Dragon's Dance

The time has come to get going again. Hard to believe that we have been here almost a month. But, weather permitting we will pull out no later than Monday the 25th. We are now truly serious cruisers even though we are still just rednecks with a boat. We sold the truck yesterday which was out last tie to land. We had been jumping the truck down with us from Carrabelle. I caught a ride at Thanksgiving and brought the truck down to Clearwater. Then some friends coming this way brought the truck down to us here in Ft Myers Beach. But it just getting too difficult to arrange to move it with us. So it is now sold. Good news is we can pay out taxes, thanks Obama. Maybe we will have something left over for a happy meal? Maybe not.

Anyway we hit the farmers market not he beach this morning and reprovisioned fresh veggies and fruits. Then caught the trolly, 50 cents each woo hoo! to Publix and finished up the canned and packaged goods along with some fresh meats for the small freezer. Now just a run to the pharmacy to refill a couple of scripts. Tomorrow we top up the tanks and we are ready to go.

This afternoon one last trip to Lovers Key for a little beach time and we are off to Cayo Costa. At least that is the plan now.

So bye to the truck and hello to foot and trolly travel. If we are in any one place long enough maybe I'll spring for a used scooter that we can sell on Craigs List when we leave.

Best to all

Cap't Ron

I'm reminded today how much different boat life is from living on dirt. Some things are easier and better. For instance, we very quickly know almost all our neighbors in any anchorage we stop. Almost all are ready to help with anything from advice to repairs and parts. Local knowledge gets shared right away. Dollar Taco Tuesday at Yo Taco, 2PM happy hour at the Beached Whale, how to negotiate the bus and trolly system, etc. Then of course there is the really good parts like everyone know what the weather will be but nobody knows what new atrocity happened in DC today. Gotta love that.

That said, some things are harder and some much harder. Water weighs a lot and we transport it to the boat via 5 gal jerry can which then news to be hoisted to the deck and poured into the water tanks. Same with gas for the generator and dinghy motor. Oars being the other option for the latter and surprisingly there are quite a few of us old farts that row. In my cast it's because I'm too cheap to buy a new outboard. Still running a 1963 British Seagull that may or may not be temperamental today. Cool factor is high though and she gets lots of comments at the dinghy dock. Back to the generator. Yes, we are energy independent but with a price. The 12 volt world requires feeding and neither solar nor wind will keep up with running a fridge and constantly having to charge laptops and phones for my two other captains ( and me too). We try to conserve but still have to run the generator a 3 or 4 hours each day to stay topped up.

Yes, for those considering it. It's not all Sundowners and dollar tacos. But beats the heck out of dirt dwelling, at least for now.

Well it has been a while since I updated this so here goes. Obviously we did pull out of Clearwater leaving, reluctantly, behind some very good new friends that we hope to see again. Right now I am sitting on a mooring ball in Ft Meyers Beach and enjoying my birthday. 62. Never thought I'd get this old!

To bring everyone up to date we pulled out of Clearwater and elected to run the ditch south since there was no good inlet to come back in within an easy days sail. We ran as far as Boca Ciega and got treated to a nice 'sky lantern' display that night.

Day two we crossed Tampa Bay under sail and entered the 'real' south Florida' starting to see royal palms now. We spent the night at anchor in Jewfish Key which was kind of crowded but still pleasant. Later I found out that we could have pulled up to a local restaurants dock for the night if we ate there. Well, next trip north that will be on the books.

Day three we made it into Sarasota under motor and spent 3 days waiting out affront that never really materialized. Too bad there was no wind cause Sarasota bay would have been a great sail. Sarasota was really nice and the mooring field there is great except a bit roll at times. Expensive place though and we were happy to move on.

Thursday we anchored off the channel at the north end of Pine Island Key and Friday were able to motor sail across Pine Island Bay to anchor behind Chico Island.

Saturday we finally made it here to Ft Meyers Beach and our new home for a month until Jackie leaves us for Arizona. A good week. More on Pine Island Sound later. We say so many places to explore that we will have to spend some time there before moving on south.

We are still in Clearwater. Both Jackie and I have been down with head colds these past couple of weeks. Other than that it is still great here. Weather today will be around 80 and sunny. Sorry to all our northern living buddies but I can't help it. Below 70 here is winter! We spent New Years day working in the dink. Pulled it over to a local beach and repainted a stripe plus added some bottom paint. Red stripe and blue bottom paint. Must head to the Carribean now where those colors will fit in. Here is a picture and I'll post a few more on Facebook.

Regardless of the weather and our good friends here and the nice harbor we are pulling out on the 23rd for Sarasota. We will try to pick up a mooring ball down there. It will be a lot cheaper than marina fees and not much effort now that we have the boat refit with bimini, etc for shade.

So, stay tuned and I will update as we leave.

It has been quite a while since I've posted anything. One reason was the Christmas holiday activities and the other is that my computer died. I have to say though that the Apple Store guys are great. It took several trips to diagnose and I had to reload my whole operating system. In the end it was a bad RAM slot. Fortunately I have two slots so I just added a 2Gig Ram card to the good slot and once the operating system was reloaded all seems fine for now. It took me two days to get all my programs back from the backup drive but I didn't lose anything. If you don't backup, start.

Daughter Jackie joined us from Costa Rica and we all enjoyed a Christmas potluck dinner with the other boats here in the harbor. It's great to have our daughter back with us for a while even though she has taken over the v-berth. She is planning on heading out again around Feb so I get to spoil her for a short time. Guess we will hang around here for at least until Feb now. Here she is with Ruby the parrot at the local marine salvage yard that I tend to frequent more often than I should. I can't seem to get away without something under my arm.

We were able to Skype with our son Steve and his lovely wife, Emily in Taiwan on Christmas day. We hope to see them sometime soon.

I hate to even mention plans for moving. Seems like we don't really have any timeframe and that has taken some getting used to. Could be here another month or all winter. Who knows? It is getting a bit cold for me though and with other boats leaving each week we are getting itchy to be going too. Either that or I may have to find a ( shudder ) job!

Carol and I wish you all a Merry Christmas season and a Happy New Year.

Last night was the annual Christmas boat parade down here. There were lots of boats all highly decorated. Most were in the 60+ ft category. Most had lots of people aboard and lots of music was playing. But my favorite was this guy all by himself in his little dinghy. He was having a great time. I don't know how he managed to power all the lights in just a dink but I want to know what kind of alternator he is running.