Longboat Key Club Moorings. December 12-25. Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all from Longboat Key!!

 

We are well settled into this fabulous resort marina. 

Here is the view from the galley one morning...a visitor!

And a great pink sunset

We have enjoyed our walks on the beach as well as an occasional dip in the pool during this above average temperature spell.

And dinghy rides too.  Here we are in Sarasota for dinner and to listen to a band at Marina Jack across Sarasota Bay from Longboat Key. 

Hmm, this photo taken as we leave Sarasota reminds me of "dinghy racing" years ago on Lake Michigan with Craig S, Ken D and others....well, maybe a few more city lights.

We also went all the way around Lido Key one day.

And all the way to Turtle Beach on Siesta Key, a 25 mile round trip on yet another calm day.

Siesta Beach.

Here is a view from Siesta with Lido and Longboat Keys off in the distance.

We also had a great visit with Julie's cousin Jill and her husband Tom.  Had lunch at the iconic Columbia Restaurant (always busy) on St Armands Circle.  Enjoyed a lot of laughs and a great dinner at Portofino Restaurant right at the end of our dock that evening too.  Thanks so much for taking time out to drive up from Punta Gorda to visit us Jill and Tom!  Enjoy your new Florida home! Hope to see you again before we leave for the Bahamas.

On our daily walks we normally get into Publix to pick up a few things.  One day, we were walking along in front of the store and an older gentleman walking with a cane received a cell phone call.  He stopped, handed the cane to his wife and answered quite loudly.  "Hello?"  And a pause, then   "Why don't you go ___ yourself!" was what we heard.  Guess it was an unwanted sales pitch.  Or that curmudgeon stage...

We used the local bus service to go to my orthopedic doctor appointment for my right elbow medial epicondylitis (golfer's elbow) evaluation.  This is the first bus we have ridden in many, many years. Julie always wanted to take the bus in Grand Rapids but never did as the car was much easier. And it was a pretty good deal with the round trip for both of us totaling only $5.  Here is our view as we wait for the 7:30 AM bus.

And the downtown transfer station is next to Whole Foods.

And Doc says I will be fine.  "Just don't use the arm for 6-12 months and I give it a 95% probability of healing itself". Seriously, he said every time I feel that burning pain I must stop the activity as it is only re-tearing the tendon.  And just leaning on a table or countertop, pushing canvas snaps, scrubbing the boat, etc all create pain.  So, I guess my left arm use, local boat detailing companies and Julie will be bailing me out for quite a while. And I will continue my stretching and heat application routines....as outlined in my new owners manual...

Friday night we had dinner with Larry and Karen (Dream) who we met in 2015 in Sarasota.  They now have a boat in Longboat and graciously drove us to dinner at the Chart House.  Thanks so much for looking us up and the wonderful hospitality aboard Dream.

Our Christmas Eve was a bit different too.  We called Mom and she was cooking for her complexes pot luck at noon.  I can taste the "cheesy potatoes" she was describing as this was a classic home meal component.  She said it was snowing there which was nice to hear...but we really don't miss the things that go along with it.  Memories are good.
In the afternoon we took the bus to Sarasota and attended Christmas Eve Mass at St Martha's. 

I have to say it was a bit underwhelming with very little music and an hour service.  Not quite what we expected but as usual a packed house.  But we do miss all the music and children from Christmas Eve Masses at parishes back in Michigan.  One great memory is the years when the late Fr. Nash had all children bring a bell to Mass and ring them at various points in the celebration.  It was a pretty wild scene but oh so memorable. We do miss spending Christmas time with our children 
but they are thankfully making their own Christmas traditions in various parts of our great USA.

We then hopped back on the bus and headed back to St Armands Circle.  A beautiful nativity scene near the Circle.

Then for a sunset walk along Lido beach.

And a look at the tallest Christmas tree on Florida's west coast.  Very impressive.

We then went to our reservation at Blu Kouzina, a Greek restaurant.  We shared a three bean salad....and it was not your normal Karen R three bean salad.  It was with chick peas, garbanzo beans, some other (can't remember) bean, garlic, dill, olive oil, red onions and fresh squeezed lemon over the top and it was delicious.  Oh, your salad is too Karen!  Julie had an eggplant dish and I had the traditional souvlaki skewer.  Both delicious and fresh.  We will be back!

On Christmas we had a relaxing day listening to Christmas music on the Message and Julie baked cookies!

We also took a nice long walk.  Here are a few photos from our walk. The first is a Longboat Key "snowman" we found along the way.

    Our path back from the beach to the marina.

To top off our day, we talked to all of our kids.  It was great to hear from all of them and to hear about their Christmas celebrations.
Looking forward to a road trip north to the Villages to visit Carol and Bill C for a couple days.  Not sure any of these cookies will survive though... sorry Bill and Carol!
Next week we will welcome visitors Paula and Rich for a few days aboard Sum Escape in Longboat.  More later....

