Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Epilogue

December 12

      We went a little past our marina to find the house we have rented for Christmas week for the kids and grandkids.  Went past but finally found it.  Then docked at Salty Sam’s Marina until the kids get here.  John passed his final exam with flying colors.  The wind was brisk and the slip they told us to go into already had a boat so he had to do a 360 turn in a very narrow fairway and come back to a different slip. Ten months ago a real white knuckle situation.  Easy peasy after 10 months on the boat!! 
      We are now officially vacationing in Florida instead of "Looping"               I           
        
         

Crossing our wake

December 12

                                                             
       At 1:30 pm we crossed our wake under the San Carlos Bridge over Matanzas Pass into Estero Bay

Captain John looks pretty relieved.  5500 miles and no groundings

5500 miles, 10 months, 30+ golf courses,  too many locks, great restaurants, new friends, old friends

A Grand Old Florida Golf Resort

Dec 10-11
       Our last stop on the Loop was at Boca Grande on Gasparilla Island.  It is one of the old railroad vacation spots on the islands between Charlotte Harbor and the Gulf of Mexico. It was a short trip from Venice so we got in early and I headed out to check out shops and have a light lunch in the old railway station.  Boca Grande has a wonderful bike path along the old railroad tracks for 7 miles from one end of the island to the other so I got some exercise by doing about 10 miles.
       I had decided to celebrate the end of the Loop by spending the night at the Old Gasparilla Inn so we could play the golf course.  Our first night to leave the boat in a marina and stay in a hotel. It was only about ½ mile from the marina, but they sent a golf cart to get our golf clubs and bags.  I walked over and John rode his bike in time to enjoy the room and clean up for dinner.  Classic old hotel that has been well maintained but is still all original and has a dress code in the dining room for dinner.   After a nice dinner and breakfast (the dress code is relaxed for breakfast) the next morning,  we headed out to play a wonderful course, also well maintained but updated recently, with 4 or 5 holes right along the water.
You can always tell who is taking the selfie


      I cooked our last dinner on the boat and the next morning got up early and walked into town to a wonderful little French bakery for a croissant and a latte and a walk on the beach. (the island is only a ½ mile wide.

Final looping latte

Visiting the circus

Dec 4-7
              Still trying to keep the horse from running all the way back to the barn and we had never been to Sarasota so we had a short ride across Tampa Bay to our nest stop at Marina Jack’s.  this was a really fancy marina with some huge boats.  We knew we were back in south Florida.  Met up with some people we had been tag teaming since Mobile.  Their problems in Clearwater with a transmission had turned out to be something more serious than the oil and their “buddy boat” had waited for them.  Some boats on the Loop seem to buddy up with another boat and make plans and travel together.   We have enjoyed meeting people and socializing but never got really buddy with anyone.  Maybe our focus on golf has precluded some of that.  It was finally warm enough in Sarasota to feel like making Pina Colada’s for sipping on the dock.  I still had the stuff I had bought in Ft Myers in February!   So I made a pitcher and invited our neighbor boats. Nice evening on the dock.
               First day in Sarasota we got the parts we needed to fix our generator but after looking at the situation John decided to get someone to help put them in.  Fortunately the marina had a good service department and sent someone over that day to check it out and he came back the next day and did the work.  I walked into town and checked out Sarasota’s “historic” downtown.  Not to historic but a nice downtown for eating and a little shopping.  A great bookstore.   I like to support Indie bookstores and added to my collection that I’m going to have to get rid of next week.  I found a neat old section of houses built in 1910 hidden among the skyscrapers.
              Wednesday we headed up to to the Ringling Complex.   Donated to the City of Sarasota after Ringling died in 1936 it has a big park/garden area around their home on the bay, Ca’d Zan complete with a marble dock, the Asolo theater, built in Renaissance Italy that was taken apart and shipped to Florida early in this century, the John and Mabel Museum of Art, and of course a great circus museum.  A complete history of the circus from the Romans to Cirque du Soliel and lots of artifacts from the circus was interesting but the most amazing display was a miniature circus that Howard Tibbals has spent his lifetime creating.  For those of us born after the heyday of the “Big Top coming to town” it really brings the event to life.  
This was life size

This is the minature model
         The art museum has incredible old masters and a wonderful Asian section that we explored.  We could have spent all day there, but John’s knees and my ankle can only put up with a few hours of museum wandering.
             That evening we went back to the old area I had discovered for dinner at Owen’s Fish Camp.  I have finally gotten to the point on the trip where it takes more than just good food for me to go out to eat!!  I need a special atmosphere, and this provided it with a garden with all sorts of fish Old Florida  memorabilia and live country music where you drink and eat appetizers while waiting for your table.   And all within walking distance of the boat.

