Jan  6-7^th

We had lunch with the Pierces at a restaurant on Tarpon   Lake on Thursday, we really enjoyed our two visits with them—it’s good to see people  from home.

We left Tarpon Springs and followed the  ICW ( intracoastal waterway) down through Dunedin  (winter training grounds of the Blue Jays),

Clearwater , Treasure Island,

St. Petersburg and then into Tampa Bay.  We went under several bridges, some of which had to open for the boats we were traveling with as they were too tall.

We took a channel along the Sunshine Skyway bridge,

that cut off several miles and crossed the shipping channel in Tampa Bay, which wasn’t too busy- we only saw one large vessel.   There were dolphins and more crab pots along our route today, and lots of birds . We arrived at Regatta Point Marina at about 4:00.  Our friends Pat and Marcia Gillespie, formerly of Victoria Harbour, (who had travelled with Andy on the first leg of the loop trip)  and another couple Eric and Marg met us for supper at the  marina.  The Gillespies are going to return on Saturday and take us shopping.

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.

Leaving Dog Island

It was a 22 hour ordeal  that  we waited almost two week  for–but we finally made it across the Gulf.    Ed the weather guy had this weather prediction for December 31st: despite this morning’s rain and the cloudy skies all afternoon, waves in the Gulf should settle down by departure time (after 3 p.m.) to two feet or less.  Wind should be negligible throughout the night; wave direction off the quarter bow for most of the route; occasional light rain will help keep the water quiet.  Don’t forget to take a lat/long fix at midnight so you can brag about where you were when 2016 kicked off!   He made an error- The waves were 3 plus for most of the day and well into the night- not the trip I had envisioned.   We did have a brief shower, some fog, humidity close to 100% and because it was overcast- no moon.  It was as if you were driving blind for 13 hours and never knew when the next wave or swell was going to hit.  Andy drove almost the full time, although I did stay awake and kept  him company.  During the first leg of the trip I ended up a little sea sick from all the bouncing – so I was immobilized and afraid to move-  I may have got a demotion from Admiral to deck hand, based on this behaviour.

At midnight; we were at Latitude 28^o58.507 and Longitude 83 ^o43.961,   71.5 miles and 314 ^o  from Tarpon Springs- so almost at the 1/2 way point. There ended up being  7 boats in our group  : Miss Hattie, Dream Catcher, Priority, Hush a bye, Bucket list and Kilt Drifter, as well as ourselves,on the Gulf of Mexico.  I don’t need to repeat this New Year’s tradition- ever!.  I did miss our usual New Year’s eve – having dinner with friends and babysitting the grandson, and then barbecued burgers for lunch on New Year’s day.

Once we got to our slip we went for showers and then met the AGLCA Harbour Host- Herb Seaton, who welcomed us to Tarpon Springs.  We callled family and then we went for afternoon naps, and  will be going  over to Dream Catcher’s for new Year’s dinner, and champagne.  Tomorrow we will be getting together with Keith and Patricia Pierce, who live in Newport Richey   and boat with us in Winnipeg Beach back home.  We plan to go for lunch and get some provisions for the next leg of the trip.

Sun Rise on the Gulf of Mexico  at 7:25 January 1, 2016

December 27-31

We left Apalachicola on Sunday with Dream Catcher and Isabella II,  these two boats went into Carbelle to stay at the Moorings marina.  We chose to anchor out in Shipping cove off Dog Island.  We spent four nights here.  Winds have been variable, Monday night was the worst—we put out more anchor chain and monitored our lat/long and depth most of the night as the wind swung us around.We dinghied  to the island a couple of times and walked on the sandy beach on the gulf side and the cove side, and picked up shells and looked at the sea life  Yesterday we took a long walk with the Coleman’s from Davali, who had joined us in the cove on Tuesday.  We had supper on their sailboat last night- Chris had made Pork Vindaloo—it was amazing! We then had to return to our boat in the dark—and we had forgotten to put our anchor light on,   thank goodness Gwen had a good flashlight to show us the way.   We will be leaving this afternoon around 3:00 headed for Turtle cove Marina in Tarpon Springs, with 4 other boats, including Miss Hattie, Bucket List, Dream Catcher.  If all goes well it should be about a 22 hour crossing.  Davali, plan to leave this morning and are headed further south than us.

December 24-26

 We decided to order in Chinese food and hosted the crews from Dream Catcher, Davali, and Isabella on our boat for supper and drinks on Christmas eve.  We opened up our table to twice its width, covered it with a plastic Christmas tablecloth  and easily seated the 8 of us.

On Christmas morning I created some snow in the boat- so it would feel more like home.

Christmas morning we called family and friends to check in and  wish them Merry Christmas,  We had called Jack at 7:30, and he had already opened all his present—Oh to be young again!