Jacksonville to Longboat Key. December 2-11, 2017

Our month was up at Ortega Landing...and yes, we made reservations for November next year too.  It is a real nice stop on the migration south with good airport access for travelling to see family. We like it here.
We headed out with the ultimate destination of Longboat Key, for our mid December to early February stay.  Another great travel day as we approach downtown Jacksonville on the St John River.

We enjoyed Longboat Key very much last year so we are returning to it as "home base" for a while. It will be our third December/January in the Sarasota area (Marina Jack was "home" in 2015/2016).

A few vessels heading to ???  Nice way to transport your boat to the next geographical area you want to explore.  Maybe we will ship Sum Escape to the Pacific NW someday....

Day one was 67 miles to an anchorage south of St Augustine.  It was behind a low tide sandbar just off the ICW.  We had a nice peaceful night at anchor here. A nice full moon rising.

A moonset and a sunrise at the same time in the morning.  The moonset.

The sunrise and another early morning departure.

Julie made good use of the travel time.  A little background first.  She has completed wonderful baby books and scrap books (almost) for each child.  This is the last scrapbook she is completing, Brett's scrapbook.  All others have been delivered!

Next stop was Rockhouse Creek anchorage near New Smyrna.  This was on the recommendation of Larry and Lena (Hobo) our neighbors at Ortega. A wonderful anchorage.  Thanks for the tip Larry and Lena!!  We dropped the dinghy in and went over to the low tide huge sandbar near the New Smyrna inlet for a nice Sunday afternoon walk.  It was a bit chilly so this person's business was not too robust.

On Monday we proceeded to an anchorage near Malabar (S of Melbourne) in the Indian River.  Again we were just off the ICW but boat traffic stops near sunset and it was a convenient stop.

We departed on Tuesday at 7 AM to another gorgeous sunrise.

And were soon accompanied by some dolphins having an early morning surfing session.  We never tire of these guys!  And this group followed us a couple miles....great stamina as we were traveling at 10 MPH!

We arrived at Harbortown Marina in Fort Pierce around 11:30 AM.  We were met as planned by a technician and the service manager from Whiticar Yacht to make an adjustment to the starboard shaft seal.  It was still spraying a bit of water from the installation they did in June. A quick adjustment, a sea trial and all was good so we took our slip at Harbortown for the evening.  A quick wash of the boat, a walk to Publix and it was time for bed!

On Wednesday we left around 8 or so bound for Stuart where our friends Carole and DeVere (Job Site) were planning to meet us to travel across the Okeechobee canal system.  We arrived at Sunset Marina before they did but they certainly made good time from Hilton Head Island which they left on Sunday! We travelled the 283 miles from Jacksonville in 5 travel days.  They made the almost 400 miles in three and a half given they did not start till 1PM on one of the days due to a repair!  It was great to see them again.  They were travelling with Carole's sister and brother-in-law and we all had cocktails aboard Job Site and then a great dinner at the Boathouse.

Thursday morning we left at 7:30 to start our Okeechobee crossing. It was a nice day on the water and given the strong head currents we encountered (they are dumping a lot of Irma water from Lake Okeechobee) we ran at cruise (about 18.5 MPH for our boat) across the 16 or so mile lake route to make up some time.  We wanted to be sure we hit the third lock, Moore Haven, before the 4:30 last lockage.  DeVere (aka Turbo) complied with this slow cruise speed....thanks DeVere!
We arrived there shortly after 3 PM and took a nice walk and had cocktails aboard Sum Escape and then each cooked aboard.  We received a good rain storm that evening tied to the Moore Haven city dock. $1 a foot including electricity and halfway across the Okeechobee waterway....nice stop.

Friday we departed in some fog

for our 79 mile trip to Snook Bight Marina in Fort Myers Beach where we will meet Brigitte an Scott (Putz'n Around) our other "Bahama buddy boat" for a couple nights. We again ran at cruise for a number of miles once near Fort Myers to be sure we could make the pot luck party Brigitte and Scott had arranged and invited us to.  The "white" in the wake is not snow!!!

Here is Job Site making sure they beat us to Fort Myers Beach.

The pot luck was a marina get together and they kindly included us.  Surprisingly, it was a sort of Michigan reunion as the majority of the boaters hailed from Michigan.  We all of course used our "built in" map (hand) to show where we were from!

Saturday our friends Pat and Tim visited us for a couple hours.  They are staying in a condo on Bonita Beach for the month.  It was great to catch up with them.  In the evening we went to Mantanzas Restaurant and had a great dinner with the Bahama crew.  Some preliminary plans were made and we plan on an early February crossing to West End and then work our way south to the Exumas.

