My parents live a couple hours from where we were so we planned to surprise my Mom on her Birthday and stay for Thanksgiving. There was only one rental car agency in town and they wanted a ridiculous amount of money to rent a car for a few days. Plus, they weren’t helpful getting the car to us and it was going to be a bugger getting there. So, we decided to stay with our Looper Family.
We had 9 people to share the day with. We reserved the clubhouse balcony. Yes, it was warm enough to do Thanksgiving dinner outside. We divvied up the menu. We all have tiny boat ovens, several people had to do the meat. We loaded the food on bike carts, wagons and dock carts and took it all to the club house.
We had food packed in the trailer behind our bike and I carried a cooler. You gotta do whatchya gotta do.
We found tables in the laundry room and took chars from by the pool and made a nice table. Teresa Lasher even had table cloths on board her boat. We were not lacking anything as far as the dinner was concerned.
Our table. We had crock-pots and electric fry pans and Sterno. You name it to keep our meal warm. We are an innovative groupWe all joined hands and thanked our generous Lord for this amazing day and every day he gives us. (I know I have a goofy look on my face)
We did have amazing weather. Sunny high 70s. It was something to be eating Thanksgiving dinner outside. Scott and Steve went swimming. The pool was cold but they warmed up in the hot tub afterwards.
Yes Steve was the first in. Scott concedes. THIS TIME.Once Scott heard the splash he was right behind him.Yes they are swimming on Thanksgiving day.It wasn’t long before they were in the hot tub warming up.
When it got dark, we discovered these fun little turtles lit up.So we had a little fun them.
We missed the family dearly, but were thankful to have people to share our blessings with.
The Osprey And Eagle Duke It Out And The Manatee Drama
Our boats are across the small channel where we have found a resident Osprey. We see him often, sitting in trees or one time even standing in the water which was odd for a bird of prey. Steve and Teresa Lasher were on the bridge of our boat for docktails and we were given a show. An Eagle came flying right by our boat. He was immediately attacked by the Osprey. I didn’t have my camera for the best part, but they battled right in front of our boat. We could see talons spread. They were diving at each other. It was surprising how long this went on. Pretty soon the Eagle conceded and flew to a tree out of the area. The Osprey perched in a tree with view of his territory. Later the Eagle tried to fly by again and the Osprey immediately screamed and dove at him. He hightailed it out of there. We thought the Eagle would be the winner, but we were wrong. It was quite entertaining.
Here is the Eagle that caused all the trouble. He flew right by our boat.Another shot of the Eagle as he circled around our boat.Look close you can see the Osprey as he descended on the Eagle in their territory fight.The Osprey won and stood on this tree on watch. When the Eagle tried to come back he screeched at it and immediately dove after it.This Osprey was standing in the water for a long time. None of us had ever seen a bird of prey do this. He eventually took a bath and flew away. Enjoy the progression of pictures below
I took a bike ride while Scott ran to West Marine. I was so excited to find Manatees in a little park. I sent him a text. “went for a bike ride, found Manatee, see you tomorrow” I could have watched them for hours, but the sun was getting low and I was in shorts and sleeveless shirt so I had to go home. I took Scott to see them the next day. There were quite a few people there walking the edge of the park waiting for a peak at them. The area is marked “No Motorized boat in the area from November 1 to March 30. As we were standing there, much to everyone’s horror a boat come flying in. The people on shore went crazy yelling at him. The guy misinterpreted the signs and though he was allowed during that time. He was yelling at the people on shore and the people on shore were going crazy. Things got heated. People are passionate about the Manatees. He finally turned and left. His butt crack was showing and the lady with the loudest voice yelled something about his butt crack. That same lady was feeding the Manatees lettuce. Another man came by saying look who’s calling the kettle black, you aren’t supposed to feed the Manatees either. Man, it was time to leave. Things were getting ugly.
Manatees are hard to photograph. This was the best shot I got.
On that same bike ride I found some beautiful homes. There seems to be a lot of huge homes in Florida. Here are some example of the older homes I found.
