 5 PM when they got there.

We’re just going out to run in the Gulf today and stop at some little uninhabited islands, if we can. We’ll probably have to anchor and run the dinghy in to an island.

Like the song says:

I'llllll be hoooooooome for Christmas!

A very nice dog kennel called because they had a cancellation so I got a reservation for Daisy. I also got mileage flights from United for 12/24 to 12/27.

Cool!

FISH! At many docks in saltwater we have been hearing little “crunch, crunch, crunch” sounds as we go to sleep, almost like fish with teeth were cleaning the algae off our boat bottom. I have been telling Kathy that it’s marine life of some sort and also dock creaking sounds that travel extremely well underwater and our boat hull picks them up. Then today I saw these Sheepshead fish munching on the plentiful oysters growing on the floating docks and piers. A guy that was here to recharge one of our air conditioners with Freon said he catches them on oysters and they’re bony but absolutely delicious. So today, I reached down in the water at the floating dock and pulled off an eating sized oyster (yes, you can just reach in and grab one!). I cracked it open, put it on a hook and caught this beauty! We didn’t eat him though, I released him without ever touching him. He’ll probably keep me up tonight by crunching loudly.

Look at these teeth! That’s what you gotta have if you want fresh oysters and there’s no raw bar around.

There has been a porpoise swimming around our harbor frequently. When he comes up to breathe, he blows, like a teeny whale. Daisy hears it and jumps up from her usual sleeping positions to see what’s going on. She saw him this time. Usually she looks out the back hatch and misses seeing him.

Here’s Marina Jack’s Marina in downtown Sarasota, where it was 80 degrees and sunny today. This picture is taken from a little peninsula park opposite the marina. You can see Nonchalance, stern out, is the 3rd boat from the right side of the picture. There are over 100 boats here and we’re not that big. That’s a 70 ft. sportfish next to the blue glass and white marina building. It’s a really easy walk downtown from here.

Sunsets are right out our aft deck. The picture was this evening’s sunset, and the sun is setting right about where I was standing when I took the picture of the marina above. We can sit out on the aft deck at night with the lights on and no bugs! No sand burrs, no skeeters, nice spot!

We visited the John & Mabel Ringling (of circus fame) estate and museum today. Sarasota was their summer home and they had a spectacular home on 80 acres overlooking the bay, all decorated in early gauche. They traveled extensively and collected art and built a museum on their grounds to display it to the public. This is their deck overlooking the bay. The grounds had a very large rose garden in full bloom and about a dozen huge banyon trees, like those found in Africa, with hundreds of tree size air-roots supporting tree sized branches such that one banyon tree looks like a 1/4 acre jungle all by itself.

This is the art museum sculpture garden, with 8 large display halls all around 3 sides and the bay on the 4th side. The art was mostly 15th through 19th century oil paintings of religious subjects. I only appreciated about 1/10th of it because you get religious subject overload quickly. He also had a small pocket watch collection, which I liked.

The foundation the Ringlings funded to run the art museum also recently built a large museum to house the most incredible circus model ever built. It was just completed in 2004. One man with a lifelong interest in circus models spent 55 years (yes 55 years) building an extremely detailed Ringling Bros. Circus model. The building has it laid out just as a circus would have been in 1927 pulling into a town on their circus train, unloading all the animals, 1500 performers and the equipment, hauling it through the town and setting up many huge tents with a menagerie tent and a 3 ring circus bigtop. It doesn’t sound that interesting until you see the actual models, which are beautifully done and the displays are masterfully laid out. The picture above is a small part of the total town, which is laid out in about ½ an acre of space about 2 ½ ft. off the ground (so kids can see it well). The people in the model are about 4 inches tall, all to scale. The man who built it is now about 80 and still working on it.

Sarasota is BEAUTIFUL! Sorry I don't have any pictures yet.

We got here yesterday after running all afternoon in the ICW. We had waited until noon to start because of fog in the morning (the first fog day we've had). We only had to go 60 miles to Sarasota. When we left Clearwater, I had planned to go outside in the Gulf, but Kathy didn't like the 3 ft. waves so we went back into the ICW where the only problem is slow speed "no wake" zones and waiting for bridges to open. Mostly it wasn't a problem because we could go fast in the open water protected bays to make up for the slow ICW speed. We got here about 5:15 PM which is good because sunset is about then and I really don't want to cruise at night.

