Feb 28, 2009 St Petersburg Florida

The church I referred to yesterday is shown in one of the photos. It is octagonal which is unusual for a Catholic Church.

And now friends, I have a special treat for you. We have a guest blogger who may be known to you. Please welcome the lovely Shirley Fish. She has been here for a week and is really enjoying the weather. She will be leaving tomorrow so this will be her only contribution. I'm sure it will be memorable.

Thank you for that kind introduction Fred. I am most honoured to be given this blog writing opportunity! Today we experienced some of the cultural wonders and fun activities of St. Petersburg. We said goodbye to our visiting manatee and took the $.25 trolley to each event. We started at the Saturday morning market in the famous baseball Al Lang Field where I hid out in the batik booth while Fred encouraged people to boycott the crab killers. Then, Susan, we moved quickly to the Museum Of Fine Arts to see the amazing works of such painters as Renoir, Monet, Rodin and American works by Whistler, Inness and Wyeth among others. Here we also enjoyed Albrecht Durer's works which included "The Rhinoceros (1515)". The Salvador Dali Museum beckoned us to see Dali's paintings inspired by my friend Freud and his artistic fascination with the female form and the spiritual power of women. We also saw his hanging egg womb painting.

Lunch at Grazzi and a tour of the aquarium completed a busy day. I shall miss my time in Florida and the wonderful warm weather, but I look forward to Fred joining me at home shortly.

Feb 27, 2009 St. Petersburg Florida

Just 2 photos today as I have some important info to report. Very unusual tree in one and the other is a public restroom. Why you ask. Well, the builder was involved in a dispute during the construction of a church, St Marys. He was quite upset and unable to get satisfaction through negotiation or the courts. He got his revenge by buying up a piece of property and building a smaller version of the church to be used as a public restroom. It became known as St Johns.

Now for the important issue. You may have noticed that I have been including clever slogans at the bottom of my blogs for the past few days. "Save the Crabs", "Don't eat the Crabs", "Crabs are bottom feeders" etc. The reason for this is that if you eat crabs, people will fish for crabs using crab pots. Crab pots are little cages that the crabs crawl into and can't get out of. The pots or cages sit on the bottom of the Gulf attached to a rope or line with a small buoy or float so that the crab killers can find their cages. There are literally thousands of crab pots in the Gulf. It makes it very difficult to navigate, you have to avoid the crab pots or you could get one tangled up in your props and then you are dead in the water. This could result in an expensive and dangerous tow and/or expensive repairs to props, shafts, struts etc. Crab pots are not good. You may think that I want you to stop eating crabs just to make it easier to go boating. Wrong, I am a friend of the crabs. Most people don't care about crabs because they are ugly. Not me, I care about the crabs. If crabs were as cute as baby seals, there would be a huge outcry against crab pots, but oh no, crabs are not cute and nobody cares. Well that is all about to change. I have been in touch with Pamela Anderson and she and I are going to launch a major campaign to "Save the Crabs". Get on board now, you don't want to be on the wrong side of this one.

Feb 26, 2009 Tarpon Springs to Clearwater Beach Florida

Wonderful day on the Gulf. A few derelict boats, some white sand beaches at Clearwater Beach, some very nice sand dunes and birds waiting for food. They will put up with very close contact with humans for food.

Crabs feed on the bottom, don't eat crabs.

Feb 25, 2009 Tarpon Springs Florida Part 2

High tide made it a bit difficult to get on and off the boat. Jump Shirley, jump.

Another shot of a Pelican on the piling next to the boat and a shot of the sponge dock area.

Crabs have feelings too.

Feb 25, 2009 Tarpon Springs Florida Part 1

Hi Mom.

Tarpon Springs claims that it is the sponge capital of the world. At least it is a little more civilized than some of the other places we stopped. There are a couple of views from John's boat, one from the cockpit and one from the bow.

Don't eat the crabs.

Feb 24, 2009 Crystal River to Tarpon Springs Florida

Another bird, another Dolphin, ho hum. Really, they are very interesting.

I have included a few photos of the (my) lovely Shirley. My daughter will get mad if I use "my". In one, Shirley doesn't quite get the "I'm the king of the world" pose and in another she is looking pensive while looking at the Gulf, on the flybridge.

Because of low tide, we were forced to leave at 11 AM which meant that we would arrive in Tarpon Springs after dark, something we wanted to avoid. But Shirley saved the day with her very clever use of the spotlight. She's the best.

