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

Clearwater, FL

We have enjoyed some nice relaxing days in Clearwater.  There are two municipal marinas in Clearwater, one is on Clearwater Beach and one is on the downtown side of the ICW where new docks and marina were opened a year ago.  We are at the downtown docks, next to another Cruiser’s Yachts owner that Ken met through the Cruiser’s forum on the internet.  Jeff has been so helpful in giving us transportation to the local grocery store and of course West Marine.    We have so enjoyed his company and look forward to spending more time with him and meeting his family.

The beach is only a short dinghy ride away and it is beautiful, miles of beautiful sugar sand!  We have and will again enjoy walking on the beach, collecting shells and visiting some of the local restaurants.  

It is getting close to the Christmas holidays and I love Christmas, all the lights and decorations.  I very much will miss putting up our Christmas tree this year so the next best thing is to decorate the boat, which we did.  Melissa’s parents called it “decking the hull and bow” with holly!  I like that so am using it on the blog.  Friends, Peggy and Terry had sent us these stockings, we picked up the tree in Fairhope, AL and the lights here in Clearwater.  Remember the restaurant in Tarpon with the decorated life ring buoy, well ours is just as pretty.    Hanging in the middle is one of my favorite shrimp boats!  :>)

Enjoy our attempt at creating the Holiday spirit aboard 20BUCK$.

We will stay in Clearwater another week before we make our way down to Sarasota where we will spend January! 

Feliz Navidad!  Pat

Tarpon Springs!

Another beautiful and interesting city!  We went exploring this morning before leaving Tarpon Springs.  We walked over to Spring Bayou, shown above to watch the manatees!  They are as hard to photograph as dolphins but here is a butt and a fluke!  What a beautiful area with gorgeous homes and a wonderful walking path.

We bid good-bye to another beautiful city and headed for Clearwater.  We cruised very slow today and only 20 miles.  What an enjoyable ride compared to our two days of over 230 miles on the BIG water!  We are at Clearwater Harbor Marina and will be here for at least a week.  Ken is down to only one pair of underwear left so it must be time to do laundry.  It has been a very busy last week and laundry was not high on the list! 

Remember those dang crab pots!  Well I was in no frame of mind while doing the crossing to take a picture of one but here it is!  Add to this 3 - 4 foot waves that hide the buggers, running at 25 mph and a multitude of colors - black, red, yellow, green or brown.  You never knew what to watch for! 

 Here is my little friend sitting just off the bow on the pelican pole bidding us good-bye as we prepared to leave Tarpon.  Love these guys!

The pictures below will be our view for the next week.  It is 81 today!  Now this is what I expected FL weather to be!   Hear MN had snow.  So far I am not missing the white stuff! 

Ken has an acquaintance whose boat is next to us here and my good friends Wanda and Ted are staying here for the winter with Ted’s 96 year old mother.  We are hoping to be able to spend time with both while we are here.

We are so lucky!  Pat

Steinhatchee to Tarpon Springs!

Yesterday we awoke to a nice, clear day! The weather looked good for the next run to Tarpon Springs. The weather forecast was for 10 to 15 MPH winds in the NE. Wave heights were predicted at 3’ to 4’. That would mean we would be taking the waves on our port stern quarter as we head south. As we are new to this “big water” running, we weren't sure how this would affect the boat. But - we figured the worst that would happen was if we didn’t like the conditions, we’d just turn around and head back to Steinhatchee.  So off we went, out to the “deep blue”! Well - not really deep - we ran in 20’ to 40’ all day.

Leaving with us was the boat “At Last” They are a father / son team from Canada doing the loop together. As we had 110 statute miles to go, we knew we’d have to be able to get up on plane, and run 25 to 30 MPH to make it during daylight.  Again, we were not sure how the boat would handle this, so we figured we better find out right away. As soon as we cleared the channel,  we put the pedal to the fiberglass. The first thing we discovered was that salt water does not run off the windshield, even thought I had RainX’d the glass. Thank goodness for the monster wiper we have on the drivers side.

However, Pat could not see a thing out her side. As she was the designated “crab pot” spotter, this was a problem. For those of you that do not know about crab pots, here is an explanation. The “crabbers” drop wire cages with cement bottoms in them in water from 20’ to 50’ deep. The cages have a rope attached with a small, colored float at the end. The float is not much bigger than a kitten ball.

The pots are dropped in lines, about 200’ apart.

Now imagine running at 30 MPH, with 4’ waves, trying to see the floats! Not real easy. The issue is if you get a line in your prop, or wrapped around the prop shaft, it can lock up the shaft, and that side is out of commission until you dive down and cut the line off. The other issue, is if the rope does not get cut, or does not break, that pot will come screaming up, and smack the bottom of the boat. More damage!

We quickly discovered that the pot lines were running at a 45 degree angle to our line of travel.

Pat could see the lines out the side windows, and let me know they were coming. Then I would spot a float, and turn the boat to run about 75’ from it. That way, we knew we’d miss the next float in line.

20BUCK$ was handling the water nicely, so we figured we’d keep going. A radio call to At Last confirmed they were continuing also. 

As we were busy watching for crab pots, and trying to stay on course while dodging them, we didn’t get many pictures. About all you would have seen would be salt water spray, and water, water, water! We did get a shot of this ocean tug when we slowed down near the entrance to Anclote Key, the barrier island by Tarpon. 