We also found the Safford Home. It was the first home in Tarpon Springs. Safford and partner Disston purchased 4 million acres of Florida swamp land in approximately 1881 to 1883. We were told this is the 3rd largest land acquisition after the Louisiana Purchase and the purchase of Alaska. We were given a tour and learned how Anson Safford invited well-to-do families to his home to encourage them to buy property and for vacation homes and hunting.
The Safford home after restoration. It was in such bad condition that you could see daylight through to the second floor. Wow what a projectAnother viewOur Tour guide telling us the interesting history of Mr. Safford the house as we sat in the dining room.They did a lovely job refurnishing this old Victorian home.I love this kind of detail you find in old Victorian homesPortrait of Anson SaffordThis is the only piece of furniture that was original to the house. It is Mr. Saffords desk. I forget the story exactly but a housekeeper ended up with it and somehow all these years later it got donated to the house when it was finished being restored.
I am amazed at how much history we are learning on this trip.
Thanks for reading,
Karen and Scott
Unique Random Picture of the day
This photo was taken on friends boat “the Southern Cross” This juvenile brown pelican landed on their chair and rode with them for a while. Juveniles have brown heads and adults have while heads. Lazy freeloading teenager. But isn’t he cute!
Tarpon Springs is a Greek town. It is known for the sponge divers and sponge industry. There are many Greek restaurants, bakeries, cigar shops, of course about 20 stores selling sponges. There are many sponge and fishing boats docked right along the wall by the main street of town. The sponge divers will drop the sponges on the sidewalk and sort them. We found a diver who let little kids help him sort. A unique tourist town.
Kids sorting sponges on the dock. I bet they didn’t smell too good when they were done. Those things stink until thoroughly cleaned.This sponge diver had a lot of sponges on his boat. He told us sponges are animals and they have a membrane on top. They put them under a tarp to let them rot a few days then they wash them and sort them. His are cleaned and sorted waiting for the wholesaler to come by.
When we arrived Herb Seaton, who is Tarpon Springs Harbor Host, met us. He brought us a map and circled the places and restaurants not to miss in town. He brought us a box of strudel, and blackberry honey. He also found a source to get Stone crab very inexpensively. He met us for dinner and dock tails several nights. He’s a funny man. He calls his X-wives, Plaintiff one, Plaintiff two, and Plaintiff three.
Stone crab claws. Our new favorite seafood. These crabs have one big claw and one small one. They take just the big claw and throw them back. They will grow a new claw. Now there is a renewable resource.Do you see anything wrong with this picture. That’s called life on a boat.
Herb took us to an amazing Greek Restaurant. They lit the cheese and we all yelled Ooopah! Great fun. Food was amazing. He told us why Tarpon Spring is so predominantly Greek. Back in the early 1900s sponges were harvested in Key West until they were discovered in the waters of Tarpon Springs. The problem was the people in the US didn’t have the capacity to free dive for as long and deep as it was needed to harvest sponges. So, they went to Greece and brought back 300 young men and some of their families. These men harvested the sponges. The families opened restaurants and bakeries. The Greek heritage has stayed and has made Tarpon Springs a unique place.
Oopah!! at Costa’s Restaurant. Great food. Best Pita bread I have ever had.After dinner Steve suggested we walk the town, thinking he was safe that all the shops would be closed. He was wrong! Theresa and I found these lost soles on a bench.We later found this sign outside a bar, but it was too late we had already agreed to head back to the boat.All the sponge boats and fishing boats are tied up on the wall that lines the town.
Here are some other pictures we took on a dinghy ride on the Anclote River that leads to Tarpon Springs.
This looks like a restoration project that will take many years. I bet it will be cool when done.
Pretty typical looking fishing boat. They are working boats and look like it.Our dinghy friends, Steve and Teresa and their daughter Amanda. Now that is a pretty fishing boat behind them.Now there are a couple of good looking boats.
Thanks for reading.
Scott and Karen
Unique Random Picture:
We were in a great little shop that sold metal and rustic items. The shop was an old sponge warehouse. In the aback we found this. It is a sponge compressor. Sponges used to be sold by weight. They would pack them in wooden crates and compact them with this gizzy to get as many in as possible for shipping.