Marina JAck's Marina, where we're staying is right in the center of downtown Sarasota. You can walk to the neat historic downtown district which is now all art stores, restaurants, antique stores and bars. It's right in the middle of Sarasota's downtown rejuvenation district where they've spent millions making it beautiful and attractive to use. Parks, gardens, walkways, fountains, etc. Kind os a small version of Chicago's lakefront improvements. It's also just a short drive to the Sarasota beach area which is loaded with the same kinds of stores times ten. The marina itself has excellent floating docks, excellent security, very good restaurants, and the view from our aft deck is perfect for sunsets over the water and the park.

We found out today that American Airlines completely hosed us for flying home with Daisy. What they didn't tell us (even when I asked if there are any regulations about flying with dogs when I made the dog reservation) is that they will refuse to take pets if the outside temperatures are forecast to be below 45 degrees at any airport on the itinerary. What do you think the chances are that it'll be above 45 degrees at O'Hare at 6 AM on December 28th?

So now Kathy's going to Chicago but I'm staying here with Daisy (my offer) and working on the boat (I always have a list of things to do) plus lazing around in Sarasota. The boat's already paid for at this marina. We'll call more kennels on Monday, but they all seemed to be full when we tried in mid-November. If we can get a reservation for Daisy at a kennel, I'll come too. What a hassle! No thanks to American Airlines.

We went from Tarpon Springs to Clearwater today, an easy 3 hours in the Gulf with waves less than 1 ft. ….just plain flat water. SO we stayed out of the ICW and ran outside in the Gulf because it’s prettier and easier.

FISH TRAPS! There are actually about 4 or 5 little floats in the water in this picture (also, that's Clearwater off in the distance). We passed hundreds of them today. You have to watch out not to run over them and get the lines tangled in your props and shafts. I installed “Prop Spurs” on my props last winter ,during winter storage, so they’ll just cut the lines before they get wrapped up on a spinning prop if we do hit some. These little floats are literally all over the Gulf within 10 miles of any inlet where boats can have a home port and go out to fish. They are everywhere that there is 8 to 15 ft. of water. Once you’re in 20 ft or more, you don’t see many at all. I had never thought of how much of this type of fishing is done by small local fishermen who own one 20 to 40 ft boat and set traps with the little floats.

There was a light rain on and off all day, but the approach to Clearwater and the town of Clearwater Beach where we’re staying were really nice. It’s a quaint little boat and tourist town with a long palm lined boulevard along the beach, filled with restaurants, clothing stores, antique stores and tourist traps but it’s most enjoyable just to walk off the boat and go see the town. We met our friends Bill & Jane Stones (boat name “Loose Stones”) who just completed their Great Loop Route trip. We first met them on the Ohio River. Their dog (also named Daisy) and ours had become friends too. We ate lunch with the Stones at a beachfront restaurant that had really great grilled Florida grouper sandwiches and French fried onion straws

People have asked how Daisy enjoys the cruising. Here’s how she spends almost all day when the boat’s running, but she does enjoy lots of new places to walk and sniff whenever we arrive at a new place. She’s also losing her fear of new people and new dogs. Bill Stone and I walked our two Daisys over to the beach today. Daisy ran in the water, but didn’t appreciate the taste of salt water, and of course, I had to hose her off when we got back to the boat. She also made friends with a cocker spaniel on the boat next door here at the marina today.

So here’s how far we’ve gotten on the Great Loop Route. The red line is growing! On to Sarasota tomorrow.

Another beautiful day cruising. We went from Yankeetown, FL to Tarpon Springs, FL. This was the last leg requiring open water cruising and the Gulf was as calm as anybody would want….waves about 1 ft. where we were. Temps were in the mid 60s offshore and mid 70s in Tarpon Springs. We cruised about 3 to 10 miles out from land to keep in water that was continuously 12 to 20 ft. deep.

It has been amazing how shallow the Gulf really is. When you stand onshore and look at it, you presume it starts out shallow near shore and then gets deeper and deeper, but it doesn’t. On Florida’s West Coast where we have been, the vast majority of waters within about 2 or 3 miles of land, and lots of large areas within 5 to 8 miles lo land are frequently 1 to 8 ft deep with shallows and shoals everywhere. Not until you get about 10 miles out is it consistently 20 ft deep or more.

With the normal winter weather pattern winds come from the northeast so when you’re within about 10 miles of land the waves are small. The farther out you go from land, the more reach there is for the wind to make larger, more organized waves. Therefore, today and yesterday within 5 to 10 miles of land it was very comfortable, but with similar 15 to 25 knot winds as yesterday, the crossing of 70 miles of the Gulf the day before started out 70 miles DOWNWIND from where we wanted to go. That meant big waves.