                Thursday John had discovered the Bobby Jones Golf course so we went out to play.  One of the first courses in Florida, designed by Donald Ross in 1926 and dedicated to Bobby Jones the next year.  Fun layout with lots of water and a good round. It is a municipal golf course and didn’t have much to offer for lunch so we went back to the marina and had lunch on the deck of Marina  Jack’s Restaurant.  The marina is in a park so I took a short walk around to the bay side of the park that evening and watched the sunset.


Sunset on Sarasota Bay











Dec 8-9
     Friday we headed down to Venice.  A city we had been to while looking for a boat and I had really liked.  The old town on the island has stayed the same for a century but is pretty lively with restaurants and shops and I enjoyed a look around since it was just a ½ mile over the bridge we we docked under.  Dinner at the restaurant at the marina was simple since I was not in the mood to cook. 
          Saturday we were scheduled  to go to Boca Grande schedules and boats don’t mix. The weather was really bad and the wind blowing hard so we cocooned inside the boat.  I ventured out and walked to Mass in the late afternoon and got back to the boat to cook dinner.  
















Gorgeous bas relief ceramic at Catherdral Church of the Epiphany






Sunday, December 3, 2017

Back to sun and golf

Nov 27, 2017
            We didn’t want to stay on the restaurant dock another day, so after a morning search for coffee which produced one old cafĂ© serving Greek coffee to some very old guys we headed over to Clearwater and the municipal marina there.  Finished recuperating from the crossing and reconnected with some of boats we had met waiting for the Gulf crossing. 

Nov. 28 - Dec 3. 
      The first order of business was finding someone who could fix our generator which had ceased to function back up on the rivers.  We don’t use it too much since we are usually in marinas with power but it did need fixing and all the mechanics in Florida are really busy.  John spent the morning on the phone while I ran errands and checked out the area on my bicycle.  He got lucky and found someone who said he was finishing up a job early and could come by that afternoon.
      He and John tried to figure out the problem while I tried to stay out of the way.  The mechanic ordered a part and said he’d be back the next day. We had some great  Puerto Rican food I had found for dinner.  I had not been able to find a marina reservation in St Petersberg since there was a big boat show there so we decided to stay in Clearwater and rent a car to see Tampa and St Pete.  They are all really close together and we could get to free days at the marina after we paid for 5.

 
Clearwater has decorated dolphis around the downtown as its mascot
  The next morning I did one of my favorite Looping activites, walk to a coffee shop for a latte.  This one  also had great strawberry crepes.  
        Then I spent the rest of the morning planning the rest of our trip.   We feel like we have morally “crossed our wake” since we crossed the Gulf and are only 100 miles from Ft Myers, but having spent a month there in February and planning a week there before the kids come, I didn’t want to get there before the 16th.
       The mechanic came back with the part, put it in and thought we were fixed, but after running for 30 minutes the generator quit again.   Another hour came up with a different solution which required ordering more parts, but John should be able to put these in so they are headed to our next marina.  I went to pick up the rental car and went to the movie “Lady Bird”  I think the 40 something male reviewer in the NYTimes was much more impressed than me, but it’s fun to go to the movies here because there are lots of movies that will never get to Rifle.
         Thursday we played golf at Crescent Oaks golf club  and had a great tapas meal afterwards in the little beach town of Dunedin.   There are some really cute little towns along the coast but they are surrounded by suburbia, shopping centers, strip malls, housing developments and 6 lane streets. Neither of us like it much.
        Friday we headed to St Petersberg to the boat show and enjoyed looking around.  There was another Great Harbor 37 there for sale.  The price was good compared to what we want for ours and John talked to a few people who were interested in the boat and gave them our card.  An hour of traffic back to Clearwater and I opted for stopping for my favorite simple meal.  Rotisserie chicken, baggette and a salad on the boat.
       Saturday was golf again at TPC Tampa after visiting a small farmers’ market on the pier above the boat.   A great track, beautiful weather, but play was a little slow for a twosome stuck in the middle of foursomes.  But a nice place to spend the afternoon.  Maybe a slow boat is making me more tolerant of slow golf.  Decent restaurant at the course and home to listen to the golf commentators talk about Tiger’s comeback.
       Sunday I took John to a golf course early and came back to the boat to enjoy my morning coffee in the pilot house overlooking the marina, with fresh Florida strawberries from the Farmer’s market for breakfast and catch up on the ColoradoCowboyAfloat.   Off to church and return the rental.  
     Beautiful old church and an amazing Chancel choir with 20 member, half of them men.
Very nice organ too.