The Crossing is one part of this trip that everyone chats about. It’s a big deal. It can go smooth or it can be miserable with heavy seas or worse issues. The same day our flotilla crossed there was two other boats traveling together. One of the boats had a known leak before leaving and sank. The other boat rescued the people and took them the rest of the way across. We could hear the calls to the coast guard. Never fear, our crossing was nearly flawless. The crossing itself is marker to marker out in the Gulf which is 150 miles, but we had 2 hours before and 2 hours after those markers to travel. Our trip took 24 hours and traveled closer to 170 miles.
We went under this bridge on our way to the opening of the Gulf. It was really long.The boat was at the opening of the Gulf. I think they cut a corner too sharp.
We left our dock at 12:00 with a 2-hour trip to meet the flotilla of 5 other boats we were crossing with. We met them at the opening by Dog Island at exactly the same time. Man, we are good. Steve Lasher from Sanctuary was the lead boat. We followed like little ducks in a row.
If you look closely this is our flotilla coming as us as we met up with them at the opening of the Gulf
The sun set and we got robbed of spectacular ocean view sunset due to clouds on the horizon. With clear skies above and no moon yet, it was really dark. You couldn’t see anything except the small lights of the flotilla. The good part of that is the stars were amazing. We could see the milky way and a billion stars above. We watched the moon rise with spectacular orange color at first, then it was a bright light for us to be able to see by. The sunrise was spectacular from the middle of the ocean.
The moon rising in the middle of the night.Picture of Sanctuary just before sunrise.Watching the sunrise over the ocean was breathtaking.
To make sure everyone was awake, we did hourly rollcall. How we did this, was each boat took turns asking a question. Each boat had to answer. Example of the 20 some questions asked. Most interesting animal on trip, what did you do in your previous- to- the- Loop life. Etc. We learned a few facts about each other. Most importantly, we jabbered for 15 minutes and were all wide awake. It made the time go by quickly.
Scott did some fishing and caught two Bonitas, which are known as little tuna. They really run so lots of fun to catch. There were mixed reviews on line about the taste of the fish. It is a dark meat fish. We baked it and it wasn’t bad, but not our favorite fish. We prefer the whiter fish.
Scott reeling in his first Saltwater fish.This is what a Bonita Looks like.
We had to time our trip so that it was daylight by a certain spot in order to see and dodge crab pots. Oh man, were there a lot of crab pots! They were not easy to see especially with the sun glinting off the water. We radioed each other when we saw them to help each other out. One boat pick up a pot. Scott was getting his suite and dive gear ready in case he had to dive under the boat to free the prop, but fortunately it was only caught on his rudder, not wrapped around the propeller. They were able to free it rather quickly and off we went.
I would have to say our Crossing was flawless (except the little crab pot thing) We feel like we have really accomplished something!
Here are a few other pictures from the trip.
This “Sandwich Tern” flew with us a long time. We watched it dive many times for fish. Very entertaining!The Tern going into a dive.Splash right into the water.We saw the “Pirate Ship” as we entered the channel to get to our marina.This is the most beautiful Shrimp boat I have ever seen. The boats we usually see are like the one in front of it.Tarpon Springs is where we landed and is know for harvesting sea sponges. This boat was in the process of sorting to get ready for the wholesaler to come buy them.This magnificent Osprey was there to greet us when we got to our slip in the Marina. He sat in the tree across the canal for hours. He is huge.
10-17-16 The blind leading the blind and the White Whale
It was a long and somewhat boring travel day to Apalachicola. We were trying to decide on where to stay. Scipio Marina has a pump out (which we desperately needed) but the place is sadly in need of basic maintenance. We considered pulling in there just for a pump out and moving on, but they closed too early. We called the Apalachicola Marina and they don’t have a pump out and the person answering the phone told me there is no pump out in Apalachicola. His integrity went right out the window as I knew Scipio did have one. There were mixed reviews about the municipal marina, so we thought we would go take a look. Boom! right there on the dock is a pump out. We were directed by a local to go dock by the pump out. We pull in and there was a man there to help us dock. How nice, because there were no cleats only large pilings and a tall dock. We got close and he put his hand out and I threw him a line that landed squarely across his arm. He grabbed the line and pulled us in. As we got close we needed the stern pulled in. I suggested to him to wrap his line on a piling and I’ll throw the stern line. He promptly dropped the unsecured line on the dock and went to the stern. I once again threw the line. I am getting good at throwing a line. It landed right on his arm and he pulled us in. Once we were close, I scrambled precariously up to the dock and grabbed the line he dropped. The whole thing was kind of odd. Scott and I couldn’t figure out why he just dropped the line. Later he comes walking by with his service dog. He said “Oh by the way I’m legally blind I couldn’t really see what I was doing, this here is my service dog” OMG. This poor creature had seen better days. I reached down to pet him and noticed he had some serious issues with his eyes. Seeing the gentleman was blind, I asked if he knew that his dog’s eyes have a problem. He answered “Oh ya, he’s blind too” The people you meet on this trip are amazing.
