We are 29 days out of Patterson, (Calumet to the initiated). What with all the condos that are pandemic, as I said before, Calumet is looking better every day. For instance, we are in Everglades City and it is in the middle of nowhere. Condo creep has not taken hold---yet. A MOBIL home in a mobile home park, not acreage, $239,000.

After we left Tarpon Springs, we started anchoring and have done so now 10 nights in a row. Less than 1/3 of water on board has been used since the last fill.  At Ft. Myers we had planned to tie up at a friends home, but due to heavy North winds blowing all the water out we could not get in. Plan B was to use a mooring but there were none available to accommodate our boat. So anchor out it was for 3 days. Actually the anchorage at Ft. Myers is better than the mooring field except for lots of old sailboats with liveaboards. It is surrounded by tall mangroves, but for the site of one high rise you could be in a secluded anchorage in the keys. The dingy ride in is about 1 ¼ mile.  While there we visited with several MOTA members the Ford-Smiths and D’Austachio’s. 

When it became apparent that the tides were not coming up anytime soon we left for points South.

 The ICW ends at Ft. Myers so it is outside from now on. The last several days on the Gulf have been picture perfect. In fact Pat commented today that that has been better than the inside with all the pleasure boat traffic. TOTALY unlike the Northern Gulf Coast. As I have often said, towboats know the rules and are courteous which is a lot more than I can say about a large percentage of the traffic here.

That brings to mind a war story. We were meeting 3 big sport fishing boats running together. They were not slowing for traffic. As a rule it does not bother me, much, if in a meeting situation the oncoming boat does not slow as I can turn into the wake. In this case the channel was narrow and the 3 boats were closely spaced. I called them and said “This is the trawler style meeting the 3 sport fishing boats north bound that are not slowing for traffic. I am turning into the wake of the first boat to minimize damage. This will put me in the path of the other 2 boats. Deal with it.” They slowed.

Back to Everglades City. There are throngs of tourists taking boat tips into the mangroves. A lot of that is Airboat and you know how noisy they are.

We are headed to Marathon and will get there in 2 days, or so! Man it is nice to not have a schedule. We will go into a marina there, replenish supplies and wash the boat.

I made a modification to the winch, the one on the front of the boat not the wench inside.Yea, I know that it is actually a windlass but this has a better ring to it. Wish that I had my shop here.

Till next time.

Keep your ship together.

Year 2 of the great adventure has officially begun because we’re back on the boat.  We arrived in Baltimore on Tuesday April 16, 2007.

The boat was “on the hard” and the guy who owns the marina was nice enough to let us stay on board, saving us money and the aggravation of driving back & forth from Hotel to boat.  The boat “splashed” on Saturday, April 21.  The weather is perfect, calm wind, abundant sunshine and temperatures high 73 and about 50 in the evening.  We stored the boat at Old Bay Marina at Sparrow’s Point, Maryland, about 25 minutes from Baltimore.  It’s an old fashioned boat yard where you can do your own work and there are no locked gates nor codes to remember and no dock hands or ship’s store.  It’s great.

We spent 5 days in Punta Gorda, Florida at the MTOA Southern Rendezvous.  It was lots of fun as usual and Charles got to talk boats non-stop the entire time.  I did one of my favorite things, which is buy cute shoes that are totally inappropriate for a boat.

The purpose of the Rendezvous is also to inform boaters and we received lots of really good information.  So much that we have changed this year’s itinerary from Maine to something called the “Down East Circle”.  This is interesting because it’s north of where we are and includes Canada. More about that trip as it progresses.

Being back on the boat is interesting.  I’m finding things that I searched for at home and things that I was sure were on the boat actually must be at home-- somewhere.  The boat was winterized and shrink wrapped in plastic so we were anxious to see how it fared.  Everything was fine.  I’d put lots of containers of Damp Rid all over the boat and they were full of water but thankfully no mildew.  Next time I should actually read the instructions and use the recommended containers.  The boat had no smell, which was one of my concerns.  So much of a consern that I’d put all of our clothing, towels, and bedding in plastic storage bags but I needn’t have bothered and it was extra work to unpack and put away.

One other piece of advice is determine how much clothing, food, etc that you think you will need and then leave 50% at home.  Not only will you not need it, but if you do take it in spite of this advice you will spend a lot of time moving it around, stacking it  and stepping over it.  At the beginning of this leg we sent 2 boxes of clothes and yes, cute shoes home. When we complete this leg in October we’ll probably have to rent a car so that we can take more stuff home.

