It's Cold in North Bay -17C

Well I said we would not post until January 5th; however I could not decline an opportunity to have you all laugh at us. We are currently in North Bay at my brother Leo and Rachelle's house. We decided that BBQ in December would be fun. . . . Man I can't wait to BBQ Florida style again.

Happy New year all. 

Merry Christmas to all

Well it's been a few days since we last put an entry into our blog and I must say you haven't missed much. The last few days have been filled with us getting ready to head home for the holidays. I would like to thank Jeff and Susan for the use of their car over the past week. They left the marina we where at and headed for Fort MyersMyers, leaving us Brucie their powder blue Prius to take care of. I must say it was nice to be able to do our shopping in a vehicle instead of by bicycle. Once they arrived at Fort Myers we delivered the car to them which enabled us to go check out a piece of property in Cape Coral that Mimi's mom and dad have owned for years. Jeff and Susan than drove us back to our marina which was great because they drove us to the airport the next day. You have to love the way things work out.
Mimi and I would like to extend a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our friends and hope you have a safe and wonderful holiday season. We will be returning to or boat January 4th to continue or adventure.
Cheers

Highs and lows in Dunedin High 78F

Good morning all. Once again I have skipped a few days as we ready ourselves for our next departure. To answer your question Brenda; Nella was right, these were sponges hanging on the boat behind us. Tarpon Springs is the Sponge Capital or the World. Sponge is a plant that grows on the bottom and the divers cut off only part of the plant so that it may renew itself. The reason Tarpon Springs is the Capital is because of the quality of sponge they harvest. Since the plant depends on light to grow, the murky waters of Florida allow the sponge to grow more dense before being long enough to cut. Therefore the sponge is of higher quality.

This town also happens to be the Greek center of Florida, so if you happen to visit, you'll have lots of option of Greek restaurants to eat at! Yummy! There is lot's of work for divers around here. Some of the boats in Tarpon had help wanted signs. There is also diving companies around Dunedin who hire themselves out to clean Zebra muscles off the boat bottoms. This one was hired by Jeff and Susan as they had been idle at the the Marina for a month, which gave the muscles lots of chance to grow.

I am not sure that we will need to get the bottom cleaned before we leave. I think the mud and sand on the bottom is doing that job for us.  There is a normal tidal swing of about 2 feet here. However a full moon or a North wind will empty the bay and cause swings up to 4 feet. There have been a few mornings where we wake up to a completely still boat. The first time it happened I made a comment about how calm the water was. However we were still because our boat was sitting on the bottom of the bay, embedded in mud! It does not take long before the tide lifts again and we get to floating, but it is an odd felling, moving about the boat and it not moving with us. Some times we have to climb into the boat and at others we have to drop into the boat. It gets quite challenging when the rail of our top deck is easier to get onto then the rail of the bottom deck!

High tide 

Low tide 

Dunedin is right across the bay from Caladesie Island and Honeymoon Island. Jim and I have gone over to these islands by dinghy on a couple of occasions. A couple of days ago we went to the Gulf side and the waves were so large that we flooded the dinghy and we both got soaking wet. However it was a beautiful day and the sun dried us in short order. We did some shelling and walking, but I have no idea what I will do with all these shells! Any ideas?

Jim walking the beach in Calaesie Island 

The path to the beach from the Parks office

Aside from the highs and lows of the tides we have also had the highs and lows of the weather. since our arrival here we have had temperatures as low as 36F and as high as 78F. Many days where we could not wear our shorts and had to turn on the furnace and others where we needed the AC on. Well just one of those! In speaking with my family both up North and in Southern Ontario, it has been relatively mild up there. On one occasion, I was talking to Shawn (our son) and we had a 2F difference between Hamilton and Florida. Huh? coming all this way and having the same weather. Imagine! I understand that the difference now is much more significant, so I feel better about it all.
Either way the sunsets continue to be magical and the wildlife continues to pose for us, and we are blessed.







This will be my last post until January 5th when we return from our trip home and start moving south again. Talk to you all in the new year. We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy prosperous New Year.