We  heard the Coast Guard handling a few distress calls from other boats. One was from a 60’ pleasure craft taking on water. The CG dispatched a chopper with a pump to drop to the boat. A while later we heard the CG asking the Captain if he would be willing to abandon ship if they sent a chopper to pick him up. We could only hear the CG side of the conversation, and do not know what the final outcome was. However, I think the dispatcher was getting a little frustrated with the guy, as he had been in communication for almost two hours until we lost the transmissions.

We arrived at Anclote Key early afternoon, and ran up the inlet to a marina to get fuel and pump out the head. There are sure not many pump outs in Florida. Most boaters just go out past the 3 mile line, and puke it over.  We do not have overboard discharge capabilities.

Then we headed to the City Marina, which is right at the Sponge Docks, and in the heart of the Old Tarpon Greek district. I’ll let Pat take it from here.

Capt'n Ken

Pat here - 

An added note from me about the crossing.  We did it and I really don’t ever want to do it again unless they outlaw crab pots - hate them!  Here we are coming into the Anclote River on our way up to the marina where we will get some much needed rest, especially the Captain.  When we are up and running hard, I can’t drive because I can’t see over the bow so Ken had to stand at the helm the entire day dodging crab pots.  

The further up the river we drove, the busier it became.  Lots of commercial fishing and sponge boats. 

After we had relaxed a little sitting and doing nothing, we headed down the street to a restaurant recommended to us - Dimitri’s.  It was Ken’s birthday and in addition to crossing the gulf without hitting any crab pots on his birthday, it was time for a nice dinner!

After dinner we wandered the streets in search of a birthday cake for Mr. Sweet Tooth.  We found the other place recommended to us - Hella’s restaurant and bakery!   Ken was in heaven!  He picked out his piece of cake and off we went back to the boat to celebrate.  Birthday candles were not on my provisioning list so I had to improvise. 

The town was decorated for Christmas and I now have an idea of what to do with our ring buoy!   Ken likes projects so this will be a good one.  We will have to look for some decorations to add to it.  Pretty neat!

All the dock pilings were wrapped with Christmas garland, quite festive.  Still weird to see decorations and have it be warm.

So we said goodnight to a very tiring but exciting day!  Happy Birthday to Ken, one he won’t forget!

Did I mention that while in Hella’s bakery last night, the Captain had to pick up his breakfast treat too? 

And another day begins!  Today we will enjoy the town of Tarpon Springs and thank God for getting across the gulf safe and sound!

Apalachicola to Steinhatchee!

Today is the day we make the much thought about “Gulf Crossing!” The weather has not been real cooperative lately, and today was the first decent weather window in site. However, they were still talking 2’ to 4’ seas, and some wind.

We decided to get up early and decide if we’d go.

The rest of the group had moved to Carabelle, and was leaving from there. They are doing the slow overnight to Clearwater. We decided against that, and decided to do it in two runs: Apalachicola to Steinhatchee, then Steinhatchee to Tarpon Springs. When we awoke, this is what we saw. You know the saying: Red Sky At Night - Sailors Delight. Red Sky In The Morning - Sailors Take Warning!

Pat  was a little nervous. She said: “You drive the boat - I’m crawling into a fetal position and seeking shelter in the salon!”

What you see is a down sleeping bag we bought at the Goodwill store in Port St Joe for $10.00.  We had been thinking about what could go wrong on the crossing. We have heard many stories of rough weather, big waves, seasickness, and dinghys being lost or damaged. The dinghy we carry tipped up on the back has a 15 horse 2 stroke outboard. The motor weighs 85 lbs. With that hanging on the dinghy, we figured it may be a problem if we get into very rough water. So - I ran the gas out of it, we wrapped it in a large plastic trash bag, put it in the sleeping bag, and tucked it between the couch and the table leg. Shouldn’t go anywhere there. Had you guessing - didn’t I! 

We had done a final check on Weather Underground, read Marvs Daily Virtual Bouy Reports, checked the AGLCA site, and looked at Windfinder. Everything pointed to an OK, not great day. Looked like it could be a little choppy. We decided to go for it, with the understanding that when we hit East Pass and entered the Gulf, about 30 miles from the marina we were staying at, if it looked too rough, we would turn back and go into Carabelle. The pic to the left is what we saw just out of east pass. Looked like a GREAT day! We ran up to about 30 MPH, and made some miles.

About an hour of running, it started to get a little choppy. We were taking some spray over the hard top. Seems some of those pesky 4 footers were finding us. And these were not “rollers” or swells. The water was getting to be confused and a tight chop. Then we heard a “bang!” Something fell! Turns out one of the stand offs on the dinghy had lost a nut, and one arm fell. Lucky we didn’t have the motor on! We slowed down, and Pat took the helm while I donned my life jacket, and went out onto the swim platform to fix it. I had a good assortment of fasteners on board, and got the bracket bolted back together.  We tried to get back up and running, but it was now too rough. We put it down to 15 MPH, and slugged through it for about an hour.  After about an hour of slow running, it calmed down, and off we went at 30 MPH for the rest of the run.

We made it to Sea Hag marina, washed the salt off the boat, and had a little toast to our adventure.

Tomorrow promises to be 4 MPH winds for our 130 miles to Tarpon Springs.

Check back tomorrow night to see if we made it!  Captain Ken