Poor little blind service dog.
Next, a woman came on the dock and asked who we talked to about our reservations because her husband is on his way with their 48 foot boat to dock in this spot. She was obviously perturbed. Scott looked at her and said you don’t need reservations here. She quickly realized we didn’t fall off the turnip truck yesterday. Scott measured out the space and offered to move forward and hopefully he would make it in. We were not going to move out completely as there were no other spots. Pretty soon he shows up, it not only is a 48 footer, but it’s a huge Catamaran named “White Whale.” It looked like it’s name. I give the guy credit because he squeezed in with only 2 feet to spare. Of course, we were all helping from the dock. The woman warmed up as she realized we were pretty decent people and she got what she wanted. She took Scott to go get ice and proceeded to give him a little tour of the own.
How’s that for a tight squeeze.
The “white Whale has seen better days and could use some TLC
We didn’t have time to explore the town and I am a bit sad about that, but the ocean Gods will only give us one more day to make our crossing. Missing the town is nothing compared to have rough seas for 20 hours.
Thanks for reading.
Karen and Scott
Unique Random Picture of the day.
This is the sewer pump out someone was using as a cocktail table. EEEW If it was the blind guyI I’ll cut him some slack.
We got up this morning and dropped the dinghy to go ashore Santa Rosa Island. We hiked the short width of the island to get to the Gulf of Mexico. The beach has beautiful white sand. The sun was shining; however, it was a little cool. The water was amazingly warm. We walked a long way on the lonely beach. Not another sole in sight. Just the way we like it.
Here are a few pictures of our stroll on the beach.
Clean white sand beach as far as we can see. All to ourselves.The scene on the water was breath taking. Pictures don’t do it justice.I’m too cute to be “crabby”Look closely, you can see the jelly fish in the water.Here we are on the beach.
Foot prints in the sand.Two Bald Eagles hanging out in a snag close to where we parked our dinghy.
We are getting closer to our point where we will have to do a 170 mile ocean crossing. As you can imagine weather windows are extremely important. The last 5 days have been perfect crossing weather. We are really enjoying the beauty of each stop in the panhandle. Because of that, we chose not to rush to make the crossing. We still have about 5 or 6 days before we reach our take-off-point in Apalachicola. We will keep your posted. It is possible for us to sit there for 2 weeks waiting for the next crossing. We have no schedule and it takes the stress out of the trip to know we can stop anywhere that looks interesting.
Thanks for reading
Karen and Scott
Unique Random Picture of The Day:
This is one of many pieces of pavement found scattered in the sand on the non Gulf side of the Island. It is most likely from a hurricane or bad storm that tore the road out. The power of moving water is amazing.
We lifted our anchor first thing and pulled into the City of Pensacola dock.
We took Uber to the Navy Air Museum. If your ever in Pensacola go, it is amazing the number of unique planes they have restored in 2 huge indoor hangars. AND it’s free.
Here are a few examples of the planes we saw.
Home of the Blue Angles. WE missed their homecoming air show by one day. We could see them flying off in the distance from our anchorage.Scott’s favorite plane P-42 Flying Tiger.Gunnery Sergeant KarenA-7 Fighter Jet. Nat DeVoll (Scott’s Dad) was one of the test pilot for this planeF-4 Phantom. Fighter Jet. Another plane Scott’s Dad was one of the test pilots for. How cool is it that your Dad flew these planes! Thank you for your service Nat DeVollVindicator SB2U. This is the only one in existence. It was pulled out of Lake Michigan 50 years later and restored.This F4F Wildcat was pulled our of Lake Michigan 40 or 50 years after it crashed.