Sunday we departed for an anchorage near Cape Haze. It was quite windy so Pine Island Sound and Charlotte Harbor were choppy and we got "salted" pretty well.  Oh, and it was a bit chilly so I was using the lower helm.

We got anchored in early afternoon and a large manatee swam by shortly after.  It was again just off the ICW and in a manatee "slow speed" zone so very minimal wakes.  The eastern shore was lined with homes but many were apparently seasonal and not yet occupied.

Monday morning we departed for Sarasota in 40 degree weather and stopped for fuel along the way.  We only had about 45 miles to go but due to fueling and the no wake/ slow speed zones we did not arrive till after 3 PM.  We got the salty boat washed and dried, took showers, had dinner and crashed.  The last 9 days of travel covered 519 miles and 59 travel / engine hours and does take a toll just as any form of travel does...even if it only averages 9 miles per hour or so.  Remember we have bridges, locks, manatee and no wake zones, etc that all add to the slow travel pace.  But it sure beats a crowded highway!
We got all the salt off Sum Escape (yes we needed a sweatshirt, it was chilly....keep that North wind up North would you all!!) soon after checking in.

We are all settled in at Longboat Key Club Moorings Marina for the next 8 weeks or so. 

We expect that we might meet a few "class of 2017" Loopers as they continue to travel south through this area. We always enjoy meeting new cruisers so we hope a few do come through.  We also have visitors scheduled from time to time as we find this facility quite conducive to entertaining company.  We look forward to all the planned visits.

We will also see doctors and dentists, get some maintenance done on Sum Escape and generally make ourselves at "home". Here is a photo of our partially decorated Christmas tree on the stern as we rest comfortably at Longboat Key.  Still working on those Holiday decorations!

Merry Christmas to all!  Thanks for following our blog.

A Thanksgiving Trip to Denver. November 23-29, 2017

So we checked airline flights and found a very reasonable direct flight Jacksonville to Denver to visit Brett and Natalie.  We flew out on Thanksgiving afternoon and returned on Tuesday....well actually Wednesday with the 3 hour plane issue delay. It is only the second Thanksgiving we have missed the Michigan celebration with Tom's family in 30 years or so. But it was so nice to be with Brett and Natalie for a few days.

We landed and got our free rental car (thank you Enterprise/National).  We were just in time for a great sunset and some unique (to us at least) cloud formations. Perhaps these clouds help explain our bumpy ride here.

We drove to the Westminster area near their apartment to find a bite to eat.  We ended up at a Macaroni Grill and Julie had lamb and I had lasagna for our Thanksgiving feast!  Actually it was quite good.
It was great to see Brett and Natalie Thanksgiving evening and see their beautiful recently remodeled 2 bedroom/ 2 bath apartment.  Very nice.  The golf course view from their balcony.

Friday we did some grocery shopping, took a nice walk on the trails around Standley Lake (although a quick rainstorm cut it short) and settled in for the short stay. 

We went to dinner in Arvada at a really nice little Italian place, Zuccas.  What a great little downtown area.
Saturday we ran errands and visited / caught up on things with Brett and Natalie.  We took the light rail into the city and Brett bought us lunch at a great Mexican restaurant near Union Station, Machette Tequila and Tacos.  Really good!  Thanks Brett! 

We walked around town and found the street location Julie's great uncle lived in the 1920's on Wazee St.

This is the original seed company building.  We think the residents might have been different seeds today.  It is Colorado.

That evening Brett grilled steaks for dinner....delicious!
Sunday we took a ride to the mountains and visited Staunton State Park for a nice 5 mile hike. 

The record high temperatures we enjoyed here on the trip were great.  Hiked in just a sweatshirt at almost 9000 feet.  There were a couple icy areas on the trails and some snow here and there but it was a spectacular hiking day.

Monday Julie continued to work on Brett's baby book.  This even included a call to Mom Van Hall to get some details on her childhood, etc "for the record" in the book. It was done by the time we left!

We also enjoyed some time with their cat and dog, Sophie and Leo.  Sophie reminds us so much of our cat Frisky.

 And Leo is still a puppy!

We also checked out the local prairie dog population on one of our neighborhood walks.

Monday night Julie and I cooked dinner for Brett and Natalie.  Gotta check on the blueberry pie Tom is baking. Yes the ice cream is in the freezer....

We returned to Jacksonville on Tuesday.  But......
It was a late night....OK early morning arrival back in Jacksonville.

November statistics:
Miles travelled:  Month: 390 / Trip to Date: 8982
Travel days:   11/ 195
Engine hours: 46 / 1022
Locks:   0/ 47
Bridges opened:   8 / 76
Days on hook or free wall:   8 / 86
Gallons of diesel:  322  / 7318