Gulf Crossing

November 25-26, 2017
         In order to cross the Gulf at the best time we had to wait till about 10 am to leave and followed Agape and Pharxma Life out of Apalachiacola and into the gulf.
Heading out across the Gulf of Mexico

Sunrise and land the next morning

  Calm sea, few crab pots and the only trouble being staying awake all night.  We took turns and it wasn’t too bad and our trusty chart plotter kept us on track.  We radioed goodby to our buddy around midnight since they were going to Clearwater and we wanted to stop in Tarpon Springs and the best Greek food outside of Greece.
          We made it to Tarpon Springs about 9 am the next morning, as advertised with the sun in ou eyes and had some trouble getting a marina.  They were all full and I hadn’t made a reservation early enough since I didn’t really know when we would make it.    The Municipal Marina said they had room, but after trying to get into two slips that were about 6 inches too narrow the dockmaster volunteered to ask the restaurant next door if we could use their dock. They were OK so we tied up.  I had Googled a Catholic Church that wasn’t too far away, so while John napped I went to church.  It was a little farther than Google said, but the exercise was good after the day and night on the boat.   Nice service with a lot of deacons and priests, good choir and really unusual Stations of the Cross.
   John met me a Myconos for a  good Greek meal 300 feet from the boat.    We weren’t disappointed with Myconos and brought a big box of leftovers back to the boat.
Finally had squid and octopus on the same plate with no breading (Calamari) so I think I know the difference now.
The rest of the day was napping and trying to stay awake so we could go to bed at a decent hour to ensure a good night’s sleep.

 





 Tarponn Springs is all about the sponges and the Greek immigrants who came to harvest them.

Forgotten Coast

Nov 18-21, 2017      
      A short hop down the canals and connected lakes and sounds to Panama City.  I went for a bike ride when we got there and checked out places to visit the next few days. 
       Sunday I went to church at St Dominic’s  very modest church but they had a great music/choir ensemble.  Unfortunately they were away in NYC that Sunday.  The priest was of the Catholic Charismatic persuasion and gave a really nice homily.  I felt more like I was back at St Mary’s than I had for a long time.
        John’s cousin Terri Leonhardt Floor and her husband Tom came down to the boat in the afternoon and then we went back to their house before heading out to dinner.  They live in an older part of Panama City and have a veritable jungle in their back yard which they work hard to keep under control.  Fun evening with them and got John thinking about birding which they are really avid about.

Insert pix
Can't believe I didn't get a picture of the cousins.

    Monday I helped John change the oil because I can get back into the spot where the switch for the pump is a lot easier than he can.  Then I checked out shops in the old downtown of Panama City.  Some really interesting ones.  I don’t do into too many antique stores but there are a lot along the trip and the most interesting ones have old childrens’ toys which I would love to bring home, but no space, thank goodness.
      Another small world story when a small ranger tug pulled in front of us on the dock.  The gentleman aboard said he had a niece who lived in Rifle with her anesthetist husband.  Of course it was Janet Kirkpatrick from PEO.
     On Tuesday John wanted to go back to the golf course he had played on Sunday for a men’s group.  Unfortunately he played really badly.  He blamed it on sore muscles from crawling around the engine room the day before.   I went for a  walk along the beach and then we went to a nice Italian restaurant for dinner.

