My parents came to visit us on the boat. It was sooo good to see them again. I am excited because we will see them at Christmas and then a third time when we head toward Englewood (where they winter.) We went to Tarpon Springs, Honeymoon Island and Dunedin for the Christmas parade. The pictures below will tell the rest of the story
We love having visitors. Look us up.
Thanks for reading.
Karen and Scott.
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Beach Bums
According to the locals we have been having warmer than normal weather for this area. Who are we to complain. We had a couple of absolutely amazing days at the beach.
The Lashers (Steve and Teresa) and us loaded up the dinghies and off to Caledesi Island. There is no way to get to the island by land, you have to take a boat there. Into the dinghy again and we landed on shore with our lunch, and umbrella. We went to the east side of the island and found shellarama. It was low tide and there were shells everywhere. It was so hard to decide what to keep. There was some photography, snorkeling, eating, sunbathing. I can’t even describe what a fabulous day it was. Our motivation came from our neighbors Hard Dock Café. The day before they went on a dinghy ride and saw lots of dolphins. That was our motivation but it was too rough out on the Gulf to tolerate in the dinghy so Caledesi it was and it was wonderful.
Christmas is just around the corner and we planned to go run errands. We were getting our things together to leave and Steve stopped by chanting “beach day, beach day” It was supposed to be hot and humid, so the beach sounded much better than biking all over creation to get errands done. Amanda, Steve and Teresa daughter, is here for the Holidays so she went with us. This time the Gulf was FAC (Flat A** Calm) Out into the Gulf we go in our 10 foot dinghies. We went all the way to the other end of Honeymoon Island. We pulled up on shore and once again set up on the beach. We only sat long enough to have lunch. The rest of the time we spent snorkeling, shelling and exploring. Steve found some amazing shells snorkeling. Scott found a large conk shell and when he picked it up it had a stone crab in it. Amanda found a huge deposit of small conk shells. There were literally thousands of them on shore and in the water. I couldn’t help to think that something caused this huge die-off and it made me a little sad. However, we had a lot of fun with them. We also discovered sea sponges that washed up on shore.
It was another amazing day on the beach. For you northerners: It is cold today. High in the 60s. We had to put on long sleeves with our shorts. (I know that was just mean) Love and miss you all. Wish you could all be down here with us.
Thanks for reading
Karen and Scott
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Bike and Beer, Fishing on the dock and Firefighter friends.
Joy and Jeff, From Tidings of Joy text us to see if we wanted to meet for beer. They were biking into Dunedin from Clearwater. The town is half way between us so it was perfect. We ended up making it an event. “Bike and Beer.” There were a couple of couples from their marina and quite a few from our marina. We all got out our bikes and some even rented bikes for this spur of the moment event. We all met at 2pm and biked from our prospective marinas to Marker 8 which has a Tiki bar on the Gulf. We all sat outside in the glorious weather and shared stories and celebrated December Birthdays, (mine was one of them).
We told a lot of lies and generally had a great time. Loopers are the most fun group of people. Many didn’t know each other and it was like we were long lost friends. Boat cards were exchanged and we now have added to our ever-thickening book of boat cards. We think everyone should carry cards. It’s so easy to flip a card at each other, then a later when you remember some piece of info they had you just look them up and e-mail or text them.
We have been trying to learn how to saltwater fish. Lucky for us there is a bate store just across the street from the marina. We walked into the store and told he clerk we were from Michigan and asked what he could tell us about saltwater fishing. That’s a little like asking a rocket scientist how to make a rocket. He initially had a look on his face like “Oh no, not another one” but he graciously gave us the very basics without overwhelming us, sold us some live shrimp and off we went. We had a blast. You can catch everything with shrimp. The variety of fish in the “sea” is amazing. We were fishing off the dock and caught 8 to 10 different species of fish. Man, their teeth are all different and some downright scary. We also found out some have really sharp spines. We use a glove or towel and needle-nose pliers down here and aren’t ashamed of it. We are having fun catching anything but hope to catch dinner one of these days.
