July 11, 2009 Georgian Bay

Well, we didn't get to the North Channel, bad weather. Is it July in Canada? The weather has been bad, probably one of the worst months of July in the last 20 years.

The first picture is Shirley painting, she spent about 10 hours in that one spot. I warned her about pulmonary thrombosis and she started exhibiting symptons at about hour 9. She is ok now.

We got as far as Killbear Marina, near Parry Sound and stayed for 3 days due to high winds. From there we went to Henry's Fish Restaurant and stayed for 2 days and then headed back to Victoria Harbour with a stop at Frying Pan Bay.

Even on a boat with limited storage, Shirley made me wait for her to get dressed. Oh well.

The last 2 pictures show Shirley and more of her artistic pursuits, painting the name of our boat on our dinghy. DASUS is made up of the first letters in our children's names, David and Susan. She used her own "happy font". Very nice.

July 9, 2009 Preparing for Bay Port Rendezvous

We are planning on joining a group from Bay Port Yachting Centre that will travel from Midland to Killarney with numerous stops along the way. There is an information meeting on July 10 with departure planned for July 11.

Mar 6, 2009 Punta Gorda to Toronto

Alas, my Florida boat trip is over. I am flying from Orlando to Toronto. The check in was the most efficient I have ever seen. Just gave them my passport and they took my luggage at the curb and gave me my ticket.

The weather is again beautiful. No pictures because there is nothing interesting, just highways and airports. Oh but wait, upon reviewing yesterday's pics, I noticed that the small boat with the bird might be interpreted as showing a fake bird. Here is another pic taken as the bird got a little spooked. It did not leave the boat, just flapped its wings to maintain its balance.

We didn't get to Stuart Florida as originally planned but I got a good feel for traveling parts of the Great Loop. Not so crazy about the rivers and the Gulf Crossing. If Shirley and I take a long boat trip, it still might be the Loop or maybe just going down the East Coast to Florida and then across to the Bahamas or maybe we will just cruise in the lakes in the summers. Time will tell.

In the meantime, it will be good to get back home, to all the things that I am familiar with. And with the weather starting to warm up, I should be able to get our boat ready for Georgian Bay in April. Toronto in the Spring time, ahhh.

Mar 5, 2009 Punta Gorda Florida

Another beautiful day.

The sunset is from yesterday.

The mast on the sailboat has a visitor, how did he get up there?

I played golf today, the course was much better than the last one. Take a look at the picture, they use a pond for their driving range.

The small boat has a visitor, a small bird that stayed on the boat for the whole time that I saw it. I don't know if the people on board knew about it or not but it was definitley not a pet.

The large blue boat is a 61' Marlow Explorer. Very nice.

Mar 4, 2009 Venice to Punta Gorda Florida

Beautiful day on the water, calm and sunny. More dolphins (I could almost touch them), birds and boats. The birds are Ospreys. The boat is an expensive and very fast Viking Sportfisher, notice the lack of railings on the bow, these guys are macho. The best photo is of the discarded crab pot. Pam and I are making good progress with our campaign to save the crabs. People are getting the message and cutting way back on their crab consumption and the crab killers are just dumping their crab pots rather than recycling them or getting rid of them properly. They are very bad men, very very bad men.

Ok Doris and anyone else, find the quote and where did it come from?

Mar 2-3, 2009 St Petersburg/Venice Florida

Played golf with John yesterday and arranged for my flight back home on Mar 6.

Shirley was stuck inside of Charlotte with those T.O. blues again. She had to sleep on the floor of the airport and wait for standby flights. Not a good end to a very nice trip.

Just a lot of scenes of traffic today plus a picture of some of the homes on the intracoastal waterway. These are not the biggest or best homes but they are so numerous along this stretch that I included them. Also, a person could get some good sitting done at any one of them.

Do you know the song that is (cleverly) hidden in the above?

Mar 1, 2009 St Petersburg Florida

There seems to be a Manatee living near the boat at the St Petersburg Municipal Marina. It is a big one and it has barnacles on its back. Yech.

Dropped Shirley off at the airport and she handled her ticket using the e-ticket facility and then she connected to the airport wi-fi using my laptop. Shirley is computer literate.

On the way back to the boat, I played golf at a local Muni in Tampa. It only cost $24 including a power cart. Too good to be true? Yes, it was a cow pasture. Won't do that again.