Enjoying the sunsets in Dunedin High 75◦F

I have not written in a few days, mostly because I did not want to bore y'all. Although we are having a wonderful time, I don't think you want to read about laundry; redoing a counter top and working on a legal case; however this is what we have been up to for the last few days. Susan's Kitchen is looking really sharp. We are still in Dunedin until our flight home on the 23^rd  and although the nights are cool, we are getting some beautiful sunshine during the days and some gorgeous sunsets at night. We are biking every day as well. Yesterday we went back to Tarpon springs with Jeff and Susan but we went by car this time! 

The pelicans really like to come dive bombing for fish around our boat every day. There are some egrets that like to use our swim platform as their resting grounds and they get really upset when we disturb them. 

We've had lots of company with Jeff and Sue who are leaving tomorrow am and Karen and John who are now gone home for the holidays. Steve and Shelly left this morning as did Henry and Diane, so the Marina is getting a bit more empty as the days go on. All and all we are enjoying the sunshine and wildlife but really looking forward to going home in a week. Sleep well & good night all

Dusk in Dunedin 

Another beautiful sunset 

Working for a change! High 65◦

Today was a work day for both Jim and I. Jim was helping Jeff to cut and fit laminate for his counter tops and I had to help Susan shop for stuff...Hey don't laugh, shopping is a lot of work; especially in this Christmas rush time; the stores get busy. The boys did get everything cut to size but they omitted gluing it, since the stink of the contact cement would permeate through the boat and it was getting late in the day. Don't let the picture fool you, Jeff was on his hands and knees most of the afternoon too. 

We were all very tired after our day of work so we skipped out on the Christmas parade in Dunedin and we invited Jeff and Sue over for dinner and planning for the next phase of the project tomorrow. The sunset tonight was wonderful so I will end this blog with a lovely picture of it. Night all. 

Pinelas trail Dec 12, 2014 high 62◦F

Jim and I went for a long bike ride to Tarpon Springs. This is the sponge Capital of the world.

As with all areas around, they are fully decorated for Christmas, from the large tree in Tarpon springs proper to the candy canes lining the Pinelas trail.  

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The trail is really cute and complete with road signs indicating a new town

The total ride was about 16 miles and it was very enjoyable day. The cool weather is really nice to ride in, although a pair of gloves would have been nice.

Tomorrow there is supposed to be a Christmas parade in Dunedin so we will likely go check this out. Y'all have a nice night now. 

Dec 11, 2014, High 64◦F Another cool day in Dunedin

There is a North wind blowing and it's bringing us some cool air, but it turns out that is perfect weather to go biking. Jim and I went on another trek to the shopping district by bike and got a little exercise in for the day. We really love all the bike lanes on the major routes around here. It's so nice to know we won't get run over on the streets. Today however we are going to go on the beautiful paved bike trail that runs to Tarpon Springs. Karen and John from "Last Mango" and  Marie-lyn and Craig from "Fracas" came in this afternoon. Their crossing was cool and bumpy but everyone survived. They are hoping to be rested enough to join us on the 14 mile bike run to Tarpon and back tomorrow.

We ended our evening with dinner on "Mara beel"  with our host Mark and Becky and Tom & Patsy from "True North". Which goes to prove that a bad day on holidays is better than a good day at work. Night all 

Mimi, Patsy, Tom, Mark and Becky

Birthday wishes all around Dec 09, 2014 High 63◦F

It has been cold and drizzling most of the day, so we decided to go Christmas shopping and decorating. We now have our Christmas tree up in the front window and Jim strung some Christmas lights all around the boat.

Today also happens to be Mom M's Birthday as well as my brother Gerald and our good friend Danny Boisvert. So we extend a happy birthday wish to all of you. In keeping with the Christmas spirit boys, during the Christmas parade 2 days ago, there was a gentleman dressed in Montreal Canadian's shirt on one of the floats. I took a close up just for you. Hope you all had a great B-day.  

Mom's Birthday tomorrow. Dec 08, 2014 High of 68◦F

I guess we can't have sunshine and rainbows all the time. But the last week has spoiled us and now we have come to expect shorts weather. Unfortunately we had another cold and drizzly day but that did not spoil our fun. Jeff and Susan were kind enough to drive us to Cathie and Gary's for a visit. They have a condo in St-Petersburg so it was about a 40min drive for us. Gary had planned to take us for a boat ride in his fishing boat, but the weather did not co-operate so we drove instead. 