On Christmas day everyone came back for Christmas dinner, supplied by the trawler boats, as the sailboats don’t have ovens.  Both Pat and I cooked turkeys, made potatoes, yams, salads, and Pat made a superb Pumpkin Pie, while I brought out lemon loaf that Andy had baked, as well as light and dark Christmas cake, that my Mother had given me at the end of October.  This cake has traveled almost 2000 miles to be served at Christmas.  Thanks Mom!

The Coleman’s came to dinner by Dingy, as there sailboat was anchored in the foggy river.

I realized later on Christmas day that I had broken a long standing tradition of mine.  For over 15 years on Christmas eve I would open up a 1000 piece puzzle box, with the goal of having it done by midnight on boxing day.  Years ago, when visiting my parents in Swan River, the puzzle tradition started at my sister’s house, where we would stay up late Christmas eve trying to get the border done, and continue on the following day, as well as Boxing day between curling in the family bonspiel or looking for the sales in town.  Nobody had heard of Boxing day here—we keep telling them it’s like their Black Friday.

Here was the Boxing Day sunrise.

Looked like it was going to be a beautiful day, but once again it is fogged in this afternoon.

We walked to Piggly Wiggly this morning, to get a few groceries, hopefully the 2.4 mile walk will help with some of the overeating from yesterday.  We stopped at this veteran’s park and I snapped these two pictures.

Andy is in the process of making Turkey soup; some of which we will likely freeze.   Our plan is to move to Carabelle tomorrow, and  possibly stay at a marina for a night and then anchor out.  There is a glimmer of a weather window on Tuesday evening, which we may take with the Coleman crew on Davali and Dream Catcher.

I plan to walk back into town this afternoon & if I see a puzzle- I’ll be buying it.  We’re going out tonight for Oysters and then to a bar to listen to the live entertainment.

December 19– 23 Update– I’m sure some of you were starting to worry!!

This part of the Gulf coast is referred to as the Forgotten Coast.

We spent two nights in Port St. Joe; had dock tails wilh Loopers from 4 other boats.  We checked out the town and pick up groceries and other supplies .

On Sunday we left Port St Joe at 10:00, following  two other looper boats Dream Catcher and Bucket List through  the 5 miles Gulf County canal and then through several creeks which make up the Intracoastal waterway.

You can see how close the crab pots are to the marked channel in this picture below.

We followed the channel through Lake Wimico into the Jackson River and finally the Apalachicola River.

We reached our destination- the Water Street hotel and Marina in Apalachicola at 2:00.

I walked into town and checked out some of the stores.  Since it was Sunday, the slow season and so close to Christmas, many were not open.  In one store with trinkets, They had a bin of jewellery made from broken brooches—one of the pieces had a maple leaf, with the word Winnipeg across it.  What’s the odds of seeing something like that 1500 miles away from home.  I asked and was told the jewelry was made by a group of women in Knoxville Tennessee.

That night we went to the Raw Oyster Bar for supper.  I had oysters with cheese and Jalapenos.  I’m not sure if I can eat them raw yet—but may before the week is out.  We are in the oyster capital of North America and we could be here awhile.  We’re waiting for a weather window, with very little wind, so that our 140 mile overnight crossing to Tarpon Springs will be a relatively smooth crossing.    It is now Wednesday, things don’t look good until  well after Christmas day.  So we wait—it started raining during the Monday night and is still drizzling Tuesday afternoon.  They are predicting high water in places in Alabama and Florida which may result in flash flooding.  It’s now Wednesday afternoon and we just had another shower.

We been playing Euchre the past couple evenings with Pat and Dick from Dream Catcher—so far the women are leading the matches.  We talked about a joint Christmas meal on Friday, with Turkey, so Andy and I walked to Piggly Wiggly and back ( 2.4 miles) to pick up a small Turkey today.  Oysters for Christmas just doesn’t seem right!  On our walk about town we thought about going to church.

If I don’t post again before Christmas, We want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

Here we are in front of the  town tree in Apalachicola-  a net with crab trap markers.

December 14 to 19th

We had the fuel injector pump taken out first thing Monday morning and we jumped in our rental car and drove to Mobile Alabama; (a 3.5 hour drive).  (  Here’s Mobile’s downtown from  the road.)

We made a few wrong turns but arrived at the repair shop before 1:00.  We left the pump and returned to Panama City.  While we were away the starter and one alternator was removed for testing.

On Tuesday morning, it was decided that both alternators would be replaced, because they had been damaged by the overcharging.  A new starboard starter was also needed, it had already been repaired twice during this trip , so it was time to replace it.  At 10:00 we were informed that the injector would be ready by 3:00 so we drove back to Mobile to pick it up at Test Calibration.

They had said they would send it by bus,however with it being this close to Christmas there is no guarantee that it would make it back here for Wednesday.  On Wednesday morning it was noticed that there wasn’t enough parts to reassemble the injector pump so it couldn’t be installed until the next day.