We have been at the Marina for 3 weeks and thought by now we would be getting bored, but we keep busy. We got a call from Chris and Christina Burns.
Chris retired shortly after Scott did and they just moved to the Tampa area. They came to visit. We had hoped to take them to Honey Moon Island but just as we were about to leave, the fog rolled in. That didn’t stop us completely. We all hopped into the dinghy and followed the shore down to Dunedin. We walked the cute town and had ice cream (Carrot cake flavor yum). We invited them to stay for dinner on the boat, so we got back into the dinghy to go back and the fog was even thicker. We were lucky to have the shore to follow or we never would have made it back. We are getting so boat savvy! We had a wonderful day with them and it was great to connect with a fellow firefighter and folks from back home.
Thanks for reading.
Karen and Scott
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SNAKE!
Have you noticed this isn’t the first blog including a snake. Why? I don’t know! I guess because I am snake phobic these incidents are more pronounced than in a non-snake phobic person.
We are in Dunedin, Florida at Marker 1 Marina. We met a couple on the boat “Swing Set” They were very nice and we got along great. The next morning I wake up and ask Scott what is that on the back of their boat. The piling was partially blocking our view. It looked like a pile of dog poop. We hadn’t notice them having a dog, but that’s just what it looked like. We were a little grossed out. Yuck poop on the poop deck. Our thoughts were “for heaven sake walk your dog.” The morning continued and the tides changed and the view of their back deck changed. Scott was in the shower and I peered out the window and the poop came into view. I took a double take; the poop now looks like a snake. I looked closer and I am now pretty sure it’s a snake. Alarms go off in my head. I can see snakes crawling all over my boat. I yelled to Scott “get out of the shower there is a snake on the back of the neighbor’s boat. We have to warn him so it doesn’t get IN his boat. I grab my camera to prove I didn’t imagine the snake and to find out what kind of venom it has in case someone gets bit we can tell EMS what kind of antivenom they will need. I run to the bow of the boat, snap a shot or two then I blow up the picture to get an ID on the little devil. I was able to identify it quite quickly. It was a snakeus rubberus with a painted white tail. I started laughing. Now Scott thinks I am completely nuts. He may not be too far off.
Later that morning I see the owner on board. I tell him, I have a bone to pick with him… I explain my morning of disgust and fear. He laughed at me. He said “didn’t the three snakes give you a clue.” (In my defense, I could only see one) He then explained that it keeps the birds off the back of the boat. That makes sense. We have heard several locals complain that the bird poop is like cement and does NOT come off. A few minute later, Mike comes by with a snake for our boat. He got them at Walmart and advised us to tie monofilament line so it so it doesn’t blow off the back. Scott says it’s desensitizing therapy for me. Ahhh Life on a boat.
I will work on getting caught up on by blog. Why am I behind? Honest answer: We are playing too much and the internet stinks at the Marina and every time I go down by the office to work on it, I end up talking to great people.
Thanks for reading.
Scott and Karen
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December 1-6 2016 Our New home for December
December, 1 we pulled into Marker 1 Marina in Dunedin Florida. It is just north of Clearwater but south of Tarpon Springs. They offer Loopers a great deal if you pay for the month. We have been moving and grooving at a pretty busy pace. We welcome staying a one place for a little longer time. It was also easier for our son, Allen, to meet up with us and for us to leave the boat to go visit my Parents in Englewood.
There are quite a few Loopers here so it was almost like coming home. Such a welcoming group. The Marina was also very welcoming. We were told about the Pinellis Trail. It is a bike trail that goes from Tarpons Springs through Dunedin and down into Clearwater. The first thing we did was go to the Dunedin amazing farmer’s market. On the way home, we stopped at Eli’s BBQ for lunch. There was a ton of meat on the barbie. They are only open Fridays and Saturdays. That’s a lot of meat to serve in 2 days, but I believe it. The line was almost out into the street.