Tarpon Springs is a very interesting fishing, sponge diving, and touristy Greek heritage town. It’s full of Greek restaurants, Greek bakeries, sponge sellers and small tourist items in little shops along the waterfront. We’re going to stay here 2 days just for fun. We ate at a seafood restaurant tonight and I had REALLY good stone crab claws. Kathy had the stuffed locally caught Florida grouper. I think we’ll have to eat Greek for one dinner just to partake of the atmosphere here, but I really like the seafood.

Sand Burrs! Yeeouch!
This little guy is about 3 inches tall and looks like grass. All the soil is either sandy soil or pure sand around here and these little buggers look like grass and grow in the grass (where Daisy likes to walk and sniff, of course). They have those small burr heads with very sharp spines. We have to check Daisy’s feet for them every time we get back to the boat from a walk and sometimes she starts limping because she gets one on a foot and we have to de-burr her during the walks. They don’t bother people with shoes much because they’re so small and low to the ground.

We’re at Yankeetown, FL on the Withlacootchie River after a beautiful day cruising on calm waters, then up a really beautiful river where you have to idle because of manatees (didn’t see any).



First there is about 5 miles of salt marsh with palm trees and never-ending turns.




This is followed by a river more narrow than the Fox river at our house, but 10 to 18 ft. deep.


10 miles up river, we found a very small marina where there were no docks with deep enough water for our boat (we just need 4 ½ ft.) so for $20 they let us raft up to a 60 ft. shrimp boat tied up on a dock at the channel of the river. It works fine because we can just walk across the shrimp boat decks to that dock to walk in town.




Temps in the 70s, appetizers on the foredeck watching the river for manatees but just seeing fish and turtles. VERY nice.


All this nice stuff was after a bad day yesterday crossing 70 miles of the gulf in open waters with 6 ft waves that knocked everything off shelves that wasn’t stored correctly (mostly just books and kitchen items on countertops, knocked over the aft deck table (didn’t hurt it), scared Kathy, and made me seasick. The boat performed truly great. When we left the last buoy of the channel at Carrabelle, I got the bearing for the Steinhatchee channel entrance from our GPS, set it as the heading in the autopilot, turned on the stabilizers and let ‘er go. I reall didn’t have to touch the controls for the next 6 hours. The waves didn’t roll us because of the stabilizers, but the boat rocked forward into every big wave, hitting some hard and riding others up and down. White water over the bow all the time and windshield wipers could barely keep up. The NOAA waves forecasts were to be like that for the next 4 days, so we either had to wait a total of 6 days in Carrabelle, or go.

Today was one of the days you dream about on a Florida cruise, yesterday wasn’t. Tomorrow is supposed to be calm and beautiful again and we’re going to Tarpon Springs, so the rest of our Florida West coast trip can be in the calm intercoastal waterway.

Ahh…Florida It has been too cold…..38 at night and 62 high today, but it’s fun. The shrimp boats in the sunset are from last night at Panama City and the dolphins are from today on our trip to Carribelle, FL.

The dolphins found us in every bay where there was deeper water. Surprisingly, some of the very large bays, like Apalachicola are only 2 to 8 ft. deep. They look like huge, deep bays but we in over half of the areas we can only go where there is a channel dredged to 12 ft. for the ICW.

However, in the deeper (35 ft.) bays, dolphins abound and there were frequently 2 or 3 of them playing in our wake. I only got the good pictures of them jumping by taking about 30 pictures (aren’t digital cameras great? …..just delete the bad pix). At first I would wait for them to start a jump and press the shutter button. I was able to get at least a dozen perfect shots of a dolphin tail and the splash. Then I tried pressing the shutter button whenever they looked like they might be getting ready to jump. Doing this, I got 20 pictures of just our wake and 2 pictures of a dolphin in the air. They also just come up slightly above the surface or stick their head out just to eye you and see what you are and what you are doing.
We’ll be here in Carribelle for 2 days waiting for good weather to cross the open waters of the Gulf to Steinhatchee. It’s only 90 miles total, but the forecast for tomorrow is OK in the AM and then 4 to 7 ft. waves late in the afternoon, and that’s when we’d be finishing the crossing. NO Thanks! Then Friday is more 4 to 7 ft. waves and some 6 to 8 ft. so we’ll wait for Saturday to cross, when it’s supposed to 3 to 4 ft. AM and 2 ft. PM waves. We have 2 more days after that of open water cruising, but always near the coast where we can just quit and go to a safe spot to anchor if we don’t like the waves. "The boat can take more than the crew can".....ya’ know. After we get to Florida’s West Coast, it’s all cruising in protected waters until we make another open water crossing from the Everglades to Marathon Key to start our Keys cruising.