That’s it for now….Will try to post as the trip progresses.  As Charles likes to say, “Let us hear from you”.

THE WIFE

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August, 2007

Greetings from THE WIFE

We are almost at the end of another summer of the BIG ADVENTURE or the Great Circle Cruise as some people (including Charles) refer to it. It sometimes involves circling inside the circle, which is what we’re doing now. We are at the bottom of Cayuga Lake, we went down the west side to the bottom and when we leave we’ll go up the east side of the lake and then go to Seneca Lake and circle it. I call this trip the Big Adventure because it pretty much is on a daily basis. Today, for example, we rode the bikes through traffic in downtown Ithaca, New York, not once but twice. Trust me it’s an adventure when Charles and I ride bikes. For one thing, he goes much faster than I and can get ahead of me by a ¼ of a mile before he notices it. I have learned (finally) not to panic, that eventually he will see that I’m not there. He can’t hear me shrieking for him to stop and wait. I’ve tried many things, even a whistle that I wear around my neck (how uncool is that), one time I used it and he thought it was a bird chirping and I said well it must have been an angry bird. The other day he got so far ahead that I couldn’t see him and I actually knew where I was and I saw that if I rode through the grass I could actually beat him back to the boat, which I did and I was waiting for him to show up so I could do a little victory dance. But Charles got concerned and rode back to see what had happened and couldn’t find me so by the time he got to the boat I was concerned about him and it sucked all the fun out of winning….I’m thinking about getting one of those collars that sends a little electric zap to get his attention.

Some of the highlights of this year’s trip………………

The weather (until the last 2 weeks as of August 9) was amazing-slightly warm days and cool nights and not too much humidity.

Another surprise, the people of New York (all of New York)---were great, so gracious. Second place goes to the folks in New Jersey, only because we didn’t spend as much time with them. While we were there, they couldn’t have been nicer. Who would’ve thought that New Yorkers would be more boater friendly than Florida. Actually the further north you go in New York, the more hospitable and the further south you go in Florida the converse is true.

We visited Canada this summer for about 6 weeks. I’m pretty sure that most of you have heard everything about Quebec-the Rideau Canal, etc. I’ll give you my observations anyway. The locks are cleaner because they don’t have muddy ropes to cling to –they have cables that are easy and when your boat is too high (as in locking down) the lockkeepers take your line and wrap it around the cable and hand it back to you. They are extremely knowledgeable about their towns and what services they offer.

At first I thought the whole French thing was cute and interesting, but I have to admit that after a while it started to make me tired, trying to figure out what the signs meant and what people were trying to tell me and what they were really saying. So it was a relief to get to Ottawa although the food was really good in Quebec. Charles discovered 2 new dishes-----poultine (French fries with bits of CHEESE smothered in brown gravy) yes he does take cholesterol meds and the other food item is beaver tails (fried bread like a huge, flat beignet with cinnamon, smeared with chocolate and topped with banana slices). I’m trying to compensate for that by visiting farmers markets and buying fresh veggies, today I got green beans and corn. Of course on the way to the market we stopped and had a banana split. Well, tomorrow is another day.

We had a great time in Ottawa, it was Canada Day and we had fireworks, changing of the guard and the Musical Ride (Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Horseback) at Parliament Hill. It was also the 175^th Birthday of the Rideau Canal and we were locking through when the Canal was given the distinction of becoming a historical site by UNESCO (like the great wall of China).

Speaking of RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) Charles & I were invited to a dance/dinner at the Canadian Legion Hall in Merrickville, Ontario. So of course, I wore a skirt and the cute sandals with heels and had the honor of dancing with a retired RCMP. All I can say is it was a little ugly (due to the cute shoes) but everyone survived.

We arrived back in the US by way of Heart Island and it is so pretty. We visited Boldt Castle, Mr. Boldt built it for his wife, it was started in 1900 and he had spent 2.5 million dollars and it was still about a year from completion when Mrs. Boldt died. He was so heart broken that he never returned to the castle and it was never completed. So I said to Charles ,”that’s so romantic” and he said “What?” When I explained it to him he said, “Well if you die, I’ll sell the boat.” Me: “Would you really?” C: “Of course.” Me: “Oh that’s so sweet’.

That’s it for now. There’s lots more to tell, but I have to cook that corn..