Nov 22, 2017
     We then headed across Florida’s “Forgotten Coast”.   A lot of small old Florida fishing towns that are difficult to access because of the shallow waters.  I read a historical novel about the four surviving members of a Spanish expedition in the early 1500’s who ended up traversing this area and after 8 years had made it across the continent to the Bay of California.  John is reading the real history of the journey.   You can still get an idea of how rough it would be to walk along the coast here, even without native tribes who weren’t too happy about their presence.
       We stopped at Port St Joe on Wednesday night since it was too far to get to Apalachicola.  Nice little beach town trying to attract the tourists to the Forgotten Coast, but there was a good Publix two blocks from the marina and we had been getting low on supplies.  John went on a long bike ride and after the grocery store I did happy hour at the restaurant at the marina with some other Loopers.  Margaritas and oysters and sunset over the Gulf!  We were now meeting up with other Loopers gathering for the jump across the Gulf from Apalacicola or Carrabelle. 
          Thanksgiving morning we got moving slowly since we only had 30 miles to go and in looking for a coffee and pastry for breakfast I happened upon Thanksgiving dinner at the Deli in the grocery store.  Bought two and after a short cruise we had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and collard greens with the pumpkin pie I had managed to bake in our countertop convection oven.    I rode into town and check out some of the Old Florida town.  Nice old houses and downtown area.

Thanksgiving dinner

             In order to cross the Gulf instead of going around some really skinny water without and marinas for three days we had to wait for a “weather window” when the winds are negligent and the seas calm.  The Trip is about 170 miles and requires cruising overnight.  The forecast was for perfect  conditions on Saturday/ Sunday and we had found another cruiser that wanted to go at the same time and traveled our speed.  So I got to spend all day in a wonderful downtown area, old buildings repurposed for shopping and restaurants.
Start of Christmas season in Apalachicola 
Santa comes to the Forgotten Coast on a shimp boat


  The couple on Agape our “buddy boat” for the crossing seemed nice so we invited them to join us for dinner at a really nice restaurant in an old hotel in town.  Good chef likes the small town life variety of restaurant.  Very good and interesting.


Visiting more cousins

Nov 18-21, 2017

      A short hop down the canals and connected lakes and sounds to Panama City.  I went for a bike ride when we got there and checked out places to visit the next few days. 
       Sunday I went to church at St Dominic’s  very modest church but they had a great music/choir ensemble.  Unfortunately they were away in NYC that Sunday.  The priest was of the Catholic Charismatic persuasion and gave a really nice homily.  I felt more like I was back at St Mary’s than I had for a long time.
        John’s cousin Terri Leonhardt Floor and her husband Tom came down to the boat in the afternoon and then we went back to their house before heading out to dinner.  They live in an older part of Panama City and have a veritable jungle in their back yard which they work hard to keep under control.  Fun evening with them and got John thinking about birding which they are really avid about.
    Monday I helped John change the oil because I can get back into the spot where the switch for the pump is a lot easier than he can.  Then I checked out shops in the old downtown of Panama City.  Some really interesting ones.  I don’t do into too many antique stores but there are a lot along the trip and the most interesting ones have old childrens’ toys which I would love to bring home, but no space, thank goodness.
      Another small world story when a small ranger tug pulled in front of us on the dock.  The gentleman aboard said he had a niece who lived in Rifle with her anesthetist husband.  Of course it was Janet Kirkpatrick from PEO.

     On Tuesday John wanted to go back to the golf course he had played on Sunday for a men’s group.  Unfortunately he played really badly.  He blamed it on sore muscles from crawling around the engine room the day before.   I went for a nice walk along the beach and then we went to a nice Italian restaurant for dinner.