When we got back to town, we asked our Uber driver where to go for an early dinner. We took her suggestion and went to The Fish House. We had these little crab claws in a garlic sauce for an appetizer that were beyond amazing and delectable.
Yummy crab claw. This is the Florida’s version of chicken wings only better.
The rest of the dinner was also great. We did a midafternoon dinner because we had to get to our anchorage before dark. We pushed it a bit. The sun had already set and there was very shallow water to navigate to our anchorage, but we got in and settled just as the Super Moon rose. It was magical being out on the water watching it rise with its great orange color. Lift from it twinkled off the water making it even more beautiful. (No pictures of the moon. They didn’t turn out 🙁
We will stay the night and get up in the morning to explore the beach. Follow us on our next blog for that part of our adventure.
There were quite a few Dolphins entertaining us. Well that’s what we thought, they were just having dinner.
11-13-16 Snake Phobia Tested Today
We are in Florida! Pensacola area. We only traveled a short distance to Fort McCree Anchorage. We wanted some time to do exploring and it paid off.
When we arrived, we were shocked at the 35 boats anchored here.
This is just some of the boats in the anchorage.
The spot was big and we found a place to anchor. By night, there were only nine of us left. With all those boats, it wasn’t crowded on shore. There was a big group that helped keep the people in one place so we had the rest to ourselves.
We went ashore on nice white sand beach. We could see the Gulf for the first time.
Our first glimpse of the Gulf in the distance.
We took the trails to see the Fort McCree ruins from WWII.
Brief history of Fort McCree.
There is a bunker underground that we heard about from a guy at the Marina. He said, “but watch out for the snakes.” I am snake phobic. Just stepping foot on the ground, I was looking for them. After some hiking we found the entrance to the underground (snake infested) bunker. There was a Mom holding a baby and a “tweener” at the entrance. They didn’t have a flashlight and we heard the youngster say she wanted to go in, so we invited her to join us. Her Mom said “be careful of the snakes.” That just about did me in, I wasn’t sure I could go in there. If I saw a snake, I would probably lose it. But this young lady showed me up and walked in right after Scott. With a queasiness in my stomach I BRAVELY stepped toward the door. Then took a deep breath, put on my big-girl-panties and came through the door. I couldn’t let the “youngin” show me up. Once inside I was enthralled. There were rooms, some quite large, there were long hallways and rusted-out doors. I still was watching every step for the snakes, with visions of the scene from Indiana Jones where the cave was filled with snakes, went through my head. I am so glad I overcame my fears (unspoken peer pressure helped). It was one of the coolest experiences I have had. Oh and we never saw ANY snakes all day. I wish I wasn’t snake phobic it ruins perfectly good experiences.
This is the first door we found, but it was welded shut,But never fear, we found the open door down a narrow path.Scott and the Youngin who showed me up.One of the dark hallways.One of the rooms. It was hard to take pictures because it was so dark the camera wouldn’t focus.Scott and I in the bunker. I could actually muster up a smile despite the potential of finding a snake.
We walked the beach and saw a lot of new birds. I have my homework cut out for me to identify them all. I will share what I have learned and let you figure the rest out for yourself. But if you identify one, will you please let me know.
My favorite picture! These are Royal Terns
We talked to a “local” who was fishing on the shore form flounder. We plugged him for info on how to catch them, only to find out later he was from Indiana. Neither of us caught anything.
We saw jelly fish, big purplish/pink ones and small white ones. There was a warning on the beach about them, sharks and stingrays. No swimming here for us.
The Dolphins put on a sunset show for us. They were feeding and jumping out of the water. Unfortunately, they were a little far away, but I got a few not great pics.
They were jumping right out of the water.We weren’t the only ones who enjoyed the show.My best Picture. Sure wish they were closer so I could get a clearer shot.
Another favorite anchorage. We are glad we are staying out of marinas. We are enjoying the nature!