"Save the Crabs"

Feb 23, 2009 Crystal River

Started the day with a visit from Mr. Murphy, he was very interested in the outboard engine on the dinghy. You can see John working on it. We made a few trips to various shops and finally John made what we hope will be the necessary repairs while I went to the airport to pick up the lovely Shirley.

There is a pencil fish in one of the photos, no explanation necessary.

A Great Blue Heron that I met in Georgian Bay visited me and posed for a photo.

And as I promised, I have better photos of the Manatees.

Life is good.

Feb 22, 2009 Crystal River, Florida

Rick, we've got a problem. Take a look at the repair job they did on the pilings. Not up to Queen's Cove standards.

Crystal River is famous for Manatees. They are big and they are ugly. The one in the photo was taken from a small bridge in 5' of water. It was around 8' long and about 1,000 pounds. I'll do better next time.

Oh, by the way, they were Nukes.

Feb 21, 2009 Steinhatchee to Crystal River Florida

Had another long day on the Gulf but the wind was not as strong as the last time and the waves were consequently only 1-2'.

In the first photo, I am tying up our bow line on a very narrow dock at Pete's Pier in Crystal River, very unusual.
Take a look at the photo showing a large mound. Under that mound is Jimmy Hoffa. I'm not kidding, this part of Florida is very flat, what else could be under that mound. I can hardly wait until word gets out. Fifteen minutes here I come.
Look carefully at the photo of the horizon during daylight. Can you guess what is in the distance.

The other photo is from the stern of the boat, looking out into the Crystal River at dusk.

Feb 20, 2009 Steinhatchee Florida

Stuck in Steinhatchee for one more night. Caught up on my reading and went for a walk down by the river and up a deserted small road. Every few steps, I heard something in the woods move. I'm not kidding.

We had our first significant experience with tides. In the photo, you can see low tide.

Feb 19, 2009 Steinhatchee Florida

Woke up this morning at 6 AM due to heavy rain. Sat in the cabin watching it for a while when 2 lightning strikes hit very close by, lightning and thunder at the same time. Gave me a scare.



Bad weather will keep us here until Saturday. Walked around the area a bit and John's niece and her husband came by for a visit.

Feb 18, 2009 Steinhatchee Florida

We spent a quiet day at the marina due to strong winds on the Gulf. In one of the photos you can see the flag completely stretched out plus in the background, fishing boats stacked up waiting for a forklift to take them down and put them in the water. Ingenious but what about the winds. I guess they have it all figured it out but I wouldn't want my boat up there. This is Hurricane country after all.

The 53' Hatteras in the other photo pulled the dock it was tied to apart due to the high winds. You can see it drifting toward the red day marker. Great sport, watching boats deal with the wind.

I'm feeling much better today. Too bad it is so cold back in Canada.

Feb 17, 2009 Carrabelle to Steinhatchee Florida

It is 90 miles from Carrabelle to Steinhatchee across the Gulf of Mexico. It was the longest part of the trip for us. Travelling at about 8 mph meant that we had to get up before dawn so that we could arrive before dark. (The picture with the sun is a sunrise.)

The Gulf is surprisingly shallow for such a large body of water, for instance we were out of sight of land for much of the crossing but depths were sometimes only 10’. The waves for today were forecasted to be 2-4’ which was much better than for the rest of the week. In my opinion, the waves were more than 4’ for most of the crossing. Needless to say, I did not feel good. In fact, I spent the majority of the trip in the cabin, sitting as close to the centre of the boat as possible holding a plastic bag in my hands while staring at the horizon. Luckily, I did not need the bag, I could have been a sailor after all. It wasn’t much fun though, I was wishing that I was back home in the cold and snow. It was a good thing the chop did not affect John.

I made friends with a Dolphin as you can see from the photos and we had a welcoming party of birds when we arrived in Steinhatchee. The Pelican was doing his best Klingon impression. Animals seem to love me.

We will be staying here for a couple of days until the weather improves. I may suggest to John that I drive to the next stop.

Feb 16, 2009 Carrabelle Florida

I am becoming the animal whisperer, the chameleon almost shook my hand.

It is starting to get real warm, note the palm trees in one of the photos.

It was a little rough on the water today with some 3 footers on the beam but we managed alright. After a few hours it calmed down and we passed an opening to the Gulf of Mexico which we will be taking tomorrow for the longest part of our trip in one day. Ninety miles in the Gulf, pray for us. Also note the sandbars just off the bow as we entered Carrabelle, you have to stay in the channel or you will run aground.