Back to canals and smooth water

Nov 16-17 2017
     On Thursday, we made a short run to Pensacola and docked close to the historic downtown.  I headed out for a walk with instructions for John to meet me at a well recommended Tapas restaurant, Global Grille when it opened at 5 pm .  There was a section of old, either restored or rebuilt houses, a church and some archeological discoveries of the old Spanish and then British forts that had been in the area.  It didn’t look like Pensacola had been hurt much by hurricanes and a lot of the old buildings remained and were being repurposed as offices, shops and art galleries.  One gallery had some nice local art, including the work of an icon painter that I really liked.  The original of my favorite, a nativity scene was not available fortunately, but a nice card was so I made do with that.  The restaurant was even better than advertised with entre size portions of the tapas we ordered including Lamb lollipops, tempura asparagus, Brussel sprouts, a spicy tuna with wontons that was more like a tartare than sashimi.   Great meal and friendly propirietor.  And left overs to boot.
And glad to be back

All along our trip cities have been decorating mascots.  This is Pensacola's version


   Friday the only place to stop in our cruising range was a really fancy resort Sandestin Baytowne Marina with four golf courses, a Broadmoor type hotel, condos and shopping village with lots of Grandma type stores and restaurants.   A good boardwalk for walking through the swamp gave me some exercise but the weather was turning bad, so I couldn’t talk John into staying and playing golf since we had to meet his cousin Terri and her husband Tom Floor in Panama City for dinner Sunday.  It did look like a good place to bring the family.

      

Friday, November 17, 2017

Cruising the Mississippi Sound

Nov. 13-15, 2017 
     We played golf at the oldest golf course in Mississippion Monday.  An enjoyable Donald Ross course in similar shape to what it would have been in the early 1900's.  Actually sort of a relief from resort courses all the time.
Golfing selfie
 
Suzanne, Chris Holt and Dan Savage with Ft. Massachusetts in background
   We had promised Dan and Suzanne a trip on the boat and the seas had flattend out enough for a beautiful trip out to Fort Massachusetts on Ship Island. We tied up to a dock under repair and enjoyed lunch on the boat.  Trying to get them on the boat was a struggle with weather and schedules and we were glad we had realized early on how hard it was to make plans for people traveling with us.  But this finally worked out perfectly.  Suzzanne's brother, Chris Holt, who lives in the area was also able to come along.
      Wednesday the water was  choppy again,  but we were willing to brave it to continue our way home. The waves were crashing over the deck for about 4 hours till we got across Mobile Bay and inside of the outer islands at Gulf Port where things settled down.  But after a very long day we docked at Homeport Marina at Lulu Buffet's (Jimmie's sister) Restaurant as the sun was setting. 
      But we were back to my kind of Looping, a calm canal gliding between marinas and restaurants!!

New Orleans by car

Nov 10-12, 2017
        Left for New Orleans.  John and I hadn’t been there for about 30 years so it was interesting to see.  We took the route that we would have been on the boat, along US 90 and stopped at some of the little towns along the way.  In Bay St Louis we found a wonderful museum at the old railroad station.  Some history and some wonderful Mardi Gras costumes.  I didn’t realize that all of the little towns along the coast all celebrate Mardi Gras with costumed floats and parades. 


And the art work of Alice Mosely.  A sort of Grandma Moses of Mississippi.  She was a school teach who had led a very interesting life, reflecting the economics of the gulf coast in the 20 century.  Her paintings are primitive, but colorful and really humorous.  Continued our way in, crossing the Gulf Intercostal Water Way and found a great restaurant Le Couchon in the business district and had an amazing lunch/dinner of all things pork, and some oysters too. 
     









   I insisted that we find the Harvey Lock which is mile 0 on the GIWW between the Mississippi River and the canals through New Orleans.  Had a great hotel with two TVs for the night.
      Saturday I go up early and found a French bakery restaurant and brought quiche, croissants, French toast and lattes back for breakfast.
       We played golf at TPC Louisiana,  a very nice track, with two locals.  Neither of us played very well but got some exercise.  The course had been under 8 feet of water for 45 days after Katrina.
      Dan and Suzanne and her mother had flown into New Orleans on their way back to Pascagoula.  So we met them for dinner with her brother Chris and nephew Phillipe who live in New Orleans.  They chose a very representative New Orleans restaurant right across from the huge City Park.   I had a drink called a Sazerac, invented in NOLA in 1838.   Good food at Ralph’s on the Park.
        Sunday morning we headed to the French Quarter for Mass and breakfast. 
Andrew Jackson and the Cathedral of St Louis
I went to Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of St Louis in the French Quarter and then we went to a Jazz breakfast brunch at the court of the Two Sisters.
 The cathdral is right on the river and I got a good view of where we would be if we'd made it by boat.
Court of the Two Sisters




Good reason to be on the Mississippi in a car.
Then across Lake Ponchatrain on the Causeway Bridge and east on I 10 back to Biloxi in time for the weekly PGA tournament and a walk on the beach.
 