Thanks for reading,
Karen and Scott
Unique Random Picture of the day:
There were these piles of sand that looked like it was squirted out of a tube (one on the left) There is also a inverted cones that obviously has something living under it. (right)The local Sea Tow driver didn’t know what they were. He said the are not always there.
11-12-16 Crossing Mobile Bay, Lulu’s Restaurant, Wildlife Anchorage
Today was an amazing day. We left the marina and crossed Mobile Bay. It still amazes me that Mobile Bay is so shallow. We stayed in the shipping channel for part of the trip but then we had 12 feet of water to cut across to the Gulf Intracostal Water Way (GIWW). Not far into the GIWW we stopped at LuLu’s Restaurant (Jimmy Buffet’s Sister’s place) We docked our boat right outside the deck and had lunch. Very fun atmosphere and great food. We had Red Snapper, caught that morning by local fisherman. They bring in their catch at 5am for that day’s meal. I love that.
This is LuLu’s approaching from the waterway.Here we are at LuLu’sLast Call docked at LuLu’s.
We anchored at a great place. We were greeted by a dolphin. She swam right up to the boat and said hello then swam away. What a great greeting.
Here’s our welcoming Dolphin. FYI It is really hard to get pictures of a Dolphin. You never know where they will come up for air.
We dropped the dinghy to go exploring. We saw lots of birds feeding on fish. It was so fun.
King FisherBelted King FisherOsprey eating a fish in a tree.Just missed a fish. Look at those talons. Ouch.Opsrey put on quite a show for us swooping down for fish. Hard to photograph a moving target in a moving boat. I got a few good shots.This is a picture of two Pelicans that dove for fish at exactly the same time. What are the chance of that happening.
Tomorrow we cross into Florida. Scott bought his saltwater fishing gear, has his Florida license. Tried out a new lure on his small rig tonight and caught a fish first cast.
New gear just waiting to get wet.First salt water catch. a Silver Sea Trout.
It was a GREAT day.
Thanks for reading.
Karen and Scott
Unique Random Picture of the day:
This is our wine cellar. Bottles slipped into socks and color coded. We store this in one of our holds. It has rope handles on it to help get it out if needed. Cheers!
11-9-16 to 11-11-16 Mobile Bay. We made it to Salt Water!
What an exciting day!
The landscape changed quickly. First the swamp, then the Harbor/Industrial area right out into Mobile Bay.
This guy flew by so close to the boat I almost couldn’t get this picture because I had the zoom lens on. Brown Pelican’s are not as shy as White Pelicans.This is the entrance to the harbor at Mobile Bay. We went from swam to this very quickly.
It was so exciting to see the Ocean liners, Military Ships, Ships being built, Container ships and were driving our little boat right through it all.
It looks like they are building a Helicopter pad for this research vesselThis ship is being built. It appears they were testing the abandon ship slide.
When we got to the bay we were like giddy little kids. There were shrimp boats and fishing boats. The sun glistened off the water like diamonds. What a joyous day!
This was one of the first boats we saw. It is a shrimp boat. The sun was glistening off the water like diamonds.When we got close, we saw a guy sorting the catch on the deck. There were hundreds of birds on and around that boat. It was fun to watch.A highlight was talking to and passing by this Coast Guard Cutter “Sting Ray” She was beautiful and sleek in the water.Oil Rig out on Mobile Bay.
Fun fact: The average depth of Mobile Bay is 8 to 10 feet. I had no idea it was so shallow.
This was way out in the middle of the bay.
We stayed 2 nights at Dog River Marina. I saw something swimming in the marina. It almost looked like an otter but not quite. I asked the guy at the Marina and he told me they are Nutria Rats. Nutria Rats are an invasive species. They were brought in as a food source. A few not loose and they are now destroying all the marsh lands. As far as a food source, turns out no one wanted to eat a rat. I am amazed at the odd things I learn every day on this trip.
We had long days to travel to get from one anchorage to another on the river system. This is a sunrise as we headed down the river.
Thanks for reading.
Karen and Scott
Random Unique Picture of the day:
We were walking on trails in a camp ground and found this peculiar building. It is a tornado shelter with a generator to get fresh and and provide electricity. Very odd for a smallish camp ground.