The installation was completed Thursday afternoon and everything was operational by 3:30.

Hopefully this concludes the Electrical Saga. Andy has a t-shirt that states that B.O.A.T. stands for break out another thousand,  we did that plus for these repairs, but feel a lot more confident.

We are quite satisfied with the work done at Treasure Island.

You never want to stay a week at a marina because of breakdowns but the staff did everything in their power to make our stay as pleasant as possible. Special thanks to Tyler, Roland, John and Dave.  Andy just got off the phone with Roland who was following up on how are day had gone.

We left this morning  at 7:30 and travelled  through East Bay

and then along the Wetappo Creek for 17 miles,

we then turned into  the Gulf County Canal once we saw this sign.

and ended up in Port St. Joe at 1:30. we saw these fishing boats unloading  at a processing plant in Port St. Joe.

We  met up with  Pat and Dick from Dream Catcher, whom we hope to cross the Gulf with in a few days if there is  suitable  weather window.

December 9th  to ?????

We left Niceville before noon and travelled across the remainder of Choctawhatchee Bay and then went through a narrow 20 mile cut called the “Grand Canyon”

and enter  West Bay.

We anchored for the night near Burnt Mill Creek  

When we went to shut down, the Starboard engine wouldn’t shut down, so we realized our electrical issues had not been resolved, and added to that we now seemed to have a fuel issue.  The anchorage was very tranquil, and there were at least 3 dolphins in the Bay, as well as Oyster beds, as indicated by the  floating markers.

In the morning, we ran the generator to charge up the batteries, and set off for Panama City.  We called a boat yard there that agreed to assess our boat and issues the next day, (Friday).    There is a list of systems that may have been affected by the short.  The xantrex regulator  alternators, battery starboard starter or key switch, as well as the fuel injector pump.  They will be looking into our issues in more detail on Monday and  we are hoping to have them all resolved this  week as the boatyard is closing for 2 weeks for Christmas. Otherwise we’ll be spending  our Christmas here.

We rented a car for the weekend, and will be checking out Panama City Beach, weather is in the  mid 70’s here.

I’ve included a picture of a Sea Ray that is parked beside us, for those of you who prefer this boat.

It’s a 2016 decorated for the Christmas boat parade, and asking price is 1.8 Million.  I had a tour, very nice with a washer/dryer, 3 state rooms 2 heads.  Didn’t see an ice-maker but it had 7 AC units.

Haven’t seen any Herons here, but lots of Brown and White Pelicans.

This posting is courtesy of McDonald’s wifi, as there is no internet at the boatyard.

December 9th

The mechanic just left, he disconnected our Xantrex alternator regulator as it is giving too high of an output.  We will have to use shore power or the generator to charge the  house batteries for now.

It seems odd to have Christmas decorations without snow.

Here’s one of the  many planes  flying by.

We will be leaving Niceville and travelling east to the other end of Choctawachee Bay today.

We can’t say enough good things about the people at the yacht club here in Niceville,  they have gone above and beyond being nice to us

        Dec 6,7, 8

We traversed the 45 miles along the Santa Rosa Sound from Pensacola Beach to Choctawhatchee Bay,  going through Fort Walton and north of Destin.

It was a relatively uneventful trip; Santa Rosa island was south of us, and separated us from the Gulf of Mexico, so the winds were light.  The island consisted of sand dunes, and several beach areas with numerous hotels and holiday rental properties, and supporting infrastructure.

At one point, we saw a boat parked at a private dock that looked very similar to ours.

We also had a dolphin following us for a short time.

We crossed the bay, the water was like glass to our marina in Niceville.   Doesn’t that sound like a place you’d like to visit?  It is located near the Elgin Air force Base, so lots of planes flying around, but thankfully not at night- or at least I didn’t notice.

The marina is fairly new and is one of the nicest we’ve stayed at so far.

There are several boats on the docks but we seem to be the  only ones staying here.  They have a huge dry-dock area, with many boats already in storage for the winter/off-season.  Laundry is free, there is a restaurant& bar –Tucker Duke’s,

an outdoor pool, which I plan to use before we leave.

Thee are some great statues, as well and artifacts in the main building.

One of the managers drove us to Walmart for groceries on Monday.  He said there was a family of dolphins that live in the bay—I haven’t seen them yet, but will be looking.

We are still having electrical/engine issues- they don’t seem to go away! But it is a 30 year old boat, so I guess they’re expected- have I mentioned this before?  When we arrived Sunday it seemed like the starter batteries were boiling—even the new battery  Andy investigated and  determined that the alternator on the Port engine is over charging and the alternator on the Starboard engine is squealing – so likely a bearing issue.  He pulled both alternators, and they will be taken for repair/rebuild Tuesday. One of the employees drove him to Fort Walton Beach to drop them off.  While he’s gone I’m updating the blog – so people know where we are and cleaning.