We bought an airline approved dog transporter to bring Daisy home with us for the holidays. Daisy’s gonna’ have some learning experiences too.

SHRIMP BOATS! The marina at Panama City is part of the large docks for the gulf shrimp boats. They go out at night, trawl for shrimp and come back in the mornings. We got here about 2 PM and they were selling shrimp from the shrimp boats. Depending on size, they were $3.50/lb. $5.50/lb. or $7.50/lb. I got 2 lbs. of the $7.50/lb shrimp (see pix) and grilled them on the barbeque. YUMMMM.

We arrived at Panama City, FL this afternoon after an easy day coming from Destin. We were greeted by the local “dock pelican”, a very large brown pelican that walks the docks and begs for food (maybe shrimp from the shrimp boats?). I wasn’t about to give him any of my shrimp.

The “bad day” forecast for yesterday wasn’t that bad, but we did have 42 MPH wind gusts overnight on 12/3 with forecast rough waves, so we stayed at Destin an extra day yesterday. The trip today was about half in large saltwater bays and half in the ICW, frequently called “The Ditch” by locals because it is a canal dug between the bays and the protected waters behind the barrier islands. One part of the Ditch today was called the Grand Canyon because the hard sands of the walls of the canal have eroded to look like the walls of the Grand Canyon in miniature (like 20 ft. high walls).

We’re going to Carrabelle tomorrow, where the ICW ends until Tarpon Springs down the West coast of Florida. We’ll have to watch the marine forecasts carefully for a few days. I have about 7 days in the plan to do the 4 days we’ll be on open Gulf waters between anchorages or marinas at night, so 3 weather days are OK, but they’d take away from our ability to stop and stay at interesting ports of call like Tarpon Springs. We did get Florida fishing licenses at WalMart in Destin (only $35 for a year) so I might try fishing if we’re stuck in port one of the next days.

DOLPHINS! They come with the salt water and are soooo…COOL! Three of them surfed along in our boat wake for about half and hour today as we passed through one of the bays on the ICW (InterCoastal Waterway). With our boat’s wake they surf alongside the side of the boat where the bow wake spreads out in a V, instead of up at the bow like I have seen them do with other boats. That’s much better because you can just step outside on the side walkway and watch them in comfort instead of having to lean out over the bow. They were absolutely just playing with the wave. They can surf the bow wave from the underside of the wave like surfers would surf it from the top, so they’re going at exactly our boat speed (about 10 knots today) without even swimming. It’s just effortless. Then they jump out of the water every 10 or 15 seconds…..I just couldn’t get a picture of one in the air.

We’re in Destin, FL tonight. We’ll probably be here for 2 or 3 days because of the predicted high winds and waves, but then again, they predicted that for today before, but then moved it back to Sunday evening, so we cruised on to Destin today.

The marina has a loaner car and we went to the grocery store to get food and discovered a good bakery. That means I’ll definitely get up early tomorrow to get donuts and a Sunday paper so we can have our usual Sunday breakfast.

Pensacola, FL is a real city but we don’t have a rental car to go far, but we were here about a year ago and we saw the Blue Angles home base and the Naval Air Museum here. However, within easy walking distance is the quaint old historic district of Pensacola. It has the old ca. 1900 town square and original buildings. The square has HUGE live oak trees in it (see pix), the original, still functioning county courthouse and lots of shops. We found a good bakery there where we could get French bread to go with the last bit of a great brie we found back in Columbus, MS. Ahh….one of the hassles of traveling the waterways of America…..it’s so hard to find a great brie and a good baguette!

All along the waterfront in Pensacola everything is new, owing to hurricanes Ivan and Katrina. Much of the waterfront here was destroyed, so the port of Pensacola, the offices, condos and the marina we are staying in are all new. The marina just finished getting into full operations last week. Some of the waterfront now has “Dockominiums”, which is something relatively new and something that has recently been bad for marinas. A Dockominium is a condo that comes with it’s own privately owned slip at a private dock connected to a waterfront condominium. What has been bad for marinas is that the hard part of making a dockominium is getting waterfront land, getting the permits and building the docks and slips. Therefore, developers buy land next to existing marinas, buy the marina and then build condos and turn it into a dockominium. In that case, it’s “goodbye marina!” so available marina slips are being reduced. There seem to be enough transient slips for us traveling boaters though.

We’re planning to take the ICW (Intercoastal Waterway) to Ft. Walton Beach tomorrow. We’ll probably be there 2 days or so due to predicted gale force winds on Sunday, but we’ll wait and see what happens and decide later.