The town of Dunedin is quaint and has a nice variety of unique shops. We only hit a few, but plan to go back to see more.
We are learning more about tides. The tides here are closer to 3 feet at times than the 1 foot we were used to. Tying up the boat on one end of a pier has been a challenge with our basher boards catching on some wood they put on the pilings which is a problem. We may be moving to a different slip but they need to turn the power on and it is too windy and storming to move today.
We were fortunate enough to be here for the annual Christmas light boat parade, which started at our marina.We started with docktails and ended with docktails. Life is good.
We had ringside seats and didn’t have to go anywhere. It has been hard to get tin the Christmas spirit in 80 degrees, but that parade and Christmas atmosphere did it for me. Super fun.
It was a very fun evening and really put us in the Holiday Spirit!
Thanks for reading.
Karen and Scott
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11-27-16 12-1-16 Clearwater Beach
After spending the night anchored at our little Island, we moved to Moonshine Island. Moonshine island was teaming with birds and we had looked forward to exploring it more by dinghy, but the wind switch to out of the South and it got too rough to enjoy a dinghy ride. We moved into a more protected area which happened to be right near the free day dock one block off the beach. We were able to spend every day at Clearwater beach. The sand is clean, soft and white. Amazingly it never gets hot.
We are pretty proud of the Michigan beaches, but we have to say this beach beats it. However, they have sand cleaning equipment that they run up and down the beach every morning. We hit the area at the slowest two weeks of the year. Yeah for us. I can see why so many people vacation here every year. Scott and I went swimming in the ocean. No sharks this time. We could have stayed there longer but we had reservations at Marker 1 Marina in Dunedin on first for the whole month of December.
Thanks for reading!
Karen and Scott
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11-26-16 Fishing, Island in the Sun and Getting Shrimp off the dock.
After a week at Turtle Cove Marina in Tarpon Springs, we headed out for a 5-day anchorage. We took the Anclote river out of the marina just before high tide. The waters get shallow at low tide. We saw a dinghy pulling a large fishing boat out of the channel behind our boat. They went aground several times while we watched the show. The channel was so small the dinghy was steering the large boat around the corners. When we first got our boat, we were very cautious if we were in 12 feet of water. Now we don’t get excited until we see 3 feet or less.
We went 3 to 4 miles out into the Gulf so Scott could do some fishing. There were several man-made reefs that we had high hopes for, however, he didn’t catch anything. I am getting good at driving for fishing and dodging crab pots. We came into Clearwater. Yowzah there are a lot of high-rise hotels on that beach. It was not busy when we were here so I it wasn’t spoiled by overpopulation on the beach.
We worked our way back north and anchored with Sanctuary by a little island. The only thing that would have made it better, would have been less people. There was a campsite on one side and about 6 day trippers on the other side. We picked shells, took pictures of birds and enjoyed a sunny beautiful afternoon on the beach. These are the little places that you don’t get to see when vacationing unless you are there by boat. We love the secluded unpopulated places we have been able to find with our dinghy when anchored out.
We had delicious shrimp for dinner that I climbed up the fisherman’s dock to get as they were packing fish on ice. The shrimp were so big it took three bites to each one. The fisherman that was at the counter offered to de-head the shrimp for me. Heck ya. I took him up on that offer. I asked questions about the fishing industry and he was happy to tell his story. He took me out back and said I have a show for you. He threw the heads in the water and the catfish went crazy! It was quite a show. I also learned that the dorsal fin of the saltwater catfish is poisonous. It will hurt, swell and turn red for a few days, but it won’t kill you. If you catch a catfish in saltwater, even the little ones, be careful when taking them off the hook. Remember it’s the dorsal fin not the whiskers like in the fresh water that you have to worry about.
Thanks for reading.
Karen and Scott
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