January 2- 6

Tarpon Springs has lots of very quaint shops as well as sponges, soaps and tourist T-shirts.  There are also some very fine restaurants, and bakeries.  I hadn’t eaten much bread for the past two months,  but found a bakery about a block away and can’t resist fresh “village” loafs (2 feet long loaves for $2)  and have eaten more than my share the past week.   If our freezer was larger  I would be taking some with us.   Our marina is  very new and within walking distance of the down-town, and there are a number of  other Loopers here.  If you pay for 5 nights you get 2 free- so we’re staying put until our time is up.

 

 I loved the Christmas tree!

Had lunch with the Pierce’s and went grocery  shopping on Saturday.   It is now Wednesday and we are still in Tarpons Springs.  We had a “real” marine electrician- Louie look at our electrical system on Monday morning.  Within minutes he identified the problem we were having ( an undersized isolator and not installed properly)   He was able to explain how our system was designed, and what was required to make it work properly.     Installation of 2 new isolators, some new cable and a fuse as well as re-installing our old alternators and regulators was all that we needed.  We also had the generator battery tested and found that it was close to dying- so had it replaced this morning.

We really, really feel confident now that our “ electrical  saga” has concluded.   Louie and Shane  did an  amazing job.  It’s really too bad we hadn’t found them  sooner as then  we wouldn’t have had  to hire  mechanics in Britt,  Seneca,  Fulton,   Gulf Coast, Pensacola, Niceville and  Panama City to diagnose our issues.  Enough said no more talk about electrical issues for the next 8 months.

Today is January 6^th, Epithany, which is the largest celebration of this Greek holiday anywhere in North or South America.  (Back home it would be Ukrainian Christmas eve.)  There were a number of events scheduled for today—blessing of the water, litany procession  and release of a peace  dove, followed  by the casting of the cross.  The archbishop casts a custom made weighed white cross into the water and young men will dive for it.  The cross retriever then receives a special blessing from the Archbishop.    The celebration continues throughout the afternoon and evening.  On our way back to the boat– we ran into a couple from Transcona the first Manitobans we  had run into, besides the Pierces.

Divers entering the water to get to the row boats

Archbishop getting ready to cast  the cross

Divers searching for the cross.

We’re going out for seafood tonight and then  plan  to leave  early Friday morning and go south to Bradenton/Palmetto area to meet up with the Gillespies.  We want to get off the water for the weekend, as that is when  the waterways are known to fill up with go-fast boats.