Time to move on!

My quick visit home for Christmas to visit my son Brian, his wife Melissa and my grand dog Paisley was so fun.  Paisley got new boots for Christmas!  So stylish!

I was also able to see a couple of friends and spend some time with my nephew Scott and his family!   

I had mixed feelings because it was so good to be home with family but I was missing Ken and our life on the boat.  

I made it back to the boat by 1 p.m. on Christmas day to a temperature of 80 degrees!  Christmas dinner was at a restaurant in Tampa, sitting outside overlooking the water.  It was a beautiful evening for dinner outside and a dinghy ride.   Quite a switch from Christmas in MN!

We left Tampa on Monday morning and traveled only 30 miles to the Manatee River where we anchored out for the night behind DeSoto Point.  It was a beautiful anchorage but as the sun went down, the wind picked up and we spent 8 hours spinning around our anchor and rocking with the waves slapping on the hull.  Needless to say we didn’t get much sleep! 

Today we headed only a short distance to Cortez, FL to the dock of looper friends Jayne and Bob from “Lady Jayne.”  We first met “Lady Jayne” at Green Turtle Bay in September, saw them again at Goose Pond in Alabama and continued to follow them on their blog.  They crossed their wake finishing the Loop in October when they reached their home in Cortez. 

We are docked at their dock in the canal at their condo complex.  We enjoyed a visit at their home, then did some sight seeing around Cortez and Bradenton, enjoying a lovely lunch at the Bradenton Yacht Club.  Bob is a wonderful musician and entertained us with a short medley on his grand piano!  WOW!   

Remember I said we didn’t get much sleep last night.  Well.................after we returned to the boat, we went and sat in the hot tub and enjoyed the swimming pool.  So relaxing!

Tonight will be a very early night!  So nice to be safely tied up at a dock and not spinning, rocking and rolling! 

We will head to Marina Jack’s in Sarasota on Wednesday where we will spend the month of January!

Good night all!  May our bed not rock tonight!

Tampa Boat Parade!

The past few days I have seen a lot of activity on this fire boat. The firefighters have been taking it out for practice runs. It is 75’ long, and powered by four 1,100 HP diesel engines pushing jet drives. It is amazing how this monster handles. They can walk it sideways off the dock, and it spins in its own length. Two of the engines power the water cannons and foam guns.

I was talking to some of the crew, and happened to meet the fire chief - Donny. When I told him we were doing the loop, but I was by myself for a few days due to Pat being gone, he invited me to ride along with he, his wife Kim, and some of their family and other firefighters on the annual Christmas boat parade! His boat is a 40’ Grand Banks trawler, and I noticed it all decorated on the residents docks. So off we went on a five hour cruise.

A video of the parade was loaded on our on line blog, complete with music.

OH YEAH - Donny & Kims boat took second place. The first few pics are of their boat.
Happy Holidays from 20BUCK$ and crew!

Tampa!

We left St. Petersburg this morning to travel just 20 miles to Tampa!  It was a bumpy ride across the bay as the wind was blowing pretty hard!  Moving the boat to Tampa gives Ken a change of scenery, gets me closer to the airport and also moves us from fixed docks to floating docks which are much safer to get on and off!

The ships are bigger on this side of Tampa Bay!  “Come quick, Ken says, and see the ship moving on the top of the houses!”  A cruise ship!  First one of these we have seen on this trip! 

We are staying at Marjorie Park Yacht Basin run by the city of Tampa!  It is a small marina, only 38 slips and a nice row of floating transient slips! 

I will fly home tomorrow, returning Christmas Day.  Ken has a list of boat projects to keep him busy while I am gone! 

By the way, I got a pretty good dolphin picture!  Not bad! 

Here is a parting shot of Tampa at night.  This is the view from 20BUCK$! 

Happy Holidays!  Pat

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I awoke this morning to the most beautiful sunrise!  What a difference from our usual view  in Minnesota on December 17th!  But then again, this is an unusual year!   Instead of getting up and going to work every day, we are enjoying a once in a lifetime adventure and living our dream! 