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Since there were only 5 seats in the Jeep, Jeff volunteered to sit in the back. He was a little uncomfortable but once we had a few beers into him, the ride home was much better.  

We visited for the whole day, and Cathie made us a wonderful dinner while Gary searched for the right music for the occasion. 

               

Thanks so much for the wonderful hospitality guys it was a beautiful day despite the weather.

Gary and Cathie at their front door 

By the way, tomorrow is Mom M's Birthday and since I know you read this first thing in the morning I wanted to start you day with a Wonderful Birthday Wish.

Happy Birthday Mom, We love you.

Rack'em and Stack'em Dec 07, 2014 High of 69◦C

 It was a cool and drizzly day today and we really did not do much of anything other than shopping and making bread for the pot luck we had tonight. Another group of loopers came in yesterday and since we appreciated Jeff and Susan's dinner so much we thought they would too.

Those of us here went shopping for the groceries while the new loopers, Tom & Patsy, Ken & Terrie and Andy & Kathy got some much deserved rest.

Anyway since I don't have any pictures and nothing much happened, I thought you'd be interested in the rack'em and stack'em system that this marina has. They have many slips here, but they also have 2 large buildings and an outside yard where they store boats in racks. It is essentially a valet system for the boaters. They call up and say, I want my boat in the water by 9am Saturday morning and the crew get this boat down from the racks and into the water. If they need it fueled they do that as well. 

When they are done playing, the boater comes back and the crane brings the boat back in, washes it down and stores it again. Pretty neat system. It allows them to house many more boats than any other marina I have ever seen!

Anyway that's my story for tonight . Tomorrow we are going to visit Cathy and Gary in St Petersburg. We are really looking forward to seeing them both.  Y'all have a good night now.  

Christmas parade; December 6th, High 79◦F

Today was the Christmas parade day. This particular activity is much different in Florida. Instead of using floats, they use boats and there were lots of them! A total of 26 boats from our marina participated. All decked out and lots of lights. The only problem was that they were starting the procession at low tide. One of the boats got stuck in the mud and it took him about 6 tries before he actually got the boat out into the procession.

The effect of lights on the boats was spectacular and we really appreciated all the hard work these folks did to provide us with such a show. The marina also hosted a BBQ for all of us today. Burgers and hot dogs, salads and beans. It was delicious and free. We all like free!

I wish you all as nice a parade as we had although I am certain those of you in Canada will not be attending in short!.

Night all 

Bike ride to Dunedin High 80F

My thighs are burning after our 11 mile bike ride today. Jim and I set out to Dunedin's Downtown core. There are beautiful bike trails all over the place here. All the trails are paved and marked.  One side of the trail leads to Dunedin downtown core and the other side leads to Tarpon Springs which is 7 miles down the trail.

Today we did the Dunedin trail which is only 2 miles, but we then went around the block, up to the highway and back down again. 

Dunedin is a nice little town and the Chamber of commerce was very welcoming. They have a market on Fridays Saturdays and Sundays, so we went to check it out today. Lots of fresh produce and arts and crafts stuff.

Tomorrow there is a Christmas parade and the lighting of the tree. So we plan on heading down there for this event as well.  For now, I have to go ice my thighs and get them ready for the next bike ride. 

Good night all. 

Boat show trip December 4, 2014 High (forgot to check but it was hot)

There is a boat show going on in St-Petersburg so we decided to go partake.

 We went with 3 other couples and has a wonderful time looking at boats and deciding on our next step. Jim and I have decided to take this trip as a trial run for a circumnavigation. Today we found the boat we want to do the circumnavigation in. It is a 44 foot sailing cat called the Helias.

It was a lot of fun going through all the boats and we saw a few that are just awe inspiring. This one had a dinghy that most people have as their only boat.

For those of you who like the comedian Jeff Dunham, you will be familiar with his skit about the powder blue Prius. As we arrived at the show, Jeff Heron was holding Susan's purse, coming out of the powder blue Prius and I could not resist a picture .....your gay! Not really but it sure was funny at the time.

Tomorrow we will head out to the downtown Dunedin on a bike ride. Jeff and Susan are going back to St-Pete's for some fun and frolic. Good night all