Turning west to Biloxi

Nov 8, 2017
       I had decided that since we couldn’t come down the Mississippi on the boat, the historical end of the trip to the gulf, we had enough time to take to boat back to New Orleans.  And Dan and Suzanne were going to be in the area so they could come on the boat.  Wednesday we headed west to New Orleans out across the Mississippi.  John doesn’t like green tunnels.  I get bored pretty quickly of the blue sea 3 miles off shore, but dolphins reappeared for the first time since Norfolk and were a delight to see. 
       We got to Biloxi, a nice marina and a great oyster dinner.  Biloxi was completely wiped out in Katrina but has been rebuilt and looks pretty good.  Casinos are part of the revitalization but they don’t seem too obtrusive.
sunset from the beach


Nov 9, 2017

        We woke up to a bad weather report of wind and choppy seas so we decided to hang around Biloxi for another day and then get a car and drive to New Orleans.  Again, a two day trip on the boat was 2 hours in a car!  I headed to a nail spa immediately for a desperately needed pedicure, found a really wonderful Vietnamese Bakery.   There are a lot of Vietnamese in the area and they learned there baking skills well from the French.  And visited the Ohr-OKeefe Museum which had some wonderful pottery of George Ohr.  He was pretty crazy, but before his time, late 19th century, of creating pottery as art and not just utilitarian.  They also had an exhibit of 20 restored early 20th century motorcycles that was fabulous.  Biloxi also has a beautiful beach with white sand, but it was a little too cold for swimming.

Bobbies Fish Camp to Mile 0, Mobile

Nov 4, 2017
      Again a group decided to head through the next lock together, and again it was really foggy, but 14 of us made it through the Demopolis Lock at 7 AM.    Heading down the Tombigbee River we were making better time.  Up to 10 mph! but still had to anchor out that night.  About 7 boats anchored in the same area.  Some were in Bashi Creek, off of the river and some of us just off the side out of the channel.  A couple barges that went through that night set us rocking, but it worked out pretty well.   I got out my kayak and had a wonderful trip up the creek for about an hour.  It’s a pretty good way to get some exercise.



Nov 5-7, 2017
      The next day was short again since everyone wants to stop at Bobby's Fish Camp, an infamous restaurant with a very short dock.  We were one of the first to get there so we got one of 3 spots on the dock, but then as more and more boats showed up we had to raft together.  There were four boats tied together at three spots on the dock for a total of twelve boats together.  The restaurant was really a must see, but I really don’t like fried catfish well enough to appreciate the “best catfish on the Tombigbee River”.


There be monsters in this river!

All tied up just for some catfish.

 
      The next morning untangling ourselves was a sight, but daylight saving time went off Saturday night and we had more light to help.
       Only one lock on this section and we anchored out again in Tensas Creek.   It was a much bigger area and about 10 boats fit in. I tried my charcoal grill on the boat that night and made the best steak of the whole trip.  (Maybe it was because the steak was 1.5 in thick.)
        Lots of fog the next morning slowed out departure, but we were going to make it to Mobile no matter what.
        Mobile is 0 mile on the waterway that started 450 miles before on the Ohio River. And that was after 325 miles on the Illinois from Chicago, 217 miles on the Mississippi and 60 miles on the Ohio.  And more locks than I have any intention of counting again.
       Unfortunately Mobile is a very busy port and boat building area and there are no recreational marinas so we had to proceed down the bay about 20 mile to Dog River to tie up.   Not much of a marina, but they did have a courtesy car so I was able to get to a grocery store to provision.  We have a lot of storage and a full size refrigerator with a freezer, but we go through a lot of fruit and vegetables and can’t store more than about 5 days’ worth.
Mobile!!!