Yesterday the mail caught up with us and among the mail were Christmas cards from many of our friends and family!  We loved opening them, reading your letters and seeing the picture cards!   Thank you! 

Rather than sending out Christmas cards this year we created a slide show of our stroll through the holiday lights of downtown St. Petersburg, FL.  We hope you enjoy it and know that with it comes our warmest wishes for a joyous Christmas or Hanukkah and all the best to you and your family in the new year.  Just click on the link, turn up the volume and enjoy!

http://s1138.photobucket.com/albums/n532/Kennyg37/?action=view&current=X-Mas2011.mp4

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! 

Pat and Ken

Christmas 2011 aboard 20BUCK$

kengoewey@gmail.com

patgoewey@gmail.com

St. Petersburg, FL

When Pat and her two sisters were growing up, Pat’s mother and father called her “Baby Doll”. Baby Doll always got an extra present at Christmas! Well - I think her Mom or Dad made another appearance this year! This boat is just down from us in the marina we are staying at in St. Petersburg, FL.

Above is the Salvador Dali art museum, and a pic of Dali below. We toured the museum Tuesday. Dali was a Spanish artist born in 1904. The young Dali attended the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid. Early recognition of Dali’s talent came with his first one man show in Barcelona in 1925. He became internationally known when three of his paintings were shown in the third annual Carnegie International Exhibition in Pittsburgh in 1928.

Dali became the leader of the Surrealist Movement, and was widely known for using “Melting Watches” in his paintings. He then moved on to paintings with science and religious  connotations. He also did caricatures, and some mixed media in his later years.

We were not allowed to take any photos of the paintings, but I can tell you they were magnificent!

Many had hidden images within them, and some of the larger paintings (as big as 13‘X19’) would take on an entirely different appearance when you looked at them from a distance. 

Many of the smaller paintings had extreme detail to them. It was said that many portions were painted with one brush hair.

Salvador Dali

This free standing spiral concrete staircase inside the museum was three stories high. 

Outside of the museum, there was a “Wishing Tree”. We wrote a wish on our name bands, and hung them on the tree. If you ever have a chance to see a Dali exhibit, I would highly recommend it.

St. Pete has a very pretty downtown / waterfront area. . There are numerous shops, restaurants, and a multitude of beautiful parks. This photo was shot over the top of our boat. Hey Butch - notice how the wax shines!!!

P.Buckley Moss lives here and has her studio here!

Pat is flying home for a few days at Christmas so she can get her Brian and Melissa fix.  I am staying here hanging out with the locals.
Captain Ken

Tis the season!

The Holiday spirit has reached everyone here in Clearwater!! The Admiral had to find a new hat, the neighborhoods are decorated, and everyone is in a festive mood!

We have also been invited out for a few dinners!

I frequent the Cruisers Yacht Owners Club on the internet, and have gotten acquainted with a guy here in Clearwater. Jeff and his wife Andrea have a boat in the Clearwater Municipal Marina, and he was the one who recommended this marina as a stop. We are in a slip right next to them. Not only has Jeff carted us back and forth to the grocery store, West Marine for an oil and filter run, out to the beach bar for lunch, but they also had us over to their house Fri. evening for a delightful dinner!  Pictured are Jeff & Andrea with Grandma, and their son Jeff Jr. Missing is older son Brad, who I believe was busy on the computer, mapping out the route we took from Minnesota to Clearwater. 

We quickly discovered that Ford likes his ears scratched! But we are wondering about something. Jeff calls his Ford Mustang “Wilber”, and calls the dog “Ford”.

HUUUUMMMMMM!

And if that wasn’t enough, they had us over to their boat Sat. morning for brunch. Their French Toast made with chocolate & white pound cake, drizzled with chocolate syrup, strawberries, and whipped cream is nothing short of decadent!! YUMMMMM!




And  all of Clearwater must have heard we were hungry. Pats friends Wanda & Ted came to the boat and picked us up for dinner at their mother's house on Sat. night. Wanda & Pat worked together for years. It was so nice to see some other areas of Clearwater. Ted & I went for a long walk at a park near their mothers house. The land was owned by a citrus grower, and they gave it to the City, with the stipulation it not be developed, but be a park. There were trails and bridges through the woods, and over numerous ponds.

Ted and Wanda Rogers

Today we took a long dinghy ride. Just north of us is an area called Caladesie. Much is a State Park, and there is a peninsula full of water front homes.

We followed the shore line up to the end, where we were told there is a small sand beach we could pull the dinghy up on, and a short walk through the park would take us to the Gulf side. 

We finally found the spit of sand at the end, but the water was much too shallow to get the dinghy up to it. So, we just pulled it through the water, until it was sitting firmly on the bottom.

A short walk through the mangroves, and we came to a beautiful beach! The shore was lined with thousands of sea shells, and the surf was lazily rolling onto the sand. Pat saw some bird prints in the sand, under the water.

Down the beach a ways, we found a bush decorated with seashells. We walked and walked, and when it came time to go back, we could not remember were the path came onto the beach!!

A number of false starts, and we finally found it.

However, when we got to where we left the dinghy, it wasn’t there! And I didn’t remember the water being this far up on the sand toward the mangroves??? DUHHHH! The tide is coming in - it floated the dinghy off the bottom!! We have been on our first floating dock in weeks, and forgot all about the tide. Oh well - Pat didn’t have to wade out too far to retrieve it! And NO! That does NOT count for a Wing Ding Dam Award!

On the way back, we rode along the other shore line with all the houses. These houses sit on a peninsula, and have the Inter-coastal Waterway on this side, and the Gulf on the other.

Some people down here sure want to get places fast! That’s 1,050 HP on the back of that 32’ boat!

The boat on the right is a new 51’ Regal. It was at the City docks we are staying at the other day.

The back trunk opens as the walk in access to the stand up engine room. As an added bonus, there is a 12’ dinghy with a 30HP outboard stored in there. It sits on a launch ramp for easy deployment, and has a winch to pull it back in. 

 All for now. The excitement has me worn out! See you all next time!

                                                Captn Ken

Starring "Winter" the famous Dolphin!

What a treat!  It was a beautiful, sunny, cool day today so we decided to walk over the Clearwater Bay Causeway and go to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium(CMA)!   CMA is really more of a marine hospital and rehabilitation center than what you would consider the average aquarium!  They rescue marine animals/mammals, bring them to the aquarium where they assess, prescribe and treat the injury or illness! 

Winter, the dolphin, that the movie Dolphin Tale is based on was rescued, treated and continues to rehab at the CMA.  If you have seen the movie you know the basic story.  In a nutshell, Winter (named for the season he was rescued in) was injured by an encounter with a crab pot.  His mouth was cut and his tail badly injured by the line of the crab pot.  When brought to the CMA, he was in critical condition and the staff at the aquarium held out little hope that Winter would survive!  But survive he did and he is flourishing!  Hangar industries volunteered time to design and manufacturer a prosthetic tail for Winter.  If you watch a dolphin swim, it is their tail that propels them through the water.  The worry is that Winter will sustain spinal damage if he doesn’t learn to swim with his body aligned.  It was amazing to watch the trainer working with him.

Also at the CMA was Nicholas!  Nicholas was found in the same lagoon as Winter, almost a year to the day later.  He was trying to nurse on his mother who was critically ill.  When a dolphin becomes ill, they beach themselves and the baby follows.  Both mama Noelle and baby Nicholas were rescued and brought to CMA.  Noelle died after just a few days and Nicholas was very ill because he had suffered sunburn on over 30% of his body.  Today Nicholas is healthy and happy at the CMA.  He has visible scars on his back from the burns but otherwise he is very active.  He starred in Dolphin Tale as a girl dolphin!

Nicholas put on quite the show for us!

CMA also has several sea turtles that they have rescued!  The top one is Stumpy, born with a deformed flipper and the bottom is Cocoa, a green turtle who is blind!

The walk across the bridge was beautiful and here are a few shots from the bridge! 
The last picture is a vase sponge that we bought in Tarpon Springs at the sponge dock.  I had to wait to show it to you until I had a plant in it! 
Lovin' every minute - Pat